Lang has tested live 2004!

[diafenes]

just wanted to let you guys know that Lang from Slamonline.com has tested a beta version of live2004 at EA's media day

heres a link to what he says about it at the The Links: http://www.slamonline.com/links/index.html

sounds like the ten man freestyle is going to be great

[Full Surface]

Not all of the games were finished, but they looked finished enough to me. One thing I noticed about NBA Live that sets it apart, in my opinion, from a lot of the other basketball video games, is how well the players away from the ball respond. I was playing with the Cavs, and I had LeBron in the corner, holding the ball, and I threw it back up top to Dajuan. From there I was going to swing it to Ricky Davis in the opposite corner, just as he stepped behind a pick from Carlos Boozer. As I threw it in, Drew Gooden, who was guarding Boozer, noticed the pass, jumped in front of the screen, and swiped the pass. Just as it would happen in an NBA game. No Magic players bounced the ball off of Boozer's head.

[emadhn15]

nba live 2004 is starting to get more and more promising to me

[33]

Seems to be cool !

I want more videos.....after the disapointment with nba live 2003 I'm getting very suspitious....

[sixerfan03]

sounds like the ten man freestyle is going to be great

Why didn't anyone think of it before?

[Filip]

I just hope we don't need to do more tweaking in this update.
I want a simulation game

[Andrew]

I just hope we don't need to do more tweaking in this update.
I want a simulation game

We won't have to tweak ratings, since they'll be sliders. We can make adjustments to the gameplay without touching a single rating.

I was playing with the Cavs, and I had LeBron in the corner, holding the ball, and I threw it back up top to Dajuan. From there I was going to swing it to Ricky Davis in the opposite corner, just as he stepped behind a pick from Carlos Boozer. As I threw it in, Drew Gooden, who was guarding Boozer, noticed the pass, jumped in front of the screen, and swiped the pass. Just as it would happen in an NBA game. No Magic players bounced the ball off of Boozer's head.

Sounds pretty good, but I hope there won't be too many interceptions. It was virtually impossible to work the ball around the perimeter in NBA Live 2003, especially on Superstar, because of all the interceptions.

[Swoosh]

Now let's hope the sliders actually have a decent effect

[Andrew]

I think the sliders will have the desired effect. Some people might have to experiment to find the balance that suits them, but it would certainly be more effective than tweaking ratings - easier, too.

[Metsis]

If the NHL games are anykind of a sign on what's to come with these sliders... Well, they will work in a big way.

In NHL you can move the game speed from extremely slow to almost fast forward type of speed. The faster the game, the harder it is to defend, and the faster you must react to certain situations like passing etc.

The sliders will be a very good addition in Live as they were in NHL. It brought the game to a whole new level and sliders alone will make the next NBA a great game.

[Power And Proud]

[quote= Slam harder]Who the fuck is Nick Collison, and what the heck does he do in the Dream Team!?[/quote]

Nick Collison was drafted by Seattle this NBA draft. The USA team must have at least one college graduate, and it's usually the most senior player. Nick Collison happens to be that guy.

[Andrew]

I don't think Team USA must have a collegiate player/rookie, but have made the selection in the interest of having a well-rounded team, rather than 12 superstars.

[diafenes]

I started my Falcons franchise last night on Madden 2004. I immediately dropped ticket prices and concession prices (no $4 Cokes in my stadium), but raised the prices of jerseys (which the franchise was selling for $35 before I took over). I then opened the season 1-3, which doesn't bode well. Before long I'll be having to hand out tickets on the street.

I just hope that live2004 isn't like this. selling jerseys and so on...

[Andrew]

Same. I'm interested in managing basketball operations, not merchandising sales and so forth. It's just too much to keep track of - ticket and merchandise sales, player salaries and roster management, as well as strategy for the next game - non-basketball tasks should be minimal or non-existent.

[diafenes]

I don't mind the player salaries/transactions and roster management part of it, actually I enjoy it (when it's done right, with draft picks, etc). Its the other part, merchandising/tickets, which I think should not be part of dynasty mode. I agree that this side of it shouldn't exist, or at least be included as an option.

