Your "hope level"/How excited are you?

[Andrew]

So, we've got some preview media and the info has started to come. Anyone getting their hopes up? Hopes crushed? Hyped up? Couldn't care less?

I'd like to think I'm more cautiously optimistic than your garden variety fanboy but for now I do have a good feeling about NBA Live 10. NBA Live 09 on the 360 had its issues but I felt progress had been made and that it was some clunky controls away from being much better received in general. I think there's some merit to what Mike Wang said in one of the video interviews, the tech is there under the hood but the game has not used it to its full potential and other issues - like the clunkiness of the controls - have stood in the way. If those issues are ironed out I think there'll be a noticeable difference, for the better.

Graphics wise, I'm not worried by the early trailer. The screenshots have looked pretty nice in my opinion, I'm not a huge graphics guys so there's some nitpicks that will probably never occur to me but player faces seem more than satisfactory to me, arenas look nice and there's obviously been quite a bit of attention to detail paid on jerseys and accessories from what we've seen so far. I'm sure many would disagree, but when it comes to NBA Live and 2K I don't think the graphics are the biggest concern. It's not like either of them are wallowing in the early 3D era.

I suppose Dynasty Mode is my biggest concern at the moment. What we've heard about gameplay sounds promising, presentation looks like it's ramped up but with the focus on the online experience these days I do worry that Dynasty could get left behind. Ideally, there's a lot that can be done with Dynasty Mode yet but the things I most want to see are small fixes and improvements that stand out to a geek like me, things like the simulated stats and award winners and of course, the presence of the traditional reorder roster menu. I'm hoping for some good news on Dynasty this year.

It's a real shame it's not coming out for the PC and even if NBA Live 10 does deliver then it will be a real shame for the PC community. If NBA Live 10 lives up to the rest of my expectations that'll still be a downer. In any event, I think it's safe to say I've got my hopes up. I want it to succeed, too. I don't want to be one of those fanboys that rips 2K and offers grovelling, blind praise for NBA Live but it is my brand of choice, I've been playing the series for a long time now so I really want it to deliver for those of us who play it.

[JaoSming]

Before the first trailer I was piss my pants this is going to be the best game evar! excited


Now, I'm realistic about it. It is going to better than 09. It is going to be fun, and it's coming out in ~70 days. I hopefully wont get too hyped for it until we get closer to it coming out.

[N'JAN]

I'm so exited about this game!I loved the graphics and as a patcher I highly appreciate what has done live's designers team .If the game were on PC I'm sure that I would never touch to faces because they are nearly perfect .I hope that the gameplay will be on graphics level.

[ThaLiveKing]

When I seen the moves in the trailer, I got excited and was watchin the video like 100 times, lol. I honestly believe this will be the best Live to come out in Years. My favorite live was 06 on the Game Cube. My brother who never plays like, or hasn't since 06, cant wait either, we can finally get back to our classic games on Live instead of 2k.

And after seeing those screen, just WOW lol. I wonder what 2k has up they sleeve. I'm sure their game will be amazing as well

[Patr1ck]

3 years in the making, this has to be a fantastic game. I know it won't be perfect on release day, so when we find bugs we are going to have some disappointments due to the hype. So let's try to enjoy the good things, and do our best to diagnose and report any problems so the devs can get right to work on a post release patch. I'm pretty close to preordering the game.

[bee-boy]

i'm kinda excited about this one. we all know it will be way better than 09 and with graphic improvements along with other great new features i can't wait.

[Andrew]

3 years in the making, this has to be a fantastic game. I know it won't be perfect on release day, so when we find bugs we are going to have some disappointments due to the hype. So let's try to enjoy the good things, and do our best to diagnose and report any problems so the devs can get right to work on a post release patch. I'm pretty close to preordering the game.

Quite right. I'm not expecting absolute perfection out of the box, so we'll need to be proactive in reporting those issues. Still, the way that last year's official patch addresses the delay on blocking and to a lesser extent rebounding gives me hope that an official patch can fix more than missing face art or some kind of database issue.

[wabenne]

To tell you the truth I just couldn't believe some of the negative comments that I've seen on differnent sites concerning the trailer. I mean I am definetly hyped about this game. I read people talking negative about the "Put Back" in the game I'm like number one at least its in the game, becasue put backs are definetly a part of basketball and at least in live 10 they are allowing you to have parts of real basetball that were not in the game before. Even the fact that now we will be able to control what hand we do a layup or dunk with come on that is amazing because in real life players control which hand they shoot with.

Then I heard things about the defense, but on the trailer they are boxing out, even the Lebron dunk when he dunk on two people come on man, that hasn't been in live that way, I mean the two defense players actually went up at the same time while Lebron pulled back and dunked on both. Sometimes I think people get caught up in wanting perfection out of a game that they nitpick that or they are just 2K lovers so much that they can't be honest. Because if that trailer doesn't get you hype then I don't know what will. From the intros, Lebron throwing up the dust, to players rolling on the floor to get the ball, come on man that is real basketball how can you hate on that.

Then the hanger gym looks great has a real rugged feel like if you really are bout to train for the up coming season, not to mention having 12 of the top players like they do in real life when players get together in the summer time to play against eachother and train. Man and this is just the beginning its looking great.

[Andrew]

Well, we could actually do putbacks in the last gen versions of NBA Live 2005 through NBA Live 08 but as far as the current generation is concerned this will be the first time we can do it (properly). In any case, I wholeheartedly agree that it's most welcome.

I don't think it's fair to judge the defensive game from the trailer, which was as expected a highlight reel of dunks and the like with a couple of blocks thrown in to remind everyone that yes, there is defense in the game. But it's the offensive moves that are on display in the trailer so it's not going to reflect the full gameplay experience (or at least, we would certainly hope not). That's usually the way with gameplay footage though, it focuses on the offense and often features one or two users controlling the action, so instead of seeing the AI at work we see a human player who might not be bothering to use plays or whatever.

Videos are nice but as I said in another thread, I don't get worried until the hands-on experience comes into play.

[UVA44]

I'm pretty excited for the game and I agree with wabenne in that to many people are slamming live 10. There basing their judgements on 1 trailer . At least wait to slam it until the demo is released

[Andrew]

I think it's inevitable with the current reputation of the EA brand, though it's unfortunate when there's been another overhaul to the team and the new guys want to avoid the mistakes of the past. People only have so much patience as consumers though and if they feel they've been burned in the past they're not going to be as forgiving or open-minded in the future. Hopefully for those of us who are looking forward to the game, we won't be disappointed and for those who do want to boycott EA, hopefully they'll get the experience they want out of 2K or they'll try the NBA Live 10 demo and be pleasantly surprised.

I'd say the reputation of the EA brand has certainly become a bit of an up hill battle for the dev team though. Even if NBA Live 10 turns out to be "perfect" and gets rave reviews upon its release, there will be some who would still avoid it for not wanting to buy an EA product. Some people will probably never be won back.

[Rukawa_11]

I'm looks good for the screens and the visual off-game, but my expectations are on the gameplay...

[Andrew]

Me too, though I must admit my hopes for that are pretty high too. I guess it's because I felt like 09 was still a pretty good game and on the right track, just not quite 100% satisfactory across the board. If they can get to that level and then some, I think NBA Live 10 is going to deliver. I'm torn, because I want to remain cautiously optimistic about what can be achieved in one development cycle but I like what I've seen and read thus far.