New Impressions from MaddenNation

[thaKEAF]

I've always been a huge fan of NBA no matter how crappy we all think the game is at times. So needless to say i was pretty excited to play the new version. i spent over 1:30 playing this game and was able to get about 4 games in. One against Raymond from MaddenWars, one against rac and 2 against the computer. I played against the computer on the Superstar and was getting my ass handed to me. Here are some highlights of this years version:

-blocks are gone. in the games I had there weren't any PGs with like 6 blocks. Or anything out of the ordinary. in the game i had with rac i had a total of 3 blocks. and most were by Duncan.

-fast breaks are in the game work. I noticed this right away, players will cut to the basket for alley opps. If you are a running a two on 1 and pass it, the player will catch it on the run and continue running to the basket.

-you can rebound now after missing a shot. Last year players would go into some weird animation after missing a shot. Same goes with getting bumped in the post and losing the ball. They fixed that issue as well.

-pro hop to the left or right now. The past 2 years when you pro-hopped you could only do it straight. If someone was infront of you, you'd bump into him and lost the ball. Now if you see someone trying to take a charge just hop to the left or right of him. I did this with Paker and he hopped to the right, but what was cool about it was the animation it did was just like he did in real life. Then he floated a tear drop layup and scored.

-teams play like they do in real life. Teams like the Suns and Mavs run and gun. Teams like the Spurs and Pistons play move of a half court offense.

-certain players have certain qualities. Example, on the Spurs Parker had great passing abilities that other players dont have. You perform different passes by holding left trigger then a button. It will do a bounce pass, behind the back, stuff like that. Duncan was a scorer, so he could score in different ways. He actually shot it off the glass if you did one of the special scoring buttons. And Manu was a scorer too. What was cool about him was a lot of his specials were slashing to the hoop. Rac and i noticed he plays just like he does in real life, he drew so many fouls this way. Rac was the Sonics and Ray Allen was a shooter. He was sick in the game, made so many shot.

-Players are categorized in the types of players i mentioned, scorers, shooters, defenders, power guys. The producer told me there are only like 4 or 5 power guys in the game. Shaq, Dwight HOward, Amare stoudemire, kenyon martin, and Omeka Okefur. I beleive those were tem. What he meant by that are those are the types of guys who go through people, go over the top score.

-graphics are insanse. I was playing with the bulls, and told the producer that iwas pretty damn cool that ben gordon has his actual tatoo on his left arm. He said yeah we did a lot of those small details this year. he loaded up the nuggets on the next tv and showed me Melo. He has every tattoo, cornrows and even has that thin ass beard he has. For it being NBA Live on xbox before XBOX 360 comes out they really put a lot of work in the details of the game. Even the stadiums look a lot better.

-the big thing this year in franchise mode is player evolution. From the way the producer described it to me, they took a page out of ESPN2k. YOu hire coaches and assistants to work with certain players. The example he gave us is lets say you have a young big man who has potential to be a great player. You can hire personel to work with that guy specificially to make him get better. As he improves he has the potential to get a title as "scorer" "shooter" or whatever position he is. I asked him so if your guy is a rookie, eventuall he can be a power guy like shaq and get the special moves? He said yeah that its best to hire coaches based on your team. If you have a guy who is a SG you dont want to hire a coach who's specialty is big men.

-when in franchise you get scouting reports. What the producer was talking about is, during the season you get reports on your players, and it tells you how you should run your offense and defense. if you follow them and actually do them you have greater % at having a good year. If you dont then you dont play as well. Which makes sense. If you dont have the players to run and gun why are you going to? In years past you could run whatever and it doesnt matter.

-no dunk contest online. only the mode where you have to try to do as many dunks as possible and score the most points. I asked the producer why not just have the regular dunk contest, and he said that it'd be boring for a player to sit there and watch someone else dunk.

-no importing draft classes from MM2006 into Live

-Commentary in the game is done by Marv ALberts and Steve Kerr, since Mike Fratello wen to the Grizz.

-PS2 version has NBA Live 95 genesis version on it to play. Its got made up names though, no real players. ITs not on the XBOX version
thats all i can remember for now. ask away and i'll try to answer them.

[Dreadnight]

Oh man, sounds good

[thaKEAF]

Yeah, sounds like this game will be really fun. Live 05 was pretty good but I got bored of the gameplay alot, seems like it won't be the case this time.

He also said that you're not able to come back from like 10 feet and block anymore.

[tadone]

This is exactly what I was waiting for, great stuff. I think this year they may actualy get rid of those annoying things and make Live best basketball game ever, I cant wait to put my hands on it.

[BrotherJRB]

Sounds about the same as we here every year....nothing against the guy but I can remember when some people from this site came back from EA studios and told us some very exciting things (like CPU catchup speed was gone) but it really wasn't the case.

I think every year I read that "so and so team fast breaks and this other team runs a half court offense" it is never the case though. What I want to know is if the CPU actually ran plays or is still mindlessly running the four quick plays.

[J@3]

My expectations have gone from 2 to about 4 out of 10... their "big" dynasty mode improvement is ridiculous... seriously, THAT is the big improvement? The gameplay adjustments sound alright, whether it pans out like that we'll have to wait and see. If they haven't slowed the speed of the players (even with game speed sliders down they run around like coke addicted ants) the gameplay will bother me.

[Sauru]

i gotta admit, i am not super hyped about this years game. it could turn out to be better than i think though. lets hope so anyway.

[kp4life]

is hiring coaches new? i remember that they had that in live 2004. only problem was that the ratings didn't change or even got lowered. you get your coach and they had that silly simulation. i don't think this is new. it is if they actually make players practice with the coach w/ some kind of mission. i hope they add team chemistry, players happiness, and etc just like mvp baseball 2005.