[Andrew]

Oh, I'm all for roster management, player salaries, trades, rookie drafts and everything else that is basketball related. I'm just saying it's a bit much to have the merchandising/tickets side of management on top of the basketball related tasks - roster management and playing the games.

[diafenes]

definitely. and probably not a necessary direction that the game should be taken to.

[Metsis]

Ticket prices and jersey sales etc. Those can be fun to optimize, but it should be a thing that can be automized so that you won't have to do it if you don't want to do it and just leave it to the AI. But I would see if I can make a little extra cash via those systems, but these sort of things usually end up in a bankrupcy which is not certainly something that should be in a game that primarily simulates a sport.

There should be some options at the start of the dynasty at what exactly you wish to manage... Then it would be cool if you had options for how much you pay to the man who cleans the rest rooms at your stadium etc.

If you can make a team go south in the standings by financially ruining it, then it should be optional. There should be some variation in the cash flow anyway, but to having unlimited cash or no cash is a situation which I wouldn't like to see in EA Sports games.

Finally if we get some finances into the game, well there could be a chance that you end up like Golden State this summer, unable to resign a player because your budget is capped out. This can make for some intresting off-seasons if the AI ends up doing the same thing.

We'll just have to wait and see...

[diafenes]

well there could be a chance that you end up like Golden State this summer, unable to resign a player because your budget is capped out. This can make for some intresting off-seasons if the AI ends up doing the same thing.

this should only be affected by salary cap not by other teams finances. I like it when a player decides not to resign with a team, since this adds to the challenge (not in 2003 where you can resign star players for the minimum after the season starts -this should be abolished)
similarly salary caps can adds to the challenge in terms of roster manangement, especially if with hard cap situations where going over it will affect future issues (going over means you would have to pay the salary luxury tax).

then there is the situation that the Jazz are currently in, they're actually under the mininum salary limit, though I'm not sure how this would be implemented in the game, unless it forces you to sign free agents to a certain salary minimum, instead of roster number minimum..

[Andrew]

I like the idea of customising your involvement with the team to include as many or as few non-basketball tasks you wish to handle. I also like the idea of automising the non-basketball side of things, as long as the CPU didn't force you into bankrupcy. I don't think sports sims should have that kind of "game over" element.

[Filip]

We won't have to tweak ratings, since they'll be sliders. We can make adjustments to the gameplay without touching a single rating.

What is "sliders", explain please. I have not heard anything about that.

[Swoosh]

it's a bar, whereby you can adjust the game anyway you want to, lets say a bar for game speed, goes from slow to fast and u can slide in between searching for the best speed that suits you, hope i made it clear

[chipper]

I don't mind the player salaries/transactions and roster management part of it, actually I enjoy it (when it's done right, with draft picks, etc). Its the other part, merchandising/tickets, which I think should not be part of dynasty mode. I agree that this side of it shouldn't exist, or at least be included as an option.

Also, the more the extra features like that are included in the game, the more we will say to EA "You should've spent more time to build proper game play!!"

[Andrew]

What is "sliders", explain please. I have not heard anything about that.

Similar to the foul frequency sliders, only they control aspects of gameplay such as game speed, field goal percentage and blocks and steals. The gameplay can in effect be customised by everyone to suit their preferences.

[Metsis]

What is "sliders", explain please. I have not heard anything about that.

They allow you to mold the game to your liking... If you think the game is too slow, then just increase the speed slider. If you think that there aren't enough long rebounds for the guards to grab, well you can probably change that too with the ball properties. If you think that there are too many blocks, well just adjust. If you think the AI is playing too passively in the defensive end, well you can probably control that too.

NHL has sliders for player movement, AI stuff (aggressiveness), overall stuff (shooting accuracy and hitting power etc.) and puck stuff (the elasticity of the puck and how well it bounces etc.)... I expect these basic groups to be pretty much the same in NBA too so that there are some for player control, AI control, Ball control and Game control.

I believe they will do it similar to their other sports games... And I can't wait to get my hands on the game.