Definitely a good listen, certainly encouraging stuff though I'm getting impatient for next week to come so I can see some of these things for myself. I hesitate to post a recap as it might discourage people from actually listening to the Podcast but as it's been out for a day I think I'll go ahead but all the same, I'd recommend listening to the Podcast itself. For those who would like a quick recap though:
- Marcus says that there's a lot of stuff yet to be shown in regards to NBA Live 10.
- The commitment to getting the fundamentals right is reiterated and the shortcomings of previous releases acknowledged. NBA Live 10 is described as being much more sim-orientated and a different experience to what we're used to seeing on the current generation of consoles.
- Information the new game modes has yet to be released but there's a lot to know about them, previews and info will be coming in the near future.
- Damon brings up Freestyle Passing as being his favourite improvement from what he's seen, Marcus tends to agree but says that his favourite improvement is that the game is more accommodating of the user playing realistically on All-Star difficulty contrary to previous years where it could be more of a dunkfest and the user was not forced to play realistically. Marcus stresses that this should the difficulty that "basketball heads" set the demo to when it comes out next week.
- Improvements to rebounding are covered, Marcus says that there is a new rebounding engine with more aggressive CPU teammates who will box out. Users will be able to box out using the Y/Triangle button; hold the button to box out and then release to jump for the rebound.
- The jostles from NBA Live 09 are completely gone so the user does not get stuck in two-man animation that could not be broken out of easily when controlling the ballhandler.
- Online play was brought up. Marcus was not able to talk about anything specific yet but hinted that more info would be coming soon.
- Marcus says that a lot has been done a lot with Dynamic DNA to remove the subjectivity of ratings from NBA Live 10. Mentions that in-depth stats such as shooting percentages from certain areas of the floor and in different situations will be better reflected in the ratings than in previous years. Marcus reiterates that the goal is to accurately represent the real players in the game and expresses confidence that NBA Live 10 will show great improvement in this area.
- This goal and approach are discussed. Damon agrees that is the right way to go in changing the way gamers approach sports games. Marcus further elaborates on some of the differences to the way ratings worked in previous games.
- The issue of fatigue and substitutions is brought up. Five minute quarters will not yield realistic results with fatigue or substitutions but longer quarters will.
- Marcus once again confirms that the demo is currently slated for a September 10th release for the Xbox 360 and possibly the 17th for Playstation 3 and that the demo will consist of two four minute quarters.
- A couple of other games are discussed including Batman: Arkham Asylum and The Beatles: Rock Band.
- The podcast wraps up with Marcus reiterating the changes and improvements that have been made in NBA Live 10. He says that ultimately gamers will be the judge but the Dev Team feels confident that we'll see a huge difference this year.
