NBA Elite 11: Become Legendary Preview IGN

http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/111/1111534p1.html

http://au.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/6 ... 02?show=hi

Build your meek rookie into an NBA icon in EA Sports' new career mode.
US, August 10, 2010
by Nate Ahearn

NBA Elite 11 seems to be turning into one giant risk for EA Sports. Of course, when your basketball series is struggling to gain mass market appeal the way NBA Live was, you pretty much have to throw the kitchen sink at the problem. And so EA is doing exactly that with an entirely new name, a new control scheme that uses the right stick for functions once commanded by buttons, and a fresh career mode that's putting a different spin on the feature that so many games have tried.

I've already talked about the standard gameplay at length, both at E3 and after. Now it's time to dive into the new Become Legendary Mode, which is NBA Elite 11's take on the classic career. I recently spent some time up at EA's studio in Vancouver and got a first-hand demo of the new mode.

As you'd expect, you begin by creating your player. Height and weight play a role in your original rating and how you'll progress over time with some attributes being more affected than others. Once you're done outfitting your player with new shoes (the list of available shoes will grow as you earn popularity and sponsorship deals), arm bands and hairstyles, it's time to play your first game and enter the draft. No matter how you perform in your intro contest, you'll get drafted in the first round. Your first time on the court is more of a tutorial than anything.

NBA Become Legendary Tutorial Video

As you progress, you need to keep four pillars of Become Legendary in mind with every action that you make. First and foremost is your grade for each game. It's out of ten and it's based on your offensive, defensive and team play production in each contest. Elite's AI gives you constant feedback for your actions so you have an idea where you stand.

The biggest, and in my eyes, the most exciting deviation from standard career mode fare is DNA Stats Levels. These are earned by developing your tendencies in-game. If you dish out ten assists, your passing DNA Stat Level will rise. This aims to open up gameplay significantly so that you can make your center into an assist-man if you sculpt him properly instead of having to complete pre-determined goals.

The final two pillars that you need to worry through the 23 levels of Become Legendary are the number of games you've played and the amount of award points that you accrue through your career. You gain award points by winning championships, earning accolades like first-team All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, scoring or rebounding title and pretty much any other achievement you can think of. Of course, there are also single-game accomplishments such as getting a comeback win, or earning a triple-double. Finally, there are Jordan Brand milestones that have you follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan himself and equal some of his greatest performances for even more experience points.

It's a real bummer that EA Sports integrated Jordan (his brand, not the man himself) so heavily into Become Legendary. You enter into the Jordan Draft Showcase to earn your draft position, there are 23 levels to attain throughout your career (Jordan's number was 23) and there are the aforementioned Jordan Milestones. It seems like NBA Elite 11 is dangling the carrot of playing as (or, at the very least, against) Michael Jordan in front of your face throughout Become Legendary, yet you have to buy the competing product (NBA 2K11) to actually play as him for yourself.

In an effort to stop players from quitting out and restarting games when their created player doesn't perform all that well, EA Sports has developed something called setbacks and bounce backs. Setbacks happen whenever you turn in a crappy performance in any of the three (offense, defense, team play) main categories. When that happens, your next game will feature a bounce back objective which you'll get a nice XP bonus for completing.

EA Sports has built Become Legendary to escalate in difficulty as your player levels up, but I'm a bit worried that gamers will be discouraged and not finish it. See, each game has matchup objectives where you need to out-play someone on the opposing team. If you're a level 10 player and you get beat by a player that's worse than you, you take an XP hit. If you're a level 16 player, you need to out-play the other team's best player and win the game in order to see an XP bonus.

When you start Become Legendary, all you're expected to do is win the game. I'm all for ramping up the challenge, I just hope that I won't be an underpowered level 16 player who has to beat Lebron or Kobe night in and night out. I guess now it's up to EA Sports to properly balance the mode so my fear is never realized.

Become Legendary has some very cool ideas behind it, namely the DNA Stat Levels which should provide for a very organic system of progression. Obviously, Become Legendary's success is hinged largely on the mode's ability to provide fun gameplay, which, in my time with the controller in my hand, is still up in the air. Still, there's no denying that the mode has promise. Now if only they could end it with some sort of Michael Jordan boss battle, then I'd be truly happy.

For more on NBA Elite 11 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, stay tuned to IGN as its October 5 release date approaches.

Rip's got a nice voice

No matter how you perform in your intro contest, you'll get drafted in the first round.

No D-League here. Guess this is more of a casual affair than My Player.

DNA Stats Levels. These are earned by developing your tendencies in-game. If you dish out ten assists, your passing DNA Stat Level will rise. This aims to open up gameplay significantly so that you can make your center into an assist-man if you sculpt him properly instead of having to complete pre-determined goals.

I do like that. Making your My Player in 2k10 anything but what you initially chose was a pain.

