The unnecessary things...

[Andrew]

We've talked about what we really want to see in NBA Live 2005. How about the small details or features from previous games that we can do without, but would be cool if they came back?

For example:

The hand check button. I like calling for an intentional foul, but the hand check button was quicker to use. It was also more effective for fouling a player hard while he was in the act of shooting.

Team rankings on the Team Select screen. Call me old fashioned, but I like the old rankings (Offense, Defense, Rebounding, Ballhandling and Overall) a little better than the overall rating.

The old career stats screen. I may have mentioned it in the other thread, but it really belongs in here. Even though it has very little bearing on the game and I have become used to the new year-by-year view, this would certainly give a nostalgic view. It's also a little better for viewing career totals.

Does anyone else have any favourite minor features/details that were present in previous Lives that on the whole didn't affect the game a great deal, but added to the atmosphere or presentation?

[David]

Yeah... even though NBA Live 2001 was a bad game in the series.. it had the best player development stuff for franchise.. It had graphs and comparisions you could do so you could see how your players are developing.. since then we have had nothing.. .. In NBA Live 2004 you can't tell how your player has developed.. I can't remember what rankings my players all had for each thing 3 seasons ago ... bring back the graphs and detailed development information to franchise/dynasty mode EA..

[iamarookie]

they should take out the jump-shot kick, the thing that happens when you hold shoot too long

somrtimes if you play online, there are moments where all your jump shots kick, so annoying

it also happens to often in the post

[diafenes]

Team rankings on the Team Select screen. Call me old fashioned, but I like the old rankings (Offense, Defense, Rebounding, Ballhandling and Overall) a little better than the overall rating.

true, I preferred that, though playing in dynasty the overall rating seams to have little beating since I'm more interested if the opponent is more up tempo than my team or plays more zone etc...

The old career stats screen. I may have mentioned it in the other thread, but it really belongs in here. Even though it has very little bearing on the game and I have become used to the new year-by-year view, this would certainly give a nostalgic view. It's also a little better for viewing career totals.

I mentioned the exact same thing in the "What you really want to see in NBA Live 2005..." thread. I used to see How my players added to their career totals at the beginning of the new season and on what team they had their best season etc.. sure its nostalgic but it was also better than what we have now...

[mp3]

id just like to see better post moves and better player progression.
I think it was live 00 when the post moves ruled when you could shot a real fadeaway or use a hook shot better. the power step in 04 is good but usally leads to a dunk every time.

[hmm]

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[alexboom]

I want a REAL jumbotron with the real scores on it like in Live 2000, not the stupid fixed images we have now !

[Andrew]

That's a nice one David. The graphs certainly were a little more informative, it would be great to see them return.

I've remembered another one - faking a pass. It's a technique that's going to be more effective against a human player, but with 10 man freestyle affecting the defensive AI as well, it might prove to be another way to get defenders out of position for open shots or a clear path to the basket. Needless to say, the difficulty level and an appropriate slider setting would influence how effective the fakes would be in fooling the CPU defense.

[diafenes]

I want a REAL jumbotron with the real scores on it like in Live 2000, not the stupid fixed images we have now !

yes! that was a nice touch. I like seeing it, especially when going to the substitution screen and the camera would rotate around the jumbotron...sigh I'd like to see that again!

[Null17]

I want a REAL jumbotron with the real scores on it like in Live 2000, not the stupid fixed images we have now !

yes! that was a nice touch. I like seeing it, especially when going to the substitution screen and the camera would rotate around the jumbotron...sigh I'd like to see that again!

yeah i wana see it back too. the one in 2004 was stupid. it still showed 0-0 and 12:00 left in the clock

[Fresh8]

I dunno if these belong here....

Team Leaders Stats....Player of the Week.....they should have season game highs....team ratings were cool

[Snilrch]

I want a REAL jumbotron with the real scores on it like in Live 2000, not the stupid fixed images we have now !

yes! that was a nice touch. I like seeing it, especially when going to the substitution screen and the camera would rotate around the jumbotron...sigh I'd like to see that again!

yeah i wana see it back too. the one in 2004 was stupid. it still showed 0-0 and 12:00 left in the clock

Yeah, Real Jumbotrons. like in NHL series. with some moving images

[diafenes]

I want a REAL jumbotron with the real scores on it like in Live 2000, not the stupid fixed images we have now !

yes! that was a nice touch. I like seeing it, especially when going to the substitution screen and the camera would rotate around the jumbotron...sigh I'd like to see that again!

yeah i wana see it back too. the one in 2004 was stupid. it still showed 0-0 and 12:00 left in the clock

Yeah, Real Jumbotrons. like in NHL series. with some moving images

these things, some necessary some not, tend to be things that we experienced in the nbalive series previously, I just don't see why EA keep on removing them....addition by subtraction I think not.
in another thread someone recently mentioned the button to "walk the ball down the court" -yeah we use to have that...damn

[David]

in another thread someone recently mentioned the button to "walk the ball down the court" -yeah we use to have that...damn

You don't need that button with freestyle control. If you want to walk you just don't push the analouge stick all the way.. so why would they need a button anymore?

[diafenes]

in another thread someone recently mentioned the button to "walk the ball down the court" -yeah we use to have that...damn

You don't need that button with freestyle control. If you want to walk you just don't push the analouge stick all the way.. so why would they need a button anymore?

cos I use the keyboard ...which reminds me, I'd like to see the return of customizable controller button combinations i.e having shoot and rebound be the same button if I want...

