Animations, Physics and Presentation
This is probably the one area where Live has been lacking for years. Live 2005 was the last Live game I considered acceptable in terms of animations. Now, compared to their competition, Live has always been behind. Players have always had generic movements and stiff animations that really detract from the overall experience. In the build I played, Live has made a huge leap in terms of animations. Basic animations, such as contact between players, players falling out of bounds, jumping for the tip… all are well represented in the game. Players fight for position and interact very well, the best of any Live game to date. For once, watching the game was actually fun. Things looked like they should for the most part, with only a limited amount of strange animations.
Ball physics are much improved, but still very predictable when going through the hoop. The game does have what seems to be a wide open engine, however. During one game, as I played a fellow community leader into OT, we had an instance where the ball bounce up on top of the backboard and got stuck up there. Surely a bug, but it was sweet and sour to experience at the same time. I mean, it was OT people! Worst time for that sort of thing to happen!
The high arcing lobs in the post are gone. Now, you get solid passes including step through, wrap around passes in the post; much better than last year and very believable. Shots had a different arc when your timing was off and actually floated a bit too high. I was told this would be toned down on release.
Signature shots were certainly improved for the big names… Ray Allen, LBJ, KG, Kobe, D. Fish… all looked great. Certainly I would have liked to see more but the ones I noticed looked like they should. There still could have been more for the lesser known players. BTW, shot releases are controllable this year.
Dunks animated well but there were still a few instances where the dunk animation would play regardless of the defender standing there. You would see the dunk start and the defender conveniently just slide out of the way, against their will. This wasn’t a big issue, but it’s there at times.
Player mannerisms and emotion is much better as well. Guys actually raise their hand to call out plays and call for the ball in a variety of ways. They even pump their fist and do little hops of joy after a good play or shot. Very welcome to see this…
In terms of presentation, the commentary team is phenomenal again. They were spot-on with their comments and kept me involved. The game introduction is slightly new with dance-team routines going on (there were multiple) as well as the teams huddled up and getting “hype.” If you’re looking for a pre-game show or something similar, don’t look here. I will say what was there didn’t detract from the experience but aside from the commentary it didn’t enhance it.
Lighting throughout the arenas is correct this year.
Likes:
Much better animation in every aspect of the game
Player emotion
Improved sig shots
Score ticker is very nice!
Dislikes:
Not enough signature shots
Animations would lock you into a move until they play out completely
Lack of a true broadcast style presentation