NBA Live 10 Demo Impressions Thread

[Patr1ck]

I see what your are getting at. When playing the demo, I was able to anticipate some of the plays they run and deny the passing lane. I've had some difficulty getting into a proper position to deflect the pass, but the pass was still made, regardless of whether I was there or not. Although, the player would cut to the basket if I fronted too much.

I also turned up the alleyoop slider just a tad and they were just forcing alleyoops to Dwight Howard.

I believe there are ratings for help defense. In some of the raw demo files I noticed helpsideeffectiveness, HelpSideDefenseEffectv, and closeouteffectiveness grouped along with other ratings and attributes. Remains to be seen, though.

I agree with YAW about Live 10 graphics being alot better than Live 09. If you play an arcade run and gun style, it won't look good. If you look like you are running a realistic offense and defense, it can be mistaken for a broadcast.

[Playmakers]

I see what your are getting at. When playing the demo, I was able to anticipate some of the plays they run and deny the passing lane. I've had some difficulty getting into a proper position to deflect the pass, but the pass was still made, regardless of whether I was there or not. Although, the player would cut to the basket if I fronted too much.

I also turned up the alleyoop slider just a tad and they were just forcing alleyoops to Dwight Howard.

I believe there are ratings for help defense. In some of the raw demo files I noticed helpsideeffectiveness, HelpSideDefenseEffectv, and closeouteffectiveness grouped along with other ratings and attributes. Remains to be seen, though.

I agree with YAW about Live 10 graphics being alot better than Live 09. If you play an arcade run and gun style, it won't look good. If you look like you are running a realistic offense and defense, it can be mistaken for a broadcast.

Pdup they only tied the helpside defense into the sliders this year. It used to be a rating for all players the last two years but this year it looks like the actual rating was removed and the only helpside defense in the game is being triggered by helpside defensive slider.

I think that is wrong because the slider should be used to either enhance or reduce the helpside defense defensive effectiveness for gameplay. It shouldn't control all the players equally based on the slider setting but that is what we are getting because there is no helpside defensive rating for all players anymore.

The Warriors will rotate defensively as the Spurs on defense based on the slider setting and not the players actual rating now.

Basically if you play on Super Star level the slider will boost up all the players and teams helpside defense. The level determines how smart the CPU players will be on defense not their ratings because there is no ratings assigned to them in the game.

I can't believe EA would actually do such a thing and remove defensive awareness for all players. It's just like the DNA/tendencies those features will allow the players to take shots based on their tendencies or drive left or right based on their tendency but it has nothing to do with how smart a player is like Kobe or LeBron at reading defenses and angles to take on offense. When to drive and dish or when to reset a play and then look for a 2nd option or 3rd option in that play.

Basically they are all operating only on their tendencies to drive or shoot but they lack awareness in regardas to shot clock management and how to adjust to defenses on borken plays. They don't reset the play at all and lets say the ball is in Fisher's hands or Nelson hands with about 6-8 seconds left on the shot clock they won't look to try and free up Kobe or Carter for that critical shot. Who Ever has the ball at that time is most likley going to be the shooter.

But I guess the best case scenario is going to be we'll have a basketball game that functions very well on the fundlemental of basketball but we won't get that game where the elite players based on their basketball IQ/awareness and winner mentality on the court sperates them from the other players. Kobe won't be aggressive unless he actually has the ball in his hands he won't demand the ball from anyone including Luke Walton if the game is on the line and he's wide open.

[Playmakers]

I also think that the standstill dunk rating they brought over from NBA 2K needs to be lowered for most of the bigs In the that participated in the demo. I'm not sure how they rated all the other bigs yet but Paul Gasol and Andrew Bynum's needs to be lowered.

You can't have that high of rating for standstill dunking and then give guys unrealistic verticals because it'll make big guys look like they are jumping out the gym on all dunks and some rebounds. Gasol would be in the dunk contest every year if had that type of hops.

I'm not sure why they haven't lowered the verticals down to a more realistic setting. Heck even if a guy has a 50 rating for vertical and a high dunk rating he'll still pull of some amazing dunks but he won't be taking off from the ft line anymore or doing any of that rocket dunk we see every year.

If I have to see Eric Dampier who has very limited atheletic ability jumping out the gym another year I"m going to be pissed.

