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[DMczaf]

http://sports.ign.com/articles/625/625260p1.html

Trailer: http://media.sports.ign.com/articles/625/625260/vids_1.html

The elite ball handlers, players like MVP Steve Nash, are called Playmakers. When controlling a playmaker down the court, you have eight different passes you can throw. From going behind your back to a no-look pass to a streaking Sun, you control the type of pass you want to throw by holding down the left trigger while pressing or holding one of the face buttons. For example, holding down the left trigger while pressing A will showoff a bounce pass, but if you hold down the left trigger and hold A, Nash might throw something more stylized like a pass between his legs.

And when throwing a pass down to Amare, Stat can throw down on just about anyone in his path as he is designated as a Power superstar. Similar to passing the ball with Nash, players will again hold down the left trigger while either tapping or holding one of the face buttons while Amare is down low in order dunk the ball. And believe me, there's nothing soft about any of these dunks. Gone are the days where Amare gets a shot blocked at the rim by Bob Sura. Gone are the days when you want to dunk but all you get is some weak looking layup. Now if you've got a power player like Amare or Shaq down low, they are going to dominate the paint.

I have to say, after playing the game against the producer, the superstars have changed the gameplay completely. All of a sudden, the Suns play like the Suns with Nash leading the break. Play as the Heat, and Shaq is dunking on people's heads, clearing defenders out of the lane. Other improvements include being able to throw alley-oops on the run, passes that are thrown in transition and on the run instead of the waiting for the passing animation to slow down the play. Defenders who constantly smack the steal button now can deliver hard fouls down low, as all of the action seems to have heavily ramped up the physical nature of the game.

 

[sportzhead]

Good looking out. Checking it out now.

 

[newsguy]

OMG @ Tony Parker getting BALLS on his forehead on that last dunk. I played it over and over and his arm reacted and bounced off the player's legs.

 

[DMczaf]

OMG @ Tony Parker getting BALLS on his forehead on that last dunk. I played it over and over and his arm reacted and bounced off the player's legs.

:lol Yeah that was a nice touch. Hopefully they have Shawn Bradley's Superstar move, the ability to get teabagged.

 

[BojTrek]

I have loved NBA2K over NBA Live for years... but Live is starting to have the players are too large for the court look.

It looks like they are playing on 8 foot rims...

Bring on NBA2K6 on X-Box 360... and next year on PS3...

 

[DMczaf]

Bring on NBA2K6 on X-Box 360... and next year on PS3...

"Thank you sir, may I have another?!"

 

[sportzhead]

:lol Yeah that was a nice touch. Hopefully they have Shawn Bradley's Superstar move, the ability to get teabagged.

You had me dying laughing with that one, good stuff. I'm really feelin' the Playmaker stuff, just hope the computer uses it to. They never use the dribbling move in Live 04. One big question though, will this stuff be in the Xbox 360 version?

 

[newsguy]

:lol Yeah that was a nice touch. Hopefully they have Shawn Bradley's Superstar move, the ability to get teabagged.

Picture added for concrete proof.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Looks like crap.......

EA...can you please clean up the animations after mocapping them. God they look like they are moving in slow motion. Live '03 looked so much better in the animation department. ALso how the hell do they stiill get the rim height wrong?! Either the rim is too short or the players are too tall.

 

[bionic77]

I have loved NBA2K over NBA Live for years... but Live is starting to have the players are too large for the court look.

It looks like they are playing on 8 foot rims...

Bring on NBA2K6 on X-Box 360... and next year on PS3...

I used to be the biggest NBA2k whore ever, but the series has gotten so bad recently. I mean it is pathetic when the best basketball game around is from 2002.

Live is probably a better series now, but to be honest all the basketball games are pure garbage these days. Be smart and just stick to Winning Eleven and Madden duriing the REAL football season.

 

[DMczaf]

Live is probably a better series now, but to be honest all the basketball games are pure garbage these days.

And you make fun of Jordan fans living in the past?

 

[bionic77]

And you make fun of Jordan fans living in the past?

I would be happy if EA made a great basketball sim, but I am not happy with any of the games out right now. I am not some anti-EA crazy like some of the others on this board.

I just call it like I see it and to me EA doesn't put 1/10 th effort into Live that they do into Madden and it really shows in the final products.

 

[jobber]

Live is a joke now.

EA Lost

 

[DMczaf]

I would be happy if EA made a great basketball sim, but I am not happy with any of the games out right now. I am not some anti-EA crazy like some of the others on this board.

I just call it like I see it and to me EA doesn't put 1/10 th effort into Live that they do into Madden and it really shows in the final products.

Meh, I like NBA Live lately. NBA2K on the other hand...

