NBA Live 08 for PC - shift+delete

Well I just installed NBA Live 08 on pc .. and I'm about to uninstall, shutdown my computer, go to the nearest electronics store, buy an XBox 360 and buy nba 2k7..

The PC version is horrible, we all said that our expectations weren't so high, but COME ON.

The first time I loaded up I noticed the same preload team graphics, the same low-res menu, the same old functions.. Well I thought what the heck, configured my gamepad and went to individual practice with A.Iverson. First look - didn't see any difference between 07 and 08, it seemed like I was playing 07. I was hoping that EA would make the practice like on 2k7 on the xbox (don't know about live on the xbox, haven't played) where there are like 5 or so balls and you can pick any of them up. Of course there weren't any extra balls .. oh well..

The controls in practice mode were horrible. Iverson without the ball was like a homemovie on fast forward, couldn't control him at all. The shooting was usercontrol release, which is good. Animations are no different from 07.

In-game. Well all the cameras SUCK. The broadcast cam is really pointless, you can't see whats going on on the other end of the court, total disaster. Once again, animations haven't changed. Haven't seen one new animation so far. The sky, or heli or whatever it's called cam (the old TV cam) has a bug just like in the SUM mod. Whenever you inbound the ball, the camera goes half way left , or right, and you can't see beyond the 3pt line.

As far as I understand, you can't bring up the Hotspots functions in-game. At least there isn't a specific key, and well I tried pressing and holding all of them. It appears that if you want to see the hotspots, you have to pause, go to the Hotspots function in the menu and remember all of your players hotspots. Doesn't seem logical to me. I memorized a few players hotspots, but I really don't like it. I was shooting with iverson from his hotspot, undefended for 3 times in a row, didn't make 1 shot. Don't understand why.

Go-to moves. Well I only saw a few of them, but they seemed just like the old FSS moves, wasn't impressed at all. At first I didn't even notice them, because we are all used to the FSS moves, and seeing them wasn't a shock in any way.

There are a few good aspects though. The rebounding is a lot better than 07. Players don't jump 5ft backwards on a normal catch and grab rebound, they jump towards the ball. That's something new for Live on PC.

Now it's hard to get a fastbreak, and you have to work hard to make one.

What I noticed is that the user passes get picked of easily, so you have to get used to smart passing, because in 07 the ball would go through 3 defenders and you'd end up dunking over the other 2 guys. The picked-off passes force you to think more about passing the ball, waiting for open teammates.

Fatigue - fiiiiiiiiiinaly. CPU subs - fiiiiiiiiiiiiinaly. Combine them both - oh dear Lord bless EA. Finally after so long they managed to get both, fatigue, and cpu subs working.

Even so - when playing 08, I felt as though playing 07 with a few minor updates - thats all.

NBA Live 08 is what 07 should have been. All of these "updates" in 08 are things that should have been in 07. As I said, the game feels and plays like 07, it just feels a bit updated. Things like cpu subs, fatigue, rebounding - they're pieces of the core to basketball, and they should have been in 07.

EA doesn't impress me at all with Live 08. Having a "new" game which is actually an update from it's older version doesn't quite cut it for me.

God burn EA down

edit: a few other things that make me want to ram an aircraft into EA Canada.

Create a player: I couldn't believe it - but the preview part got even worse. All of the haircuts look identical due to lack of quality. nothing new: no tats, no bands, nothing. I hope it was me being stupid, but I haven't found the part where you can change the dunk packages. I reeallly hope I just didn't find it, because if they removed it .. God help EA Canada ..

All the menus are, of course, the same as last years.. and the year before that. Resolutions are the same. 640x480, 800,x600, 1024,768. I was hoping they would make a 1280x800 resolution, or at least something for the widescreen monitors or laptops.. but nooo..

