Overall Controls/Feel of the Game

How would you rate NBA Live's overall control out of 10?

Honestly I'd have to give it a 6. For some reason, there feels like a lot of inconsistencies with the game play in general under the hood and it's affecting the overall performance of the game. One day the game is playing fast, and the controls are ultra responsive, then there's times where it feels the complete opposite? I also believe there's a lot of random contextual animations that control the game play, such as the walking the ball up the floor/slow the pace down animations, and the momentum fast breaks that look awkward especially when you catch the ball in the corner. There has to be a way for the dev team to give complete control in these situations. For instance, if we, the player, want to walk the ball up the floor, why not implement that with the left stick? The overall control of the tempo should be up to the users to decide. I'm straying away from the actual topic now, I just feel that with the control scheme there's way too much input lag, that maybe due to all these contextual situations.

What do you guys think? Am I giving it a low rating for overall control responsiveness to animations? Do you think they are they relying on too much on the timing based off animations? Not sure?
Is there a difference in control responsiveness when the game is faster compared to slower?

Need some others thoughts

I'd probably score it a little higher, especially compared to the stiffness in NBA Live 14 and NBA Live 15. There's still some issues with lateral movement on defense, but I believe that's more of a balance issue, since the CPU feels like it's a couple of steps quicker most of the time. Rebounding and shot blocking is sometimes a little delayed, but I'm generally pretty happy with player movement. You don't want to see waterbug movement that looks and feels like skating; the players do need to have footplanting and momentum.

I definitely agree about the contextual animations when bringing the ball up the floor though. I like the idea of players raising their arms to call plays on the way up the floor, and other little details like that, but the contextual dribbles behind the back and whatnot do make the controls feel a bit heavier and less responsive than normal. I too would prefer to simply be able to control the tempo with the left stick and sprint, without those contextual animations coming into play.

I think they need to add a jump hop stop after catching the ball, players just flying towards the out of bounds is so awkward. I wish the game was more precise with using space, hopefully that comes with time!!

Honestly, Live 15 felt way better. The only issue with 15 was the inability to do spin gathers, while I feel like in 16 I lose "control" of my player to animations more.

Honestly, Live 15 felt way better. The only issue with 15 was the inability to do spin gathers, while I feel like in 16 I lose "control" of my player to animations more.

For real. I think that may be the reason I haven't played LUT a lot this year. The control with the game play last year made it a lot of fun. This year, the game play seems too "serious" for that mode, in my opinion anyways. I like the whole double tap concept. Maybe they can use that for other game play enhancements.

Honestly, Live 15 felt way better. The only issue with 15 was the inability to do spin gathers, while I feel like in 16 I lose "control" of my player to animations more.

I honestly don't feel that. Live 15 also felt a lot stiffer on defense, though as I said, that's still sometimes an issue because the CPU feels a few steps quicker.

... because the CPU feels a few steps quicker.

I noticed this on inbound plays. I would attempt to start moving my player only to see the cpu defender react before any animation kicked in. It didn't happen every time, but when you experience something like that, you know there is something under the hood that needs to be addressed.

I want to clarify that it isn't truly about control, but more responsiveness. They tried to give us control one time and we all know how that turned out. The quicker the game responds to button presses, the better, imo. Providing that the animation is within context of the situation physically. I don't mind having response a bit hindered during collision animations as long as there is a way to adapt or adjust during it. I don't want to see players going 0 to 100 just because the animation plays out like that, but I do want to have players react quicker when using the sprint modifier.

The problem with double tapping is the developers have to program in a wait period for the second button tap to register the command, which results in a delay or less responsiveness. I'd rather see combo button presses or another modifier button.

For the contextual ball handler animations, I would just like to be able to cancel it quicker with the turbo button or even initiate it with another type of control. Since it's a long animation, maybe holding the right stick in one direction could give you different animations as you bring the ball up.

Or just have it when you call plays. Some of the animations are cool to have, maybe make use of the D-Pad to activate those, kinda like taunts in those old wrestling games lol

Yeah, cancelling out of the contextual animations when bringing the ball up the floor would be a good compromise. Good point about responsiveness, too. Like I said, you don't want to have waterbug movement, with skating and sliding. Player momentum has to be accounted for. After all, it's only going to lead to more awkward animations and transitions between animations if changes in direction don't take into account the momentum and physics of the players themselves. It's being able to break out of animations to get off a quick shot and so forth that's a big problem there, as well as the CPU being able to warp and change direction much quicker.