The sound of squeaking shoes, and the bright lights off the hardwood floors return this fall when EA presents NBA Live 15 on October 7th, 2014
Pre-Order NBA Live 15 for the Playstation 4
Pre-Order NBA Live 15 for the Xbox One
A few interesting things stand out about Live 15 after last year’s game brought EA back into the basketball fold but came out to a lukewarm reaction. The first is the graphical facelift. EA has made no bones about the fact that they want NBA Live 15 to be the best and most realistic looking basketball experience yet. Last year’s game quite honestly wasn’t bad looking. It wasn’t any different than I’d expect to a beginning-of-cycle next gen sports game to look like. There were a lot of missing background features, and empty layers, but it was still a pretty playable game. This year’s game basically turns last year on its head graphically. Don’t believe me? Take a look:
That’s pretty crisp compared to the previous year isn’t it? The other major facet of gameplay that’s been touched upon is the main game itself and the 5-on-5 experience. Coming into NBA Live 15, one of the biggest gamer feedback pieces was that the whole experience felt a little bit disjointed. Players weren’t playing and reacting to each other very fluidly, and the whole thing just felt like it was a step off the real game. To take care of this, EA spent a lot of last basketball season speaking to NBA coaches and players and attempting to gather feedback and insight into everything from positioning to play calling.
You will also see better player mechanics and movement on dribbles, shots and more. Set pieces should feel a little bit more in tune with what you’d see on an on-air broadcast, and your teammates should move with better purpose and position than last year. All in all, it sounds like EA took a serious look at the way things played out last year and decided to try and do much over right from the beginning.
The end result, EA hopes, is a much cleaner and more refined gameplay experience that can help it compete with the 2K franchise, which has basically re-defined the genre of serious basketball gaming and presentation. It’s not often that you get two competing products like this in North American sport, and this year will definitely be a great litmus test in determining whether EA can play compete again in the same league they dominated for so long before a couple of missteps occurred. In all, you can expect a more accurate in-game
You’ll find out for sure this October, but in the meantime, you can get yourself ready for the season with a Pre-Order bonus for Live Ultimate Team Mode. Pre-Order NBA Live 15 and get yourself access to $15 worth of bonus content for Live Ultimate Team. This year promises to be a solid mixture of young and old, featuring numerous retro throwback themes and more.
NBA Live 15 tips off on October 7th, 2014 for your Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Pre-Order now to ensure you get your hands on that Ultimate Team Bonus.