[JaoSming]

I'm not sure why they haven't lowered the verticals down to a more realistic setting. Heck even if a guy has a 50 rating for vertical and a high dunk rating he'll still pull of some amazing dunks but he won't be taking off from the ft line anymore or doing any of that rocket dunk we see every year.

If I have to see Eric Dampier who has very limited atheletic ability jumping out the gym another year I"m going to be pissed.

That is a suggestion I had/have. Use the dunk and vertical ratings to modify animations to player specific dunks. Lebron should have every dunk in his dunk pack that Rondo has, but, when Lebron does it side by side to Rondo, he should jump higher and cock the ball back further/dunk it harder, etc.

[George7]

I'm jealus of u guys!!!!!!
I have only a PC!!!!!!!

[Patr1ck]

I'm jealus of u guys!!!!!!
I have only a PC!!!!!!!

Is your PC good enough to run NBA 2K9? If so, then your in luck, because 2K10 is also for the PC. It may not be Live, but it's better than any other bball game on the pc.

Also, Christmas is coming. You could ask for a 360 and Live as a present.

[havasufalls]

My trials with the demo have been great. Mainly I've been playing against one of my friends. We've played around 40 halves against each other on superstar difficulty. I'm always the lakers and he is always the magic. I know its just a half but we've had some really good battles. Took some time to get back use the the controls cause for the past 3 years we both mainly have been on 2k waiting for live to come back. My friend says he back on live and isn't going back to 2k. I personally have bought every NBA live game the day it has come out. I also got 2k-2k2 and then 2k7-2k9. This year i'll probably get both as usual. I like them both but live looks like it will get most of my time while i'll still have to whoop up on my friends in 2k who refuse to make the switch.

Anyways as I said we have had a good time playing the demo. Its not perfect but thats expected. Its great that players can't just run to the basket at will and dunk all the time. If you are ready and position yourself you'll stop them or atleast force a tough shot. I like that you can start off going for a layup or dunk and then if the defender is there in time they can force you to change your shot. Running plays is easy and I also like the off ball controls. I for one actually like the way they introduce the players i know a lot of ppl don't but I like it. I also like the hustle plays just wish sometimes they would respond to a ball going out of bounds a little quicker. I haven't mastered the post up moves but i dont think i'll have any problems with it. I know i read there might be a post up button either in the final version or via a patch so that would be nice but i've actually started to get the hang of how to post up and how to face up. The rebounding is much better as well. Sometimes we were both controlling our defense backboard well all game other games dwight would get us on the offensive glass and some game bynum and gasol would do good on the offensive glass so it seemed like it was a good balance plus you really have to position yourself and go after the ball. I believe i read this somewhere where someone had an issue with a last second shot not counting and that has happened twice to me. Of course without being able to replay it i dont know for sure but both times i'm positive i got the ball off in time. Hopefully this was an issue that has been addressed. I dont know what determines whether it should count or not besided just getting it off in time but it only happened twice and we of course have hit many buzzer beaters that did get counted. Every now and then a player will poke the ball lose and sometimes the player closest to the ball doesnt react fast enough or even at all. Doesn't happen much but did happen a few times. Also twice there have been goaltending calls on dunks. Of course I cant tell if my player had his hand inside the rim or something which of course would be warranted then but otherwise I'm not sure that is good call .

All in all i think those are some of the issues and good things i've noticed so far. I've also played a couple games vs. the cpu on superstar and those were enjoyable as well as I've played my lil brother and another friend in which i was magic and they were the lakers in both instances. my lil brother enjoyed the game while my other friend when things got tough resorted to trying to jus pound the ball with kobe and do everything with kobe which wont work on this game. Kobe will get a couple tough shots to go for you but u cant jus run up the court every play and expect him to score without any plays or picks or anything. so he got frustated and wanted to play 2k lol.

[Andrew]

A reminder to XBL Silver and Playstation 3 users, the demo should still be out on the 17th so it should be only a matter of hours before you can download it.

[Daniel24]

Ok hey guys i'm new here. Daniel, from Brisbane, Australia. Just going to post my thoughts on the demo.

Ok first things first.. What the heck is with the starting lineups? That is atrotious lol.

