NBA Live 14 may have been something of a disaster when it was released last year (particularly in the face of the much better NBA 2K14), but that doesn’t mean EA’s given up on having the definitive basketball game on the market. They’re trying again this year with NBA Live 15, and we just got the first trailer for it.

It’s pretty standard as annual EA Sports updates go- we’re seeing better, enhanced, player likenesses and animations, updated rosters, jerseys, and so on. EA is promising changes to the core gameplay and modes of the game, promising over 500 new gameplay changes, although none of them are particularly visible in this video. What we can see, at least, is that the game looks sort of good.

NBA Live 15 is due out this year, and hopefully, this one isn’t as much of a disaster as last year’s entry was. We’ll keep you posted on it either way, though.

Basketball, however, is a different story, despite the fact that the publisher once safely controlled the genre, and EA’s troubles in crafting a basketball sim in recent years are nothing if not well-documented. The trouble began with NBA Elite 11, a game that was so poorly received prior release that EA decided to scrap the title altogether, and focus on providing a better product for next year. A year passed, and once again, EA did not release a basketball game.

It looked like EA would finally get things back on track in 2012 with NBA Live 2013, but the game was canceled once again, due to a disappointing development cycle. While EA spent their time developing games that never saw release, 2K built the NBA 2K series into a juggernaut, garnering huge sales and a large amount of critical acclaim.

"Character models are ugly, grotesque things. At best, players do not look proportionally accurate and bear little more than a passing resemblance to their real life counterparts, and forced to play basketball at gunpoint."

As time went by, the desire for a new NBA Live title diminished, and some began to wonder if EA wouldn’t be better off putting its considerable resources into another title, instead of wasting time, money, and manpower trying to challenge 2K in a market they all but monopolized. But EA stuck with it. The result is NBA Live 14, the first console basketball title from the publisher since 2009, and the only game from EA this year that will be releasing solely on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You would think that the reduced number of platforms and sheer amount of development time would allow EA to produce a game worthy of representing the NBA Live franchise. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and while NBA Live 14 isn’t a terrible game, it’s not a good one, either.

The game’s problems rear their ugly heads almost immediately, and boy, are they ugly. The first, and most apparent issue is the way the game looks. Character models are ugly, grotesque things. At best, players do not look proportionally accurate and bear little more than a passing resemblance to their real life counterparts, and forced to play basketball at gunpoint. The animations are equally stiff, and often wrong. Arms twist at odd angles and balls leave the hands of player before they finish their animations. The crowds and coaches look even worse. It’s almost as if they were lifted out of the PS2-era. In addition, all of these characters are unnaturally shiny and smooth, as if they were permanently covered in a thin layer of oil.

These problems aren’t incredibly apparent normally, as the characters are moving quickly and you’re often too far away from them to notice specific issues, but you’ll often be shocked by how ugly the game is every time the camera zooms in for a highlight reel or someone steps up to the line to take a free throw. This sort of thing wouldn’t have been acceptable on the PS3 or the Xbox 360, and it certainly isn’t acceptable now, especially when your competition is producing character models that are crossing into uncanny valley territory.

"Defenders stick to the offensive players like glue until you’ve figured out how the bounceTek system works, and even then, trying to set up any sort of realistic play is almost always more trouble than it’s worth."

Sound design is a little better, and the commentary, provided by Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy is nice. Unfortunately, they often revert to generic pronouns such as “he” and “this team,” instead of specific stories or discussions about specific players. As you can imagine, that gets old quickly.

Unfortunately, the game suffers in the gameplay department, as well. NBA Live introduces bounceTek, a physics-based dribbling system that you’ll control with the right stick. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t feel like it needs to explain how this, or anything else, for that matter, works. The game offers a short video telling you what it is and informing you that it has three levels of complexity, but it never demonstrates how the system works or how the levels interact with one another. The system does work rather nicely once you do your research and get some practice in, but the fact that you have to go outside of the game for information on one of its core systems is more than a little absurd.

