E3 presentations can be tricky. You never really get a chance to dig into the guts of a game and it's easy to get wooed by a slick demo. Sometimes, though, you can just tell when a game is headed in the right direction. NBA Live 08 is one such game.
NBA Live has struggled of late to keep up with the NBA 2K series from 2K Sports. "The gameplay just wasn't where we wanted it to be so we completely redirected our focus," said Producer Julien Carron. Based on playing the game for about 30 minutes, he's not kidding. Not only has the company added several inspired new features, but the gameplay itself, even in this unfinished state, is dramatically better than last year's game.
Carron says that EA has learned a lot from previous mistakes and is no longer trying to add flashy features that no one wants; instead, every new feature is designed to make NBA Live play like a real basketball game, not just a videogame interpretation of one. That's a tall order, but when you actually play the game you can see things are moving down the right path.
So many areas of the gameplay have been touched up, like rebounding. No longer will the ball magically move to a player's outstretched hands. Instead, the player will go after it, snatching the ball out of the air. In addition, players actually box out, using their legs and arms to keep offensive rebounders at bay, and for the first time ever in an NBA Live game, multiple players will attempt to bring down a rebound, which gives a whole new meaning to the "crash boards" strategy.
The players are also more aware of their surroundings; for example, if a player has the ball under the basket, he will not just shoot the ball off the back of the backboard, causing a frustrating turnover. Instead, he'll lean off-balance under the rim and try to lay it off the glass. Little things like this are everywhere and they go a long way toward adding authenticity.
Hot spots also aim to make the game more realistic. Players have spots on the floor where they are more prolific at scoring. Bruce Bowen is a sharpshooter from three-point range in the corner. He's not as accurate from the top of the key. Tim Duncan is deadly off the block but not as good when pushed out to the foul line. A quick tap of the bumper reveals the hot spot zones for the player with the ball, listed in either red (the hot spots), yellow, or blue tones. There are a whopping 14 zones in all so you really get a good mix of shooting location accuracies.
In addition to the zones, the game takes into account how open a player is, the defender's ability to alter shots, and if a player is "super-close" to the basket. So even though a player may have a "cold" zone rating in the paint doesn't mean he'll continuously miss open three-foot shots. EA obtained the zone ratings directly from the NBA so they should, in theory at least, be pretty accurate.
The new "Go To" moves are like signature moves -- Tony Parker's floater, Kobe's fade-away, Duncan's 12-footer off the glass, etc. Best of all, there's no button that triggers these moves; they are all context-based so the game decides when to use them. This is a big deal because it should stop players from abusing these special moves. So when Parker drives into the lane, and the AI feels the situation calls for it, he'll shoot his deadly floater. There are 40 Go To moves in the game so most of the stars will be represented.
The inside game has received a lot of attention as well. No longer will players slam into each other, instead they'll jostle and fight for position. It certainly looks a lot more realistic to see big men using their arms and hands to get position down low. Along these same lines, players no longer shoot jumpers from five feet away from the basket. Instead they'll try a finger roll, a one-hander off the glass or a two handed lean-in lay-up. Everything just looks a million times better.
