more difficulty modes...PLEASE! LOL

[Matthew]

Well, it depends on how you play! I don't know how those who complain about the missing difficulty play but there are several ways. I try to play realistically, I set screen, I play sets, I don't make many lay-ups, I take mid-range shots.

This is what drives me nuts about live. I hate playing cheesy and getting my points from headfakes and dunks all game. But unfortunately, unless if you have shooters with high fg ratings, you usually have to resort to that type of game.

2004 was the same, 2003 was the epitme of it. Thats why I'm skeptical about this game.

[fgrep15]

The mode I don't like is starter, as soon as I buy NBA Live games, I go right to Superstar, but when my little brother plays, I don't see a difference between Rookie and Starter, neither is challenging in any way.

They need to make Starter at least a little challenging.

[gut]

Well, it depends on how you play! I don't know how those who complain about the missing difficulty play but there are several ways. I try to play realistically, I set screen, I play sets, I don't make many lay-ups, I take mid-range shots.

I've played online a lot and many people just play a boring type of game...they just run and gun and every basket is a dunk or a layup. Of course they can win every game vs. the CPU when they just dunk and dunk and dunk. But it is boring! I don't try to score as many points as possible (which would result in the same move on every possession) but I want to have a realistic game with a realistic shot-selection and so on. When a player is near the basket and could dunk I don't dunk then but take a mid-range shot. As it never happens in real-life that a player can dunk that often.

you are right, we can control the realism by ourselves.

But this means that the game is not challenging to anybody, we need the game be more challengeable and the most important part is, as what I said before, AI enhancement.

PES4 (a popular soccer game) is much more challengeable (though you can still master it after a while), but the overall gameplay is still realistic everytime. They implement the difficulty well. They don't cheat (except the penalty kick) much.
The game may still be easy for someone but it's challengeable.
The "strategy", "formation" are very useful and EFFECTIVE.

I hope NBA Live will be in that direction some day...

[Leander]

I still play Live 2003, with tweaked rosters and my settings and I'm content with it. I score between 85-120 points a game, the FG is 49% in a season (ok, a bit too high) but I use a variety of shots...hook shots, three pointers, mid-range jump shots. I don't care about the result...to me, just the statistics count. I want to have a 20 PPG-player, a 10 RPG player, one with 10 APG and so on. Even if a player could go for dunk I sometimes choose to take an open jumper for the sake of realism.

When playing online it is often so terrible when guys have the turbo button pressed all the the time and just run around with turbo, bump into players and always go for the dunk/layup.

[Raptorel]

You know, the bad things with the difficulty levels is that... well... it's just too easy. I sometimes beat the CPU teams by even 60 points on superstar level and 9 minute quarters.

The sliders for me are like 0-layup, 0 block (both), 100 phisycal defense for the CPU, the same goes with their defensive rebounding and stuff.

Thing is, once you discover a fault in the CPU's defense dealings (like, if you call a pick and roll at the backcourt/frotcourt line, then penetrate around it with your PG then one player (SG or SF) remains free at the three-point line so there you go...), it's hard not to use them every time.

The same goes with stealing the ball when the CPU inbounds (he doesn't even try to move the PG... or you cover the point guard and then let him a little space, the pass goes and bam! you steal the ball).

Now of course this depends on whether you want to do these things or you don't... but... it would be nice to be modified a little.

To sum it up, I think it should be more difficult, not really like in NBA Live 2001 but you get the ideea.

[nbdpower]

this is true we need legend are super duper star...lol..all i know is that the game is to easy and something needs to be added to make it better

[VexxatuVexx]

I think the current difficulty modes is good enough

[Blue Nugget]

I hate how your guys dont play D on Superstar,which is actually the only thing that keeps me from playing on that difficulty mode. Too much hassle to deal with in my opinion.

[J@3]

I had a team full of undrafted rookies, highest rated 56 lowest being 48 and we used to beat everyone by at least 10 on Superstar after a while.. it got really boring, I was using fgrep's sliders too and they're generally make the game more difficult. No such problems with 2K5 however

[Donatello]

*sigh* i make a post suggesting more difficulty levels and that's defined as "bitching?" do us all a favor and get out more, thanks.

Ha, I don't know/care if you're actually a 'lady' or not, but I like your style. Board needs more posters like you, maybe I'd come back

[BrotherJRB]

There is kind of a philisophical question behind all of this....are we playing a game of basketball against CPU AI or merely a video game in which our desire is to win against a machine.

I have always found EA games to be the later to where instead of playing against, lets say, the Phoenix Suns and their high powered offense I am playing against NBA Live and its 3pt shooting fest, PG always putting up 20 shots, no offensive strategy game.

I don't feel that I am playing a game of simulated basketball but a video game. This has alot to do with the attributes,AI of NBA Live because with MVP Baseball 2005 I feel I am playing a game of baseball in which the players on both sides determine who will win or lose(with input from me the manager and physical controller of the players). If I face Ben Sheets I have a hard time getting my offense going but facing Eric Milton I am playing tee ball. But next time I face Ben Sheets I begin to realize his tendencies and start to get a little better against him, although his high attributes make it hard for me to dominate him like I would an Eric Milton. With NBA Live it doesn't matter if I play against Stephon Marbury or Keyon Dooling the PG is going to jack up alot of shots and the CPU is going to run basically the same no offense or strategy. The key to winning in NBA Live is to run on the perimeter and block three point shots. Even on superstar I can win with the worst team because all you have to do against every team is defend the 3pt line. With solid NBA strategy and AI this would not be the case.

To me the difficulty of sports games should be based on the attributes of the characters we control. If I am the San Antonio SPurs in a dynasty mode I should dominate and win 70% of the games I play. If I am the Charlotte Bobcats I should struggle to stay close in games and win around 30% of my games. That to me is what I want in difficulty settings as a base, from there I change the sliders/settings ever so slightly to make it more of a challenge if I feel the need.

The aforementioned MVP baseball and to a degree College Hoops 2k5 and NFL 2k5 were the only sports games I truly remember posing that challenge to me. I love being emersed in the strategy of the sport and letting that determine who wins or loses rather than a designed CPU comeback code or balancing factor. I think sometimes the video game aspect(ie easy uncomplicated fun) takes precedent to the sport these games are trying to represent.

edit: To add a reply to the debate I imagine that will follow....these video games are representations of a sport. The sport should override the video game factor. Therefore it is not like GTA,HALO or Dynasty Warriors where you play a true video game that is representing already mythical, unrealistic aspects(movies, comic books etc...) NBA LIve should try to represent the NBA, not a action packed video game with basketball tendencies (especially considering the overblown/arcadish sports games already exist...NBA Street, NFL blitz). I don't want to hear about the casual gamer and this and that because I don't think I have ever heard anyone complain a sports game had to much depth and realism. The casual gamer will casually game no matter what it is so making these sports games more sim like does not distract from the games ability to attract new customers it only adds.