There?s a certain level of quality that players expect from a product bearing the EA Sports logo, and NBA Live hasn?t lived up to it for the past several years. Not helping matters is that Visual Concepts puts together one of the finest sports games every year with their NBA 2K series, and EA has had to go the drastic measure of skipping a yearly release in order to give their basketball series more development time. They know that NBA Live 18 has a perception issue, and thankfully for gamers, they?ve finally made a game that?ll be able to compete with the competition.
I see two main selling points for NBA Live 18, and the first comes from the game?s attempts at a single-player basketball RPG. Yes, it sounds crazy, but after spending several hours with the demo build that?s available today, I?m sold on EA?s vision. I began my career by creating a character, and I modeled him after Electronic Arts? unofficial mascot Tha Hoop Gawd. After customizing his play style towards being a shooting guard, the Gawd was ready to hit the court. There?s a light story told during the beginning of NBA Live 18?s career mode, and while I didn?t mind the premise (your player is returning from injury and has to prove himself before the NBA Draft), the presentation left something to be desired. EA actually partnered with ESPN for the project, and players get First Take segments with Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman arguing about the player?s career. They totally nailed the production style...