10 Things EA can do to improve for NBA Live 2010.
Anyone that knows me, knows that from October to July I am engulfed in NBA basketball. This is no exception for video games. In celebration of the 2009 draft, this is a great topic. I have owned NBA live games dating back to NBA Live ‘95 for SNES (and I still have it!). Last year, EA shocked the sporting games world with the introduction of “dynamic DNA” to NBA live 2009. When I saw press conference and videos, I was sold immediately and bought the game on the day it was released. Dynamic DNA updated players statuses, injuries, trades, and playing habits onto your console after every single game, and every single press release. This was a giant and necessary step for sports games, but there are still a ton of problems that I hope to see (and have been vaguely assured by EA’s Marcus Stephenson) fixed in Live 2010.
1. Faster Updates: With the release of NBA:365 dynamic DNA, we were promised updates every day. NBA 2009 sometimes lacked the necessary daily updates when your favorite players played a much better game last night, and is still stuck with his stats from two nights before. Making sure players are back and an activated from injury on time is a must as well. Nothing is worse than seeing your favorite all-star has finally recovered from a torn tendon, yet is still inactive in online play. Making sure the daily updates are completed as promised should be a priority.
2. Better defensive AI: There are a lot of problems with the AI of this game, but the thing that really pisses me off is when you’re controlling the ball handler and going in for the lay-up and you miss, and your AI team mates just stand there and watch the other player take the rock. Sometimes they even jump and put their hands down, not even attempting to rebound! If you’re going to claim to make the game as realistic as ever, try making the defense actually practice defensive skills.
3. Pre-Game rituals and Starting Line-Ups: One of my favorite parts of going to an NBA game is the arena going dark and the giant screens lighting up with signature team videos showing off their players. I’m not saying they even have to go that far, but at least announce the players for crying out loud. They half-assed this in 2009, showing one or two of the best players, then cutting to tip-off. It wouldn’t hurt to show pre-game rituals either, like Kevin Garnett’s primal roar, or Lebron’s chalk throwing…which has already been confirmed to be added in the game.
4. Better Graphics for Crowd, Cheerleaders, and Mascots: Now the addition of mascots was pretty cool, but having them stand there like statues or doing one or two robotic moves during is grounds for just leaving them out of the game. The cheerleaders look awful, and the crowd is somewhat decent, but still needs more variety. It is always the same guy in the red shirt that gets up claps twice, then sits down.
5. Leaving counts as a loss: Nothing is more INFURIATING then kicking someone’s ass in a game online and having them leave with ten seconds left in the fourth quarter. When this happens, there are no penalties. The user’s DNF (Does Not Finish) percentage goes up. This means nothing and no one looks at this before they play a game. EA should penalize the leaver with an instant loss or do some kind of suspension of online play after an abundance of this.
6. Fix those graphical errors: Several times when I play online I get all sorts of graphical problems. Players will go completely through other players when driving to the basket. I’ve even had a game where a last second shot was at hand, and the opponent shot the ball through the backboard from out of bounds and won the game. This is a must-fix in order for me to buy the next game in the series.
7. Fix the game-play issues: Problems include: In-bounding the ball to a player that is out of bounds; Selecting a player close by to pass the ball to, and the ball is heaved into the side-lined; Getting rejected by the defense, the ball going out of bounds, and having it be the other team’s ball; Taking a time-out and having the opposing team all in position to score while your team is “walking off the bench”. All these problems need to be taken care of.
8. Inclusion of the present year’s draft class: The game has no problem in adding players that come over internationally to the NBA, and therefore should include new players that come over in the draft for the present year. The game says 2010, and represents 365 days of NBA, therefore the 2010 NBA draft should be updated the day after the draft. They have enough technology to at least make the players selectable. They could at least put them in for exhibition games before the next game comes out.
9. Player Customization: They touch base in this in NBA Live ‘09, by adding headbands or changing hair color’s, but in the NBA this can be a big deal for devoted fans. One of the big stories of the NBA this year was Allen Iverson shaving his famous cornrows, we wanted to see this in the game!
10. Injuries: Sure, this may sound stupid, but you wouldn’t believe how flooded the messages boards are with questions and requests about injuries. It is just not as realistic or fun when you’re going through a franchise, and several other teams have the challenges of playing through them with some of their stars being injured, but never you. This is unrealistic and makes some of the more challenging team match-ups much easier than they should be.
Videos and details about Live 2010 should be popping up soon. I can hardly wait!
6 Comments
Couldn't agree more. Great Article!!!
Yeah some good points made here, nice job. Still, I far prefer 2K because it FEELS more like a basketball game. Mid air collision detection and shot adjustment is much better and the players react to each-other much more realistically.
Live is getting there, but I still far prefer 2K games.
i think you should be able to create a team, have a single player carrer mode/superstar mode, and bring back nba free style contol like on 07, also a momentum factor would be nice to have also
plz fix da fast break after u score its nearly impossible to defend that and in clutch games may cause u to lose happened to me a number of times…
also on the Ps3 if u have the lakers u can make shots with derrick fisher all day if u just HOLD the shot button and never let it go i found this to be pretty lame because i play with the lakers and every1 thinks i win because of that….
ohhh and another thing defense needs to improve because sometimes u can just run in and the defenders will just sit there and watch u run past them (not the user because you play the defense well but the computer)