OS' NBA Live 13 Preview

[JaoSming]

http://www.operationsports.com/previews ... a-live-13/
The NBA Live 13 team showed us an early pre-alpha version of the game, which according to the Developers, was 60% complete

• the ability to break out of any animation at any time
• In the post game, offensive and defensive players are independent of each other
• The animations looked robotic and not very good at all in the demo
• they did say the defense has a counter for every offensive move and vice versa
• a new partnership between EA Sports and Synergy...The AI plays to those strengths and weaknesses, but will also learn from experiences in the game
• The game seemed too fast. Actually, it looked more arcady to me than sim. Players moved too fast and the developers stated there were no plans at this time to add a speed slider.

That is the basic stuff, its an early game, lots of glitches shown and unfinished work

[benji]

During the gameplay, I noticed no off the ball player movement. I mean none. But the Developers stated they simply wanted to show off the passing, so plays were not being run. Another head scratcher to me as this made the game look a little ridiculous. They showed a signature shot from LeBron James, but it didn't look very natural to me at all. In fact, many of the animations seemed to skip frames, it just wasn't fluid. While zooming into player heads, facial hair and tattoos looked great, the gameplay was simply just not worth showing at this time. It's possible/likely this will be cleaned up before launch, but it's worth noting we simply weren't shown much to impress us on the gameplay just yet.

The game seemed too fast. Actually, it looked more arcady to me than sim. Players moved too fast and the developers stated there were no plans at this time to add a speed slider. That is not a good sign for sure. They are implementing a collision system, but they didn't show it at all.

[22cedric]

Glad that a collision system is being added I hope they gameplay will be fluid before a actual video is shown.

[ESB CrowBonez]

Very dissapointed in EA, especially after two years off.

[22cedric]

I'm still hopefull that this game will be solid this year. Jason Barnes did say that he wants the gameplay to be fluid & organic as possible so I hope he sticks to his word.

[Leftos]

Thank god the "Advisory Council" weren't allowed to say anything about the actual game from their trip to EA. If they got 60% at E3, what did the advisory council get their hands on? An X360 controller-compatible YouTube player with real-life footage of basketball games EA hoped to learn from?

That's the "positive direction" EA was heading in, that they were reporting?

[JaoSming]

the community trips have always been known to be pre-alpha things, and what they play and are shown are in full awareness of that fact. IMO, it's better for feedback during that stage since the game is still in development, and not just bug squashing.

[Leftos]

True, I guess. I still think there's not enough time to do the 40% of development AND QA.

[benji]

They probably should have started development before last fall.

[Andrew]

I'm still not too concerned at this point. It's an early pre-alpha version, probably not indicative of the latest build that's in the studio but one that was far enough along to adequately show some of the things they wanted to highlight at E3. Owen Good also mentioned seeing player movement without playcalling in his first look, so it's possible he's had hands on time with a later build than the one at E3. I'm also wary of bias in a preview like this, as some OSers are historically very anti-Live and pro-2K in my observation.

Also consider that the NBA 2K13 footage hasn't been wowing people and 2K have been using the same line about it being an early build. I want to see this stuff for myself and from a game that is further along in production. That said, hopefully the development team are taking some feedback from the event and polish the animations as much as possible, as well as addressing any speed issues. Of course, if that turns out to be more a default slider issue, it could be an issue of making a mountain out of a molehill there.

Breaking out of animations and a renewed deal with Synergy Sports are both good news. Appropriate defensive counters for offensive moves sound promising, hopefully there's balance there though. Some promising stuff and a couple of troubling issues, definitely worth reading and taking on board but I don't think we can draw too many conclusions second hand and this early in the piece. Let's see how things continue to shape up.

[22cedric]

I'm still not too concerned at this point. It's an early pre-alpha version, probably not indicative of the latest build that's in the studio but one that was far enough along to adequately show some of the things they wanted to highlight at E3. Owen Good also mentioned seeing player movement without playcalling in his first look, so it's possible he's had hands on time with a later build than the one at E3. I'm also wary of bias in a preview like this, as some OSers are historically very anti-Live and pro-2K in my observation.

Also consider that the NBA 2K13 footage hasn't been wowing people and 2K have been using the same line about it being an early build. I want to see this stuff for myself and from a game that is further along in production. That said, hopefully the development team are taking some feedback from the event and polish the animations as much as possible, as well as addressing any speed issues. Of course, if that turns out to be more a default slider issue, it could be an issue of making a mountain out of a molehill there.

Breaking out of animations and a renewed deal with Synergy Sports are both good news. Appropriate defensive counters for offensive moves sound promising, hopefully there's balance there though. Some promising stuff and a couple of troubling issues, definitely worth reading and taking on board but I don't think we can draw too many conclusions second hand and this early in the piece. Let's see how things continue to shape up.

