NBA Live 19 Retrospective

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NBA Live 19 Retrospective

Postby Andrew on Thu Dec 31, 2020 3:05 pm

NBA Live 19 Retrospective

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And so, we've come to the final game in the NBA Live series to date, and thus the final retrospective in our 25th Anniversary of NBA Live content! I have to say that it's been a wild ride to experience the ups and downs again, revisiting every title in the series one by one. I hope that you've enjoyed it too, even as we've revisited some of the weaker games. On that note, unfortunately the most recent NBA Live game isn't one of the better releases, at least in my book. Those of us who would prefer that NBA Live focus on the NBA experience were hoping against hope that NBA Live 19 would be a return to form, but sadly, it picked up where NBA Live 18 left off.


At long last, that's a wrap on the game-by-game retrospectives! I hope you've enjoyed going through the history of the NBA Live series with me. Stay tuned in 2021, as there'll be some odds and ends including republished articles from the 20th Anniversary, and some other overtime content.

Check it out here!
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Re: NBA Live 19 Retrospective

Postby [Q] on Thu Dec 31, 2020 3:43 pm

I must say I was really really excited for 19 after the great experience I had with 18 and was really looking forward to the Court Battles and court customization. Not sure if I played the mode because it was fun or strictly to get more assets to use on the court but it kept me entertained for a while. Playing with special rules was kind of fun,a bit of a puzzle or challenge with each game. Unfortunately the times games were too long and once you hit a high enough level, it became very tedious.

I really enjoyed the World Tour mode because I liked the idea of assembling a team much like in court battles but not in a grindy way like in Ultimate Team. Speaking of which, UT look a huge step back. As you said getting rid of contracts was huge, and I also liked the idea of trying to represent players in different years of their careers but it was really poorly done. Some legends wound up being rated extremely low as 60 overall bronze cards and some cards didn't even have the correct jersey number or hairstyle from that specific year.

I think moving forward, they need to make a decision on what ruined the game the most: people online complaining about how easy it is to score online. They wound up nerfing shooting into the ground and it became such an impossible task to hit a shot. There absolutely needs to be a different set of sliders for online and offline play because there's a big difference between the two. NBA Live developers shouldn't cave to pressure online and be confident that they made a fun game to play. They shouldn't break the game to please a vocal minority
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Re: NBA Live 19 Retrospective

Postby Andrew on Fri Jan 01, 2021 12:53 pm

Well said. When you look at the issues with shooting, it's a good example of how ideas that might work by themselves just don't work with each other. The long shot meter and the need to hit Green releases to make shots with any regularity is tough enough, but throw in the ability of the defense to take away Greens just by being in the general vicinity, and it's a harsh system. As I said, it's even worse against the CPU, because it has much faster reactions and can get close enough to take away the perfect release window far more consistently than a user can. The idea is to be faster with your decisions, but that's tough when there's such a big wind up with the long shot meter, and passes aren't crisp enough to stay ahead of the defense. Besides, NBA players make shots with a hand in their face, so we shouldn't have to be wide open every time to hit shots.

There are ideas there that could work in a vacuum, or if they're slightly tweaked. As assembled in NBA Live 19 though, it just doesn't work, especially after the major nerf. Like you said, there needs to be tuning for online and offline that doesn't impact the other, and underlying mechanics that work for both.

I'd also agree some of the LUT ideas were good in theory, but poorly executed. Those 60 Overall cards were exactly what I had in mind, too.
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