What I LOVE most, what I HATE most

by **VlaDiv** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:46 am

This is the best LIVE to date, no doubt, it is nearly perfect. First the problem:

- my XBOX makes some serious loud noises while running this game, with occassional stuttering and slowdown.

minor issues

- no cutscenes, not even Adonal Foyle saying its in the game.

- PDA is a great start, but lacks variety in messages.

- commentary is recycled mostly.

- still can't use your own music.

But overall it's just excellent. The best thing:

Dynasty is a challenge and is balanced in a fair manner. I have taken on the bobcats and am currently going 26W-31L playing every game. I had to trim the diff. down to starter it's so tight. Then I upgraded my roster with my cap space. It's a lot better, but not a super team of iversons and Tmacs like in live 04, where you got them at MINIMUM! I am loving rookie scouting and training. I love the trading system and FA logic. I am making a playoff push with my cats:

C okafor 10 ppg, 9 rb, 2 blk
PF Malone
SF George 13 ppg
SG Christie 2 stl
PG Payton 18 ppg, 5 ast
6 T prince
7 m okur
8 radmanovic
9 a daniels
10 k gill
11 mcdyess
12 olowokandi 4 pts, 4 rebs (not bad for a 12th man)

IR: jon barry, fizer, t hansen

It is still difficult to win every game even with my veteran lineup and playing some games on allstar or starter.

Good to see kareem. Should be 90. Bring back more legends like kemp and richmond.

by **50first** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:59 am

the team logos that popup during timeouts, fouls, or dead balls really gets on my nerve somehow. its like someone scratching their fingernails on a blackboard to me. other then that its all good most of the time.

by **deluxxe** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:07 am

love:
-jump shots. they actually go in this year.
-ai. although still not perfect. much better than last year. Shot charts no longer look like hornets nests around the hoop.
-steals. You can strip a PG and go in on a breakaway
-did i mention jumpshots? =)

hate:
-far too many out of bounds calls around the hoop.
-getting pushed out of bounds by a defender should be a pushing foul. not a turnover.
-losing. And i lose A LOT in live 2005. I've even lost games on starter. Sometimes i just get blown the f*ck out on all star. we're talking 40 point loses. =)

-arch

by **joslyn23** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:48 am

pros/likes:

i like alot of what this game has to offer but i dont want to say what others have said so lets move on to the cons/dislikes.

cons/dislikes:

no custom soundtracks - have to edits players with the sound down and turn on my own radio.

no sort button - to sort out stats, free agents and such there should be a sort button somewhere.

Carmelo Anthony - im tired of seeing stupid ***.....period. i know he is the cover boy and everything but i have saw him so much in the last past week or so that i dont even like him.

no user profile - how do i know how im playing? what if i want to play my guy and we want to keep stats or W-L's?.....ya kno.

create/edit players - takes too long to edit players and create players with the format used now. take it back to the old format.

established legends not in the game - at least make a generic player like the old Live's used to use for MJ (Player #99)

terrible camera angles/views - at least make one of the views playable and enjoyable. also give us the option to save the zoom level.

i think i said custom soundtracks.......yeah thats a big one.

enuff for now.......

by **Spinners** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:46 am

Yeah, when the team logos pop up all the team between cut scens, that bothers me alot too.

by **durvasa** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:58 am

I'll list the good and bad. While the Bad section is lengthy, keep in mind that some of it is nit-picking and/or suggestions for improving the game. The game, as a whole, is much improved over last year. I haven't even looked at Dynasty-mode yet, but so far I'm really liking it.

The Good

Team Defensive AI is vastly improved. I love how if there's a defensive mismatch (like a center on a guard), a smaller player will come to help and allow you to switch. Also, double teams are executed much more realistically this year. This was very well done.
Steal animations are a blast.
Tip-ins are great.
Nice dunk animations.
Slam-dunk contest and Three-point shootout are excellent features. The commentary from Ernie and Kenny during the slam-dunk contest, in particular, is amazing. Good job on this EA.
Kareem is in the game. Cool.
Computer takes mid-range jumper.
Computer players do a better job of getting their stats and play more like they do in real life compared to last year.
The post game, overall, is better this year.
Collisions aren't MUCH better this year. You don't bounce off players like a pinball machine anymore.
The interface is much more polished. Screens seem to load faster as well.
In-game commentary is improved, though only slightly.
Pro-hop is used better this year. I love the way you can pass in the middle of a pro-hop. That's looks awesome.
You can use the "pro-hop" button while you standing in place (or with your back to the basket) to get off a turn-around shot (counter-clockwise turn, a la Michael Jordan). This is very useful for one-on-one and post-up purposes, and just looks very cool.
Guards and small forwards don't take a ridiculous number of three point shots for several possessions in a row anymore. Offense, in general, has more variation which is good.
Some in-game bugs were fixed. If you make a layup while charging into a player, the shot won't count anymore. If you get your shot blocked, it counts as a shot attempt.

