I have nba2k7 for the ps3 and nba live 07 for the pc. I think both games are good but I found that I enjoyed the gameplay of nba live more. After ea released the patch to fix the fatigue glitch I actually thought it was a pretty good game. Unlike most people I like freestyle control and freestyle superstars and I've always found ea's menu system easier to navigate than 2k games. That being said I've been eagerly anticipating purchasing my first next gen nba live basketball game and so far its looking real good
Online play:
In terms of additions to the game, the biggest news of all for NBA Live 08 comes in the form of online tournaments. Here, up to 32 players can compete in leagues that, according to producers, are based on online presence. In other words, EA does not handle the scheduling of tournament games; instead, the game merely handles the results and statistics then declares a winner when all games in the tournament are complete. Setting up a league is as simple as going to the appropriate menu and selecting "create online league."
Other noteworthy online options in the game include a versus mode, which pits you and up to three friends on the same console against an online foe (also with up to three friends), as well as and online quick pick play, which lets you play a game after building your team from scratch from various NBA stars. There's also plenty of ESPN-related content in the game, such as ESPN videos playing in the newly refurbished practice gym (where you can horse around with your favorite NBA star), as well as live stats, results, and stories that you can filter by league or team.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nbalive08/news.html?sid=6177918&tag=topslot;title;1&page=1
FIBA teams
FIBA World Championship Mode is an 8-team single elimination tournament that allows you to compete with any of the top international teams in the world or any of the 30 NBA teams. There are 8 international teams and they are: USA, Spain, France, China, Italy, Greece, Argentina, and Germany. The international teams are all available to play with not only just in FIBA World Championship Mode, but also in Play Now if you just want to play a quick exhibition game with any of them.
All of the official FIBA logos are being used in the game. All of the uniforms are accurately represented for all 8 of the national teams, including the 2007 version of Team USA’s uniforms that they are wearing for this year’s FIBA World Championship qualifying tournament. All of the players are rated as close to real life as possible, including their hot spots. All of the international players have real heads used with real reference that we gathered through FIBA resources, as well as through extensive research for photo reference for every international player from all over the internet. Even the body types were made as authentic as possible based on the same photo reference that was gathered.
http://blogs.ign.com/NBALive_08/2007/08/20/63943/
Better AI
TEAM STRATEGY
Creating team strategy in a dynamic game such as basketball where there are so many interchangeable parts that can all be in motion at any give moment is an interesting challenge, particularly when a human is in control of one of the players. The importance of great team AI can’t be emphasized enough since the game must be able to both compete against and work with the human player. With this in mind we took a unique approach to this abstract concept and developed a new strategy system which evaluates where players are on the court, thus allowing the AI to set up and run contextual quick plays. You no longer have to manually call for a screen because the AI will play basketball and set one for you. Imagine Tim Duncan stepping out to set up a pick and roll situation for you as a user because the AI read that this situation was a possibility for that player. You can choose to use the screen or not, but either way the AI will continue to look to create openings for you as a user (and against you as an opponent)
FEATURED SCORER
Basketball games have always had issues with the point guard being too dominant in the offense and taking too many shots due to the fact that they are typically the primary ball handler. We have taken a unique approach to solving this issue in LIVE 08 with the implementation of what we are calling the “featured scorer.” This logic is based on real player skills and tendencies: a player like Steve Nash is an excellent passer and known for passing first whereas Allen Iverson is a great scorer and known for being a shoot first player. Both players have prominent roles within their team’s offensive philosophy but in very different ways. As a result we assign a larger percentage of the offensive shot attempts to a player like Iverson vs. a player like Nash. You’re probably wondering what happens when you have multiple players on a team who are capable of being featured scorers which is the case for a team such as the San Antonio Spurs. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan are all capable of shouldering the load offensively. In this case each player is assigned a percentage of possessions where the offense is run through them. When the AI is evaluating the goal of a given possession they take this into consideration and run their offense accordingly.
