E3 2006: NBA Live 2007 Preview @ teamXBOX

[Andreas Dahl]

The guys from teamXBOX gives some of their impressions after the 'behind closed doors' exclusive preview they took part of in this new article.
It does mention a new thing that is that you will be able to interrupted any regular animation so that you can start on a new one (like: from spin move to pass).
Other than that, it doesn't reveal anything we haven't read/heard already.

http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1345/NBA-LIVE-07/p1/

[Donatello]

Quite possibly the most impressive new feature, haters and lovers of the series alike should pay special attention to this one, is the newly designed foot planting technology. What this does is it eliminates the classic sliding effect that infected all of the previous Live titles. The old effect basically killed any hope of delivering a realistic looking basketball title, but with the new foot planting technology in place players now stick to the ground and can make actual cuts. Even running up the court has a completely different look to it then it has in past years. And playing defense no longer takes the term “defensive slide” to heart as players’ feet now stick to the ground with newfound authenticity.

I know it's just hype but that got me really excited.

Thanks for posting this

[Andreas Dahl]

Yea, I'm cautiously optimistic about it as well. In theory, it's awesome (long overdue, but still), but it is a matter of execution. If EA will actually be able to make it look like all the players are running and moving realistically or just plain strange will be crucial. I'm also cautiously optimistic about it making its way to the PC version (c'mon EA ).

[BIG GREEN]

Just thought id tell you that you put the link to the ign article on the main page instead of this teamxbox one.

[Andrew]

The demonstration in the GameDaily video showed that odd as well. Great development but a shame it would seem to be next-gen only.

[BOSS]

Take T-Mac for instance. Last year watching McGrady throw one down and then watching Vince Carter do the same was indiscernible from one another. Sure they might have varying dunk animations, but there was no personality behind them - no unique celebrations, nothing to bring the player into the experience of throwing down on a defender sick-nasty style. Now EA Sports has added the aforementioned universal facial capture which allows players to display genuine emotion during certain moments of gameplay. Take the aforementioned T-Mac throw down for instance. Now you’ll notice his trademark, “call me the bus driver ‘cuz I just took you to school and back” smirk after he embarrasses an entire defense.

That's good that EA put more effort in the player facial animation.
Im sick of seeing the players just like this when they dunk ...

[Andreas Dahl]

Thanks for the heads up Yohance

Andrew: I'm still hoping they'll put those stuff in the PC version until proven otherwise

[Matthew]

Yea, I'm cautiously optimistic about it as well. In theory, it's awesome (long overdue, but still), but it is a matter of execution. If EA will actually be able to make it look like all the players are running and moving realistically or just plain strange will be crucial. I'm also cautiously optimistic about it making its way to the PC version (c'mon EA ).

After last years "next gen" version of live, it will have to be something significant for me to buy it. The footplanting sounds ok, but so did the pro hop in 2004.

Don't get me wrong thoug, live 2007 might be a great game, but they have to prove it to me. 5 straight years of disapointment means they no longer have the benefit of the doubt. I wouldn't be shocked if they excluded a certain part of the game, like individual freestyle controls, just to accomidate this new and great feature that should have been fixed in 2001.

[Scotty]

nice link Andreas
i mostly hope they get rid of the bad glitches, like the arm through the back board, ring, player etc. and it would be great if this new foot planting technology is as good as it sounds, it will make crossovers more smooth

[Rokas[LTU]]

Don't worry, guys. Don't watch T-Mac on the right, of course we'll get that T-Mac on the left..

I mean PC players..

[gifted]

I love how EA names it "foot planting", making it seem like new technology. The skating/sliding fix was way overdo, and the demo doesn't seem that impressive.

[Jing]

foot planting... interesting. this be pretty nice, realistic movements.

[Colin]

I love how EA names it "foot planting", making it seem like new technology. The skating/sliding fix was way overdo, and the demo doesn't seem that impressive.

It is a new technology though.

I love how people complained about the sliding, then as soon as they show that they've fixed (or at least attempted to fix) the problem they jump straight to complaining it took so long.

Either way, sounds cool.

[cam]

I think the reason the 'foot planting' is being so hyped is that it is new technology.

The problem with live in the past is that they used preset animations for players (running, defensive sliding etc.) and just cut between them, taking into account only the direction that the user was asking the players to move in. It looked like the players were sliding, because there weren't enough variations of the animation, or enough blending scenarious between them.... so we just saw the best result they had achieved using that type of technique.

With 'foot planting' how I believe works, is instead of cutting between preset animations, the players will just be switching from one 'action' to another, with limitations in place such as:

if u are in the middle of a spin move and decide to press the dunk button, pre-defined rules would be in place that would make the player wait until his next foot is planted on the ground, so he has a leg to jump off, instead of kind of, 'flicking' or roughly 'blending' into a predefined dunk animation. This will also keep the 'flow' of the player movement. So it would be more likely for the player to attempt an off balanced layup than a dunk.

I think this type of 'dynamic' character movement is what we will see throughout the game.... or so I hope. Things like taking into account player impact on dunk attempts to alter the animations, or 'actions' of the players.

That's why it is new technology, because it isn't 'pre-defined' animation.... it's dynamic, realistic player movement.

[Ruff Ryder]

Well it isn't really "new" technology. NBA 2kx has had it for the past 2 years. There's is called "Hex-motion" or something like that.

[cam]

I don't play NBA2K, but I am pretty sure that such technology would not have been utilised on an older generation XBOX. It is most likely being utilised already in the 360 version.

[BodyBump]

Not sure if someone posted this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zQSWOTS3Gw&dpos=2

its about footplanting, responsiveness, etc for PS3

[Srbija]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was posted by Shing I think.

Video is awesome.