First Look at NBA Live 13 Shows a Game Making Great Passes—E

[22cedric]

http://kotaku.com/5915198/first-look-at ... e-bad-ones

[ESB CrowBonez]

Good read, I like the sound of passing being more polish, and different lighting in different arenas.

[JaoSming]

wow, first screen and info!


My Reading Points:
Claims that bad passes will limit what the receiving player can do with the ball against the D
"gameplay ideals: authentic passing, recognizable players and behaviors, and a sophisticated, believable outcome with a minimum of control inputs"
Graphics be good
Passing is a huge step up, a major point
trying to make passing simpler input-wise and more complex gameplaywise
talked about how the game chose to pass to Thabo off a Durant screen using directional passing rather than who's closest (which would have been Durant)
"This is tied to an AI system in which players are supposed to recognize the most appropriate target in the area you're facing with the left stick."
"Working in concert with your teammates' AI, NBA Live 13 shows promise as an accessible title that won't resort to handholding."
"Players do move purposefully without you telling them to"
Momentum and Inertia play roles in movement
"The dribble moves, entirely on the right stick, just like NBA Live 10, are quickly interrupted when you change direction with the left."
Not just the broadcast camera, but all replay and cut cameras are arena specific
"There will also be an alternate camera angle, which I didn't see, that is an homage to NBA Live from the 1990s" (that camera is in 2K too, FYI)
some arenas were scanned into the game using the tech used for Tiger Woods games
arena specific lighting
opposing team crowd members return from live 10
some ambient sounds from ESPN directly
players "act" like the position they are playing, distinguishable aside from names and numbers
"NBA Live 13 must reestablish itself as a fundamentally solid game that plays to state-of-the-art expectations. What EA Sports is taking to E3, and what I saw yesterday, show that it's on that trajectory."

GREAT read

[ThaLiveKing]

[Mavs4Life]

Oooh, court and crowd looks great.

[Andrew]

Great read indeed, very promising stuff. For a first look, that gave us some great info.

The stuff about passing more or less confirms what I thought it was likely going to be. We're still able to control when and where we want to pass, the players are just smarter about the passes that are thrown (seemingly depending on their abilities, if I've understood the article correctly). Direct/icon passing has its place but if the directional passing is effective then so much the better, since it means quicker passes to beat the defense. If players are making the right kind of pass on top of that, so much the better. It would be nice to be able to manually control the type of pass in future games, but getting the logic down is obviously important.

Good to hear about players moving with a purpose even without a play being called. With that logic in place I assume that playcalling will be fairly solid, it's probably disabled in the alpha that Owen played due to it still receiving polish.

Relieved to hear that they've stuck with dribbling moves on the right stick and moved away from what they were trying to do with NBA Elite 11 there. Interesting experiment, but Freestyle Control and its subsequent variants have worked out fairly well and it's still the control scheme that I ultimately prefer. Sounds like there isn't an issue of getting stuck in animations or anything, as long as that's the case and the controls are fluid and responsive, it should work out fine.

I like that they'll be representing the different broadcast cameras for the individual arenas, as 2K did with NBA 2K12. Excellent move for authenticity, as is working closely with the NBA on ESPN producers to accurately replicate an ESPN broadcast. Being a Live fan from way back in the day, the idea of a classic camera angle paying homage to the early games is kind of cool too. It might not be my preferred camera angle these days, but I'll have to check that out. The rest of the details sound good too.

All in all, very positive stuff. Hoping for more good news and some similarly promising details on the game modes. A confirmed PC release would be great to top it all off.

[daninoz]

A confirmed PC release would be great to top it all off.

I asked the guy who wrote the preview and he said: "I haven't asked for clarification on that but it's doubtful."

[Andrew]

Yeah, we may be out of luck once again on that front but until then, here's hoping. Awaiting clarification myself.

[athozoan]

From the picture the character models an graphics still looks the same as the past games but hopefully the gameplay is good after 2 years

[Andrew]

Lighting aside, I thought the player models and faces in NBA Live 10 were at least satisfactory. After NBA Elite 11, it's the animations that are the issue and we can't exactly make judgements about those from a screenshot.

[Patr1ck]

When 2K officially announced 2K9 was coming to PC, it was about a week before the console release dates, but there was speculation as many review and retail sites had it listed for the PC for months beforehand. I could only find a couple of sites that list NBA Live 13 for PC, and the artwork is just a placeholder, as the page is probably a placeholder as well.

[Andrew]

Good point. Not holding my breath, just crossing my fingers until we get the official word.