Game Informer 20 Things We Know About NBA Live 15

[22cedric]

20 Things We Know About NBA Live 15 via Game Informer

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After a three-year hiatus, NBA Live returned last year, but it was a rough comeback attempt for EA Sports. Nonetheless, the company is still determined to become a series competitor in the basketball simulation space once again. With another year under its belt, EA Tiburon feels the gameplay and visuals are taking important steps forward with Live 15. We’re not getting a deep dive on gameplay until later in the month, but we still learned some critical information regarding how the team hopes to improve on the court this year. Here are all the details we know about the game thus far:

Presentation
•EA Tiburon invested in a different scanning technology for NBA Live 15 to drastically improve the player models. This change addresses every single asset in the game, from faces, hair, bodies, and skin to clothing, footwear, and accessories.
•Facial performances looks much more believable in the brief demo we saw. Players’ eyes track the basketball, and they react with emotion after making big plays.
•The commentary team of Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy returns. Given last year’s wooden performances, this year EA’s focus is on getting more banter injected in the proceedings. The two are spending more time recording side by side, and like NBA 2K, that dialogue between the two can be interrupted when something significant happens on the court.
•Jalen Rose returns as the master of ceremonies as well. EA plans to continue to deliver live commentary updates with Rose throughout the year to recognize league happenings and call out users who have made remarkable accomplishments within the game.

Gameplay
•The developers have completely overhauled the passing game and added more control back from Live 10, which to many was the last decent basketball effort from EA.
•To make dribbling moves, you simply need to flick the right analog stick right or left, not unlike the old freestyle controls.
•Short adjustment steps on defense should allow you to keep better positioning on defense. EA hopes you can stay in front of ball handlers using just the left analog stick.
•Defense is more active, with jostles and dribble bumps.
•EA is placing a big emphasis on transitional animations to make the action look more believable. This obviously includes getting rid of instances where players take shots with their backs to the basket, a particularly egregious animation foul that occurred last year.
•To cut down on clipping animations in the paint, EA has added physics to any player taking or contesting a shot. Now when players collide, the position of their forearms and hands are taken into account throughout the shot attempt.
•Taking a page from the seldom-heralded NCAA Basketball 10, Live 15 introduces new quick-action strategies that send a makeshift offense into motion at the tap of a button.
•EA is also integrating some play-calling icons into the game to give you better visual clues on how a play is supposed to develop. You can turn these on or off in the settings.

Game Modes
•EA says Live Seasons and Big Moments proved to be popular with gamers last year, so expect more of the same in Live 15.
•Given the popularity of Ultimate Team, Live Seasons, and Rising Star, by default Dynasty is becoming less prominent in the development cycle. That said, the team is determined to fix the sim engine so it creates better results with the right teams winning and more believable player movement through trades and free agency.
•EA has not altered the trade mechanics to let you include future draft picks.
•Much like FIFA and Madden have done in recent years, NBA Live 15 has a new on-boarding process that can teach new players the basic controls or educate returning players on how to use advanced controls through both minigames and five-on-five scrimmages.
•Fans of the EASBL will have to wait another year before the mode returns. EA wants to wait until the head-to-head online competitions, general gameplay, and visuals are up to par before investing in online team play.
•Ultimate Team is receiving an auction house this year, but no standalone app on mobile phones or tablets.
•Don’t expect Rising Star to follow in the footsteps of NBA 2K’s MyCareer mode. EA has no plans to integrate cutscenes into the mode. For Live 15, the developers are focusing on improving the performance tracking.
•EA Tiburon plans to launch a free trial on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 so people can experience the game before buying.

If you want to learn more about what went wrong with Live 14, how EA Tiburon is adjusting to make a better game with Live 15, and how the development culture is changing under the leadership of new CEO Andrew Wilson, read our in-depth interview with executive producer Sean O’Brien.

