Here it is:
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jsp ... 8&tstart=0
I tells us about a "A little NBA Live 09 preview".
Allright. Here is the main source of this: http://www.vetzvirtualballin.com/
Vetzballing recently had an opportunity to sit down with NBA Live 08 producer Brian Ullrich to get his thoughts on the game a full month after it's release date. Among the many topics that were touched upon, Brian offered some insight into the long range plan for the franchise, what new gameplay features the majority of the fans seemed to like best this year and how fairly he felt Live 08 was reviewed by the press.
Now that the dust has settled and NBA Live 08 has been out for a little over a month, most of the experts have chimed in with their thoughts about the game. While the majority feel that Live 08 was a big improvement over last year's debacle, the general feeling is there's still a lot of work to be done. The good news for the Live fans is producer Brian Ullrich and the rest of the development acknowledge this fact and are 110% committed to returning the franchise back to it's lofty perch. But don't just listen to us, hear it straight from the source.
The improvement from Live 07 to Live 08 was astounding. How motivated were you to rectify the mistakes from last year?
BU: NBA LIVE had a very difficult decision to make after the 06 game, but we knew that if we wanted to make LIVE really great we were going to need a completely new AI framework and animation system. In retrospect, our eyes were a little bit bigger than our stomachs, and we just weren't able to get everything we wanted into the 07 game. The good news is that those tough choices are starting to pay off and there is no way we could have achieved what we did with LIVE 08 without all of the hard work that went into LIVE 07. It also means that as we look forward to the 09 game and beyond some pretty amazing things will be possible because of this new AI system.
Now that NBA Live 08 has been out for over a month now, most of the relevant gaming sites have offered their opinions about the game, overall are you guys pleased about how it was reviewed?
BU: I think that some of the reviews have been a bit harsh on the scores, but reading what they are saying is usually very fair. If you look at LIVE 08 purely on its own merits I think the scores should be higher, but I also understand that most of the reviewers have been playing LIVE for many years and that there is definitely a momentum from year to year in reviews. Sometimes with sports games you don't credit for everything you do in a year until the next year, so I get that to some degree we are still being held accountable by reviewers for the 07 game. What they are actually writing about is usually right on the money.
When you first showed us Live back in June, the overall feeling from us was NBA Live 08 was just the first step in the long range plan for restoring the franchise to it's previous loft perch. Would you say you are on schedule to accomplish that?
BU: Absolutely. We still have a lot of room for improvement and innovation in LIVE 09 and beyond. When you work on a series like NBA LIVE you have to balance everything you want to do this year vs.. the long term vision for the franchise. Every year you always need to do 3 things: a) add new features, innovation, and content, b) tune and improve on what you did last year, and c) get rid of the things that aren't working any more. NBA LIVE 08 is a nice comeback story for the franchise but no one here thinks our job is done.
Upon reading some of the feedback from various fan sites what are some of the new features in Live 08 that you think the fans took to the best?
BU: People seem to be pretty positive on the game running at 60 fps, QuickStrike ball-handling, and new post game, but its not always easy to tell. Don't take this the wrong way but it can be difficult to get a good read on what people like on fan sites because it's the nature of sites is to act like a school of piranhas. Somebody starts a thread and everyone jumps in and frenzies on that one idea or topic until it runs out of steam.
We agree, muddling thru the muck on forums can be an arduous task at times.
That's not a knock on anyone, its just the nature of the internet and forums in general, and it can make it very difficult to separate the important stuff from the trivial. If I get on the forums on the wrong day I might come away thinking the best thing about the game is shoe colors or whatever is being discussed that particular day. That's why I like the community wishlists- they are a great way for fans to decide on what is really important and let us know what we are doing right and wrong.
This year the focus was primarily on the core 5 on 5 game play, how successful do you think that plan was executed?
BU: I'm very proud of our team and how much we accomplished this year. We did some really nice things in 5-on-5 and we are really set up well to do some great things for 5-on-5 gameplay in the future.
What are some things that you didn't particularly like how they were implemented and want to improve?
BU: We have started working on a plan for what we want to focus on for LIVE 09, but I don't want to give away anything this early. I can say that the we want the jump in quality from 08 to 09 to be just as big or bigger than the jump from 07 to 08.
Online wise, Live 08 is a huge step up from past efforts, none bigger than the announcement of 10 man co-op play. What kind of impact do you think this will have across the board when it comes to playing sports online?
BU: Playing with 5 friends vs.. 5 friends has always been kind of the holy grail for online gamer- we've been talking about it for along time and now its finally here. However, getting the 10 people in a game together is really just the first step. There's only one ball, so the next step is to figure out how to make the game fun and challenging for the players who don't have the ball. While we don't have all the answers right now, this is what our online guys are working on for the future of Online Team Play.
Were you guys able to get everything in for Live 08 that you envisioned, or were some things omitted due to time constraints?
BU: You never get everything you want in the game- that's just the nature of development. The great thing about doing yearly sports games is that there's always next year. Online Team Play was something that we didn't get done in time for the initial release, but the cool thing about the next generation of consoles is that they allow us to do give our users big new features after we've shipped the game.
In regard to that, what are some features fans can look for in the future?
BU: Well, we're not ready to start talking about next year just yet. We should talk again spring.
One of our favorite features here at Vetz is quick-strike ball handling because of it's intuitiveness and the ability to break the animations at will . What were the motivating factors behind this idea?
BU: I'm glad you like it. QuickStrike is an evolution of the old freestyle control, but done in a next gen way. The big change is that our new animation system allowed us to make ball handling with the right stick much more fluid and realistic by letting you seamlessly branch between moves and string moves together naturally and intuitively. It allows the user to react to what is going on without ever feeling like you are locked into watching an animation play out before you can do what you want.
How soon after the development cycle for NBA Live 08 was over did you start putting the wheels in motion for NBA Live 09?
BU: We actually started talking about LIVE 09 with the producers and designers in July before 08 is even done. We start getting the rest of team going around the end of September, but this is the time of the year when people like to take some time off, so the whole team really doesn't get ramped up and really moving until about the middle of October.
You guys went with Gilbert Arenas for the cover this time, what was it about him you liked to rep this year’s edition?
BU: I can't think of anyone I would rather have on our cover this year than Gilbert Arenas. Other than the fact that he is a truly amazing basketball player, he really embodies everything we felt like we needed to do to get NBA LIVE back on top this year. He's talented, hard working, ultimately self-confident, and has had to overcome a lot to get where he is today. He is also a video gamer so that helps. I also like the fact that Gilbert is not shy with his opinions about the game and what he would like to see in the final product. He's the perfect guy for our cover.
Do you guys ever peek over at 2K Sports to see what they're doing with their game?
BU: Yes we do. We play just about every sports game on the market (and lots of non-sports games too). Most of the people in the game industry got into it in the first place because we love playing games, so it’s pretty easy to stay up on what everyone else is doing.
If there was any message you could deliver to the diehard Live fans out there, what would it be?
BU: That we appreciate your loyalty and to NBA LIVE, that we will continue to listen to you and what you want to see in the game, and that we will keep making the game better and better in our quest to create the most realistic, authentic, and fun basketball game ever made.
Thank you for taking the time out to speak to Vetzballin.
BU: Any time. I've always got time for Vetz.
You can access the source link from the "Stories Archive" of http://www.vetzvirtualballin.com/
The date should be November 2007.
