NBA Live 13: Gameplay Expectations

With E3 right around the corner, I recently took a look at what we know so far about NBA Live 13. Now I’d like to move on to speculating on what we might see and discussing what I’d like to see in this year’s game, starting with gameplay. I’ll be posting my thoughts on Dynasty and other game modes, online features and more over the next few days as part of the lead up to E3.

Just so there’s no confusion before I go on, I’ll reiterate that this article is not confirming any details on NBA Live 13; rather, it is purely my hopes and speculation. Additionally, if some of the points I cover seem unambitious, it’s because I’m focusing on things I believe will make NBA Live 13 a solid, satisfying game and can also feasibly be done this year, rather than examining everything the series could possibly do to fulfill its potential.

With introductions out of the way, let’s get started!

The Basics

We know that NBA Live 13 is going to be a sim-oriented title, as opposed to an arcade/casual style of sports game in the vein of NBA Jam. Therefore, the emphasis should be on realism with deep controls.

I’d like to see NBA Live 13 feature dribbling moves on the right stick, a la Freestyle Control/Quick Strike in games gone by. Shooting on the right stick just isn’t going to work out though and using it to jump for blocks and rebounds feels awkward as well. Offensively, I’d like to be able to pull off all manner of dribbling moves (as well as fakes and cuts when moving without the ball) using the right stick, while on defense it would be used to attempt a steal with the left or right hand, put a hand up in the shooter’s face or get down into a defensive crouch. Shooting, passing, playcalling etc would be performed using the face buttons and shoulder buttons/triggers. In my view, that’s been NBA Live’s best control scheme so far.

We absolutely need the turbo button back. Its removal was to be a bold experiment in NBA Elite 11 and playing the demo, it didn’t work out too badly in the half court. However, you ultimately still need that burst of speed to take defenders off the dribble and the lack of turbo pretty much killed fast breaks. There’s no need to fix what isn’t broken here; bring it back and assign it to a shoulder button/trigger. Of course, it would also be nice to be able to customise controls to our liking.

The controls will need to be fluid and responsive, with the players moving and interacting realistically. NBA Elite 11 would have introduced some tech that would make that possible, but as we all know there just wasn’t enough polish. I think that’s something they’ll keep in mind, keeping what works and making it look a lot better. That seems like a good approach to me.

Finally, while the skill based shooting in NBA Elite 11 didn’t work out too well, there’s merit to the basic concept. I hope that user input has a significant impact on being able to make shots in NBA Live 13, taking an individual player’s abilities into account of course. Basically, I want to know that I made or missed a shot attempt because of my precision (or lack thereof) as required by the player’s shooting ratings, not a random “dice roll”.

Realism, Strategy & Signature Styles

Because the game is intended to be a sim title, players need to play like their real life counterparts. Realistic playing styles, realistic tendencies, realistic abilities, realistic performance. That means no point guard domination outside of players who should be lighting up the defense, players playing the way they really do at both ends of the court and putting up the kind of numbers we’d expect of their real life counterparts. We’ve seen some improvements through the introduction of Dynamic DNA, but there’s still some lingering issues and room for improvement.

I want to see teams running the right plays and be rewarded for running plays myself. NBA Live 10 showed a lot of promise in that respect, though there were issues when plays broke down and the patch ultimately made things worse. I want to see real strategy in NBA Live 13, with the right players having the biggest impact on the game offensively and defensively. I want the AI to be challenging by playing smart basketball, not just deciding it’s going to make every shot and defensive stop while my team forgets how to play basketball.

I also want to see player individuality better represented, not only in terms of their abilities, performance and a distinction between superstars and role players, but through signature jumpshots, dribbling styles, dunk/layup packages and the like. We have seen these things in previous NBA Live games but I’d like to see even more.

Since not everyone wants to play the game the same way and the results out of the box aren’t for everyone, we need to have a healthy amount of sliders to tweak the gameplay. It’d be great if we could get a few presets as in NBA 2K12: one geared for absolute realism, one that’s fairly realistic but slightly more casual, and one that’s full-on arcade style/casual. Again, the more sliders the better and preferably with a numerical value in the frontend, rather than an unlabeled bar.

AI & Logic

Some of the tidbits we’ve received so far about enhanced AI and logic in NBA Live 13 definitely sound encouraging. Ideally, every player should have a “brain”, with an awareness of what’s going on and the knowledge to make cuts, run plays, improvise when a play breaks down and react to advantages/disadvantages. I think we could see a step forward here and that would be most welcome.

From the team’s perspective, I’d like to see realistic rotations with players getting the right amount of minutes and sensible substitution logic with players sliding over to their secondary position when substitutions are made. I’d also like to see the CPU get creative with its lineups at times, choosing to push the tempo with a small ball lineup or bringing in its best rebounding lineup when it’s getting beaten on the boards. I’m not expecting perfection of course, there’s only so much that can be done this time around. However, once again any noteworthy progress in this area would be welcome.

EA Sports’ use of Real AI in other titles does give me hope that they’ll be able to have the CPU react more intelligently to the situation for a more dynamic experience. I can’t speak for Fight Night, but Real AI worked really well in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition. If they can use some of that tech in NBA Live 13 and beyond, I believe it could really enhance the game.

Odds & Ends

With a more polished physics engine, it would be time to start adding some more fouls away from the ball. We had moving screens in NBA Live 09 and NBA Live 10, so they should be brought back along with over-the-back and loose ball fouls. On the subject of player collisions, injuries need to come back too. They add depth to the game, a risk/reward factor to aggressive play and greatly enhance the Dynasty experience when you have to account for players being unavailable.

The ability to select the inbounder is an overdue addition that I’m hoping can make it into the game this year. It’s definitely a handy feature to have in late game situations, since there will be times when you don’t want your small forward inbounding on the dead ball and shouldn’t have to re-order your lineup to account for it. Also, this isn’t a major one, but I’d also like to either have the pause screen come up between quarters and at half time, or a longer period of time between quarters with the ability to make substitutions and adjust strategy before play resumes.

Last but not least, I’d like to be able to choose between calling a 20 second and full timeout, and see how many timeouts I have left on the pause screen. That’s something that previous Lives have had, but it’s been missing the last couple of years. From a strategy standpoint, it’s definitely important.

Final Thoughts

What do I want from NBA Live 13’s gameplay? I want a solid, enjoyable, simulation experience. Realistic player performance and real team strategies. Smart AI. Fluid, responsive and intuitive controls that allow me to make plays offensively and defensively, while letting me feel like I’m in control. Real life factors like loose ball fouls and injuries.

I think that NBA Live 13 can deliver on a number of things I’ve talked about here, though I’m certainly not expecting a flawless game. However, the series has been able to do some good things with its gameplay in the past, at times showing great potential in certain areas. Perhaps more importantly, it has made its fair share of mistakes from which the current development team can learn and seek to avoid. To that end, I think that NBA Live 13’s gameplay can and will yield some pleasing results, still having room for improvement but taking some necessary steps forward to get back on the right track. If it can cover a bulk of the above points to some degree, I believe it will be off to a good start.

What are your expectations for NBA Live 13’s gameplay? What does it need for it to be at least satisfactory? Post your thoughts in the comments below and join in the discussion in the NBA Live 13 section of the NLSC Forum! Check back soon for the next article, which will cover Dynasty and game modes.