how is passing on '07?

I haven't played '06, I was planning on getting '07...

The biggest problem with '05 is, if a guy is open for a pass, he takes forever to catch it and set up, and by the time he gets it, he is covered again. It is basically impossible to hit a guy cutting; it makes the game completely deteriorate into 1 on 1.

Is '07 better in this respect?

I also heard they were working on animations - at first I heard some things that sounded good, that players wouldn't be as locked into robotic animations anymore - in recent versions, you'd pass to a player and wouldn't be able to do anything with him until he'd finished the catch and set feet animation. The controls were very unresponsive and non fluid. Will this be improved? I saw one of the writeups just now that said now players will have to set their feet before shooting - is that just going to be more delay waiting for an animation to finish before you can control anything?

Well I think that problem was more or less solved in 06. Because I remember in 2005 that you quite often threw the ball way up to the player and he had to jump up, catch the ball with one hand and then it took a second for him to land and set up. I didn't experience that in 06 more than a few times (maybe once a game or even more seldom), so it shouldn't be a problem in 07 either.

06 also improved greatly on the breakaway scenarios, so if you hit a player running, almost every time, he would catch the ball while on the move, rather than stopping and jumping to catch it (like in 2005). And 07 should be just as good in that area.

that's cool, thanks.

The question now is the next gen business; if '08 for pc going to be next gen? Is the next gen mainly the graphics + new ratings, or is the new gameplay only for next gen?

NBA Live 07 does offer a bit more control over passing too, such as being able to throw alley-oops to the person you actually want to lob to, throwing down longer or harder passes by holding down the pass button and forcing bounce passes when posting up.

The impression I got is that there's no specfic timetable for making PC Next Gen but it's likely to happen once the Current Gen consoles start to get phased out.

Good to hear andrew. I always hate when i went to alley oop the ball to someone and it shot to to someone on the otherside of the court who was further away then the guy i wanted. Resulting in an out of bounds.

I should also mention though that the greater control over lobs doesn't mean every alley-oop will be successful. If you throw it to someone who isn't in good position or you use a lousy passer it might still go out of bounds or not come off as hoped.

he takes forever to catch it and set up, and by the time he gets it, he is covered again.

Oh, mchakko, you remind me so many memories.

There are so many times I was down by 1 or 2 when there is less than 2 seconds in 4th quarter, my inbound passer thrown a GOD DAMN LOB PASS to my cluth player, and the game ended before I take the last shot.

I know the lob pass is to avoid the ball being stolen, but in that situation iI would rather make a bounce pass, or maybe step back a little to catch the ball with my feet on the ground(than the clock won't run out when i still in the air).

It happans in 06. I hope we can have a better solution in 07.

he takes forever to catch it and set up, and by the time he gets it, he is covered again.

Oh, mchakko, you remind me so many memories.

There are so many times I was down by 1 or 2 when there is less than 2 seconds in 4th quarter, my inbound passer thrown a GOD DAMN LOB PASS to my cluth player, and the game ended before I take the last shot.

I know the lob pass is to avoid the ball being stolen, but in that situation iI would rather make a bounce pass, or maybe step back a little to catch the ball with my feet on the ground(than the clock won't run out when i still in the air).

It happans in 06. I hope we can have a better solution in 07.

and ialso hate it when they throw a lob pass and it goes over ur heads and goes out of bounds

Being able to control lob pass vs bullet sounds GREAT.

How many times do you get your big man past a defender who is between the big man and the guy you're controlling - or maybe the defender is fronting the guy - either way he's wide open for a lob pass with a clear path to the basket, but instead you pass a bullet pass which is intercepted every time.

You know what would be interesting gameplay? What if you took control of the receiving player as soon as you make the pass? So you can decide whether to stop and get it, or to take it on the run. If you throw a lob, you could take the player, make them jump to catch it, and then decide whether to land with it or to hit another button to throw down the alley oop! Actually it sounds a bit like the lobs in the dunk contest - the trick would be not making it too difficult.

I also recall in one of the preview videos that touch passes would be incorporated. It'll be interesting to see how that will work out