NBA Live 10 Demo Impressions Thread

[JaoSming]

Oh, I passed out of a layup. did not know you can do that. You can't be in the air, though, I think.

Hm, well that is good at least, I never got it to work though.

It's fun, but there are still some "what the fuck are you doing?" wining at the screen moments, which shouldn't be there.

Those moments are the ones that make me go, what's changed since Live 06 (360)?

It's a beautiful thing in 2K which has evolved for several years and probably looked it's best in 2K9, even though it comes with a lack of control and clipping at times.

I dont know if you noticed this in your time with the Draft Combine but they have implemented their NFL 2k5 and APF 2k8 collision tech in 2k10. If you run next to someone your arms wont go through each other, instead they either stop, get tangled, or spaz out a bit. Sometimes I works really well when you dunk on someone, but then again, if someone is below you when you land youre legs will stay in mid air even though the rest of the body is in a standing animation. Mostly little spaz outs you cant even notice in slowmotion replay mode but it is a nice step towards removing clipping. They just need to use it on foul calls for shooting and blocks.

[Patr1ck]

Yes I have noticed the improvement in collision detection in the draft combine. Most of the clipping I was referring to doesn't come from collision detection, but holes in the triggering of two-man animations, which is smoother in 2K9/Draft Combine than in Live games, where the animations looks more like it snaps into action. Obviously the goal of the future is to eliminate two-man animations and have perfect collision detection, modifying the animation based on the collision.

[JaoSming]

ah Euphoria dreams

[Andrew]

I'm not too bothered by having some contextual dribbling moves on the left stick. It seems to help make changing directions a little smoother but I do see where you're coming from. I too like the approach of being able to perform dribbling moves on the right stick and always have since they introduced it in NBA Live 2003, so I'd hate to see it phased out. I don't think NBA Live 10 has done that because the right stick still does come into play (even on Size Ups) but now that you bring it up, I do wonder if they're moving in that direction.

I'm kind of used to the change to the shoot button but I'd agree that it should've been left alone. If nothing else, it should be possible to customise the controls to your liking or have the game offer a couple of presets to the user, say the new and "classic" control configurations that we can toggle between.

[mitch820]

I’ve been a huge live fan since 98, and I was thrilled when freestyle control was invented. If you asked me that’s one of the only things that kept me buying the franchise, and it gave users freedom to come up with any move they could possibly think of. Playing Live 10 Demo, I noticed they've tweaked the freestyle control, which I really wasn’t excited about. You can no longer dribble behind the back (by taping down on R3) nor can you do in and out moves to set up your crossover (by taping left or right on R3). A lot of the fancy trailers we see players doing tons of moves aren’t freestyle, it’s the user holding down on the turbo button and the moves come out automatically. I’d rather do my own moves than to press one button and have a player doing tons of animation dribbles. The change isn’t horrible, but “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it” theory should have came into play in my opinion. Freestyle control was the one thing 2k was light years behind us at, I don’t know why their taking away freedom from the users by downgrading. 2k fans may love this because its right up their alley, but hardcore live fans may not appreciate it as much.

I don’t want to seem all negative because the game looks and plays great. I just feel like users should have full control, that’s the reasoning behind freestyle control. They’ve also placed dribble moves with the L analog and it takes away from the R analog. I find myself shying away from something that’s made me love the live franchise “Freestyle Control”. I can’t believe I’m the only one bothered by this??? Can I get some back up live fans???

I agree 100%, freestyle control is supposed to be about control, dribble moves with the left stick just doesn't feel right.

[Playmakers]

JaoSming ,

Just to let you know there are some guys who post at OS like myself and they do express their feelings about the game and the direction of the game.

I also feel as if they are doing somethings more the 2K way as opposed to the Live way in the last 2 years. Not sure if that is because of the new guy coming over from 2K or not

For example i was huge fan of the Live footplanting system in the previous versions on Next Gen which was basically taken away and now we see all this damn sliding in the game all over again. It's like they have got backwards in that area when they had made huge progress previoulsy. It feels like 2K to me all over again because everyone is sliding all over the floor.

