Okay, so what do we know about Live 2004 ?

[JP_Frost]

Everybody's talking about what they would like to see and what they would hope to see, but let's just focus on what we ARE GOING to see. This way we can compare our wishlists to the actual improvements of the game. Sure it's hard to tell, cuz they're only halfway through on the process of creating a new game, but there have been many previews which listed a couple of notable differences.

So it might be fun to see what Live 2004 has got in store for us, and maybe we'll be even more surprised when the game officially drops.

Okay, lemme know.

[Andrew]

The most notable changes mentioned in the previews are:

• Gameplay sliders
• Franchise Mode is now Dynasty Mode, and will be much deeper
• Gameplay is supposed to be more realistic as a whole - a more realistic pace, no more swats back to the opposite baseline, etc
• Classic teams added
• Marv Albert & Mike Fratello doing commentary
• Revamped Freestyle, including player specific moves
• More realistic cyberfaces

There's probably more, and those points are fairly vague. We'll probably learn more specifis as we get nearer to the release.

I'm assuming we'll see these features return:

• Classic jerseys
• One-on-One Mode
• Legends Pool and Decade All-Star teams
• Practice

[JP_Frost]

wasn't there a Championship team feature as well ? That'd be really nice, though, playing with the '93 Bulls

btw...live 2004 is looking to be one of the greatest lives since '99

[Colin]

btw...live 2004 is looking to be one of the greatest lives since '99

Any game that includes Antoine's shimmy is one of the greatest.

[JP_Frost]

haha, true

The player celebrations were great though in Live '99. Could be a nice idea for 2004, cuz in 2003 the celebrations were kinda forced and awkward.

[Andrew]

wasn't there a Championship team feature as well ? That'd be really nice, though, playing with the '93 Bulls

That's what I meant by "classic teams".

[nmje2k1]

wasn't there something about mini games like the mini camps in madden

[Andrew]

Could be. It's not listed on the official site, but it might have been in one of the previews.

[Shadow]

Could be. It's not listed on the official site, but it might have been in one of the previews.

It was mentioned in the IGN preview.

[Andrew]

So it was. Add it to the list of features in the revamped Dynasty Mode.

[MAKAVELI THE DON]

it's all about the gameplay, that's is what nba live has been missing since it's days back in 99...

if 99 had the new graphics like today, plus all the new features like freestyle, and keeping the same style of play that 99 was, that would be the best ball game ever made...

i read on gamespot.com that ea is going to beef up A.i.'s defense and make it hard for users to score, & that's wack!

they should make both ends (off. & def) equal for both a.i. and users, and fix all the other problems with the gameplay from 2003 as well!

[JP_Frost]

I like that they boost up the AI defense, which makes it a lot harder to score and tones down the field goal percentage. I just hope that the blocks and steals won't be out of proportion, but we got sliders to solve that problem ( thank you EA ! ). If you look at nba games, you will notice that it's incredibly tough to score, esspecially for just the average player. The more talented a player is, the easier it becomes to score. Just look at Kobe and T-Mac, those guys can straight up play, but if you let danny ferry take on a double team, he won't score, so it should be hard for the player to score in a video game. Besides, you could start at a rookie difficulty level and work your way up to superstar; just imagine the satisfaction you'll get when your franchise makes the play-offs on superstar and a boost of AI defense also benefits the user. Just remember the times your teammates should've stepped up for the charge or should've given you some helpdefense, perhaps with the defensive improvements this will be history and players actually play d effected by their ratings.

I have high hopes for live 2004......and sore fingers from typing this

[Goodz]

Isn't live '04 going to have the clutch move?? and if so, i hope its not like nba 2k3's because the clutch move in 2k3 looked so crappy and unrealistic.

[Andrew]

On the subject of AI - teammate AI is something that needs to be improved. Needless to say, the human player still needs to do most of the work, but it would be nice if your CPU teammates were a little more competent - especially on defense. Any improvements to the AI that appear in Live 2004 would be most welcome.

[MAKAVELI THE DON]

true true, i totally agree! beef up teammate A.I.'s defense...

[volatile]

On the subject of AI - teammate AI is something that needs to be improved. Needless to say, the human player still needs to do most of the work, but it would be nice if your CPU teammates were a little more competent - especially on defense. Any improvements to the AI that appear in Live 2004 would be most welcome.

I'm not positive but I think the team AI is programmed to be "dumb" on purpose. If you play on Superstar, you'll notice that your teammates rarely, if ever jump up for blocks or challenge shots. If you bump it down to All Star, suddenly they are all over every shot. If you play on Superstar, you'll notice that when you miss a shot and the computer gets the rebound, he'll immediately outlet the ball to some guy running a fast break. Now instead of your 2 guys getting in front of him, they'll just let him run right on by for an open layup or dunk. I notice that this doesn't happen on the lower difficulty levels.

[MAKAVELI THE DON]

true, so true! i totally agree with you homie!

[Andrew]

I'm not positive but I think the team AI is programmed to be "dumb" on purpose.

It's not your imagination, that's how it is. Less intelligent CPU teammates are all part of the challenge on the higher difficulty levels - as is the CPU opponent "cheating". I feel that this shouldn't be the case - that the challenge should lie in the skills of the players you are facing, your ability to counter their strategy, and the intelligence and intensity of the opponent - not your teammates suddenly forgetting how to play, while the other team suddenly can't miss a shot.

[Swoosh]

But the real question is "will ea have changed that this year?" Cuz if they dont we just will have more misses and the rain of threes on the other side remains and well, then the game(except dynasty mode i hope)hasnt changed or improved a lot

[Andrew]

Guess we won't know for sure until we get the game.

[carlos]

Are there national teams on Live 2004?
A spanish magazine published some weeks ago said that you would be able to play exhibition games with the spanish national team, do you know something about this?

[Andrew]

I doubt they'd put national teams in NBA Live, since it's a game based on a single nation's league. I don't know any more than anyone else, but I really doubt that national teams are in NBA Live 2004.

[paseo85]

also hope they add back intentional foul when the game is close in the 4th quarter.

[Instu]

WE COULD DREAM AND WISH A LOT. BUT EVERY YEAR WE HEAR STUFF AND READ PREVIEWS BUT NOT EVERYTHING YOU READ IN THE REVIEWS IS GOING TO BE AT THE END WHEN THEY FINISH THE GAME. LETS JUST HOPE THEY GIVE US A GREAT GAME AGAIN[/quote]

[volatile]

I'm not positive but I think the team AI is programmed to be "dumb" on purpose.

It's not your imagination, that's how it is. Less intelligent CPU teammates are all part of the challenge on the higher difficulty levels - as is the CPU opponent "cheating". I feel that this shouldn't be the case - that the challenge should lie in the skills of the players you are facing, your ability to counter their strategy, and the intelligence and intensity of the opponent - not your teammates suddenly forgetting how to play, while the other team suddenly can't miss a shot.

While myself and many other people agree with you, our perception of better AI and difficulty on Superstar level is different then EA's. While we would like to see a smarter opponent who makes better decisions in regards to passing, scoring, and defense, EA tends to think "higher difficulty = cheating computer" and just makes your teammates dumb as hell while the computer can knock down impossible 3 after 3. If EA could only make the computer pump fake more and also pass out of double and triple teams, that alone would increase the playing experience tenfold.