The Bad

You still can't edit the all-star or legend teams, which is annoying for me.
Key historical players are missing from the game, which is a dissapointment: Jerry West, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, John Stockton, David Robinson, Charles Barkley.
You can't sort players in the player-stats screen by a particular statistical category, which was useful last year.
All-star weekend games (rookie challenege and main event) have fixed gameplay sliders. This means that the CPU will not sub in players because apparently the substitution frequency is set at 0. This is a huge oversight. I haven't tried it out myself, but this is what I've read on other boards.
It's too easy to get blocks in the game. While this can be adjusted to be more realistic using sliders, even at the 0 setting the CPU still blocks jumpshots too easily.
While there's a lead pass animation in certain isolated instances, there is still a need to be able to pass to players "in stride" in other fast break situations. For instance, if you have the numbers (2 on 1, 3 on 1, or 3 on 2), it should be easier to pass to players in stride. Fast-breaks, in general, should be improved.
To put it simply, graphics are bad. Some improvements over last year, but the crowds look horrible, and the people standing on the sidelines are even worse to look at. While many of the players have improved faces, there are still many who don't look anything like their real-life couterpart including some famous players like Reggie Miller. Maybe this will all look much better on the PC (I use Xbox), but its clear that Live is at least a generation behind the ESPN series in the graphics department.
The playbook looks to be the same as last year, which is dissapointing since it's somewhat limited. To compound the problem, this year you don't see the animations which illustrate each play in the playbook. I'm guessing this was due to some memory restraints, but its a sorely missed feature in my opinion.
When looking through the free agent and legends pool, players are ordered by position, and within each position there doesn't seem to be any obvious order (its not alphabetical, at least). Additionally, there's no way to sort these players based on name or height or ppg or anything. It makes it difficult to find a player when all you have is his name, as when you're manually making roster changes as they occur during the regular season. You basically have to scroll through the whole list, which can be very time consuming if there's a bunch of players you want to sign to various teams.
Some in-game bugs return from last year. If you get your shot blocked after getting fouled, it shouldn't actually be recorded as a block by the defender. But this happens. Also, if you knock a ball out of bounds it will always count as a turnover against you, even if your team didn't have possession of the ball.
The CPU sometimes makes bizarre substitutions. For instance, taking out star players in the closing minutes of a close game.
There's a glitch where if you knock a ball from the CPU into the backcourt, and the CPU player goes chasing after it, before he actually reaches the ball he'll do a stupid dive. This leaves you with an easy opportunithy to go after the ball and get a wide open layup. This happens fairly consistently in this situation.
While, as I said, the postup game is much better, I wish there was a way to take a turnaround shot going clockwise (a la Hakeem Olajuwon). The counter-clockwise turnaround is availabe via the Y button (pro-hop button), but its not as easy to get off a clockwise turnaround. A relatively minor complaint, though.
While Freestyle Air (layup adjustments) works fine for dynamic, athletic guards and forwards, the animations need to be significantly different for the big guys like Yao and Shaq. It's kind of silly seeing them attempt reverse, double-clutch layups while getting contact on their shot attempts down low.
CPU passing should be improved. Lots of times there are players wide open and they won't get the ball. This is on All-star difficulty. Also, perimeter players dribble too much, IMO. They also tend to shoot very often off the dribble, which is fine for some players but unrealistic for most.
Again, with substitutions, even if I put CPU substitution frequency at 0, the CPU will substitute players if it doesn't like who's on the court. For instance, suppose I want to control who the CPU team has on the court. So, periodically during the game, I'll switch controller to the CPU team, and make its substitutions. If I'm playing the Rockets, sometimes I might want to slide T-Mac to the small forward position. Even if I have CPU substitution frequency at 0, the CPU will take T-Mac out of the game and put in someone else it prefers because it has its own rotation that it won't let you disrupt. This is annoying, to say the least. And there are a number of changes EA should make in this department. Firstly, there should be an easy way to make substitutions for the CPU team. That is, I shouldn't have to switch my controller to the other team if my opponent is CPU-controlled. Additionally, there should be a way to lock and unlock players on the floor (both for your team and the CPU team) so that they will not be subbed out. For instance, if I want to prevent the star players on the court from getting subbed out in the closing minutes, I should be able to lock them. Finally, I should be able to edit the rotations for any team.
While commentary is improved, its mostly recycled from last year. Also, Fratello will sometimes go several minutes without saying a word, strangely.
The Team Management section returns, and it's again sorely lacking. You can sign/release players and re-order the roster. Roster ordering allow some customizability like choosing who the starters are and deciding who the backups will be. But its not a very clear way of specifying rotations, or deciding how many minutes to a lot to players in general. Also, there should be a way to set team strategies in this section, so that you don't have to change it each time in the in-game menu.
Create-a-player is more extensive this year, but I find the new create-a-face to be underwhelming. It was a good idea, to be able to customize every feature of the face, but there simply aren't enough options in each category to allow you to recreate faces. In fact, I'd say that you could recreate more faces and better faces last year than this year.