I've already expressed my concerns about the AI logic and defense in LIve 10. I'm not saying the game isn't good but the thing that stops it from being great is the terrible AI logic on all skill levels not just Pro. I was frustrated last year after discovering that they weren't even taking the time to rate the players year to year. They were using the same ratings from Live 07 the past 3 years. They did finally change it this year from what I observed in the demo ratings but the AI is still terribly flawed and they have to fix it IMO if they expect Live 11 to take the Next Step up.

But anyway i have to tone it down down now because i don't think some guys at OS is happy with the flaws i'm pointing out even though it's a demo which i understand but can we seriously trust EA to correct those flaws before the Final version

That is the question will have to waite and see come Oct 6th......I'm hoping they step up because right now if the AI can't be fixed this game won't hold my attention long enough. I just don't like playing vs a dumb CPU.

[bksboywonder1]

Freestyle control was the one aspect I was hoping wouldn’t change being that live was going in a new game-play direction. I haven’t heard any complaints in the past about it, and as bad a live has been since moving to the next gen it’s kept me around. I’m not a 2k basher; I actually love the competition because it brings out the best in both games. I just wish Live made a list of things to keep and change, because its bothers me when the wheel is reinvented.

Hopefully there’s someone listing, and the updates will make us happy consumers. I don’t want to take away from the great work these guys have done, I’m just giving constructive criticism.

[JaoSming]

But anyway i have to tone it down down now because i don't think some guys at OS is happy with the flaws i'm pointing out even though it's a demo which i understand but can we seriously trust EA to correct those flaws before the Final version

That's the thing with OS. People can bitch about shoes, CFs, jersey fonts, the Hanger, the Lighting. But make one too many pokes at configs, the AI, animations or one other seemingly meaningless thing and you get negative comments or fun PMs from mods.

[ThaLiveKing]

I'm starting to get the hang of playing defense in the game, I shut the computer down 28-13 after 8 minutes of play on Superstar lol. Momemtum plays a huge factor. . .

[CHITOWN BULLZ!!!]

dwight howard and the rest of the big man does the euro step and other lay-up moves that you dont normally see them do...can that be fixed with a patch??

[Andrew]

Possibly, they've spoken of removing other moves and such through an official update.

[Patr1ck]

But then what would they do? Ah!! Running / Sweeping hookshots! There's also the argument that those big guys don't usually attempt layups far enough from the basket to perform one of those layup moves because they aren't fast enough. I've seen Gasol do the euro step in real life before, though. Dwight would probably just try to power it up, I think.

You know what they really need to take out? Those flashy putbacks. A lot of them look like they came from a layup collision animation, but they just took away the defender. Seriously, most of those tipins are really bad and "over the top" so to speak. Just use some of the alleyoops as putback dunks, and replace some of the tipins with the tip animations where a player tips the ball to themself.

They can't tell me that they still haven't fixed the putback dunk code from 08 that popped the ball out of the player's hand like a layup. If they are going to take things out, they need to patch that in.

It used to be "patch this into the game," now it's "patch this out of the game."

[Andrew]

Yeah, I'd agree they need to be toned down. A couple of the tip-ins are OK but as you said some of them look like the collision layups without the collision with the defender.

It used to be "patch this into the game," now it's "patch this out of the game."

It does seem a little that way, though to be fair they're also talking about putting in a backdown control which would patching something into the game. So it would seem that's possible and hopefully there are more things they can do that involve putting something in and not just taking something out.

[Daniel24]

one really annoying animation that keeps happening every 2 or 3 games i play.. dwight does this ridiculous revers layup right under the hopp then ends up throwing the ball over his head from the opposite block and hits it everytime.. Live dev team, ur kidding right????
NBA Live has this weird tendancy to make the cover boy unstoppable.. Don't get me wrong, Dwight is nearly MVP material.. but some of the things his player does in live 10 are stupid..

And why the hell cant either fish or jameer through a 3 quarter court pass? its pathetic that they cant pass more than like half a court length without throwing the ball out of bounds...

But still extremely happy with the game and can't wait! 11 days to go!

[buzzy]

First of all, I really like the demo, and I think this will be the year I go back to Live, But on some instances this game makes me go 'what the fuck??'.

The Pick & Roll function is broken, IMO. The pick-setter never seems to stand still, he always turns with the defender, thus leading to a non collision and making the pick in-effective. When he does connect with the pick once in a while, he has no hurry to roll to the basket, usually he just stands on the spot.