Here's a list of all the little things i did not like about the demo:

Where has post up gone? I really hope they implement the button for a post up in the real game.
Why is it so hard to contest shots, furthermore.. layups, Nelson is scoring about 5 layups everytime i play because once players drive, they are virtually impossible to block or foul.
Why does the lakers chime only occur when Kobe hits threes? It never works for ron ron or fish?
Players like Gasol and Bynum are way too agile in this game in contrast to their real life counterparts
It said there are hussle plays?... yet my players have watched the ball trickle out of bounds a few times
PG's can't even throw 3/4 court passes... Fish through the ball out of bounds countless times whilst in transition passing to kobe.. shouldnt happen everytime.

In saying all this, I am really happy about all the signature moves and jumpshots, i love the feeling of authenticity in the game, and i cannot wait for the full game release.. (whenever that may be in Australia lol)..

[planbzimp]

In response to an earlier reply to my post I play on SD with a component cable. My TVs just a regular 32 inch color TV. This might be the case that I can't feel that the graphics are the best. But I doubt that playing on a HD TV would change the fact that player models are overly glossy. Its interesting though, as i was rewatching the beijing olympics (Redeem team v Spain) players actually looked that oily because of the lighting and the amount of sweat they had.

To make it clear, I dont actually think Live09 had better graphics than 10. But im just not satisfied that Live 10 didnt give me a genuine feel of a broadcasted game on TV

[Andrew]

Welcome to the Forum Daniel24, always nice to see another Aussie Live player on here.

Ok first things first.. What the heck is with the starting lineups? That is atrotious lol.

I don't mind what they've done with the starting lineups, though I believe the ones we're seeing are special intros that are NBA Finals specific. I could be wrong but I think there might be a different introduction for all non-Finals games and hopefully the All-Star Weekend as well.

It said there are hussle plays?... yet my players have watched the ball trickle out of bounds a few times

There definitely are hustle plays in the game but I know what you mean, occasionally players do stand around and let the opponent scoop it up or the ball roll out of bounds. I guess not every single loose ball turns into a scramble with players diving on the floor though.

I'll have my full write-up posted soon, just finishing up a couple of videos to go with them.

[xPHANTx]

Well, I think there's logic in place to let the ball go out if its not on going out on ur team. So they won't try to save it and then it goes out on them, whereas it would have been out on the other team. Also, there may be a hustle rating in play.

[George7]

I have a pc that can run 2k9 and 2k10 will be playing smooth too,as i will buy a new GPU,an 4770 or if i spent some more a 4850,so i won't have problem.
But i was always a Live player, so i can't get used to 2k,despite being a very good game.
Also bying a 360 isn't a priority ,cause i believe PC's can overpower consoles,and also,console games lack of the patching ability which is great.But this year i might consider buying a 360 more than other years

[yusufekizz]

Guys I want to ask a question.When does live demo come in psn?

Today is 17th September but I dont see demo.

[JaoSming]

when PSN updates for the day, which differs from country to country

[Andrew]

It should be out now. I don't have a PS3 so I can't check that myself but according to the various official NBA Live 10 sources on Twitter it's apparently available.

[Daniel24]

Hey by the way any ps3 users in Australia please add me.. DanielD08

Got the demo on my ps3 now lol, i had been playing it on my bro's xbox previously...

I forgot to mention that the pre game rituals are a nice addition.. another annoying factor is that everytime you score, you have to watch a cut scene of your player pointing to the assister or hopping down the court.. would be good every now and then but not as frequently as it is occurring

Has anyone heard a release date for Australia yet? I have it pre-ordered at EB Games but they can't tell me when it is to be released..

[qwomack74]

YOU LIE LIVE.COM THE DEMOS NOT OUT YET Thanks for getting my hopes up. Tease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daniel24]

It is out mate, i am playing it as we speak.. go to playstation store and search for nba live... it will come up i promise... its like a 790mb download though

[The X]

Yep, I'm in Oz. I've already downloaded and played the demo for PS3 a couple of times.

As far as my impressions, they are mixed. After last 3 years of exclusively playing 2k, the controls take a bit of getting use to.