by **bigivan15** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 7:28 am

I think it is way too easy to block shots when playing zone. I get about 20 to 30 blocks a game with 8 minute quarters using the bobcats in my dynasty.(I should add that I signed Mourning as a Free Agent).

Also, there is one move you can always pull off and win every game. I now keep beating the CPU on All Star by 15-20 points a game with Charlotte and I got the game just 2 days ago. The CPU should adjust to it and maybe change the defense it is in.

Other than that, the only thing that i really hate is the CPU catching up on every break away i get. How can I run so fast and catch up on his fastbreaks, never figured that one out.

by **deluxxe** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 7:51 am

it's no secret that the AI cheats on the higher difficulty levels on fast breaks. Speed ratings don't mean anything when it comes to fast breaks aparently.
I dont have this problem on all star mode though. i can get enough fast breaks.

by **Sauru** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:20 am

though i have yet to play the game i have been reading alot from what people have said. if this is true then i can tell you it will greatly bug me. you cant sort players. is that true? i can no longer sort my team by ppg or apg or fg%. if thats true it really sucks. not a game breaker by any means but it was usefull imo.

by **durvasa** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:18 am

bigivan15 wrote:I think it is way too easy to block shots when playing zone. I get about 20 to 30 blocks a game with 8 minute quarters using the bobcats in my dynasty.(I should add that I signed Mourning as a Free Agent).

Also, there is one move you can always pull off and win every game. I now keep beating the CPU on All Star by 15-20 points a game with Charlotte and I got the game just 2 days ago. The CPU should adjust to it and maybe change the defense it is in.

Other than that, the only thing that i really hate is the CPU catching up on every break away i get. How can I run so fast and catch up on his fastbreaks, never figured that one out.

I find that catchup isn't nearly as bad as last year. You push the ball up quickly with passes and use the turbo button. I've yet to experience those annoying collisions which happened repeatedly in 2004.

by **SonnyDano** on Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:31 am

the fast breaks still sucks. my teamates never run with me and the cpu always gets all 5 guys back before i even get to the hoop. the free agent listing sucks. cant sort. the create-a-face is very bad. every guy looks the same no matter what. the team logo during clock stoppage is the most annoying thing since espn added tom tolbert to their commentary for the game. it is way to easy to block. i am averaging about 12 combined blocks in dynasty with nenad krstic and tyson chandler ALONE. when you dont block a shot, there is no way of affecting whether it goes in or not. meaning, if peja attempts a shot, nothing you do will affect it accept for a block.(keep in mind that sliders dont really change this problem). pushed out of bounds and it counts as a turnover. i tip passes out of bounds and it's a turnover. cpu changes the shot automatically for me. i hate going for a dunk in traffic, knowing i'm going to be fouled, and having the cpu changing my shot to a layup and getting blocked.

by **beau_boy04** on Thu Oct 07, 2004 4:22 pm

Oh my gosh it is overwelming the list of bad things

I hope the pc version is not that terrible. I read somewhere that Kareem is in the game... do you mean in the Legends Pool?