TEAM DEFENSE
Defense is a major part of basketball and we’ve taken a unique approach to one on one defense with the help of our two player scenario system. However, the confidence you have in your team’s ability to help you when you get beat plays a large part in whether or not you win or lose. This year we have drastically improved our defensive help side logic. If the player guarding the ball carrier is beaten on a drive to the basket his teammates will recognize that his coverage is lost and rotate to the open man in an attempt to cut him off and possibly block his shot. If the opportunity presents itself the both the CPU and the user have the ability to trap the ball and knock it loose creating potential turnovers.
http://blogs.ign.com/NBALive_08/2007/06/15/57523/
Own The Paint
The post-up game is now a mini-game within the game, in a sense. It's a battle between offense and defense that, believe it or not, actually looks similar to a real NBA game. As an offensive player in the post, you'll have far more options than merely backing down a defender and then shooting close to the hoop. Using the analogue sticks, post players now enter into a shot/countershot battle of fakes and quick moves to the hoop. Moves in the paint are contextual and are based on the player, their position in the paint, and how you manipulate the sticks.
All of this is both fine and dandy, but the most impressive aspect of Own the Paint are the collisions. EA's motion-capture sessions were done in pairs, so that the collision of bodies looks natural. Bodies bang in mid-air and for the first time, it truly matters who is involved. If you want to see some carnage, have Earl Boykins drive against Shaq. Don't forget to call an ambulance after you watch the replay a few times. The collisions are more than just obvious David v. Goliath scenarios. Nash may drive towards the hole, leave his feet for a layup and get bumped by a pursuing Tony Parker who manages to get to the paint just in time. The contact will affect Nash's shot. And though he's got a magic touch, the shift in his arm angle sends the ball clanking off the rim. Sure, it's a foul, but at least it's not an "and one."
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/800/800515p1.html
Quickstrike Ballhandling
The Quickstrike ballhandling system uses very simple controls. All moves are based on moving the right analog up, down, left, or right. Yes there are only 4 directions that you need to know. The type of moves available depends on what your player is doing when you are using the Quickstrike system. For example, a ball carrier can be in triple threat, standing and dribbling, moving and dribbling, moving to a stand, post up, back down, or reversing their dribble. It is also important to note that all players are not equal. A players rating will dictate what moves are available. The reason we’ve designed the feature this way is because it allows us to differentiate players like Yao Ming, Vince Carter, and Baron Davis from one another. All three players have their own unique abilities with the ball in real life and our new system will ensure that these players are authentic.
As well as providing a wide variety of moves, our system gives us the ability to create high intensity and low intensity moves depending on how fast you move the right analog. This is a really cool aspect of the feature as players will now be able to break out of animations at any point as long as you’re in control of the ball. The result is an unprecedented level of ball control, where you can create move combinations like never before. For example, by slowly moving the right analog left to right with Baron Davis he will execute a series of low intensity crossover animations. By increasing the intensity of your analog movement, Baron Davis will start to execute faster more intense crossover animations that make him difficult to defend. At any point during this sequence you can decide to explode past your defender or perform another move like a behind the back. Some examples of cool dribble combinations that you can create are the UTEP two step popularized by Tim Hardaway in the 90’s, or the famous double crossover that Allen Iverson used against arguably the greatest player of all time Michael Jordan. Dribble combinations play an important role by keeping your defender off balance and faking him out. The better you get at creating combinations on the fly, the harder you are to guard (assuming your player can shoot!)
http://blogs.ign.com/NBALive_08/2007/07/12/60089/
New Dynasty Mode
Basically, the way that current Dynasty games are structured is that they are Pull systems: you have to go in there and pull out the information that you really want. What we're trying to do with Push Dynasty is turn that around so essentially the relevant, most important stuff that needs to be dealt with right now gets pushed to you.
So an example of that would be that you're playing a game, and a player gets hurt. You can go in and adjust your lineups if you want, or if you remember to do that in the old dynasty mode. What we're trying to do in the new Push Dynasty mode is actually have a little prompt come up and have your trainer say, "Hey, this guy is hurt. What do you want to do?" The idea with those questions is that we always wanted the following format: we always want you to be able to say, "I want to do this, or I want to do that, so give me some choices," or, "I don't want to do this ever again." So what Push Dynasty allows you to do is set up filters and basically tell your team staff, "Hey, I don't care about Player Evolution and I don't care about Team Chemistry, but I really care about Scouting and I really care about making trades and player moves."
So you can basically set up filters so that the first time one of these questions comes up, you can say, "Hey, you take care of that for me -- I don't ever want to know again." You can always go back in and change that after the fact, but the idea is that you get to concentrate on the parts of Dynasty that you like and the rest you can leave up to the CPU, and have pretty good confidence that they're going to do a good job. I found that in the old Dynasty, before we did this, my motivation for playing or really digging in deep was that I was afraid that I was going to miss something. What Push Dynasty does is that it kind of puts all of those things right out in your face, and you know that when your Scout needs direction, he's going to pop up and say so instead of just sitting there and doing nothing because you forgot to look at that menu. That's what Push Dynasty is all about.
