After playing the demo all weekend I feel compelled to provide feedback to EA as I feel that's what the demo is for. First off, I think you guys (EA) have done a good job with NBA Live 18 but it's not great and it can be. I'm going to start with the list of things I feel need to be addressed, improved and/or changed and then I'll list off the things you guys have executed well.
Jumpshot animations:
The jump shot animations need work. They do not feel smooth and they don't look smooth either. Especially towards the peak of the shot.
Dunk animations:
Really not good. I feel like the take off and finish of the dunk animations are very underwhelming. Dunks are suppose to be jammed! I never got that feeling playing the demo this weekend. They look childish most of the time. Doesn't give off a realistic vibe.
5v5 instead of 3v3:
Please consider a 3v3 mode. It's just better from the standpoint of match making and space on the court. With 5v5, it becomes too clustered. Plus, I feel like most people don't always have a party of 5 playing together every time they get on the game and I feel like that will deter people from playing this game often. People online are selfish 80% of the time. So if I'm forced to play a team based game with 4 other people who only care about themselves......it's a no brainier really.
A.I:
The CPU can be terrible at times. They stop moving completely and just run the clock out at times. It's almost too easy.
Matchmaking:
Work on the dependability off the match making system because often times I couldn't invite my friends to play with me. We would get error messages or the game wouldn't recognize that they're online. When we jumped into Live Run, it would only match the amount of people controlled players that we had in our party. (for example my friend invites me i join, then they add two other people to the other team and the rest of each of our teams are computers)
Consistency of Layups:
I feel like anytime someone takes it to the hoop, the animations just take over and they score a bucket. The paint could be full of bigs and a guard will come through, sucks us all into an animation where he finesses's around or even just a contested lay up, body to body, and it's a bucket. Doesn't make sense.
Tattoos:
Take from 2k and make it so we can place, rotate, enlarge and shrink our tattoos and place them where we want them. Premade tattoos and how they're organized is going to make for a stale and unified experience. I probably won't even have tattoos on my player because I don't want to see a thousand other characters with the same ones.
The weight of my player:
None of my friends seemed to have an issue with this but when I made my character, (a 6'10 big) I made him as skinny as possible because I am a skinny guy. The first game I played, he was lanky in all his glory. Very kevin durant like. But then in my second game, and every game after that, he was all jacked up. Super muscular. I reset my character and the same thing happened. Not sure what that's about.
What I like:
1. The defense is great. I feel like I can take control on defense and although I do feel like I get sucked into some animations sometimes, it's not something that happens often but perfecting that further would be great.
2. The face scan! Amazing.
3.The speed and movement of the game is good. A little clunky and times and when you're on the receiving end of a pass, the catching animation can be weird. Takes you out of your desired position.
4. Customization is great.
5. Crate openings are cool.
6. Story line is great!
7. WNBA! Yes.
8. The courts looks great. (add hoopdome!)
9. That pre-order price. Much appreciated.
I hope you guys see this and take into consideration these fixes. I would really love to purchase Live this year but some things are holding me back, and when I talk to others i know who are also playing, they too have their concerns.