Unfortunately, bounceTek is the best part of NBA Live’s gameplay. Defenders stick to the offensive players like glue until you’ve figured out how the bounceTek system works, and even then, trying to set up any sort of realistic play is almost always more trouble than it’s worth. This is especially true if you want to do any type of shooting, which means that most games evolve into “take a player to the paint, spin around defender, shoot layups and or pass for a dunk, rinse and repeat 40-50 times.” It can be still fun, in a rather silly sort of way, but those expecting a realistic basketball sim will be disappointed.

"Ultimately, every problem that NBA Live has is compounded by the fact that we had to wait for it. As strange as it sounds, the game feels incredibly rushed, which doesn’t bode well considering how long EA has been trying to get it right."

The game’s mechanical shortcomings are a shame, because there are some genuinely good ideas here. NBA Live has all of the standard modes you’d expect, but a couple really stand out. Big Moments mode challenges you with recreating real life moments or big shots, and might have you do anything from replaying an entire game to recreating a last-second three point shot to win the game. The cool part about this is that these moments are taken from the current NBA season, so you’ll be able to try your hand at them just days after they go down. NBA Live also borrows from FIFA, introducing Ultimate Team mode, which allows you to unlock (or buy) trading cards. Each card unlocks a player for use, allowing you to mix and match, and create the titular Ultimate Team, which you can take online. Unfortunately, the online mode is rather laggy. This doesn’t do the poor mechanics any favors, so there’s no real reason to invest your time into the game’s online mode unless you are truly dedicated.

There’s also Rising Star mode, which allows you to create a player, play the Draft Showcase game, get drafted and compete in the league. The game scores you on everything you do, good and bad, from turnovers to passes, but the system has some slight problems. You’ll lose points for every missed shot, even if it was a good one that just happened to miss, but the game won’t reward you for picking up fouls or making free throws.

You’re scored on offense, defense, and teamwork, and despite the few problems listed above, it works rather well, at least until you realize your low teamwork score is dragging down your average, which is frustrating because the friendly AI will only make shots if you set them up perfectly. Still, the mode is enjoyable enough, and having a player that improves based on how well you play is a nice draw. There’s also Dynasty mode, which allows you to manage a team, but as far as menu-based managerial games go, it’s a significant drop from what, say Football Manager allows you to do, and I can’t imagine that this rendition will be all that popular.

Ultimately, every problem that NBA Live has is compounded by the fact that we had to wait for it. As strange as it sounds, the game feels incredibly rushed, which doesn’t bode well considering how long EA has been trying to get it right. Still, getting back in the basketball game was a large part of the battle, and now the company has a foundation to build upon. If they can fix what doesn’t work and improve the things that do, they might have a chance of competing against 2K in the future. Right now, however, 2K has little to worry about. Reign, indeed.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

EA have released a video touting their long line of next generation games that will soon be released on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Every title for the upcoming releases utilizes the two newest signature EA engineers, IGNITE, and Frostbite 3, which reportedly offer an unparalleled gaming experience.

This trailer really speaks for itself. It’s one big EA brag-fest. But I’ll be damned if they don’t know how to make a good looking game. Every second of this trailer is jam packed with some of the most realistic looking cinematic and gameplay footage I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in my 18 odd years as a decimated gamer.

The full list of games we get a peek at in this video are as follows: Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, NBA Live 14, and Need for Speed: Rivals. Each title for both the PS4 and the Xbox 360 utilize either the IGNITE engine or the Frostbite 3 engine.

NBA 2K14 is walking away with all the accolades as the basketball game to get this season, but that doesn’t mean that EA is gonna sit easy and let it happen. The EA Sports published, EA Ignite powered basketball game sure as hell does not look as good as NBA 2K14 does, which looks simply stunning, but according to EA, that’s not the point anyway.

Rather, they point to the game as a living, breathing piece of software that constantly keeps itself updated to keep up with real world happenings in the world of NBA and basketball, as the killer feature for the game: like EA Sports’ FIFA games, NBA Live is not a game as much as it is a part of an overall connected basketball experience. Or at least, that’s the pitch anyway.