You gain award points by winning championships, earning accolades like first-team All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, scoring or rebounding title and pretty much any other achievement you can think of. Of course, there are also single-game accomplishments such as getting a comeback win, or earning a triple-double. Finally, there are Jordan Brand milestones that have you follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan himself and equal some of his greatest performances for even more experience points.

Again, it sounds like we are creating LBJ 2.0 and not some scrub coming out of nowhere. Not a bad idea, I'm just not the make myself 99 OVR and dominate each game kind of person.

I wonder if they can actually say Michael Jordan. Hell, 2k10 couldn't when looking at past award winners or champions.

Still, there's no denying that the mode has promise. Now if only they could end it with some sort of Michael Jordan boss battle, then I'd be truly happy.

Go play NBA Jam if you want that.......or 2k11.

Sounds pretty good though, as the preview noted it's a shame Michael Jordan himself can't appear due to his deal with 2K Sports. This is kind of their answer to My Player and the Jordan Challenge rolled into one and while I can see a lot of people scoffing at that, I think it's a good move considering they can't include Jordan but they do have the rights to the Jordan brand.

It does sound quite challenging and it's probably a fair point that some people won't complete it, but at the same time if it were too easy then the mode wouldn't have much value either. The setback and bounce back system does sound like it might be a good counter to that as well as trying to discourage people from quitting games that they're losing, offering the potential for a nice reward for weathering a loss or a bad performance. Nice idea there.

Rip's got a nice voice

Mark Jackson's is better.

No D-League here. Guess this is more of a casual affair than My Player.

Again, it sounds like we are creating LBJ 2.0 and not some scrub coming out of nowhere. Not a bad idea, I'm just not the make myself 99 OVR and dominate each game kind of person.

Agreed and like I said before I think that will turn some people off because the option of being a role player isn't there, but with all the leveling up you have to do I'm assuming that you won't be able to max yourself out and dominate straight away.

There's something I don't understand about this mode: do you play games and seasons, like My Player mode in 2K11, or do you just get game challenges that you have to complete?

Its a career mode so its achievements based on things you do over a career.

It would need to be multiple games if it's a matter of gaining experience points to level up.

Sounds pretty good, I just hope it's not too easy for my liking. I also hope it isn't like playing on Player Lock in Live 10, my teammates missing every shot, and forcing me to do everything.

Lol very dissapointing they get ideas from 2k like playing with jordan lol because they know that theyre product would be down this year.. not impressive move by EA.. if thats the case then they just cheated what 2k has

Ugh so dependent when Mike Wang was gone in their company
They just depend what features will 2k11 offers
If the jordan challenge was not announced then they have no IDEA what feature they will create so dissapointing

Exactly how quickly do you think a videogame can be made?

yea, I can't agree with you. This isnt something they could have whipped up in the past 2 weeks since the Jordan Challenge announcement....they had a multi year plan for Live 10 and on to revitalize the "culture" surrounding video game hoops and this plays into that.

Are there still people using the dennis09 account? Because there are some very bipolar reactions to NBA Elite 11 news being posted by it. If that's the case, then I'll repeat the advice from this thread:

If that's the case, you might want to change your password and if you've got auto log-in enabled, disable it. If he wants to post from a different account then that's fine, but the same warning would still apply to him (as well as anyone else discussing NBA Elite 11 and NBA 2K11).

Have your brother register his own account. If you have to post from the same computer, fine, but turn off the auto login and don't save your password through your browser.

They didn't just throw Become Legendary(Be A Pro) together recently. It was in the game at the community day.

Andrew can you remove the dennis09 acc coz the true owner is now off from this forum and he is now focusing on his works, many people are now using his acc even his friend and his bro pls

And By the way he says that thank you for all the GMs,members especially the active admins for being responsible to there forum Especially big thanks to Andrew who is being active all the time whenever there is a problem and some unkind reactions and movement so thank you he says and god bless you all here at this forum He hopes that this forum will continue the journey to success thanks a LOT!!!!! BYE and for being active in the community in EA and also in 2k THANKS A LOT Andrew i will miss yahhh



Respectfully Yours
Dennis09, and Shamishocker09

Sure, no problem.

YES!!! Now you see, this is what people have been waiting on. This is the excitement news that I talked about in another posts. Even though 2k had this mode first, it doesn't matter. NBA Elite is now officially the truth!!! I hope they don't screw this mode up because alot of people have been waiting for this for a long, long time.

Its going to come down to how it plays and glitches. I know people who played the 2k mode and was getting like....80pts 30 assists per game with their point guard in My Player mode, so again I hope they don't screw it up cause that would not be fun. Anyway, now I'm excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must admit though seeing the real time phyics is not at all what I hoped for, but still welcomed. When Artest dunk in one of the videos, Rasheed just kinda glided to the floor. I even noticed it on the Legendary video. The dude did a spin move and just took off and dunk on somebody as if they weren't even there. Anyway,take care Live/Elite fans......and remember...

Don't play the game....play basketball!!

NBA Elite is now officially the truth!!!

Why?

NBA Elite is now officially the truth!!!

Why?

seconded