Yeah, we have a whole new hub that we're calling Dynasty Central. It's a much better version of our old calendar screen. It's got a little bit of the calendar at the top, where you can cycle through the games and actually play right from there, but it's also got a lot of other information that we throw up there. It has rotating side panels that give you updated stats, standings and free agent information. There are toggleable panes that let you move through your lineup and rotation and all that, all from one central place. The menus and the screens behind all that are all there, so if you want to dig in and get to a specific screen and do things from the screens you're familiar with, you can. But right now, you don't have to leave that hub as often as you did in the past, which helps.
The other thing that's kind of cool is that a lot of things that used to take multiple days in the season happen instantly now. So that makes a big difference as far as how much time you have to spend. I always found it very annoying to propose a trade and then have to wait a day and then the guy would respond; you do all of that stuff now and it's instantaneous. You're making trades -- they either happen or they don't.
One of the things that we noticed when it came to the CPU teams was that there wasn't enough individuality or realistic behavior coming from them. In the past, everyone was following the same kind of basic rules about what kind of trades they would accept or what kind of players they wanted to draft or whom they'd sign as free agents. It wasn't any different if you were contending for the title or an expansion team or completely rebuilding, whereas in real life, we know that's the case. You approach trading and free agency differently depending on where the team is.
So we came up with this idea of three different directions that the team could take. You could be a rebuilding team, an up and coming team or a contending team, and that will change how the CPU team will accept or go after trades and which ones they will accept, the kind of free agents they go after, and the roster decisions they try to make. Do they keep the young guy or the experienced veteran? The teams use those as a guide to determine how to handle their rosters.
So if you get a team like the T-Wolves, for example of a team looking to rebuild, certainly now that KG is gone, they're looking to dump their salary. They're looking to add young talent; they don't need a lot of veterans, especially high priced veterans, because they aren't going anywhere this year. Whereas if you have a contending team, they might be willing to take on a salary, especially if they have room under the cap, while other teams wouldn't. I think it makes it a little bit more realistic as to how teams approach their roster.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/815/815669p1.html
Online play:
In terms of additions to the game, the biggest news of all for NBA Live 08 comes in the form of online tournaments. Here, up to 32 players can compete in leagues that, according to producers, are based on online presence. In other words, EA does not handle the scheduling of tournament games; instead, the game merely handles the results and statistics then declares a winner when all games in the tournament are complete. Setting up a league is as simple as going to the appropriate menu and selecting "create online league."
Other noteworthy online options in the game include a versus mode, which pits you and up to three friends on the same console against an online foe (also with up to three friends), as well as and online quick pick play, which lets you play a game after building your team from scratch from various NBA stars. There's also plenty of ESPN-related content in the game, such as ESPN videos playing in the newly refurbished practice gym (where you can horse around with your favorite NBA star), as well as live stats, results, and stories that you can filter by league or team.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nbalive08/news.html?sid=6177918&tag=topslot;title;1&page=1
FIBA teams
FIBA World Championship Mode is an 8-team single elimination tournament that allows you to compete with any of the top international teams in the world or any of the 30 NBA teams. There are 8 international teams and they are: USA, Spain, France, China, Italy, Greece, Argentina, and Germany. The international teams are all available to play with not only just in FIBA World Championship Mode, but also in Play Now if you just want to play a quick exhibition game with any of them.
All of the official FIBA logos are being used in the game. All of the uniforms are accurately represented for all 8 of the national teams, including the 2007 version of Team USA’s uniforms that they are wearing for this year’s FIBA World Championship qualifying tournament. All of the players are rated as close to real life as possible, including their hot spots. All of the international players have real heads used with real reference that we gathered through FIBA resources, as well as through extensive research for photo reference for every international player from all over the internet. Even the body types were made as authentic as possible based on the same photo reference that was gathered.
