Practice Mode

[kietsmark]

Hi there! Can someone tell me if nba live 09 has practice mode now wherein you can set your team's playbook on offense and defense with opponents and good AI? Thanks in advance

[Andrew]

The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions have the NBA Academy, in which you can run drills and scrimmage five on five. You can select plays to run when scrimmaging.

The Playstation 2 version has an expanded Practice Mode that allows you to play a five on five game as normal or run select plays to practice them.

[kietsmark]

^ thanks andrew now that's cool! unlike nba live 08 which doesnt have it...

[Andrew]

Indeed, Practice Mode has been fairly limited up until this year.

[kietsmark]

its me again offline gameplay only: does the player's skills and strength will be automatically adjusted according to the results of the practice? or it doesn't affect it in any ways? it will be more cooler if those skills will go down and up base on their practice attitude and accomplishments? for example... a coach will ask the point guard to take 50 free throws (say, the default skill of the point guard is 45/50 from the line) but as a user... i just make 40/50. i hope you dig me on this, and some other stuff the normal player usually tasked to do on practice. and yup... teams overall percentage will be affected also by their accomplishments on drills and scrimage? but hey... i guess this will defeat the purpose of dynamic dna...

[Andrew]

In the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version, the drills you run in the NBA Academy during Dynasty Mode will have an effect on your player's development. Using the Academy outside Dynasty Mode doesn't affect the players at all.

If you're talking about the Playstation 2 version, then Practice Mode has absolutely no effect on player development, period. You develop players by assigning training time with your staff in Dynasty Mode. You can't develop players outside Dynasty Mode.

[kietsmark]

i am very happy that EA now have this feature on nba live 09. i bought the game recently and satisfied with it though there are some negative issues still but so far so good. i can say that the improvement from nba live 08 is way better.

about the academy, it's a cool feature for me. are the play per team there are exclusive plays of the current team i am using in practice? or it's generic? say... those play for nuggets can be used on pistons? etc...

[Andrew]

I'm pretty sure that the default plays assigned in scrimmages are from the same team specific sets they use in other modes as part of the Signature Playcalling feature.

[kietsmark]

ic. just curious now... anyone here that use xbox360 on nba live 09, when you do the practice... say academy low-post offense, is there an animation of the controller at the screen on how to execute the moves? if there is, it will be a great feature and truly help a lot rather than just posting the buttons with their commands during loading.

[Andrew]

No, there are no animations that show you how to execute all the post up or Quick Strike moves.

[kietsmark]

same with the PS3. well... just for my own liking... it will be more user-friendly if they incorporate it as well.

[Andrew]

Yeah it wouldn't be a bad idea.

[kietsmark]

also in academy/practice mode...
we can use any player on any academy challenge? the team that we select as favorite will have no affect on the academy challenge? or there is a way on making our favorite team the default whatever play we choose? whether it is offense and defense.

[Andrew]

When you're using the Academy outside Dynasty Mode, random players are selected when you enter a drill though you can select other players if you want. In Dynasty Mode, the players on your team will be the only ones you can use while training through the Academy drills.