NBA 2K9 : Major Glitch

The much anticipated NBA 2K9 video game has been released. The graphics and gameplay on this thing look amazing, however some fans are not happy. Take a look at the following video which shows a very substantial glitch in some copies of the game.

(Note language may offend in this video)





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One of the best jobs in the world

EA Sports has given an Orlando man possibly the best job in the world. He is being paid to watch NFL games all season long. Every single game.

Why are they doing this? This is part of EA's commitment to making their games as realistic as possible. They need people to monitor the real NFL games in progress to ensure that their Madden counterparts are on par with reality.

From where I'm sitting, that is one of the best jobs you can get -- outside of playing professional sports yourself. In short, what I'm saying is, if EA needs someone to watch every NBA game this season to keep up to date with their NBA Live franchise, my hand is squarely up in the air for that one. After all, with the launch of NBA 365, they certainly will need to ensure that their players are up to date. EA's Peter Moore, my email is on the right!



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NBA Live 365 : the news is out!

EA Sports finally made their NBA Live announcement (which you were sternly warned about yesterday) with regard to the new artificial intelligence feature. It's aptly called "NBA 365" as it means you are provided with an updated NBA experience for every day of the year.

Part of this development means that every NBA Live player has a "Dynamic DNA" -- which as the name suggests, brings a constantly changing number of characteristics for that player. If this is as advertised on the carton, we've got a very exciting move in the future of sports gaming right here.

Here's a roundup of the news on the E3 announcement:

• A couple of nice updates from our friends at Sports Video Games, here and then again here.
• Report at the NBA Live Series Center from someone who has tested out the new NBA Live 09 and attended the initial event for the media. He points out that, as you would expect, there may well be a charge in the future for the update service -- but not for the 2009 iteration.
• The official list of new features, direct from EA's site.
• Another great hands-on report, this one from Pasta Padre.
• Oh and by the way, no, Brandon Roy is not on the cover of NBA Live 09 -- not to my knowledge anyway. That cover and other fantasies can be found at the IGN Boards.

One thing which I don't think enough has been made of, is the NBA Rewind feature. According to EA this is:

"NBA Rewind* - Think you can do it better? Rewrite history and replay last night's game with the updated statistical data that recreates identical conditions including injuries, hot/cold streaks, tendencies and player DNA."

I think Pasta Padre said it pretty well in his report:

"This is actually the aspect that I feel may have the most widespread appeal, though the others in attendance seemed to dismiss it going as far as to ask why time was spent on it (apparently very little as it just uses data that was already available). You’ll be able to replay any game from last season or the current one. Games are expected to be available for replay the very next day. Not only will this have every game available but you’ll be playing them with AI specific to that game alone. And if certain players were injured at the time of the game, or trades were made since then, it won’t matter. The players who were on the roster at the time of that game will be available. This mode will present something unique for every game you “rewind”."

That's pretty exciting stuff, to be able to replay any game in the past two seasons with true to life conditions! Now you can make the NBA Finals finish the way they were meant to, Laker fans...

NBA Live 2009 : UPDATE

As previously reported here, NBA Live will have a constantly-updating AI (that's artificial intelligence, not The Answer) feature in the 2009 edition.

Further confirmation of this rumour comes from HoopsWorld, who elaborated on this feature with the exciting news that it will draw upon the Synergy Sports database:

"The new game is truly revolutionary as it incorporates daily updates from the Synergy Sports database, making the game more of a true to life simulator, with ultra-accurate rosters and starting lineups, and more accurate game play. Synergy powers some of the best basketball analysis tools, which are used by 20 NBA teams to review and break down players. The Synergy system will make NBA Live 09 so accurate in its depiction of players and tendencies, its impressive to think that the game will evolve throughout the season taking into account real-life streaks, injuries, roster moves and lineup changes. The system literally pulls data daily, based on the results from the last game. As a player gets better during the season, his game-play character will mirror it."

This is very exciting, as from what I've heard of this Synergy tool (mostly from Henry Abott's ravings on Truehoop) it breaks down every single play in an NBA game and assigns keywords/phrases to that play. This database gives a coach (and now NBA Live) the ability to draw up how many times say Kobe Bryant went to the basket with his left hand and missed the shot, or how many times Dwight Howard blocked Emeka Okafor's shot in a game. If this data is used correctly, it would truly bring realism to NBA Live's AI -- one of the biggest areas of complaint gamers have had historically. More to come after the official announcement (3pm Los Angeles time, today).

NBA Live 2009 : Groundbreaking feature

There has been talk for sometime that a groundbreaking new feature was to be announced for NBA Live 2009 by EA Sports at today's E3 Media & Business Summit.

Games reviewers who were given a sneak-peak were asked not to leak information on the new development until the official announcement was made at E3 by EA. However, as with anything, there is always one...

Word has started to filter out that this is indeed a very exciting development for the franchise, which may finally bring it back above 2K Sports' NBA franchise -- regaining lost ground in a market that EA used to dominate.

As yet I have only seen one report on this, from the San Jose Mercury News:

"Companies such as EA aren't just reacting to Nintendo's innovations but touting their own, even in the most traditional of games.

EA plans to announce today that the latest version of its "NBA Live" game will include a constantly updated artificial intelligence.

Whenever users log on to the game, the title will connect to the Internet to download data from the latest NBA games, including such details as whether a player like Kobe Bryant is taking more shots from the left or the right side of the floor and his relative success from each spot. The game will use such information to affect how the virtual Kobe Bryant plays in "NBA Live" and how he is guarded."

Even the most cynical critic of EA's recent performance (such as this writer) would have to say that this is a pretty tasty revelation. As always, I take this with a pinch of salt, as EA has disappointed so many times in the last few years. However, if this development pans out as it says it will, this is a massive development in gaming. This is almost the link between Fantasy Sports and console gaming. To think that you can watch a game and then be inspired to jump onto your PS3 or X360 and play the game, with what you watched having an effect on the game, is amazing.

I remember back in 1994 being inspired by the play of undrafted Clippers rookie, Harold Ellis, as he torched the Celtics in a national television appearance. It was only his fourth game ever in the league and he racked up 29 points and 5 steals. I wanted to jump onto my Sega Megadrive and use him on NBA Showdown (the great-uncle of the NBA Live series and son of Bulls vs Blazers. Of course, in those days there was no way for an unheralded guy like him to be in the game, as he was only picked up mid-season. Even if he was in the game, he would have had low ratings in all categories. Perhaps with this development from EA, that sort of scenario will change a little bit and an updated roster with real-time attributes will be available. Harold Ellis -- yeeha.

There will be full developments on this when it gets officially announced. So check back for more details. NBA 2K9, who will be promoting their game at E3 as well, better have something up their collective sleeve.

UPDATE: more details have come to hand.