Are you interested in picking this game up, or is NBA 2K14 going to be the basketball game of your choice?

Along with the trailer, EA has announced those who pre-order NBA Live 14 will receive seven Gold Packs to be received for Ultimate Team mode. These contain packs of players, uniforms, coaches and much more. You can also compete in Fantasy Showdown challeneges in order to earn coins for picking up more packs.

Developed by EA Tiburon, NBA Live 14 will be releasing on November 19th for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in North America. A worldwide release for the game is planned on November 22nd for Xbox One and November 29th for the PlayStation 4. Along with new features such as Living Worlds, True Player Motion and much more, NBA Live 14 will also have EA’s next-generation Ignite Engine.

Ravi Sinha: NBA Live 14 will be the first game in the series since 2009’s NBA Live 10. Firstly, what prompted the desire to bring back the series?

Gary Paterson: Clearly everyone knows that we have made a few missteps with the franchise in the past years, but we still feel like EA SPORTS has the technology, passion and experience to create a great basketball game. With the advent of the new console generation it was the perfect time for us to reset and rebuild. Using the technology of EA SPORTS IGNITEand with a new leadership team taking the game in a new direction, we’re excited to be bringing back NBA LIVE. 

Rashid Sayed: NBA Live will feature bounceTek which offers realistic dribbling. Can you please share details on how this will affect gameplay?

Gary Paterson: Basketball video gamers spend around 50% of a game dribbling a ball, yetthe mechanic of the dribble has basically gone unchanged since Gen1. This is more than a decade of old tech showing up in today’s games. The limitations of this tech are evident in visual and gameplay artifacts such as ball warping, half-dribbles and feet sliding; all of which contribute to unrealistic movement.

Sports games are all about player movement and momentum, controlling it and exploiting it is how we balance the game, create depth but also create the amazing moments that make NBA basketball the spectacle that it is. With bounceTek, we are releasing the ball to physics for the first time ever in a basketball video game and in doing so creating the most authentic looking basketball dribble, with close to 1000 new animations, but more than that we are creating a system that mimics the nuanced movement,and thus depth, of real basketball, a system that we call ‘authentically responsive’. 

"I’d be lying if I said there was not pressure; pressure to meet our own standards, internal EA pressure and of course consumer pressure. Personally, having come from FIFA where, back in 07 when I joined the franchise we were lagging behind our competitor, this pressure is nothing new."

Rashid Sayed: During E3 2006, EA showed us how better platforms resulted in to better animation, awareness and movement of the player. Since NBA Live 14 is coming out on more powerful platforms, what kind of improvements can players expect to see in those three categories?

Gary Paterson: With NBA LIVE 14 being return of the franchise we have reworked or replaced many of the games systems, of which most are enabled or at least made more possible by the power of the new systems. From an animation and movement POV, we have used the additional memory and performance to create new Dribble and Locomotion systems that have 1000’s of new animations. Our animation model has additional skeleton detail allowing improved finger and face animation as well as more realistic model deformation, not to mention a new cloth simulation system. All of these systems are built for the long term and will only get better as the platform and the franchise matures. 

Ravi Sinha: When most people think of basketball games, the focus usually goes to 2K Games’ NBA 2K series. Is there some pressure going in, on trying to not only match up to your own standards but to surpass the competition?

Gary Paterson: I’d be lying if I said there was not pressure; pressure to meet our own standards, internal EA pressure and of course consumer pressure. Personally, having come from FIFA where, back in 07 when I joined the franchise we were lagging behind our competitor, this pressure is nothing new. At the same time, if you ask anyone in games development I’m sure they will say that they feel the pressure – even the folks I left at FIFA feel pressure, just a different kind. What is different for me from FIFA is that lots of gamers have fond memories of NBA LIVE, they want it back. So in that sense the pressure is more about delivering a game that will make them happy, that is our focus, and I think we are making strong progress towards this goal. 

Ravi Sinha: NBA Live 14 is one of the few games which will be using the Ignite engine. What benefits does it bring to the game?