As pointed out by someone above, getting your defender up in the air with a pump fake doesn't give you any advantage. You can't really drive to the hoop because the defender recovers way too quick and gets infront of you in no time.
Is there some kind of way to jump into the defender and draw the foul?

The quick recovering also occurs on fast-breaks, you're never going to have a one-on-nothing break it seems.

Not being able to do 3/4 court pass, as stated by Daniel24, is also pretty ridiculous. I'd have no problem if it gets intercepted most of the times, but when the receiver is pretty much alone, he simply has to catch it.

The shooting precentage the CPU shoots looks to be pretty high most of the times, but those can most likely be fixed with sliders.

[Andrew]

I'm on the fence when it comes to shooting percentages in the demo. I've had some games where they've been pretty good and other times they've been a bit higher than you'd expect. The other thing to keep in mind is that we only get eight minutes of gameplay, so we can't sample longer quarters and a full length game where the percentages could even out after a hot or cold start. I think we'll get a better idea of that when the full version comes out but at this point I would agree that we can't rule out some tweaks of the field goal sliders.

[Patr1ck]

I'm not so sure about superstar difficulty being the difficulty of choice anymore. It just seems like the cpu plays the same as all star but makes more jumpers and more inside shots with collisions, and it is exactly the opposite for the user.

I don't like the lunging steal animation. Say I try to steal from behind while the ballhandler is running. The lunging steal has the defender stop after a few steps. It is possible to reach and continue your momentum in real life.

I also don't like the pass interceptions. They are just caught. They aren't deflected enough. I am guessing this is where off ball control has to come into play, similar to Live 06 where any iffy pass was just snagged by the defense. In comparison, 2K's lead passing worked pretty well as you could lead the receiver away from his defender, which is how players catch the ball anyways. I guess it's just comes down to getting the -LT+face button hold, move receiver, face button release- off ball mechanic.

Pick and roll works ok for me, especially when I remember to release the B button. As you said, buzzy, the AI of the screening player could be better.

[Andrew]

I'm not completely sold on Superstar either, though perhaps some slider tweaks will do it. Or maybe our best bet will be to play on All-Star and tweak the sliders for a bit more of a challenge without compromising the realism.

[Thrash13]

First off, I'll admit I'm not the best NBA Live player by any means. I've played the series since the 90s, but I've always been middle of the pack. That being said, I've played the demo exclusively on All-Star difficulty level, and I've been able to keep things very competitive. I've had some wins, losses, and ties. And for the most part, the shooting %s have been pretty solid for the most part. I've noticed the teams do play more like themselves with the team-specific playbooks. It's nice to see post players having a serious impact for once. I'll admit I've always been drawn more to the NBA Live series, and this demo has far exceeded my expectations. I'll be picking up the game on release day for sure.

After a few games, I thought the turnover situation might have been a little too extreme, and every once in awhile, it still kinda gets crazy. But if I just slow things down and play my game, I can usually keep things close and keep turnovers to a minimum. The only real gripe I've had is players catching the ball out of bounds. It hasn't happened a ton, but I'd say it's happened once every one or two times I play the demo. I understand it happens here and there in real life, but it doesn't happen that often.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy so far.

[buzzy]

Still playing and enjoying the demo, though I have some questions.

What's the combo to switch to a certain player off-ball? Like direct button passing is with L2, but there has to be one button I hold at the same time that makes me actually switch to that player and having control over him. Anyone can tell me what that button is?
I mess up some of my fast breaks because I switch to a player and wait for the pass to happen, instead of passing to him.

Secondly, is anyone else missing touch passes? I have had many situations where I felt I could have gotten a nice open J if the pass came earlier. It wouldn't change much really, but it's just annoying when they catch the ball, bring it down like to their waist, and then pass the ball again.

Oh and, I don't see players walking to the scorers' table before they check in, been missing that from 2k.

[Patr1ck]

Yes, release the face button of the player. You hold it to gain control of them while holding LT. You can hold both buttons and continue to control him until you release the face button, which triggers the pass, or you can let go of the LT and the face button and control that player for that possession. I guess pressing pass again will call for the ball with that player.