http://blogs.ign.com/NBALive_08/2007/08/20/63943/
Better AI
TEAM STRATEGY
Creating team strategy in a dynamic game such as basketball where there are so many interchangeable parts that can all be in motion at any give moment is an interesting challenge, particularly when a human is in control of one of the players. The importance of great team AI can’t be emphasized enough since the game must be able to both compete against and work with the human player. With this in mind we took a unique approach to this abstract concept and developed a new strategy system which evaluates where players are on the court, thus allowing the AI to set up and run contextual quick plays. You no longer have to manually call for a screen because the AI will play basketball and set one for you. Imagine Tim Duncan stepping out to set up a pick and roll situation for you as a user because the AI read that this situation was a possibility for that player. You can choose to use the screen or not, but either way the AI will continue to look to create openings for you as a user (and against you as an opponent)
FEATURED SCORER
Basketball games have always had issues with the point guard being too dominant in the offense and taking too many shots due to the fact that they are typically the primary ball handler. We have taken a unique approach to solving this issue in LIVE 08 with the implementation of what we are calling the “featured scorer.” This logic is based on real player skills and tendencies: a player like Steve Nash is an excellent passer and known for passing first whereas Allen Iverson is a great scorer and known for being a shoot first player. Both players have prominent roles within their team’s offensive philosophy but in very different ways. As a result we assign a larger percentage of the offensive shot attempts to a player like Iverson vs. a player like Nash. You’re probably wondering what happens when you have multiple players on a team who are capable of being featured scorers which is the case for a team such as the San Antonio Spurs. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan are all capable of shouldering the load offensively. In this case each player is assigned a percentage of possessions where the offense is run through them. When the AI is evaluating the goal of a given possession they take this into consideration and run their offense accordingly.
TEAM DEFENSE
Defense is a major part of basketball and we’ve taken a unique approach to one on one defense with the help of our two player scenario system. However, the confidence you have in your team’s ability to help you when you get beat plays a large part in whether or not you win or lose. This year we have drastically improved our defensive help side logic. If the player guarding the ball carrier is beaten on a drive to the basket his teammates will recognize that his coverage is lost and rotate to the open man in an attempt to cut him off and possibly block his shot. If the opportunity presents itself the both the CPU and the user have the ability to trap the ball and knock it loose creating potential turnovers.
http://blogs.ign.com/NBALive_08/2007/06/15/57523/
Own The Paint
The post-up game is now a mini-game within the game, in a sense. It's a battle between offense and defense that, believe it or not, actually looks similar to a real NBA game. As an offensive player in the post, you'll have far more options than merely backing down a defender and then shooting close to the hoop. Using the analogue sticks, post players now enter into a shot/countershot battle of fakes and quick moves to the hoop. Moves in the paint are contextual and are based on the player, their position in the paint, and how you manipulate the sticks.
All of this is both fine and dandy, but the most impressive aspect of Own the Paint are the collisions. EA's motion-capture sessions were done in pairs, so that the collision of bodies looks natural. Bodies bang in mid-air and for the first time, it truly matters who is involved. If you want to see some carnage, have Earl Boykins drive against Shaq. Don't forget to call an ambulance after you watch the replay a few times. The collisions are more than just obvious David v. Goliath scenarios. Nash may drive towards the hole, leave his feet for a layup and get bumped by a pursuing Tony Parker who manages to get to the paint just in time. The contact will affect Nash's shot. And though he's got a magic touch, the shift in his arm angle sends the ball clanking off the rim. Sure, it's a foul, but at least it's not an "and one."
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/800/800515p1.html
Quickstrike Ballhandling
The Quickstrike ballhandling system uses very simple controls. All moves are based on moving the right analog up, down, left, or right. Yes there are only 4 directions that you need to know. The type of moves available depends on what your player is doing when you are using the Quickstrike system. For example, a ball carrier can be in triple threat, standing and dribbling, moving and dribbling, moving to a stand, post up, back down, or reversing their dribble. It is also important to note that all players are not equal. A players rating will dictate what moves are available. The reason we’ve designed the feature this way is because it allows us to differentiate players like Yao Ming, Vince Carter, and Baron Davis from one another. All three players have their own unique abilities with the ball in real life and our new system will ensure that these players are authentic.
