My suggestions for Live 2004

[aussiebrett]

Overall, 2003 is a vast improvement. There is however one glaring omission that needs to be addressed urgently: INJURIES! The lack of injuries on human controlled teams is an absolute joke. The EA motto is "If it's in the game, it's in the game." Have any of you ever watched an NBA game where every player on both rosters is available and 100% healthy? No. Imagine the changes in strategies and gameplans needed if your franchise player blew out a knee in the 2nd game of the season. This adds to the simulation feel of the game. Players playing out of position is an every day occurence in the NBA. In NBA Live, you can play 40-odd minutes with all five of your starters for the full 82 games. No team in the history of the NBA has ever done that!
My friend has Madden 2003 on ps2, and in 5 games, has already lost his first string SS, both CBs and both tackles, with the SS out for the season. He has had to play rookies and second-stringers as starters, and has had to shuffle his whole gameplan around. I don't know about you, but this is a lot more interesting to me than knowing exactly who your starters are before every match. In Madden, you can even choose to play an injured player at less than 100%, knowing that his output may not be what you are used to. His fatigue level goes down quicker, and his ratings are lower. If Madden can do this with the number of players it needs to cater for, why can't NBA?
It is frustrating that such a good game could be SO much better. Instead of mucking around with those stupid player cut sequences, use the memory for something useful. The Freestyle control is a step in the right direction, but as I read often on these discussion boards, we want NBA Live, not NBA Jam.
Please start listening to your own motto whilst programming your game.

[Scary Hedo]

your right with everything, especially
with that injury thing

[GForce11]

Very true. Injury is almost an afterthought...more like a no-thought whatsoever.
I feel the need to address the follow. Please do not let EA Canada make this game. Send it to Tiburon or something. Obviously they can't get it right so just let them make NHL and give the fellow at Tiburon a shot at making a REALISTIC NBA Simulation.

There's too much blocking,
too much stealing
poor CPU AI
Scoring is FAR to easy.
I better free agency that allows Teams to BID for players would be nice.

One think i'd like to add is perhaps giving players more personality. For example, guys like Rasheed tend to voletile than others.. Maybe that would be a nice aspect of the game to consider.

[dc1314]

Injuries should not be high but they should have more plays getting minor injuries like need to go to the locker room to soak it and at Halftime They should let you go into your locker room should have even rebounds less blocks less steals slow the game up just a little and should have an option where you just hit update roster and it will update it to that day. Franchise should be better for the draft show some stats of what the player did in college/high school then dont have tim duncan signing no miniunm contacts make it realistic. Trades should not be that easy. Put some more legends dont discrimate put Spud webb in there I can go on and on about things that need fixing but those things are the serious ones.

[LegoSHAQ]

I am sorry you guys are screwed in the head? You don't know what you want...

There's too much blocking,
too much stealing

You complain there are too many blocks and steals... but then ...

Scoring is FAR to easy.

... um? how do teams stop scoring? isn't it thru blocks and steals? Injuries should not be high? Injuries should be high? The game is too fast... but the biggest complaint about 2001 was that the game pace was not realistic and too slow? They should let you go into your locker room? WTF?

Do you know what is going to happen... in 2004 EA will reduce the chance of shots going in and then people will complain... it's too hard to make a shot this game is boring... I can never score.. blah blah blah...

[D1X1NG]

I am sorry you guys are screwed in the head? You don't know what you want...

There's too much blocking,
too much stealing

You complain there are too many blocks and steals... but then ...

Scoring is FAR to easy.

... um? how do teams stop scoring? isn't it thru blocks and steals? Injuries should not be high? Injuries should be high? The game is too fast... but the biggest complaint about 2001 was that the game pace was not realistic and too slow? They should let you go into your locker room? WTF?

Do you know what is going to happen... in 2004 EA will reduce the chance of shots going in and then people will complain... it's too hard to make a shot this game is boring... I can never score.. blah blah blah...

I agree man... me for example I cant complain about anything in fg in this game... I had games ending in 40-50fg percentage and games in 30% fg percentage, it depends on if the shot is contested or from where or from who it was taken... however you can complain about stuff that haven't been implanted.
shots will always be too easy for some people and too hard for some people... it depends PEOPLE dont jusge something after a few games only.

[Andrew]

Tim mentioned improved injuries and trading AI as two elements that were not looked at in NBA Live 2003, but were on the drawing board for future versions of NBA Live, so we could very well see those improvements yet.