Demo Impressions Thread

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Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:14 am

It's just gone live in Australia, and I'm still downloading it, but I thought that I'd start the impressions thread ahead of time. Glancing at my current download speed, it'll be a few hours before I can contribute anything further to the discussion.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Izzy Snow on Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:23 am

I watched flyguygbg stream and while it certainly looks good, it looks like it will take some time to get used to the controls. I'm already disappointed to hear the commentary pretty much untouched. I guess I'll be listening to your podcast while playing games so that's a win for you Andrew :P
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:33 am

Thing is, I re-use NBA Live 16 commentary too, for the intro to Our Week in Basketball Gaming. ;)
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby [Q] on Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:46 am

Please tell me it was everything you hoped and dreamed for
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Nick on Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:10 am

Where do you get it / what's it called? I can't see NBA Live in the ps4 store thing..

Edit: Ah. You have to follow a link. Here's the link for anyone that's curious: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-nz/ ... E18DEMOEAS
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Nick on Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:35 am

Live stream of the demo here if anybody can't play it for themselves. I'm gonna wait for the download and play it myself but i thought i'd share: https://youtu.be/sfIiIzURD9c
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:47 am

I'm still struggling with the dribble moves in 5v5, cause I'm so used to Live 16, player movement is taking some adjustment as well. CPU still going straight for the juggular in the paint

Posted these pictures on twitter

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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Yo1 on Fri Aug 11, 2017 3:39 am

ps4?
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Nick on Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:34 am

Yo1 wrote:ps4?

Look up
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:23 am

Xbox One
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:24 am

[Q] wrote:Please tell me it was everything you hoped and dreamed for


Game play and sliders coming real soon lol
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:51 am

Some game play footage between Cavs and Warriors

phpBB [video]
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby [Q] on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:16 am

ThaLiveKing wrote:Some game play footage between Cavs and Warriors

phpBB [video]

How were you able to get the demo? IIRC you are from Canada?
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:19 am

[Q] wrote:
ThaLiveKing wrote:Some game play footage between Cavs and Warriors

phpBB [video]

How were you able to get the demo? IIRC you are from Canada?


Yeah, but I switched to a New Zealand location on my Xbox
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Rodzilla91 on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:22 am

Played it, it was definitely better than Live 16, had fun with the small portion they gave you for The One. Think the crates are a cool idea even though you're not guaranteed something you want unless you buy it 10 times.

Only real issue I got with it, is that I'm not used to their control scheme when it comes to dribbling. Like spinning is different on Live than it is on 2K, it's all just muscle memory messing me up. I also had problems getting open sometimes, but with picks I was able to knockdown shots with relative ease.

Never liked the animations they have for free throws, and the commentary bugs me a little bit, but hey, it's really just nitpicking at that point. I'm just so used to 2K it feels entirely different to want to play another game.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby I Hate Mondays on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:32 am

ThaLiveKing wrote:Some game play footage between Cavs and Warriors

phpBB [video]



Lit video. The changes you've made to the game speed and sliders are definitely something else over the vanilla settings. Really enjoyed those 16 minutes you had there and the game is look absolutely wonderful, can't wait to try it one day.

On another note, why the hell is Thompson dabbing, lol? Not his style. Actually, that's not the style of most NBA players. Dabbing is more related to football.

Edit: Forgot to ask you because I can't tell by watching a video. Do jumpshots feel different from player to player or did they implement some generic jumpshots at different speeds so they give you the impression they are authentic?
Last edited by I Hate Mondays on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:36 am

Dribble tutorial - KSpade

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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby ThaLiveKing on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:50 am

I Hate Mondays wrote:
ThaLiveKing wrote:Some game play footage between Cavs and Warriors

phpBB [video]



Lit video. The changes you've made to the game speed and sliders are definitely something else over the vanilla settings. Really enjoyed those 16 minutes you had there and the game is look absolutely wonderful, can't wait to try it one day.

On another note, why the hell is Thompson dabbing, lol? Not his style. Actually, that's not the style of most NBA players. Dabbing is more related to football.

Edit: Forgot to ask you because I can't tell by watching a video. Do jumpshots feel different from player to player or did they implement some generic jumpshots at different speeds so they give you the impression they are authentic?


Kind of feel the same, Players jumpers feel better at 75 game speed. The sliders out of the box to be (at 50) are terrible.

Another vid:

phpBB [video]
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Nick on Fri Aug 11, 2017 3:03 pm

ThaLiveKing wrote:Some game play footage between Cavs and Warriors

phpBB [video]

Those player intros look fantastic.
Player driving looks good.
Sometimes players seem to do layups/dunks that don't suit their style/ability.
Movements don't seem that realistic compared to 2k but if it's fun to play i can look past that.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:08 pm

Some initial impressions of the demo.

The game feels a lot smoother on the sticks. In NBA Live 14-16, it felt like you were running along angles, and players were not very manoeuvrable, especially on defense. The controls feels a lot more responsive, which is nice. I have mixed feelings about the dribbling controls. I feel a regular crossover dribble should be performed without the sprint modifier, while between-the-legs should be a modifier dribble, but it's still pretty familiar. It's interesting that they adopted the Shot Stick from NBA 2K, and it definitely helps with some advanced moves, which I'm glad to see. Still getting the hang of them, and dribbling in general. If you've played NBA Live before then you'll have an advantage, but there's definitely a learning curve.