[Andrew]

Great info, basically all sounds like promising stuff. The only thing that's a bit disappointing to hear is the stuff about Dynasty Mode not being a priority, but it does sound like it's still receiving some attention this year. Hopefully it won't be phased out, and will continue to see some improvements, especially given what 2K is looking to do with MyGM.

[Patr1ck]

I don't like jostles and dribble bumps. They take away from the control and you have to wait for the animation to finish. Ever remember going for that last shot only to be bumped and unable to get the shot off?

I personally don't like sucking and sticking animations, but I think if they implement a system within that idea, they could be in good shape. Looking at the idea of short adjustment steps on defense and jostles and bumps, I worry that they may have not improved the controller response that much, and implemented those two features as a way compensating for the exaggerated momentum when moving, and then a bandaid patch of bumping animations.

They should try to have a system where the defense can lock on, slowing the dribblers path and movements, with a little mini game that can allow the defender to pressure the ballhandler to go to a certain side, strip or poke the ball loose on the drive or pull up, and offensively, have the dribbler be able to push off a little bit or break free with a well-timed dribble move or even use the collision to his advantage by attempting to drive and putting the defender on their heels so they can step off for the pullup. Imagine a locked on defender being led into a blind side screen. There is so much more they can do than little impeding animations.

I do not like the Live 10 dribble controls. Live 14 was not bad because you could almost time every single dribble and where you wanted it to be. That is control. Left/Right flicks are less control. Also, if they go away from signature dribbling moves, I will be quite disappointed. After playing Rising Star and improving my Star's dribbling rating, I was able to do some nice signature moves and tie them into controlled dribble attacks.

Good for them on the transitional animations. EA has always been pretty bad at that. Live 10 was one of the first games I remember that actually had good transition animations. I hope they are not like the Live 14 pivoting animations that took way too long.

I like the physics addition to shots and shot contests in the paint. It will be interesting to see how well and realistic this is implemented.

The NBA is a high level of basketball. There aren't many generic motion offenses. Everyone has a direction of where they need to be and how to react when running their teams offensive sets in the halfcourt. The better teams execute better, which is why they win. I'll be looking for more information on the quick-action strategies to see how they will enhance the gameplay. For 14, I just turned auto motion on. Not sure if this is an expansion of that, or a separate idea.

They spent time building practice modes rather than improving the depth of game modes. There is a reason why Rising Star and Dynasty weren't as popular as Big Moments and Ultimate Team. Depth. I made Legendary status in Rising Star and it did not feel rewarding. When I finish a Big Moment or play Ultimate Team, I feel rewarded.

I never played MyCareer for cutscenes. It was good content that got repetitive, just like the Live 2004 cutscenes. But, those cutscenes did add to the immersion. Rising Star needs more immersion and a rewarding/risking process. If that immersion starts in the gameplay area, and translates to better tracking of your performance for your role, that's a good start. But, you have to immerse the player into the atmosphere. There needs to be more goals than "Finish the game with an overall grade better than your opponent." Long term performance tracking should have an affect on your team. There could be coaching adjustments(you take too many 3's, etc) and teammate morale/chemistry changes that can affect the atmosphere and the way the game plays. Maybe teammates won't pass you the ball when you call for it, or your coach will sub you out of the game and scold you, lower your minutes, or you will end up in the rumor mill for possible trades.

[[Q]]

I don't like jostles and dribble bumps. They take away from the control and you have to wait for the animation to finish. Ever remember going for that last shot only to be bumped and unable to get the shot off?

This is their knee-jerk reaction to "ZOMG! IT'S TOO EASY TO GET INTO THE PAINT IN LIVE 14!!"

Bumping people should not be the video game equivalent of playing good defense. It should be like real life where you are effectively "guessing" which way they will go. I remember while playing 2k7 my goal was always to "get the bump animation" on defense.

[Patr1ck]

That's exactly my point. There were some defensive riding animations in Live 14 and Live 10. But what could you really do on offense or defense when they were occurring? They need to go deeper with that concept because it'snot unrealistic, it just hasn't been expanded upon.