Gary Paterson: We have had to do extensive surgery to lots of the core fundamentals of the game. Dribbling, Locomotion. Passing, Shooting, Rebounding, Blocking… all of these systems and more have been rewritten or substantially reworked. We could not have done this without EA SPORTS IGNITE. There are so many inbuilt technologies, with the animation tech being especially relevant to gameplay. I don’t want to go too deep into it as much of it is proprietary, but suffice to say that it has allowed us to progress at a rate that could not have been possible without it.

"In addition to bounceTek that replicates the fluidity, creativity and authentic control in the art of the dribble, we will feature more than 40 NBA star player signature moves and thousands of new animations that will make NBA LIVE 14 look, feel and play like the next-generation of basketball."

The core pillars of EA SPORTS IGNITE; Human Intelligence, True Player Motion and Living Worlds, are key to NBA LIVE. 

Human Intelligence: We are powering our AIwith the real world statics through our exclusive partnership with Synergy Sports Technology. CourtQ (Court Quotient) uses real world statistics that reflect player tendencies, percentages and abilities and will be updated throughout the season to reflect the real world performances. Through our partnership with Synergy, we are using the same data and stats all 30 NBA teams use in scouting, analysis and preparation.  With NBA LIVE 14, gone are the days were AI was subjectively designed or limited to a few select categories around shooting percentages.

True Player Motion: In addition to bounceTek that replicates the fluidity, creativity and authentic control in the art of the dribble, we will feature more than 40 NBA star player signature moves and thousands of new animations that will make NBA LIVE 14 look, feel and play like the next-generation of basketball.

Living Worlds: A LIVE World is all about creating both a social and competitive experience for the connected consumer routed in the authenticity of the NBA. The NBA season delivers consistent excitement and we are looking to do the same with NBA LIVE 14, on daily basis. We’ll give gamers near-daily challenges and content, including alignment with the real-world NBA events throughout the course of the season. 

Rashid Sayed: Given the fact that current gen has more than 150 million install base, why is NBA Live 14 only releasing on next-gen and not on current gen platforms?

Gary Paterson: Building for Gen4 only was not a decision that I was personally involved in, but is definitely one I support. Doing so has allowed the team to concentrate on building an engine for the future. It has allowed us to make decisions on features and technology that will put us in a very strong position going forward on Gen4. Finally it allows us to focus all our resources on Gen4 and thus create as strong a product as we possibly can this year. 

Ravi Sinha: What new gameplay mechanics does NBA Live 14 bring to the table? In terms of any new additions to the Career mode, multiplayer and other features, that is. I will also like to ask whether Dynamic Season, Dynamic DNA and Rewind feature are returning.

Gary Paterson: We recently unveiled Rising Star, our new career mode. Gamers will be able to create a player and build his career from draft prospect to potential NBA All-Star.

As for other modes, we’ll be revealing those closer to launch. 

We’ve also discussed a LIVE World feature that will be available for any connected platform. We will be updating in-game player statistics and tendencies throughout the real NBA season, an hour after a NBA game ends. Through our partnership with Synergy, we will push more than 70 updated stats directly to NBA gamers over the course of the season. This provides an even deeper connection the real world of professional basketball ever presented in a video game. If a player goes on a hot or cold streak begins favoring a pull-up rather than a drive through the lane, it will all be reflected within NBA LIVE 14. 

"All the game features will be the same for PS4 and Xbox One. It’s up to the gamer to decide which platform they’ll play NBA LIVE 14 on. "

Ravi Sinha: Which teams (roster) can we look forward to appearing in the game? Will there be any international teams included as well?

Gary Paterson: All 30 NBA teams with current, and future rosters, will be in NBA LIVE 14. We will not have international teams this year. 

Ravi Sinha: Also, which artistes can we look forward to seeing on the game’s original soundtrack?

Gary Paterson: We haven’t announced our soundtrack lineup yet – but do have something special in store for our fans. Stay tuned! 

Rashid Sayed: Is there any difference between the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game?