Somehow NBA2K series has been the top rated NBA game the last 2 years. Seriously, how the HELL did NBA2K4 get good reviews?! As a NBA2K Dreamcast alumni, Visual Concepts should be ashamed of themselves for living off the ghost of NBA2K past. Reviewers give them the benefit of the doubt that their game is good just because of NBA2K-2K2.

Hopefully they actually review the game they are playing this year when review time comes up...

 

[Ramirez]

This series absolutely thrashes 2K as far as the past few years,the only thing holding it back is EA Canada's complete lack of online play stability -_-

Jobber,you've always been a joke,have fun with you're "sim". :lol

Although I must say those graphics are hard to accept after the sweet ones shown for the 360

 

[DMczaf]

This series absolutely thrashes 2K as far as the past few years,the only thing holding it back is EA Canada's complete lack of online play stability -_-

Boo yah! Complete truth in this statement. Watch EA Canada somehow get lag and slowdown into the 360 version too... :|

 

[Ramirez]

Yea man,I remember the one game we got to play,it actually wasn't that bad lag wise and was an awesome game of basketball,hopefully more people pick this up over 2K since the price will more than likely go back up on 2K and people have a bad taste in their mouth from last year

 

[bionic77]

Meh, I like NBA Live lately. NBA2K on the other hand...

Somehow NBA2K series has been the top rated NBA game the last 2 years. Seriously, how the HELL did NBA2K4 get good reviews?! As a NBA2K Dreamcast alumni, Visual Concepts should be ashamed of themselves for living off the ghost of NBA2K past. Reviewers give them the benefit of the doubt that their game is good just because of NBA2K-2K2.

Hopefully they actually review the game they are playing this year when review time comes up...

I WISH they were living on their DC past. The series was a great sim on Dreamcast. But, like everything else Sega it all went to shit as soon as the DC died. I don't know you can make a sim get worse every year, but since 2k2 Sega (via VC) has found a way to do it.

One thing I really want from Live is for them to slow down the pace of play. When I play the game it feels like the players have no weight and almost skating up and down the court. Just feels too arcadey to me. Maybe this was made worse by the fact that my friend suck at basketball games, but I could seemingly score a layup or dunk whenever I want with almost any team. That shit should not fly.

EA should transfer some of its Madden crew over to Live and show them how to made a realistic and fun sports sim.

 

[DMczaf]

One thing I really want from Live is for them to slow down the pace of play. When I play the game it feels like the players have no weight and almost skating up and down the court. Just feels too arcadey to me. Maybe this was made worse by the fact that my friend suck at basketball games, but I could seemingly score a layup or dunk whenever I want with almost any team. That shit should not fly.

With sliders, you can slow it down to a more realistic tempo (which I did)

Problem is, you cant use sliders online so its just a race to who ever gets the ball down court faster over and over again -_- And most of my time with sports games is usually online these days.

The early footage of NBA Live 360 is promising though, the players look like they have weight to them and zero skating.

 

[sportzhead]

I agree that recent B-Ball games have been pretty average, but Live looks like it is at least trying to capture that personal skill, show-time atmosphere that the NBA has become. The league is all about flash now, and I don't just mean Dwayne Wade. There are so few all around player in the NBA now, and Live seems to be capturing this aspect better than any other game. It still needs a lot of work though.

Now NBA Live 95, that was hotness. I can still play that game. Three! You NBA Live vets no what I mean.

 

[DMczaf]

Now NBA Live 95, that was hotness. I can still play that game. Three! You NBA Live vets no what I mean

Haha! Since NHL 06 PS2 has NHL 94 Genesis as a bonus, NBA Live 06 needs one of the old school Genesis NBA Lives! Me and my friends must have played hours and hours of NBA Live 96.

 

[sportzhead]

Me and my friends must have played hours and hours of NBA Live 96.

Live 96 was better becuase you could create players. I think it was one of the first sports games to let you do that.

 

[DMczaf]

Best part was that if you put in a Legends' name like Larry Bird or Michael Jordan, the game would fill out all of the stats and stuff to make the player just like him. I wish games today had this.

 

[Ristamar]

Hah. I remember how cool it was unlocking the old school players (and Jordan) by putting in their names in the Create-A-Player mode.

 

[Dsal]

Live 95-96 was one of the golden eras of videogame basketball.

The superstar thing for the new Live sounds interesting, but how much you wanna bet that it just ends up making a lot of the stars overpowered? WTF, passing between the legs? Save that for Street.

If Live could go ahead and clean up the animation, the skating, the online, and the retarded 'everyone blocks everyone all the time' stuff that would be great.