There are some nice animations in the game, new moves in the paint and so forth, but there's definitely still awkwardness there. It seems to be the speed of the animations more than anything. There's quite a few animations that look quite good in slow motion, but when they play out in real time, they're too fast, and look very stiff and abrupt as a result. Same thing when chaining certain animations together. If they can clean up the animation speeds, I think it'll really help from a visual standpoint, as well as further enhance the feel of the game.

Lobs seem a bit weird, especially when trying for an alley-oop at the rim. Even with directional passing, it seems to go to the wrong player. Might be me, I'll have to keep practising.

Defense in the paint could still be beefed up a bit, with more physicality. However, there are a lot more altered shots inside. Ambitious layup attempts do miss, and dunks do get blocked. I saw some different block animations, including a very cool looking fingertip block that didn't send the ball flying back. Field goal percentages, shot distribution, and stats in general were pretty on-point. Again, probably a few too many inside shots, but not too bad overall.

Shooting feels good, I do like the Shot Meter this year. A great shooter can knock down shots in the defender's face, no cheap contest logic there. Again, percentages were pretty good, so I don't think it'll be too cheesy. I saw the AI make some smart decisions like passing out of shots and hitting the open man when I made defensive errors. The Shot Meter is pretty quick on free throws, though. Overall, the NBA game feels pretty fun.

Interesting story with The One, a bit different to what 2K is doing. The ESPN presentation is cool. Being able to choose between rewards gives the conversations meaning on top of advancing the story. I like the idea of choosing between getting a crate, or RP/Hype. I wish I didn't have to play through that part of the demo to unlock the rest of it - I've never been a fan of that approach, and it bugged me when NBA Playgrounds did something similar - but I understand it's the big new feature, so they wanted to show it off first. The game felt a little slow from the baseline angle in The Streets, so I'm going to try another angle to see if there are any framerate issues. There does seem to be some framerate issues on the screen transitions, such as the ESPN wipes. They're quite choppy; could just be a bug in the demo. Also, a couple of menus/part of the interface seemed to be off-centre, but I'll have to check my settings.

Biggest gameplay gripe apart from some of the choppier animations would probably be some of the canned moments, like the automatic dribbling animations when you bring the ball up the court. I was hoping they'd get rid of them, as it adds a feeling of being out of control. I also wish they had a metric/imperial option for the measurements. It doesn't feel authentic to be playing an NBA game, and see metric measurements on overlays and so forth, just because I'm in a PAL region. They avoided that for 14 and 15, so I was disappointed that they went back to doing that for 16 and now 18. A minor gripe, and a region-specific one, but still. It detracts from what is otherwise really good presentation.

Online felt a bit sluggish, which was surprising. I didn't have a very good experience there. The best experience was probably the Play Now game between the Cavs and Warriors, which I guess bodes well for an NBA title. Playing single player in The Streets was OK, though. I noticed I had to call for the pass a lot, so the teammate AI could probably use some work in terms of making things happen and not standing around as much. That's not to say they weren't at all aggressive, but there were times when they weren't making the quick pass.

The Baseline camera angle, intended to maximise court vision in player lock mode, is zoomed in a bit too much. I haven't tried the other angles for The Streets yet. It needs to be zoomed out, and focus on your player, so you don't lose them. It's more important than your camera follows you rather than the ball in player locked gameplay, at least in my opinion. Nice to see some options for locking the view though, so that it always faces the opposing basket if you want. I'll have to play around a bit more with those settings.

I've recorded some footage which I'll upload as soon as I can. Just got to cut it down to the gameplay stuff. I'll also post a bunch of screenshots as soon as possible.

Overall, it does feel like a significant improvement on NBA Live 16 in some key areas. There's still some stuff to work out in regards to the animation speeds, because when some of them are slowed down, they definitely look better. Biggest technical issues were probably with the framerates on the wipes, and possibly from the Baseline camera angle in The Streets. I haven't messed around with sliders yet, but I felt the default ones weren't too bad in many respects, which is promising. I'm a bit concerned about the sluggishness of online, but other stuff felt pretty good, with the NBA gameplay being the best in my opinion. For the stuff that I'm interested in, it felt promising.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby [Q] on Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:13 pm

It definitely looks fun to play. Even I got excited just watching when it was close in the 4th. Celebrations seemed a bit much early on. Well, maybe a tad bit too frequent but they were a bit over the top. reminded me of the ones from NBA playgrounds.

I liked the turnover where Love got the steal. it showed the speed factor and you could catch up to him with faster players which could lead to some nice chase down blocks?
Passing was nice and quick and you could swing the ball to find an open jumper which was what made Live 10 so much fun.

Did they cut Mark Jackson from Live 16?
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:18 pm

Mark Jackson wasn't on commentary in NBA Live 14-16. Only NBA Elite 11. It's Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy with the call, Jalen Rose hosts the pre-game, halftime, and post-game shows, and there's clips of Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman in The One.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Arcane on Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:16 pm

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phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby Andrew on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:29 pm

Love some of those block animations. Pretty cool detail with Rose reacting to getting hit in the head with the ball, too.
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Re: Demo Impressions Thread

Postby I Hate Mondays on Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:52 pm

Andrew wrote:Pretty cool detail with Rose reacting to getting hit in the head with the ball, too.


Yeah that was so cool. I wasn't expecting that kind of an animation. Rumour has it he left the game injured and is out for 4 months after that.
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