Gary Paterson: All the game features will be the same for PS4 and Xbox One. It’s up to the gamer to decide which platform they’ll play NBA LIVE 14 on. 

Rashid Sayed: Are you guys planning to use the touchpad capabilities of the PS4’s DualShock 4 or Xbox One’s cloud in some unique ways?

Gary Paterson: We will support some basic functionality on the PS4 touchpad around team management. More details will be provided later. Regarding Xbox One’s cloud services, we do not currently support them. However, we will support the platform standard cloud syncing of your data. 

"Without sounding too corporate, EA has a strong relationship and a partnership with Nintendo to develop games for the Wii U. However, when we looked at what we wanted to do with NBA LIVE, we focused solely on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. "

Rashid Sayed: There seems to be a gap between the Xbox One and PS4 with regards to RAM and the amount developers can use them for games. The new Xbox will have 5GB allocated for games and the PS4 will reportedly have 7GB allocated to games. Plus, the PS4 is using GGDR5 which is faster than DDR3. What is your take on this situation? Are you using that extra PS4 memory in NBA Live 14?

Gary Paterson: At EA SPORTS, we have always strived to have the best experience on any platform you play on. That tradition will continue with NBA LIVE 14. 

Ravi Sinha: A lot of emphasis is placed on the graphics of a sports game, but the sound is equally, if not more, important. What is the team at EA Tiburon doing to ensure that NBA LIVE 14 has the most authentic sounding basketball experience?

Gary Paterson: Sound has been an exception focus for the NBA LIVE 14 team this year. Without getting into specifics, we’ve absolutely doubled down on the aural experience. From the best in class commentating team, a brand new host from ESPN and an absolutely innovative soundtrack technology, I can promise you, you’ve never heard a game like LIVE. 

Rashid Sayed: Talking about the Wii U, EA has stated that they are currently not developing any games for the system which also includes NBA Live 14. It’s no secret that sales is one of the factors behind that decision. Was there anything else that led EA to take that call? Did you guys though that it was simply too weak specs wise to compete with the more powerful PS4 and Xbox One?

Gary Paterson: Without sounding too corporate, EA has a strong relationship and a partnership with Nintendo to develop games for the Wii U. However, when we looked at what we wanted to do with NBA LIVE, we focused solely on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. 

Rashid Sayed: Is there anything else you want to say to our readers/fans about NBA Live 14?

Gary Paterson: All of us on the NBA LIVE team want gamers to know we are completely focused on the future and delivering a game that is authentic, new and fun. We know all too well, the frustration our fans have felt over the past couple years and thank them for their patience. NBA LIVE is coming back and this is just the first step.

A big thank you to  Michael Yaeger from Electronic Arts for setting this interview up.

As Patterson stated, “All the game features will be the same for PS4 and Xbox One. It’s up to the gamer to decide which platform they’ll play NBA LIVE 14 on.”

There will be some implementation on additional features such as the PS4’s DualShock 4 touchpad and the Xbox One’s Cloud support. “We will support some basic functionality on the PS4 touchpad around team management. More details will be provided later. Regarding Xbox One’s cloud services, we do not currently support them. However, we will support the platform standard cloud syncing of your data.”

We also asked about the new BounceTek that NBA Live 14 implements, and how this would affect gameplay. “Basketball video gamers spend around 50% of a game dribbling a ball, yetthe mechanic of the dribble has basically gone unchanged since Gen1. This is more than a decade of old tech showing up in today’s games. The limitations of this tech are evident in visual and gameplay artifacts such as ball warping, half-dribbles and feet sliding; all of which contribute to unrealistic movement.

“Sports games are all about player movement and momentum, controlling it and exploiting it is how we balance the game, create depth but also create the amazing moments that make NBA basketball the spectacle that it is. With bounceTek, we are releasing the ball to physics for the first time ever in a basketball video game and in doing so creating the most authentic looking basketball dribble, with close to 1000 new animations, but more than that we are creating a system that mimics the nuanced movement,and thus depth, of real basketball, a system that we call ‘authentically responsive’.”