[beau_boy04]

Maybe some of us work for EA and we don't know it yet and they came out here to the forums and tells us how great the game is each and every year, when the reality is different.

For example the cpu catching up with you in fastbreak. In Nba Live 2005 whenever I'm running for a fastbreak the cpu catches up with me at no time but when his guy is running full speed it's so hard for me to catch up with him - this is is All-Star difficulty not sure about Superstar.

[Jona]

Amazing, great post!

[Andrew]

Thanks for the post thaKEAF, much appreciated.

[Jowe]

I'll believe it when Shaq doesnt' catch allen iverson on the fast break in nba live... and being able to hit wide open jumpshots wouldn't hurt too.

Good to see bounce passes is in it.

[Mikki]

Sounds good. Let's hope it tastes even better.

[Metsis]

I'm hyped about this game...

Coaches... It doesn't sound like the stuff of before. Unless they've replaced the "individual training" with hire a coach that's good with the big guys or something like that... It really sounds like you are talking about the head coach... And that the coach has a difference as he'll be better at developing certain types of players... Now this would sound quite right. Comparing on how the guy wrote it down...

The superstar stuff better work well with the keyboard too...

It's still only mid-July... They're still holding something back... I think they've been waiting for this years game for the last couple of years, when they can get out of the constrictive limitations that PS2 and XBOX have put on the game... There's only so much a 3-4 year old machine can take... Next gen consoles have given them way more room to improve and I'm happy to see them make atleast some use of it...

[Alcoholic]

Well they added some tidbits that I like. I thought of aiming your prohop before in my mind but I never spoke out the idea. Nice to see that.

I think the blocks being gone is questionable. I always think its the style of the person thats playing, there are people that get blocked by opposing PG's all game, but I never personally get those problems.

-no dunk contest online. only the mode where you have to try to do as many dunks as possible and score the most points. I asked the producer why not just have the regular dunk contest, and he said that it'd be boring for a player to sit there and watch someone else dunk.

I don't agree. It would be like sitting in a real dunk contest! The other 3 players watching you choke, and try to catch that lob 20 times.


I don't know why they wasted time putting Live 95 on there.. play it for a half hour then enjoy what you paid to play.


One thing I'd really like to see is if players actually BANKED in their layups and close shots... apparently one of Duncan's moves is a bank shot... however...

[Matthew]

Am i the only one that's noticed this? I dont mind gamespy and sites like that getting previews, but since when does maddenation a more respected nba live site than here or nbalive.org? Why aren't they promoting live through this community? This is a joke.

[J@3]

Am i the only one that's noticed this? I dont mind gamespy and sites like that getting previews, but since when does maddenation a more respected nba live site than here or nbalive.org? Why aren't they promoting live through this community? This is a joke.

I agree, I thought the exact same thing when I read it. My theory is that they are worried that a website dedicated to the game might be more honest and knowledgeable about the product, and the history of the game i.e not as easily pleased as this Madden guy.

[Matthew]

Yeah damn us and honest opinions.

We could always just put sit in charge of the preview then... actually we'd be better off with the maddencentral review

[J@3]

I dunno, I'd wanna see how many different ways a person can say "Yao doesn't block enough shots!!"

[Oosh]

I have been buying basketball games since Lakers Vs Celtics on PC, I have bought every single Live ever created.

It's so obvious this version is just going to be another happy resident in the pile of crap laying on the floor in my rooom.

I have not seen one thing that even resembles Live even thinking about being a realistic basketball game. All I see is another kiddie basketball game that has fancy moves and pretty little cartoon graphics.

This is beyond a joke now iam so fed up with this incompetance its pathetic.

I quit, Im not buying this one.

[PinoyIDOL]

-fast breaks are in the game work. I noticed this right away, players will cut to the basket for alley opps. If you are a running a two on 1 and pass it, the player will catch it on the run and continue running to the basket.

-you can rebound now after missing a shot. Last year players would go into some weird animation after missing a shot. Same goes with getting bumped in the post and losing the ball. They fixed that issue as well.

-pro hop to the left or right now. The past 2 years when you pro-hopped you could only do it straight. If someone was infront of you, you'd bump into him and lost the ball. Now if you see someone trying to take a charge just hop to the left or right of him. I did this with Paker and he hopped to the right, but what was cool about it was the animation it did was just like he did in real life. Then he floated a tear drop layup and scored.

-teams play like they do in real life. Teams like the Suns and Mavs run and gun. Teams like the Spurs and Pistons play move of a half court offense.

Great!

[T-Comm55]

Am i the only one that's noticed this? I dont mind gamespy and sites like that getting previews, but since when does maddenation a more respected nba live site than here or nbalive.org? Why aren't they promoting live through this community? This is a joke.

I think its becuase those sites were over at EA for the Madden Premeire and they just checked out other games that the producers allowed them to see.

[cklitsie]

but still, maddenation has nothing to do with nba live, at least they could give these nbalive communities an early preview or something else exclusive.
most of us around here buy the games every year, we give them our money! they should do something back for the true fans.
anyway i dont think the ea guys like us (members of the forums) or else they wouldve made the game easier to patch too.

[thaKEAF]

For those of you wondering why members of a Madden site got to play Live, he wasn't there JUST to play Live. For the most part they were sent there to play the final build of Madden, and they also got to play some of the upcoming EA games like Live 06 and SSX On Tour. And I actually take fredsmooth's (the guy who posted it) word on the game, because he's a big fan of the Live series and had alot of complaints on Live 2005.

[sixerfan03]

After watching the previews, I want to know--How is the defense?

The defense in 05 was a little hard, but this year it looks to easy.