Positives:
- It is a huge improvement over previous years
- I like the rebounding animations
- I was glad to see that guys like Dwight Howard & Pau Gasol were tough to keep off the offensive boards
- I was glad to see that somebody like Dwight Howard will be a weapon in this game. Previously only the LBJ's, Kobe's & Wade's of the World were.
- I like the quick playcalling options for each team
- I started Adam Morrison when I played with Lakers & glad they made him a stud
- Adam Morrison looked good in team starting lineup screen
- I liked improved TV style presentation & player signature characteristics
- Commentating seemed pretty solid but too early to tell on that

Negatives:
- Often team PG's (Nelson & Fisher) would just stand with ball for like 5 seconds. Then they'd jack up a contested shot.
- Teams didn't seem to be running their sets as much as I would expect. It was more Fisher standing out the front & holding the ball for too long. Pau Gasol only ever touched the ball when he was hitting the offensive glass. Hopefully dynamic DNA will fix these issues.
- Rocket dunks (players seem to routinely explode off ground)
- A lot of the players take off for dunks like they're Vince Carter
- Blocking jump shots (especially by CPU) need to be toned down for default setting as they seem (once I dropped the slider down to about 20-25, it seemed to help)
- What the heck is the right stick for? Seems like a waste to me. I know it's freestyle ballhandling or something, but frankly, I'd like to use it as a shot stick or play call stick or something.
- Players are too white in hangar
- Why have alleyoop linked to face buttons? I'd prefer it to be contextual.
- When pressuring Jameer Nelson, I bumped him out of bounds. It should've been a foul against me, but I got the ball.
- Players looked plastic & shiny

Other Notes:
- I didn't have a huge issue with posting up as the right players seem to post up in context of the game. Although granted I think having it mapped to the controller is a must for people that might want to back Earl Boykins in against Yao every time down the court.
- I had heard that graphics were very good. I wasn't that impressed at all. Didn't seem that much better than 2k9 to me. It is probably in details that I don't notice like crowd (where 2k's is crap).

Overall, I think Live is finally coming to the party. I really hope that the final product has fixed up some of the gameplay issues in relation to PG's just holding it up & taking a shot with 2 guys in their face. I even left Kobe wide open for trey to test if he would shoot it & he passed it up to Artest who took a contested 3 (yes, it's realistic that Artest would do that, but ball should've never got to him).

I've got mixed feelings & will take a wait & see approach. It's better yes, but 2k10 will also be better & seems to be adding to the other core modes (Association).

X's Rating: 4 X's (out of 5) - since it's a demo, I've got to give it some leeway as far as rating it goes. Not as good as FIFA '10 demo though.

[Playmakers]

Yep, I'm in Oz. I've already downloaded and played the demo for PS3 a couple of times.

As far as my impressions, they are mixed. After last 3 years of exclusively playing 2k, the controls take a bit of getting use to.

Positives:
- It is a huge improvement over previous years
- I like the rebounding animations
- I was glad to see that guys like Dwight Howard & Pau Gasol were tough to keep off the offensive boards
- I was glad to see that somebody like Dwight Howard will be a weapon in this game. Previously only the LBJ's, Kobe's & Wade's of the World were.
- I like the quick playcalling options for each team
- I started Adam Morrison when I played with Lakers & glad they made him a stud
- Adam Morrison looked good in team starting lineup screen
- I liked improved TV style presentation & player signature characteristics
- Commentating seemed pretty solid but too early to tell on that

Negatives:
- Often team PG's (Nelson & Fisher) would just stand with ball for like 5 seconds. Then they'd jack up a contested shot.
- Teams didn't seem to be running their sets as much as I would expect. It was more Fisher standing out the front & holding the ball for too long. Pau Gasol only ever touched the ball when he was hitting the offensive glass. Hopefully dynamic DNA will fix these issues.
- Rocket dunks (players seem to routinely explode off ground)
- A lot of the players take off for dunks like they're Vince Carter
- Blocking jump shots (especially by CPU) need to be toned down for default setting as they seem (once I dropped the slider down to about 20-25, it seemed to help)
- What the heck is the right stick for? Seems like a waste to me. I know it's freestyle ballhandling or something, but frankly, I'd like to use it as a shot stick or play call stick or something.
- Players are too white in hangar
- Why have alleyoop linked to face buttons? I'd prefer it to be contextual.
- When pressuring Jameer Nelson, I bumped him out of bounds. It should've been a foul against me, but I got the ball.
- Players looked plastic & shiny

Other Notes:
- I didn't have a huge issue with posting up as the right players seem to post up in context of the game. Although granted I think having it mapped to the controller is a must for people that might want to back Earl Boykins in against Yao every time down the court.
- I had heard that graphics were very good. I wasn't that impressed at all. Didn't seem that much better than 2k9 to me. It is probably in details that I don't notice like crowd (where 2k's is crap).