 

[TheDiave]

The superstar thing for the new Live sounds interesting, but how much you wanna bet that it just ends up making a lot of the stars overpowered? WTF, passing between the legs? Save that for Street.

Agreed. Also worth mention is the fact, last I knew, passing to yourself was a violation. Did the NBA update their rulebook or something? Or is EA just making up their own now?

 

[DMczaf]

I don't have a problem with the flashy moves IF they are only for players who actually do it mid game like a Steve Nash or Allen Iverson. In the article, this is what EA is saying but we all know a few players will leak through and we'll see Bob Sura doing a no-look behind the back pass.

Hopefully they get T-Mac's off the backboard dunk in there

 

[DMczaf]

 

[AndreasNystrom]

it looks great.. except for one thing.. the head animatins..
It looks like the head is stiff or something currently..

crap!

 

[Salmon]

So...will the series get any better now with great looking graphics? Nah!
I don´t understand this "racing, sports etc.." and how developers tries to get them as realistic as possible. What will happen when they reach their goal? Everything looks fantastic, but will the game be more fun to play? I stick to my fantasy worlds instead...

 

[DMczaf]

http://media.sports.ign.com/articles/625/625366/vids_1.html

IGN has a developer interview video on NBA Live 06

 

[LEBRON KING JAMES]

t mac off the backboard dunk was in 05 remember!

 

[atomiswave]

so the screenshots being shown are for current gen systems or something? looks pretty damn good, especially the texture in the uniforms...

 

[Ramirez]

I don't like the uniforms at all,the mesh texture is way exaggerated,most jerseys aren't even mesh in the NBA,I know the Sixer's aren't.

 

[DMczaf]

Agreed. Also worth mention is the fact, last I knew, passing to yourself was a violation. Did the NBA update their rulebook or something? Or is EA just making up their own now?

 

[pdk27]

There's a PSP version coming out too right?

 

[DMczaf]

There's a PSP version coming out too right?

Xbox, PS2, GC, PC = October 2005

Xbox 360, PSP = November 2005

I think I'll wait an extra month for the 360 version

 

[Moneyhats2k5]

Who is making that dunk Dm?

 

[BojTrek]

Why won't 2K Sports give us any little tease on NBA2K6 on X-Box 360?

I am sure they have the BETA development kits... what the F?

Give us a character model of how it will appear on the court on X-Box 360... show me the stadium with fans in the seats...

I honestly do not care about any current generation screen shots of any game...

I only want to see X-Box 360 screen shots or videos... or PS3, but that is too far off.

 

[bishoptl]

Who is making that dunk Dm?

Steve "Piece Of Shit" Francis

 

[Ramirez]

Why won't 2K Sports give us any little tease on NBA2K6 on X-Box 360?

They did show what they had,and it looked exactly like the Xbox version :lol

Seriously,wtf do people see in ESPN NBA?Why would anyone anticipate such a trash series

 

[DJ_Tet]

Well, it actually plays like basketball for one, well the college version does. The NBA 2k series peaked three years ago.

I might check out Live on 360, but March Madness left me with a HORRIBLE taste in my mouth. Talk about turboing your way to a basket...

 

[Matrix]

Steve "Piece Of Shit" Francis

"Grizz aint shit,trade my ass roofles"

"DONT EVER LEAVE ME!
"Hold on tight,dont ever let go!"

"STEVEEEEEEEE"

 

[DMczaf]

:lol :lol

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

"Grizz aint shit,trade my ass roofles"

OMG....I can't stop laughing :lol

 

[newsguy]

Xbox 360, PSP = November 2005

I think I'll wait an extra month for the 360 version

You and me both.

 

[Zep]

You and me both.

you, me, and you 2 both both

 

[Ramirez]

Well, it actually plays like basketball for one, well the college version does. The NBA 2k series peaked three years ago.

I'd love to see this basketball where centers stay at the perimiter for 3s and get blocked out by guards,oh and lets not forget people like Shaq that can bring it up with the finesse of Dwayne Wade :lol

 

[bionic77]

I'd love to see this basketball where centers stay at the perimiter for 3s and get blocked out by guards,oh and lets not forget people like Shaq that can bring it up with the finesse of Dwayne Wade :lol

2k2 and earlier versions didn't play like that.

The series just went down the shitter like the rest of Sega post-DC.

 

[DJ_Tet]

I'd love to see this basketball where centers stay at the perimiter for 3s and get blocked out by guards,oh and lets not forget people like Shaq that can bring it up with the finesse of Dwayne Wade :lol

Yeah Im not seeing that in my college hoops game. Nice try though. Maybe you should call a play?

edit: It is a little too easy to bring up the ball with a big man though. However, since the straight up full court press is broken, it doesn't really matter anyway.