Using freestyle passing is the closest thing that I have found to touch passing and can get the ball around pretty quickly.

[ThaLiveKing]

Still playing and enjoying the demo, though I have some questions.

What's the combo to switch to a certain player off-ball? Like direct button passing is with L2, but there has to be one button I hold at the same time that makes me actually switch to that player and having control over him. Anyone can tell me what that button is?
I mess up some of my fast breaks because I switch to a player and wait for the pass to happen, instead of passing to him.

Secondly, is anyone else missing touch passes? I have had many situations where I felt I could have gotten a nice open J if the pass came earlier. It wouldn't change much really, but it's just annoying when they catch the ball, bring it down like to their waist, and then pass the ball again.

Oh and, I don't see players walking to the scorers' table before they check in, been missing that from 2k.

Yeah, i haven't tried touch passing, it would be nice to be able to swing the ball in NBA live. . .the new passing system is nice but i would like them to focus on a better passing system, I'm sure they will tho

[serp]

I've played the demo on the PS3 quite a bit now, I'm a live fan (alllll the way back to snes days, hey, I even played lakers vs celtics from the EA on the PC when I was a kid!) and have never play the 2K series, I might be a bias but here goes. The last 5 years of live have really sucked, I have been wait so long for this series to pick up again. This version is nearly there, it is fun to play, I actually feel like coming back to it again and again so that has to be an improvement but I have noticed a few issues/bugs:

- I've been playing as Orlando exclusively on the default sliders (in superstar mode mostly), it is very easy to win as Orlando, I will pull out a win 90% of the time and if I score the first basket 99% of the time. I don't know what it is but it seems a lot easier to play with a small lead then to come from behind for some reason (I guess you could say that is almost like real life bball? )

- I think there is a bug or something in the Nelson/Fisher matchup or something, I will score about 5 or 6 threes a games, a bunch of long range 2s, i can pretty much score 90% or the teams points from Jameer, purely from doing the step back crossover (down on right stick) and breaking into a jumpshot before he does the second hop back. It is automatic, it is ridiculous. When that fails I just go to a pick and roll with the centre, and wait for the PG to go under the screen, easy three. No adjustments ever happen, i've never been trapped to give up the ball on a pick and roll even if I've hit four 3s straight. Not great. I didn't realise Jameer was Steve Kerr like accurate on 3s.

- There is a bit or skate/teleporting still happening, not all the time and not as bad as in the past, but it does happen with layups etc.

- Lakers centres are way to nimble, Gasol I can understand but not Bynum, Gasol has so many dunks it is ridiculous.

- I haven't figure out to play as a centre, or even post up low, somehow I initiated a backdown post up on the wing with Jameer & VC but that seemed like a fluke. Hopefully when the full game comes out there will be a backdown/post up button or instructions on low post!

- Big men who run the floor (Dwight/Gasol) don't run to the front of the rim, even if they are in front on the pack on the break. Also I've never thrown a fast break alley op (that someone has dunked) as all players don't run to the front of the rim. If you set the offence to "Up-Tempo" you should expect your players to run to the rim if they are open on breaks.

- No touch passing (as covered above) you can't swing the ball 80% of the time as after the first or second pass the defence will still on the third pass cause you are too slow!

- There seems to be a bug in the baseline out of bounds play (not under the rim near backboard) if the guy out of bounds is passing in from close to the 3pt line on the baseline, if you place the guy guarding out of bounds a few step over towards the guy who will catch near the corner, he will pass to the guy in the corner who will immediately pass it back to the guy out of bounds. Turnover. You would not know how many times I have done this. I am glad however I can't find anything else wrong with the out of bounds play. (except that every inbounds play in my frontcourt I can throw to Nelson for a catch and shoot he'll hit 95% of the time from 2 or 3s.)

There are a few more things but I'll have to write them down later!

[Patr1ck]

Nice review and welcome to the forums!

To post/backdown you "nudge" the left analog stick into the defender. Do not hold any other buttons when doing this. From there you can try different things like the left analog stick or right analog stick, or press the shot button twice to perform a up and under, etc.

[Andrew]

Welcome!

Just to add to what Pdub said, it seems as though they'll be adding a backdown control in an official update. I think most of us will prefer that to the contextual system for posting up, though I think that should stay as well.