[K-Mart.6]

it was nice to make trades with more team like in Live 2001(3); a three team trade is not rare in real NBa season

[Metsis]

But the three team trading didn't work as it was meant to work...

And about trading... There are the intrest bars... I'd like to see some control over them as well... Like maybe someting like 'Scoring center', 'Defensive center' etc. And that would change your intrest bars accordingly...

So if you wanted to look for a 'Scoring shooting guard' you could even if you had someone like Reggie Miller on your team already...

Player development didn't work in Live 2001 either. It kept on comparing the advancement to the default stats and not the ratings of last year. Live 2000 had the best player development. It had the graphs and it worked. But we need atleast something to keep an eye on our players development.

Jumbotron with the game score, time left and all the guys on the floor with their respective points and fouls would be nice to see again.

The news thing is going to be handled by some PDA thing in the game... This has been apparently implemented in Madden series, but I haven't played any of the Madden games.

A better USER INTERFACE... I can't stress enough how we need a better a UI especially for PC... The current system might work for consoles best, but it's just garbage regarding PC. PC has so much better resolution and resources and the mouse and all these things... But I won't go into this again... You probably remember my rants about this Andrew...

[Andrew]

I remember (nice to see you again, by the way ), and I too would like to see a better UI for the PC version. I've grown used to the console style interface, but I'd love to see a return to the classic style for the PC version.

Another small thing - calling for a pick without running a pick and roll play. The "call for a pick" button was in NBA Live 2002, but hasn't returned since then. It might be hard to assign that feature to a button since it's now the Playcalling button, but I'd like to see it return.

[Metsis]

Did the 'Call for a pick' work? It would be a far more usable button for gamers like me who don't use set plays... I have never bothered with them. As a PC player, I've never played Live 2002. It was a pretty horrible game from what I've understood.

You've probably seen the 'pick and roll' play... Man that's just too rigid and the guy doing the pick always steps back and is asking for the ball when he should sometimes cut to the hoop or all the time... That's the way it should be played out.

There were some nice additions in Live 04 as well... Pro-hop was a good thing as it is a good and quite often used move in real life hoops as well. Also the intrest bars in the trading section were nice, but needs some adjustment. Rookies were a little more balanced... A little more. Still no good player could come out of the second round... Bumping and grinding is good, but the results were a bit too extreme. Rebounding is nice. Two player pressure defense was a nice idea, but badly implemented. Sliders make worlds go round (probably the best addition) although some sliders have a little or almost no effect on gameplay. Defense is a good grinding touch... Which is realistic (you would have to choose either to steal, block or go for the offensive foul...)

Live 04 is a nice game... Nothing too earthshattering, but some nice additions and ideas... Now the ideas need to be refined to get the most out of them.

[Andrew]

Did the 'Call for a pick' work? It would be a far more usable button for gamers like me who don't use set plays... I have never bothered with them. As a PC player, I've never played Live 2002. It was a pretty horrible game from what I've understood.

It worked pretty well, and was much more effective in getting players open jumpshots (think Mike Bibby in the 2002 playoffs). The pick and roll play isn't bad, but I'd like the option of simply calling for a pick, as well as running a pick and roll play.

[Tuomas]

I want to have two keyboards available for multiplayer games since it wasa fun the best games are always vs friends

[Andrew]

A couple more things that would be great (but wouldn't ruin the game if they aren't included): the ability to pivot, and the running hook shot (a la Alonzo Mourning/Patrick Ewing).

Freestyle allows you to pivot in a limited sort of way, but not in the way that you used to be able to in the older games in the series. The old pivot move was pretty standard and common enough for all players to use, but isn't available with Freestyle as far as I can tell.

I'd love to be able to attempt a running hook shot, similar to the one that Alonzo Mourning and Patrick Ewing (and to a lesser extent, Dikembe Mutombo) often used back in the day. Perhaps there will be a similar kind of move available with Freestyle Air.

[Metsis]

Freestyle allows you to pivot in a limited sort of way, but not in the way that you used to be able to in the older games in the series. The old pivot move was pretty standard and common enough for all players to use, but isn't available with Freestyle as far as I can tell.

You can pivot in Live 2004... It is quite hard though, but you can... You have to hold the cross-over button to do it and it doesn't always work.

It is hard to do... But I've done it a couple of times.

[Jarbeez]

This is going back pretty far. Maybe Live 95 or 96 not really sure.
They had an actual coach mode. Where you didn't control the players, but could control substitutions and call plays, timouts, intentional fouling, etc.

My wife is not good at video games, but does enjoy things like that. We used to coach against each other all the time. I would like to see that return. Although I did tire of seeing Rik Smits get 80 % of the plays, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

[Andrew]

You can pivot in Live 2004... It is quite hard though, but you can... You have to hold the cross-over button to do it and it doesn't always work.

It is hard to do... But I've done it a couple of times.

I'm not using the keyboard though, so I don't have a crossover button.

They had an actual coach mode. Where you didn't control the players, but could control substitutions and call plays, timouts, intentional fouling, etc.

It wasn't a coaching mode per se, but you were able to call plays with the Function keys and make substitutions while watching both teams play in the early NBA Lives.