Author Topic: NBA Live 2003 Interview...  (Read 620 times)

Big BpG

NBA Live 2003 Interview...
« on: September 30, 2002, 05:24:27 PM »
check it...


Producer Q & A, Part II
Gary Lam Keeps Speaking Out About Live
When we first cornered NBA Live Producer Gary Lam, he gave us a little bit of the scoop on the new game, features and enhanced modes. And that was fine then, but with the game launch just weeks away, we put the full-court press on the G-man to get the real insider info on the revolutionary new features like Freestyle Control and EA SPORTS TRAX.




EA SPORTS: How much control is Freestyle Control going to give you over an offensive player? What about defense? Will a player's own abilities enter into the equation?

GARY LAM: Unprecedented in a basketball videogame. The EA SPORTS™ Freestyle Control is a whole new way of thinking about how to play basketball in a video game. Think of the Left Analog Stick (I'm using PS2 terminology here) as your legs and the Right Analog Stick as your hands. By making various movements and shapes with the Right Analog Stick, you control what kinds of dribbles you do. Simple crossovers, hesitations, the old Tim Hardaway UTEP-Two-Step, behind the back, spins, it's all there. What's great about this control is that it eliminates the randomness of moves that are typically mapped to the face (or action) buttons like X, Circle, etc. With that system, you hit a button and you get a move depending on randomness. That's okay but far from ideal when you're going hard against your best buddy and really want to shake him. With the EA SPORTS™ Freestyle Control, all of that randomness is gone. You get the same move if you make the same movement on the Right Analog Stick. So, if that same buddy of yours always bites on a right to left crossover, you can bust that out on him at the exact moment you want.

Defense is also much better with the control but obviously a little less exciting because there are just fewer really flashy things that you can do on D. With the EA SPORTS™ Freestyle Control, you can drop down into a lower more aggressive crouch (think Gary Payton) when guarding your man to create a larger space around which your opponent has to go. On top of that you can use the Right Analog Stick to control which hand you attempt a steal with. It's always relative to your player's hands. Right will move his right hand, left will move his left. You can also try to draw a charge with the Right Analog Stick or contest a shot a little more conservatively if you are in foul trouble.

EA SPORTS: How did you decide which old-school uniforms to include?

GARY: It started back at the 2002 All-Star Game in Philly. There's a store there called Mitchell & Ness that specializes in old school apparel. It's probably one of the coolest places you'll ever see if you're into that sort of stuff. I am so you can imagine how much I loved it! Anyways, we saw some of the jerseys that were on display and thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if we put some of those in our game?". That same week, we kept seeing the NBA stars like Darius Miles wearing the old '87-'88 Denver Nuggets jersey and that pretty much sealed it. We were going to put them into Live 2003. We sat around looking for the jerseys we felt would be the coolest and went with them. My personal fave is the '61-'62 Lakers one. Love that jersey!

EA SPORTS: Tell us about the announcers? What does Marv Albert bring to the table?

GARY: We've got Don Poier and Bob Elliot doing the Play by Play and Color Commentary, respectively. We were planning on using them all along for this year and are really great guys to work with. They've done some announcing together in the past and have such a great rapport in the studio which is hugely undervalued in video sports game commentary. You can't just sign a couple of guys and hope they'll work together. There has to be a certain comfort level in the studio or you won't get the performances you need.

Marv Albert was a late signing and one of the more pleasant surprises this year because I didn't expect to get to work with him this year. We've been planning to use different announcers sometime in the future since we've had the same guys for the past few versions of Live and wanted to give the fans a different audio experience. I was surprised that we were able to sign Marv as soon as we did so we decided that we wanted to use him in some capacity for Live 2003. He's doing the voiceovers for the EA SPORTS™ Freestyle Control tutorial videos. I love working with Marv. He's such a knowledgeable guy about sports and he and I spent a lot of down time in the studio just talking sports. Plus, he's so easy to work with. No prima donna stuff from Marv. Just a regular guy with a voice recognized around the world.

EA SPORTS: What kind of goodies and unlockable features will there be? How hard will they be to find?

GARY: Taking the Fifth on that one. You'll have to wait.

EA SPORTS: What sort of music will be in the game? Any songs written especially for NBA Live?

GARY: Our soundtrack is one of the best parts about Live 2003. Anybody can go out and spend top dollar to license songs that we've heard on the radio for months (or in some cases, years). We decided that if we were going to get music for Live, it would be music by people who played games and wanted to work with us. The lineup includes some pretty big names: Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Busta Rhymes, Just Blaze, Brandy, Fat Joe, B. Rich, Angie Martinez, and a lot more.

A few of the tracks were specifically written for Live. Snoop wrote us a song, Fabolous did the same. Plus others, like B. Rich and Joe Budden did new mixes and vocals for us on some of their songs. Overall, I'm really happy with the mix that we have in the game.

EA SPORTS: Would you consider this a completely new NBA Live? How will it be better than other NBA games out on the market?

GARY: I think anyone who plays this game and doesn't consider it to be a whole new NBA Live already had their minds made up before powering up the machine. It's great to compare yourselves to other NBA games but I think that's limiting yourself too much. I look at it this way: In the movie business, comedies don't compete with just comedies, they compete with all movies for your entertainment dollar. Video games are the similar in this respect. Sports games compete with action games, RPG's, and other genres for the video game consumer dollar. Why try to just restrict your vision to just the other NBA games? I consider Madden, FIFA, SSX, Medal of Honor, Bond, etc. as all being in the same category: video games. Of course, you can't abandon your core fan base. They make you, they break you. But really, we try to please the greatest number of people because at the end of the day, the number of people who buy your game determines who the winner is.

EA SPORTS: Anything else you want to add about Live?

GARY: I think NBA Live 2003 is a great game. Play the game and have fun with it. If you're having fun, then we're heading in the right direction.

EA SPORTS: How did you get David Stern involved and what is his role in the game?

GARY: The NBA approached us and asked us if we wanted to use the Commissioner in our game in any way. Although it was really late in the development cycle, we felt that this was one thing that we had to jump at. He presents the NBA Finals winner with the trophy. We're not saying that this is the only reason to buy the game because that wouldn't be correct. It's just a neat little addition


-Big BpG
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »

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truemaster

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Re: NBA Live 2003 Interview...
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2002, 05:33:24 PM »
Damn, it looks like I might have to get 3 basketball games this October, Live 2003, 2K3, and ID 2003!! :o
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »


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Shoe_whore

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Re: NBA Live 2003 Interview...
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2002, 05:48:53 PM »
oooh sounds tite. ima get this fa sho
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »
 

Black_Smoke

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Re: NBA Live 2003 Interview...
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2002, 07:59:50 PM »
tight but no where on tha same level as NBA 2k3

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »



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Big BpG

Re: NBA Live 2003 Interview...
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2002, 08:05:36 PM »
just wait.... reviews will be coming soon... im expecting good things out of Live, as a lot of testers say that their "freestyle control" is a remarkable way to control the players

-Big BpG
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »

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Black_Smoke

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Re: NBA Live 2003 Interview...
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2002, 03:11:02 PM »
aight but look at 2k3 reviews too
and you'll c that 2k3 is superior

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »



"Its the length of 1 day, one half, one shotclock, this number is my promise.....to Dominate every moment"-Kobe #24