Thanks.

by **Bl@ck_Thorne** on Thu Oct 07, 2004 4:51 pm

yup he's on the legend pool. there so many bug in the game ii hope the PC is not that bad

by **deluxxe** on Thu Oct 07, 2004 5:36 pm

SonnyDano wrote:when you dont block a shot, there is no way of affecting whether it goes in or not. meaning, if peja attempts a shot, nothing you do will affect it accept for a block.(keep in mind that sliders dont really change this problem).

you know... i was suspicious of this too. I did a little experiment. I found that my team played better defence when i didn't control them.
ie. if i'm guarding Peja, and i jump right when he jumps, hand in his face, he makes the shot. If i let my cpu teammate play peja, he plays him just as tight as me but surprisingly Peja's shot doesn't go in. weird eh?
Also, putting a hand in someone's face in the 1st quarter will cause them to miss. In the 4th quarter however, it doesn't make a difference.
i have yet to find a slider labelled "cpu cheapness" but i'm still looking

now, all of this could be my imagination but it's funny how i win way more games when i only control the PG on defence.

by **Bonster_11** on Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:56 pm

i dunno if anyone else has noticed this or i might just be a tripper.... but i swear that a lot of the time when a player gets subbed in the commentators go "seeing his first action tonight" even if the guy has played like 15 minutes already... i dunno why this bugs me but it just does.. has any1 else relised this?

by **Jay-Peso** on Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:18 pm

Bonster_11 wrote:i dunno if anyone else has noticed this or i might just be a tripper.... but i swear that a lot of the time when a player gets subbed in the commentators go "seeing his first action tonight" even if the guy has played like 15 minutes already... i dunno why this bugs me but it just does.. has any1 else relised this?

Nope, infact I don't think they say that or I just don't pay attention.

by **50first** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:22 am

Bonster_11 wrote:i dunno if anyone else has noticed this or i might just be a tripper.... but i swear that a lot of the time when a player gets subbed in the commentators go "seeing his first action tonight" even if the guy has played like 15 minutes already... i dunno why this bugs me but it just does.. has any1 else relised this?

yes. but it doesn't bother much.

by **Matches** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:10 am

Bonster_11 wrote:i dunno if anyone else has noticed this or i might just be a tripper.... but i swear that a lot of the time when a player gets subbed in the commentators go "seeing his first action tonight" even if the guy has played like 15 minutes already... i dunno why this bugs me but it just does.. has any1 else relised this?

Yes I noted that and it bugs the crap out of me.

Another audio bug is that I think there's someone on the Heat that he refers to as "Cardinal" even though Cardinal isn't on that team.

But probably my biggest audio pet peeve, and this is on the PS2.. No whistles! No buzzer! I was shocked when I suddenly realized that fouls, you have to basically wait until the graphic comes up or hear Albert say something about it because there is NO referee whistle to be heard. NOR is there a buzzer that sounds at the end of the quarters, from what I can hear. That's mind boggling and hard to forgive. I know the controller shakes also when there are less than 5 seconds on the shot....maybe in the quarter as well but an audio clue would help..

Beyond audio, my top pet peeves:

The flash of the logo.. It's fast and all it does is interrupt replays that you might want to see or more importantly stat overlays..

Speaking of both those things.. The replays are too "set".. Basicalyl if it decides to replay, it goes back 2 seconds and replays the shot.. Sometimes the best part of a play is not the actual basket but the move or pass that led to it.. So you're about to see a replay of a beautiful pass but all you see is the layup at the end. That's bothersome. And I'd like more stat overlays, or clues from Albert: "he now has 14 points" or whatever. These are things that are often updated during a real broadcast and are nice to know when playing. EA seems to skimp on stats a lot.

Executing fast breaks is too tough. I read that on X-box the alley-oop button also functions as a lob pass button where guys sometimes catch in stride but on PS2 it's just an alleyoop and the guy will just heave a toss, unless I'm missing something. Defenses do seem to get back and your own guys don't seem to fill the lanes like they should on odd-man breaks. A 3-on-1, you guys will break down but once you get to about the three point line they act as if you're setting up the offense instead of breaking to the hoop, resulting in the defense getting back. And particularly bothersome is that USER defense seems VERY lax in getting back on fast breaks, often letting the ball carrier just waltz in unmolested for a layup.

