by Superlópez on Wed Oct 25, 2006 11:34 pm
First of all, I think it's sad that my 1st post in this forum is a big critic to this game and specially to EA Sports, but nevertheless i guess it's a positive critic since it's based around the comparison of fundaments of real basketball.
I'm a veteran of videogames and my 1st basket videogame was Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA playoffs. Then I've played several basket games, most of them NBA Live series ones. When 2 months ago I came to the shop and see NBA Live 2005 at less than 10€ I bought the game spoiled by some good comments I've heard in its time. But when I started to play the game I got the impression that the work done by EA Sports in this game over the 2004 edition was very little. Actually at the present day I have the impression that the game improved some areas of low-medium importance while went backwards in others of more importance, so I've made a list of things that I think are far away from a real basketball match:
_ The 1st notable thing is the pace of the game. It's too high and allow too many points making the scores unrealistic. It can be adjusted by decreasing game speed but this make players movement's very slow and unreal too. Solutions? None.
_ Players react very quickly and this allows them to challenge every shot. Most challenged shots result in a miss, so expecting to throw down shots without beeing wide open is a lottery, even if the shot is taken by a great shooter in a good spot. In real basketball the defending player isn't 100% sure if the attacking one will do a shot; he can dribble, pass or do a fake shot, so the defender can't react so quickly because he can easily buy the fake shot or the dribling and leave the attacker in great advantage. In real basket the defender usually wait too long to challenge the shot, normally until it's too late to block or bother enough, if the shooter does the right play. Solutions? Shooting sliders can be raised to set the eficiency of the challenged shots to real parameters but this will surely mean you'll throw down every open shot which is unrelistic too. It can be found a compromise between both aspects but it's hard to do.
Other thing to explain why real defenders can't challenge every shot is because they can easily do a foul from buying a fake shot by falling on the attacker. This situation never happens in the game. If a player is 4 mts. away and the defender comes quickly jumping from distance to challenge the shot in extremis he'll never do a foul. He can be called for an in flight shooting foul if you shoot or search the contact after the fake, but never for falling on you after the fake shot.
_ To score penetrating is very easy, specially near the basket. It's very easy to play low post and finish with a lot of dunk/layups. This result in high scoring percenteages for tall players. I have above 60% FG in all my PFs/Cs, even mediocre players. Solutions? Layup/dunk sliders can be set to miss more and prevent that kind of playing, but this mean you'll miss more standard dunk/layups. Again it's hard to find a compromise where both situations work and will never be realistic. Other solution is to drop down the short range shooting sliders to match shots with dunk/layups to end with a realistic percenteage, but this will mean the shooting percenteages will be very low to match the high dunk/layup ones, preventing yourself to shoot from short range because you know you'll surely miss. That's very unrealistic again.
_ There's an invisible force field around cpu players that don't allow you to move forward unless you do a succesful dribling, even if you have enough space. The movements are too much restricted. Sometimes I have the feeling of beeing playing some kind of pinball because I have to constantly pass the ball to advance a single meter. In real basket it's relatively easy for outside players to move into high post positions and then of course, find the way to the basket closed by bigger players, but the movements outside/inside in long/mid range areas are relatively free. Another thing really bothering about this force field is the way cpu players use it to push you out of bounds without getting called for a foul. In Live 2004 if you pass the ball just before getting out the referees call the foul, but in 2005 is too much advisable to avoid moving near court limits because they'll never call a foul. A clear step backwards.
_ Dribling the way you expect is a miracle. I don't understand how dribling works in the game. I'm sure it doesn't matter the directional key you tap, the player will do the dribling they want. This is specially frustrating when you play outside and try to dribble to get an open spot for a long 2, or when playing low post with skilled big players. Crossovers are dangerous near court limits because the players can easily go in the wrong direction and finish out of bounds. Solutions? I play with the keyboard and I supose it's possible to lead the direction of driblings with the analogic sticks of the gamepads. In that case it's again a mistake of EA Sports because I find quite "exclusive" the need of a gamepad to play the game properly. I find logic the need of a gamepad to exploit the freestyle because is not a vital issue of the game, but dribling is part of the basic fundaments of basketball and it cannot depend in having or not a PS2 like gamepad.
_ Passing the ball the way you expect is often a miracle too. I also can't realize how passing works in the game. Often I have to pass the ball 3-4 times to get the ball on the right man, even when I'm aiming at him with the directional keys. Sometimes the game throws really weird passes even crossing the court and making me lose posession while the pass to a nearby player is quite clear. I think this isn't a feature hard to solve for progammers, but year after year the problem is still there. It shows the lack of interest of EA Sports in doing a good game. It's similar to what it happens to FIFA. They're more interested in earn money doing almost the same game every year and only changing the graphic issues.
_ Stealing also works in a strange way. I know this feature improved a little since Live 2004 but is still unrealistic. You can always go for a steal without worring about be called for a reach in foul, but the efficiency of stealing of course, is very little unless you wait for the right moment. In real basket a player always have to wait until the right moment comes to go for a steal, and sometimes even waiting for that moment doesn't [necesariamente] mean he'll succeed, because stealing is a hard skill to master. Otherwise the player will reach in until he ends the game fouled out sooner than it's usual. Solution? Reach in slider can be set to maximun to get more calls for careless stealing attempts, but even at maximun it don't reach a realistic level.
_ When playing in superstar level the turbo button don't work in offensive plays. It's nearly imposible to get points from a fast break play because the player don't want to run to the basket while defensive players run and finish catching and stoping your player. In all star level offensive players run if they don't have players ahead but sometimes they don't want to run even in this situation. I'm pretty pissed off with this "new feature" because is quite unreal and kills fast break teams, even when I dislike this style of play. Solution? Don't play superstar level any more. Another great step backwards.
_ The defensive AI is dumber than in Live 2004. When an outside player dribbles my defender I usually do a quick switch to a big player to bother/prevent the easy shot/basket with the intimidation his size gives him. But when the cpu player raises up to shoot, the player I've left behind does a foul almost always. This is particularly stupid when I go for the block or when I'm almost sure I've bothered cpu shooter enough to miss, and more idiotic if the player is a good free throw shooter. It's a matter of rational thinking. If the shooter has a nearly 50% FG and is throwing a hard shot and has an above 80% FT what will be more profitable? Obviously is better to let him shoot and hope he'll miss than to do a foul and let him get the easy points from the line. Furthermore if the shoot ends in the basket the adversary get 2 points while doing the foul the adversary will get at least 1 but most surely 2 points and I'm giving a personal foul plus a team foul.
Resuming, the playability has been reduced since Live 2004, and the game still lacks the realism it's supposed to have, dragging playability problems in some features that come from a wrong concept or adaptation of the real game to the videogame. The game still looks too much arcadish in some areas. I don't have played NBA Live 06 or recent 07, but looking back to previous games in the series I don't think they can be a great improvement over this one. Since EA Sports did tons of basketball videogames in the last 20 years I think they don't deserve mercy in my critics because they have had to "catch" the way of basketball videogames a long time ago.
If somebody knows if any of these problems can be solved I have my eyes openwide to read. So I hope to read your comments soon. Keep this great forum running and please forgive my english.