NBA Live 2005 E3 2004 Hands-On Impressions

We were able to get a hands-on demonstration of the Xbox version of NBA Live 2005 at EA's E3 2004 booth. According to EA representatives, the developers have put in a lot of work into improving player models, both from a texture standpoint and a scaling standpoint. Big post players like Shaq will look much bigger and have a noticeably beefier frame than thin wing players like Kobe Bryant.

While the graphical tweaks were admittedly difficult to discern, what was noticeable were the improvements made to the gameplay. Last year's NBA Live 2004 separated the shoot and the dunk/layup buttons, which was a great change to the gameplay, adding more control over offense. This year's focus is on improving control over rebounding and shot blocking, with multiple buttons assigned for each of those tasks. Off of a missed shot, you can choose to press jump to just pull down the offensive rebound, or you can choose another button to attempt a putback dunk or yet another face button to try a tap-in. With a crowded lane, tap-ins seemed to work better, as putback dunks have a low probability of success if too many other bodies are around. But we were still able to execute quite a few putback dunks in the instances where the lane was relatively free.

On the defensive side of the ball, EA has also increased control over blocked shot attempts. While shotblocking was probably too easy in last year's version, this year's game will take each player's power, jumping, and blocking ability more into account, as well as the angle of attack on the shot. A regular jump will just apply pressure to the shooter, while with the other buttons you can attempt a weak tap block or a stronger swatting motion to send the ball into the stands. In our play-testing, we did notice that the shotblock dynamic has changed noticeably; in a lot of cases, the man we were controlling didn't get off the ground much at all, indicating that we weren't properly set up to attempt a good swat. Hopefully in the final version, this will result in less gaudy shotblock stat totals at the end of games.

Other tweaks we noticed were new entry pass animations. No longer do players jump awkwardly and throw overheads into the post. In our play-testing, we were easily able to get the post feeder to do a couple of different passes, including over-the-top lobs from the corner, and angled bounce passes from the wing. The pro hop has also been rebalanced. In last year's game, it was a little too easy for driving ball handlers to just press the pro hop and "push" the defender back to get an easy layup or dunk. In NBA Live 2005, if you try to jump-stop into a defender (instead of splitting two defenders), you'll lose control of the ball and turn it over. We definitely noticed this change in our play-testing on the E3 show floor.

It remains to be seen whether the midrange game that was so absent in last year's version will become more of a focus in NBA Live 2005. The AI operating players off the ball did seem to act more intelligently about flashing into open spaces and cutting toward the basket off double teams, so hopefully with additional tuning we can expect a more realistic feel to NBA Live 2005.

Unfortunately, EA wasn't ready to give details on the revamped franchise mode in NBA Live 2005. It did say that the aim was to add additional features, giving it a more "Madden-like" level of depth. NBA Live 2005 is being developed for the PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube platforms. Xbox Live functionality will be included for the first time, so all platforms save for the GameCube will have online multiplayer functionality. The game is expected to ship in October, before the next NBA season begins.