Overall, I think Live is finally coming to the party. I really hope that the final product has fixed up some of the gameplay issues in relation to PG's just holding it up & taking a shot with 2 guys in their face. I even left Kobe wide open for trey to test if he would shoot it & he passed it up to Artest who took a contested 3 (yes, it's realistic that Artest would do that, but ball should've never got to him).

I've got mixed feelings & will take a wait & see approach. It's better yes, but 2k10 will also be better & seems to be adding to the other core modes (Association).

X's Rating: 4 X's (out of 5) - since it's a demo, I've got to give it some leeway as far as rating it goes. Not as good as FIFA '10 demo though.

PG awareness has always been huge problem in Live and this this year so far based on the demo that hasn't changes one bit.

In fact the player logic as whole as you pointed out with Kobe seems to be lacking. I keep stating this that somehow EA needs to find away to intergrate player awareness into the game on offense and defense.

I know some people trust in synergy and DNA but it's yet to improve the player awareness and that is where i think EA not really paying much attention. I see way too many dumb things on the floor to think that these guys have any type of procedural awareness being used.

I wish they incorporate sliders like NBA 2K9 that effects awareness on offense and defense. They don't have any awareness ratings to tweak in the game so why not implement some sliders for once

[Shroud]

Hey guys,

Another aussie here.

The problems with the Live Demo in my opinion are :-

Lack of post up button, anytime you set something up to be 'contextual' i believe you take some control out of the players hands, what if you want to back a player down from 18 feet from the basket? It seems really hard to do in Live. And it seems to assume that PGs will never ever post up on another player, but there have been plenty of PGs good at posting up in the real NBA, Gary Payton was one of the best, Sam Cassell was a very good post up PG, Andre Miller is another who springs to mind.

Help Defense, I read one of the developed blogs just after the demo came out, and one of them was talking about how he felt NBA Live had always had the best Help D mechanisms and this year was even better. I let the first comment slide with the Help D because its just not true, and the second one is false, Help D is a joke in this game. I've tested and tested to see this vaunted 'help D mechanism', i've left Derek Fisher wide open to drive to the basket and often noone even steps in to help, even though there is a defender right there, sometimes Dwight Howard or Rashard Lewis attempt to block or pressure the shot, but Fisher seems to have around a 97% success right on these layups. BTW I was leaving Fisher wide open intentionally to test this 'help D', i do know how to stop penetration. : )

If it was Kobe Bryant going down the middle and scoring every time it'd be fair enough, but Derek Fisher? Get real.

Despite the new NBA 2k gameplay designer coming to help the Live crew, the CPU still runs its offense primarily through Derek Fisher, it does seem to set Kobe up a bit more then it would have in the past, but it didnt feel very authentic.

The graphics and animations are top notch, but once again all the tools and tricks are given to the offensive player, and there isnt much the defensive player has to work with other then stay in front of their man.

Despite the DNA of the team being around 20% for the pick & roll play, never really saw the CPU run any, maybe 1 or 2, and the picks dont seem very successful at holding off the defensive player.

When I first switched Live on and played through a couple, I thought they'd taken the crown, but after playing 40+ times, I think its pretty average. I'll check out the full version since 2k has no demo.

[The X]

Despite the DNA of the team being around 20% for the pick & roll play, never really saw the CPU run any, maybe 1 or 2, and the picks dont seem very successful at holding off the defensive player.

Agreed. I didn't see Magic run one pick n roll, which is surprising since that is what DNA states is what they do most, & considering that's their bread & butter IRL.

Furthermore, I can't stand Derek Fisher having any meaningful role in the Lakers' offense except as a spot-up shooter. Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case.

[ThaLiveKing]

I got Superstar Sliders pics coming soon. . .tested it a few times and I think I'm satisfied. . .I'll post them by tonight!!! This game is going to be fun

[Shroud]

Agreed. I didn't see Magic run one pick n roll, which is surprising since that is what DNA states is what they do most, & considering that's their bread & butter IRL.

Furthermore, I can't stand Derek Fisher having any meaningful role in the Lakers' offense except as a spot-up shooter. Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case.

The X

Derek Fisher driving and pulling up from 15 feet for a jump shot with Jameer Nelson draped all over him is a joke, but then it goes IN which is an even bigger joke.

realistic DNA my ass.

its one thing to have all these stats and tendancies and everything, its another thing to actually use them meaningfully.