It's kinda weird where they positioned the back button in the menu

Last edited by codilx on Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Don't compare live pc to 2k.....live will look like a sh*t

But still i'm interested in live because of the patches of amazing patchers

where do you come from?

a place called far, far away

nice review at least the gameplay improve

The impossible-to-see-whats-going on cam



The sky box cam



The sky box cam bug



also another bug. I can't box out at all on free throws. As you see in the screenshot above, I've selected Anthony. When the ball goes in the air, all the players start to move, but I can't move my selected player at all. He unlocks when the ball either goes in, or bounces of the rim. That means the player has no advantage boxing out on freethrows. If you're playing against someone like Shaq, he'll probably grab all the missed freethrows.

So,boxing out is a problem.....

thanks for posting screens

I saw this coming, not surprising that EA doesn't give a rat's ass about the pc version, which is understandable. But on the other hand, there's nothing like a good game to boost your sales and image.

The only way to view hotspots, at least to my knowledge, is either through the menu. It's really hard to remember all of the players hotspots, I'm shocked that they didn't include a button so you can view the hotspots on demand.



About the broadcast cam. Well, the screen bellow was taken on 1024x768. It looks actually ok, but look bellow that and you'll see how widescreen looks. You can't feel the depth at all. In the screen bellow, in-game, I couldn't see Kid at all. This is going to kill widescreen users

The all-star weekend looks worse than 07 and even 06




The unbelievable create-a-player quality

Ouch!Creat-a-player is disguisting!

The all-star screen is not bad.

We've known for a long time that the PC version wasn't going to be a major upgrade from last year and probably won't be until the PS2 version is phased out and the Xbox 360/PS3 version is ported to the PC.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your impressions and the screenshots.

Andrew, so there's still a chance to have pc as next-gen?IHurray!

NBA Live 08 for PC -FORMAT /Y
!!!

No, I'm just speculating on the future of the PC version since I would assume the PS2 version will be phased out as early as NBA Live 09.

I loved this signature lebron dunk, it really looked amazing, probably the best thing in the game



Nowitzkis "go-to" move. Looks like FSS to me


BUGS

EA claimed to have fixed the collision system.. oh yeah..


Bench players still like to sit on those invisible chairs


CAM bug different angle

What court is that?Thanks/

I'm not sure. Either FIBA or Germany. I was trying out the FIBA Champ mod and was playing away in this court

what's wrong with cameras?
Can't see much..

I really hate the collision bug..and the bench bug

BigBadWolf: with all of the cams, with the exception of the bugged Sky Cam, you don't feel control over the movement of the players. If you drive in the lane you don't know if the person who's in front of you is standing straight dead-on, or maybe a bit to the left or right in which case you could make an adjustment and turn the other direction.

I've played 30 mins of this crappy game and i already uninstalled it and i'm going to return it asap.

It's the biggest piece of crap ever made. I can't believe this got through the testing phase.

Its a really bad recycled 07 game.

And to top it, it keeps crashing in Vista for me (during timeouts, end of quarters etc)

All camera modes are bad, comentary is exactly like last year.
It also has all the bugs from last year (layup bugs, dunking through the backboard from behind, icing, etc)
I cant take a rebound during freethrows, if you press forward the rebounder will just stand still while the other team just steps in to collect the offensive rebound. WEAK

EA is just laughing at us for buying their bs each year.

Last edited by dotslasher on Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Maybe they just think the PC gamers have a whole bunch of patchers in NLSC that can help them fix the game. Ahhh, damn it. XBOX here I come!

PG issue:

This year thankfully the PG domination issue was fixed, but it was over fixed I think. Now PGs are afraid of doing anything, even crossing the half court line. When I played against Miami, Williams would slowly crawl across the half court line, then he would stand pounding the ball into the floor for, only after 3/4 of the clock wasted he would pass the ball to someone.

I'm not sure if this applies to all the PG's. When I played against Germany I didn't have this problem, but Miami & Cleveland do

Its the FIBA court


for sig goto moves check out the stickie on the top of this forum. There are actually different animations for those certain players....you just need to trigger them properly.

yea EA create a player sucks
http://www.nba-live.com/download/pafile ... le&id=1049
get that, and I will hopefully update that this year.


....cant wait to get this game in my hands, we can fix most of this stuff, we have the technology (and I have the freetime)

You can view hotspots in the game.



Just hold your crossover-key...