Along those lines, I wouldn't mind a "unintentional intentional foul" button. Basically like a hack button.. If you are chasing a guy driving the lane finishing a break, you can try to block it but. ..all he does is the usual jump animation which accomplishes nothing. Perhaps a double-tap of the block button would result in a more aggressive block, fouling the guy on purpose.. This would also work well in Hack-a-Shaq situations.

These are little things.. Most every other aspect of the game, I really love.. They did a great job.. no game is perfect but this does come close, as far as I can tell after a short period.

by **deluxxe** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:30 am

yep. User defence is swiss cheese compared to the AI defense. But can't this be adjusted with sliders?
I turned down the AI defence just enough so that i can get by defenders with speedy guards using the freestyle control once in a while. Not every possession though.

Another thing that bothers me... this could be just my imagination but in the 4th quarter the cpu seems to have uncanny accuracy while my team misses open js and layups repeatidly.

by **Jay-Peso** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:14 am

User defense is to easy to kill but then yet again, it's harder for you too when you are on defense. When I was online in a game someone was letting the computer gaurd on the ball and he would always be gaurding off ball which ended up winning the game for him.

I am going to try that myself next time because when a user is gaurding you, he would just take it in on me and kick it out because the computer automatically helps me and that's leave his guy wide open. It was very irritating for me because the computer kept doubling down when the guy got by me, then leaving the 3 ungaurded.

by **EGarrett** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:15 am

I've been using Sim Intervention to just play the 4th Quarter of close games on All-Star.

It's made me realize how messed up the gameplay is. It seems like my guys shoot better when the CPU is guarding them then they do when they're wide open.

It's very annoying to make a great pass to a wide open guy for a jump shot and have him miss the jumper. But it seems like it happens all the time.

Also, the CPU switches out SO fast that it sometimes feels impossible to get an open jump shot off. This is totally unfair when they try to trap you in the halfcourt, which leaves two of your shooters wide open. You get the ball to them, and the moment you try to shoot the computer SPEEDS over and is right in your face.

Of course, it seems like you'd miss the jump shot anyway.

Very frustrating. All I want is to miss shots when I'm covered and be able to get my shot off and make it when I'm open. That's the way it worked in Live 2001 and Live 2001 had amazing gameplay. So it can't really be that difficult, can it?

Anyway, I took care of the awful user defense with sliders, the default sliders make the game nearly impossible for me. I had to turn my on-ball defensive assist and on-ball physical defense way up to try and stop the computer from slipping by all the time.

by **Jay-Peso** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:18 am

Sim intervention is very cool (Y)

It makes it easier on me, say I wanna win but don't wanna play the whole game, well, I play the second half.

by **Honorable Diggler** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:02 am

I think Durvasa just summed up my feelings exactly on this game. Though this game is an improvment from last year, I personally don't think it's much of one. Other than a couple of new animations, a slightly smarter AI, and uh.....what was it? Oh yeah, SLAM DUNK CONTEST, I don't see a major difference. They spent too much time with the dunk contest and didn't focus enough on the gameplay which is the most important thing, right? Everyone has their own opinion and certainly don't believe that everyone will agree with me, or anyone for that matter. I'm just not a fan of this style of play that they have gone with for the past three seasons. It seems like every year I'm fooled into thinking, "It's gonna be real good this year, I know it". I'm tired of the slick-sliding all over the court, this weak cross-over system(and it is WEAK, I don't care what anybody says), and I still think the post game needs work. Out of respect for eveyone here I won't say what I have been playing over the past week. But, I bought live for the whole game and not just the All Star Weekend and I feel in a way that EA owes me $20. Straight Up!

by **AznBBoyX** on Fri Oct 08, 2004 9:28 am

"Also, the CPU switches out SO fast that it sometimes feels impossible to get an open jump shot off. This is totally unfair when they try to trap you in the halfcourt, which leaves two of your shooters wide open. You get the ball to them, and the moment you try to shoot the computer SPEEDS over and is right in your face. "

I thought EA said they fixed the cpu speed cheat problem. :(

What I LOVE most, what I HATE most

What I LOVE most, what I HATE most

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