NBA Live 08 Hands-On

NEW YORK--It wasn't just NBA Live 08 cover athlete Gilbert Arenas making an appearance at Rub BBQ in New York City during tonight's EA Sports press event; the newly announced cover star of the upcoming March Madness 08--Kevin Durant--was also in the house. Both were in town to promote their respective games, and in Durant's case, to become a multimillionaire in a few days thanks to the 2007 NBA Draft. While they rubbed shoulders with media, we had a chance to take on NBA Live 08, the latest pro basketball game from EA Canada. Basketball fans have been burned by previous entries in the Live franchise, but it seems like the series might just be back on the road to recovery.

During our initial look at the game back in May, we heard NBA Live producers continually stress the importance the team has put on getting the series back to having a good five-on-five basketball experience, devoid of features that seek to turn your attention away from fundamental basketball gameplay. As a result, the freestyle superstar moves found in previous entries of the game are gone. And while we can't spill the beans on what has replaced that old, outdated system just yet, we can say that the game feels better than NBA Live has felt in a long time. Part of that success comes from the new gameplay wrinkles and part comes from the straight-up basics that will improve practically any game: things like 60 frames per second, better animation, and improved collision detection and physics make NBA Live 08 a game that, in some ways, plays and reacts almost nothing like previous entries.

The 60 frames per second is a big step up from last year's plodding pace; one producer challenged us to take this game and put it up against NBA Live 07 to see the difference for ourselves. Honestly, we didn't need to--you can see from the outset that Live 08 is a smoother, more stable, and--yes--quicker game of basketball. The improved animation of the players helps, as players move more like their real-life counterparts, whether dropping in Js from 10 feet, or getting up close and personal underneath the basket. Even better, the new animation system features more branch points, so that you can interrupt one move and move your controlled player into another juke, spin, pass, or shot seemingly at any point.

Collision detection extends not just to players bumping bodies in the paint (though you can expect to see plenty of that); the little niggling details from last year's game, such as player's dunking through the backboard and other ugly glitches, are hopefully going to be a thing of the past in NBA Live 08. And ball physics have received an upgrade too--no more Spaldings warping into the hands of players. Instead, the ball bounces more realistically off the rim and off the backboard as players fight one another for rebounds underneath.

Beyond these kinds of fundamental improvements, the game is going to include plenty of new artificial intelligence enhancements that will help make it feel more like the kind of game you watch on television. Players won't just run aimlessly on the floor--on offense, they'll look to run the plays you call or look for openings to try to make a play happen; on defense, they'll be more apt to stick to their assignment or get in and help when a one-on-one match-up breaks down. In a larger sense, NBA Live 08 producers are striving to have a game that finds a balance between user input and smart contextual play on behalf of the AI players. A perfect example is moving the lay-up and dunk controls back to the same button, after splitting them in last year's game. Because of the work the designers are putting into the game's back end, the game will be "smarter" at deciding whether a player should choose to go for a lay-up or a dunk depending on such factors as his position on the floor, who is covering him, his attributes, and so on.

There is still much to learn about NBA Live 08, including a number of key gameplay wrinkles that we'll have more information on next week. As we get closer to the release of the game, we'll also have updates on the new online and dynasty mode features that will be making their way into the final product, so stay tuned.