NBA Live 14 releases on November 19th in Europe and North America for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that the latest entry in the NBA Live series, NBA Live 14 will release on November 19th for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. NBA Live 14 will be the first entry in the NBA Live series since NBA Live 10, which was released all the way back in 2009. The only other NBA Live release since that time was the 2010 release of NBA Elite 11, but its release was cancelled across consoles.

The last scheduled installment, NBA Live 13 was cancelled because production was not completed in time for the October 2012 release date. For some reason EA has a problem with pushing the release of their games. I don’t see how releasing 2 months later would have been any less profitable.

NBA Live 14 is one of few upcoming games which will featured the brand new Ignite Engine, which is featured in several upcoming games in the EA catalogue.

We recently spoke to Gary Patterson, the Senior Creative Director for the upcoming NBA Live 14. We were able to gleaned some insight as to why the next installment in this hugely popular series will be released exclusively one next-gen consoles PS4 and Xbox One, despite the fact that the current gen has a base of more than 150 million gamers.

“Building for Gen4 only was not a decision that I was personally involved in, but is definitely one I support. Doing so has allowed the team to concentrate on building an engine for the future. It has allowed us to make decisions on features and technology that will put us in a very strong position going forward on Gen4. Finally it allows us to focus all our resources on Gen4 and thus create as strong a product as we possibly can this year. “

NBA Live 14 is one of few games that will feature EA’s next-gen Ignite engine. Patterson went on to speak to the benefits that this engine will have on game play.

“We have had to do extensive surgery to lots of the core fundamentals of the game. Dribbling, Locomotion. Passing, Shooting, Rebounding, Blocking… all of these systems and more have been rewritten or substantially reworked. We could not have done this without EA SPORTS IGNITE. There are so many inbuilt technologies, with the animation tech being especially relevant to gameplay. I don’t want to go too deep into it as much of it is proprietary, but suffice to say that it has allowed us to progress at a rate that could not have been possible without it.”

The core pillars of EA SPORTS IGNITE; Human Intelligence, True Player Motion and Living Worlds, are key to NBA LIVE.”

Here is Patterson’s breakdown of how the pillars of Ignite will manifest within NAB Live 14.

Human Intelligence: “We are powering our AIwith the real world statics through our exclusive partnership with Synergy Sports Technology. CourtQ (Court Quotient) uses real world statistics that reflect player tendencies, percentages and abilities and will be updated throughout the season to reflect the real world performances. Through our partnership with Synergy, we are using the same data and stats all 30 NBA teams use in scouting, analysis and preparation. With NBA LIVE 14, gone are the days were AI was subjectively designed or limited to a few select categories around shooting percentages.”

True Player Motion: “In addition to bounceTek that replicates the fluidity, creativity and authentic control in the art of the dribble, we will feature more than 40 NBA star player signature moves and thousands of new animations that will make NBA LIVE 14 look, feel and play like the next-generation of basketball.”

Living Worlds: “A LIVE World is all about creating both a social and competitive experience for the connected consumer routed in the authenticity of the NBA. The NBA season delivers consistent excitement and we are looking to do the same with NBA LIVE 14, on daily basis. We’ll give gamers near-daily challenges and content, including alignment with the real-world NBA events throughout the course of the season.”

NBA Live 14 will release for PS4 and Xbox One on November 15th.

The list includes Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Crimson Dragon, Dead Rising 3, FIFA 14, Fighter Within, Forza Motorsport 5, Just Dance 2014, Killer Instinct, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Lococycle, Madden NFL 25, NBA Live 14, Need for Speed: Rivals, Peggle 2, Powerstar Golf, Ryse: Son of Rome, Skylanders: Swap Force, Watch Dogs, Zoo Tycoon and Zumba Fitness: World Party. Titles like Peggle 2 will be launching on the Xbox One first before anywhere else.

Will the United States launch line-up be something similar? If so, that’s a fairly strong selection of both multiplatform and exclusive titles when the Xbox One launches in November worldwide.