I agree

[Andrew]

IGN's preview also mentions "cartoony animations" (there's that term again) but let's see what a build that's further along looks like. I'd be interested to get some clarification on whether the game is 60% complete at this point, or the build that was on display is 60% complete, because there's a big difference in meaning there. I still wouldn't be surprised if what's being worked on in the studio is further along than what's being used at E3, there has to be a cut-off point for getting a relatively stable build ready for demonstration purposes.

[benji]

All games at E3 are farther along than are shown. You can't just take what you have and throw up as a demo, nor just cut out a part because the whole thing might collapse, you have to specifically construct them. Most teams loathe producing demos for E3 and if they can do the least possible. It's easier if you have a level based game because often you can just make sure that lone level works right.

[ESB CrowBonez]

I disagree, they should really focus in on animations and speed, I do believe the developers can get the 40% of the job done, probably not at it's best but good enough. Don't get me wrong but, they cant do it all in one year imo.

[Andrew]

I doubt they have 40% left to finish, what was on display was only 60% done. As I said before, there's a difference.

[Ermolli]

I've read that preview and the other ones twice because I can't believe it. As soon as I began reading that all my excitement went to the toilet, I was in disbelief. Now I don't have almost any expectations about the game and now I'm doubting if I really want to buy this game (I wasn't going to pick it up for sure but it was on my top priorities). I know it's 60%, that it's a one year cycle instead of two and that they still have four months but the foundation of the game was in that build, if the game is it's said (which I would believe because it was stated by several sources) then EA Tiburon has to make some magic in order to have a good game. I know that I should reserve my judgement until the demo or the final game but after waiting three years for a EA basketball game this is too much, they can't take the luxury of having a bad to mediocre game.

[Andrew]

They probably should've simply shown footage from a more recent build instead of showcasing a pre-alpha.

[Ermolli]

They probably should've simply shown footage from a more recent build instead of showcasing a pre-alpha.

I agree because it only did harm to their game. But it isn't like they showed much about the game, they spent time showing real NBA games to pinpoint stuff that will be in the game instead of showing those things from the game itself.

[ESB CrowBonez]

yes big difference, i'm really lookin forward to see how this plays out.

[Ermolli]

After reading again how bad the game is right now it makes me wonder how would it be if the EA Canada team continued building Elite without wasting time like EA has by moving to Tiburon and finding a team to create the game. I know Elite 11 was bad but at least they had an idea and a three year plan which would culminate this year. That game despite its flaws (which were many) had some promising things and I believe that if they continued with that project, their build would be better than the one Live 13 had at E3. Besides the new passing, the "move with a purpose", "improved" AI, and the rest of the features could perfectly be added in the Elite cycle during the last two years without losing time. Elite could have been a solid game and good second option if EA gave them the time needed because you couldn't make the game properly in just one year (as we saw with Elite 11).

[22cedric]

[quote="Andrew"]They probably should've simply shown footage from a more recent build instead of showcasing a pre-alpha.[/quo

I agree that's what I was thinking i'm still hopefull that NBA Live 13 will come correct this year.

[Patr1ck]

After reading again how bad the game is right now it makes me wonder how would it be if the EA Canada team continued building Elite without wasting time like EA has by moving to Tiburon and finding a team to create the game. I know Elite 11 was bad but at least they had an idea and a three year plan which would culminate this year. That game despite its flaws (which were many) had some promising things and I believe that if they continued with that project, their build would be better than the one Live 13 had at E3. Besides the new passing, the "move with a purpose", "improved" AI, and the rest of the features could perfectly be added in the Elite cycle during the last two years without losing time. Elite could have been a solid game and good second option if EA gave them the time needed because you couldn't make the game properly in just one year (as we saw with Elite 11).

Agreed. EA rebooting the series continuously is what has caused these setbacks in progress.

[Andrew]

After reading again how bad the game is right now it makes me wonder how would it be if the EA Canada team continued building Elite without wasting time like EA has by moving to Tiburon and finding a team to create the game. I know Elite 11 was bad but at least they had an idea and a three year plan which would culminate this year. That game despite its flaws (which were many) had some promising things and I believe that if they continued with that project, their build would be better than the one Live 13 had at E3. Besides the new passing, the "move with a purpose", "improved" AI, and the rest of the features could perfectly be added in the Elite cycle during the last two years without losing time. Elite could have been a solid game and good second option if EA gave them the time needed because you couldn't make the game properly in just one year (as we saw with Elite 11).

Yeah, that's an interesting point. I think they definitely needed to move away from some of the things they were going for in NBA Elite 11 though, the right stick shooting and lack of a turbo button for example, so it was worth re-thinking that three year plan if nothing else.