As well as providing a wide variety of moves, our system gives us the ability to create high intensity and low intensity moves depending on how fast you move the right analog. This is a really cool aspect of the feature as players will now be able to break out of animations at any point as long as you’re in control of the ball. The result is an unprecedented level of ball control, where you can create move combinations like never before. For example, by slowly moving the right analog left to right with Baron Davis he will execute a series of low intensity crossover animations. By increasing the intensity of your analog movement, Baron Davis will start to execute faster more intense crossover animations that make him difficult to defend. At any point during this sequence you can decide to explode past your defender or perform another move like a behind the back. Some examples of cool dribble combinations that you can create are the UTEP two step popularized by Tim Hardaway in the 90’s, or the famous double crossover that Allen Iverson used against arguably the greatest player of all time Michael Jordan. Dribble combinations play an important role by keeping your defender off balance and faking him out. The better you get at creating combinations on the fly, the harder you are to guard (assuming your player can shoot!)
http://blogs.ign.com/NBALive_08/2007/07/12/60089/
New Dynasty Mode
Basically, the way that current Dynasty games are structured is that they are Pull systems: you have to go in there and pull out the information that you really want. What we're trying to do with Push Dynasty is turn that around so essentially the relevant, most important stuff that needs to be dealt with right now gets pushed to you.
So an example of that would be that you're playing a game, and a player gets hurt. You can go in and adjust your lineups if you want, or if you remember to do that in the old dynasty mode. What we're trying to do in the new Push Dynasty mode is actually have a little prompt come up and have your trainer say, "Hey, this guy is hurt. What do you want to do?" The idea with those questions is that we always wanted the following format: we always want you to be able to say, "I want to do this, or I want to do that, so give me some choices," or, "I don't want to do this ever again." So what Push Dynasty allows you to do is set up filters and basically tell your team staff, "Hey, I don't care about Player Evolution and I don't care about Team Chemistry, but I really care about Scouting and I really care about making trades and player moves."
So you can basically set up filters so that the first time one of these questions comes up, you can say, "Hey, you take care of that for me -- I don't ever want to know again." You can always go back in and change that after the fact, but the idea is that you get to concentrate on the parts of Dynasty that you like and the rest you can leave up to the CPU, and have pretty good confidence that they're going to do a good job. I found that in the old Dynasty, before we did this, my motivation for playing or really digging in deep was that I was afraid that I was going to miss something. What Push Dynasty does is that it kind of puts all of those things right out in your face, and you know that when your Scout needs direction, he's going to pop up and say so instead of just sitting there and doing nothing because you forgot to look at that menu. That's what Push Dynasty is all about.
Yeah, we have a whole new hub that we're calling Dynasty Central. It's a much better version of our old calendar screen. It's got a little bit of the calendar at the top, where you can cycle through the games and actually play right from there, but it's also got a lot of other information that we throw up there. It has rotating side panels that give you updated stats, standings and free agent information. There are toggleable panes that let you move through your lineup and rotation and all that, all from one central place. The menus and the screens behind all that are all there, so if you want to dig in and get to a specific screen and do things from the screens you're familiar with, you can. But right now, you don't have to leave that hub as often as you did in the past, which helps.
The other thing that's kind of cool is that a lot of things that used to take multiple days in the season happen instantly now. So that makes a big difference as far as how much time you have to spend. I always found it very annoying to propose a trade and then have to wait a day and then the guy would respond; you do all of that stuff now and it's instantaneous. You're making trades -- they either happen or they don't.
One of the things that we noticed when it came to the CPU teams was that there wasn't enough individuality or realistic behavior coming from them. In the past, everyone was following the same kind of basic rules about what kind of trades they would accept or what kind of players they wanted to draft or whom they'd sign as free agents. It wasn't any different if you were contending for the title or an expansion team or completely rebuilding, whereas in real life, we know that's the case. You approach trading and free agency differently depending on where the team is.
So we came up with this idea of three different directions that the team could take. You could be a rebuilding team, an up and coming team or a contending team, and that will change how the CPU team will accept or go after trades and which ones they will accept, the kind of free agents they go after, and the roster decisions they try to make. Do they keep the young guy or the experienced veteran? The teams use those as a guide to determine how to handle their rosters.
So if you get a team like the T-Wolves, for example of a team looking to rebuild, certainly now that KG is gone, they're looking to dump their salary. They're looking to add young talent; they don't need a lot of veterans, especially high priced veterans, because they aren't going anywhere this year. Whereas if you have a contending team, they might be willing to take on a salary, especially if they have room under the cap, while other teams wouldn't. I think it makes it a little bit more realistic as to how teams approach their roster.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/815/815669p1.html
not even fucking close.
