NBA Live 13 Presentation & Audio

[22cedric]

What do y'all want to see in NBA Live 13 from a presentation & audio aspect ?

[22cedric]

I want to see the actual NBA players warming up in their proper team attire before a actual NBA game starts. I also would like to see the actual ESPN commentators faces in the game with Lisa Salters reporting from the sidelines. Team mascots, cheerleaders,& arena music need to be in the game also.

[Mavs4Life]

A short little pre-game, with keys to the game etc., JVG and Mike Breen, and the playoffs have gotta have player intros, mainly the Finals. But don't you already know this stuff?

[Andrew]

Full ESPN integration that mimics a real NBA on ESPN broadcast, organic sounding commentary between Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, with an "awareness" of the game flow and recent events in Dynasty Mode (ie an assortment of lines talking about the game and recent events that can be slotted in as appropriate, with the respective team and player names), halftime show (but make it skippable or allow it to be turned on or off for those short on time)...that's the stuff I want to see.

I'd also like to see the option to toggle between metric and imperial measurements in the front end menus and in-game overlays. For those of us in PAL regions, it's very distracting to see heights and weights displayed in metric and takes away from the realism and atmosphere of the presentation. Sure, they're the measurements I'm used to using in daily life, but in terms of the NBA I always think in feet, inches and pounds, and that's how player measurements are listed on broadcasts, websites and the like. So rather than having that being region based, I'd like to have a toggle option as NBA 2K does.

[car88935]

I'm really hoping for custom soundtrack to be an option added as well.

[cavs4872]

I read over on IGN that in Madden 13 they're re-hauling the presentation and they're going to show the commentators in the box as well as new stat overlays, more fluid commentary, and other stuff like that so hopefully most of that gets into Live 13.

[[Q]]

^ I hope they bring back more stat overlays. I remember in Live 95 & 98, etc those were regular things. i mean they have those in live 10, but they didn't tell us much and seemed like an afterthought.

if you're playing the foul game in the last minute, a "game reset" overlay would help. Full/20/Fouls to give

[Ermolli]

^ I hope they bring back more stat overlays. I remember in Live 95 & 98, etc those were regular things. i mean they have those in live 10, but they didn't tell us much and seemed like an afterthought.

if you're playing the foul game in the last minute, a "game reset" overlay would help. Full/20/Fouls to give

That would be great while playing a close game. I wish they fully implement stat overlays because it brings so much into the game, that and if the audio is really good the immersion to the game would be huge.

[Andrew]

^ I hope they bring back more stat overlays. I remember in Live 95 & 98, etc those were regular things. i mean they have those in live 10, but they didn't tell us much and seemed like an afterthought.

if you're playing the foul game in the last minute, a "game reset" overlay would help. Full/20/Fouls to give

Agreed. I'd also like to see the number of timeouts remaining on the pause menu, for handy reference. I'd also like to see them go back to having a pause menu between quarters, or at least more of an opportunity to make substitutions and change strategy before the next quarter begins.

[22cedric]

It's confirmed that Mike Breen & Jeff Van Gundy will be doing commentary for NBA Live 13.

[[Q]]

I'd also like to see them go back to having a pause menu between quarters, or at least more of an opportunity to make substitutions and change strategy before the next quarter begins.

i thought 2k7 did a great job in giving JUST the right amount of time between quarters to sub on the fly

[Andrew]

I only briefly rented NBA 2K7 so I'll have to take your word on that. The last few NBA Lives definitely didn't have enough time (nor a pause screen between quarters); it might not be important to everyone but I feel it's handy to have one or the other for subs and strategy.

[AreaOfEffect]

I liked what andrew said about Association mode. Commentary should discuss what's really happening around the association. Maybe even evaluating a specifics player's performance(you know, like what shaq kenny barkley do). In 2k they will discuss your previous game saying how bad the offence was, then rematch the game, they will now say how fantastic your offence was

[Andrew]

Exactly. You have to be careful not to be too generic and repetitive, but it does add to the atmosphere so hopefully they can incorporate it into NBA Live 13 in some way. NBA Live 10 did actually feature some dynamic commentary in Dynamic Season.

[Patr1ck]

I completely agree. Association commentary should have some progression throughout the season and playoffs that help tell a story. Team and player matchups, season and playoff series, performance streaks and comparisons, injuries and trades, and key signings(or even losing a player to another team signing), before and after comparisons(trades, injuries, and all star break, etc) should all come into play to help with the immersion.

The problem with this is that it requires a lot of game triggers and a full attention of developers resources. Generic comments like "He's done well these past few games." with a stat overlay won't cut it. I'm thinking they could come up with a branching style of commentary where different phrases are cut into a sentence depending on the context. They do this in a small way with player/team names and numbers, but I would like to see them go a bit deeper.

Here is an example from todays Mavs/Thunder game down the stretch in the 4th quarter, telling a small story and building on the tensity of the game down the stretch. Kidd is slowly dribbling just past half court while Dallas is getting into their offense and the "defense" chant is being heard by Oklahoma City's fans.

"Number is 5. We approach 2 minutes. Kidd has made some great plays on both ends of this 4th quarter. Terry kept them in in the first half, (kidd makes a pass to nowitzki here)Nowitzki scored the last 9 for dallas...guarded by kendrick perkins, shoots over him..." and then Hubie Brown analyzes the play.

So we have short phrases with names, numbers, time on the clock, and reference to the quarter and earlier in the game. These short phrases allow the commentator to interrupt or blend the story telling with on-court play-by-play. These short phrases would be great for mixing in a small amount of commentary during the on-court action, while they could also go with longer, more specific commentary during play stoppages, timeouts and freethrows.

Effectively we would want both progressive commentary for the current game's storyline, with branches and references to anything relative to the association's storyline. To top it all off, they need some intense end of game commentary during close finishes.

Might as well add the on-court post game interviews, too.

[Andrew]

We've had snippets of that before but it's definitely something we need to see more of. Repetition is inevitable, at some point you're going to have heard pretty much everything that's been recorded, anecdotes and certain phrasing will be repeated, but that's just how it goes. Having that progressive commentary will break things up a bit and distract from some of the same stories being told at some point most games.

I think you could start small here and revamp it when other elements of the core experience are improved. In the long run I agree that generic comments like "He's done well these past few games" along with a stat overlay aren't quite good enough, but stuff like that would be a start. Ideally they could make it a little better than that right off the bat, but a few steps in the right direction would be welcome, while giving appropriate attention to other areas.

After all, we can always mute the commentary and find a way to get by without it if it's that much of an issue. Getting around problems with gameplay and game modes is a little tougher. I guess at the end of the day I'd like to see encouraging improvement in that area, without setting the bar too high this year.

[shorty_ubk]

If they make something like this (fifa 12 + madden 13) in presentation, they would be successful for me... 'cause in Fifa, they're always commentating about the match which's playing right know and in actual season (transfer news, teams conditions, other teams...etc.)... And also I'll always wanna see more options in every menus in game like more options about sound, videos, dynasty options and team coaching...

[Bulls#1]

Yeah FIFA Commentary is so good that you think it's a rl game

[[Q]]

i play fifa quite often, but only onine friendlies and exhibition matches with the same 6-8 elite teams, so the commentary does get repetitive quickly, but i havent checked out the season mode yet. i do like the nice touch about mentioning Halloween and how it's a player's birthday on those days.

[Andrew]

2K's presentation includes little things like that, special overlays for games on Thanksgiving or Christmas. It's not crucial - to me, at any rate - but little touches like that are good to have.