The main differences between 2K7 and this years iteration (from the short amount that has been played) is that the interaction between players and non-players e.g. the crowd/ referees etc is a whole lot better. You will see players knuckle touch after most points, and free throws. If you are within vicinity of another team mate, they will chest bump and hi-five each other. When they're running to scramble for a loose ball near the edge of the court but don't make it, their momentum will carry them into either the member of the crowd or the line referee, and a suitable animation will ensue.
Crowd wise is another thing (which was already good in 2K7) where they are a lot more vocal when your team is down, or when dominating. But are real quite when the road team are putting down buckets and silencing them. Also a neat touch was when playing as the Detroit Pistons, when you go for 3's with either Chuancy Billups/ R.I.P. Hamilton or Tayshuan Prince, the crowd with shout "three!". Which i thought was a nice touch.
For gameplay, i have to admit, you seem to miss quite a few more open shots compared to last year, as i know my man is wide open after a pass when my team mate is double teamed, and yet he misses out a wide open long 2 or 3. Even when he is 'hot'...
This nicely leads me to a new feature this year (not too disimilar to NBA Live 08 'Hot Zones') where on offense, each player will have a battery bar-alike indicator icon, which will light up and fill up depending on which areas this player is most effective from.
For example Kobe Bryant/ LeBron James will have more or less full bars whenever theye are at the 3 point line leading to the basket. Others like Peja Stejokovic will most likely have full bars near the corners of the court, while centers like Yao Ming, and Kevin Garnett are alot more useful in and around the bucket, like in reality, where you wont see Yao hit 3's...
Their shot making will determine how 'hot' or 'cold' they will be. Miss a few in a row, and you wont be able to buy a bucket... but when you're hot, you're hot, and pretty much everything goes in.
The only thing i've noticed thats different while on defense is that you can now 'defense lock' on the ball handler (and i think on off the ball players as well) where holding the left trigger you will get this target underneath your players name and the more red it gets, it means that they will stay locked on that player, so you wont have to move the analog stick at all.
Isomotion (NBA 2K) vs Quickstrike (NBA Live 08)
i feel from at least playing the Live 08 demo, i prefer the quickstrike form of offense to the isomotion. Where in isomotion it feels a little random trying to get your player to do what you want.
The animations have been tweaked, they were already very good to begin with in 2K7, but there's lots of subtle touches like when the opposing team has scored and your point guard has the ball, he will (most times) do this accelerated run without use of the turbo, trying to get his team to grab a quick point back. As mentioned before, players interaction and reaction is a lot cleaner and for the better.
Presentation has taken a backwards step, compared to last year, where we had the 'showtime' theme of 2K7, compared to the drab greyscale computer-like menus of this year. Though on the court, its the same as ever. Though no player announcements like Live 08 before the start of the match.
One very cool feature now this year, is the post game analysis. You get your rudimentary stats for team and each player, but now there's an option to watch the main highlights from the game, or individual highlights from players who made an appearance in the game. For example, while playing as the Celtics, Kevin Garnett had a monster game where he picked up a double-double scoring 24 points and cleaning up on the rebounds, grabbing 15 of them. You can now see his contributions post game.
As well as game highlights/ individual player highlights, the last one is 'top 3 plays' whether it judges a spectacular pass for a bucket, or a monster dunk etc.
I've yet to try the 'blacktop' games yet, where you can try out the dunk contest amongst other things.
Crowd wise is another thing (which was already good in 2K7) where they are a lot more vocal when your team is down, or when dominating. But are real quite when the road team are putting down buckets and silencing them. Also a neat touch was when playing as the Detroit Pistons, when you go for 3's with either Chuancy Billups/ R.I.P. Hamilton or Tayshuan Prince, the crowd with shout "three!". Which i thought was a nice touch.
For gameplay, i have to admit, you seem to miss quite a few more open shots compared to last year, as i know my man is wide open after a pass when my team mate is double teamed, and yet he misses out a wide open long 2 or 3. Even when he is 'hot'...
This nicely leads me to a new feature this year (not too disimilar to NBA Live 08 'Hot Zones') where on offense, each player will have a battery bar-alike indicator icon, which will light up and fill up depending on which areas this player is most effective from.
For example Kobe Bryant/ LeBron James will have more or less full bars whenever theye are at the 3 point line leading to the basket. Others like Peja Stejokovic will most likely have full bars near the corners of the court, while centers like Yao Ming, and Kevin Garnett are alot more useful in and around the bucket, like in reality, where you wont see Yao hit 3's...
Their shot making will determine how 'hot' or 'cold' they will be. Miss a few in a row, and you wont be able to buy a bucket... but when you're hot, you're hot, and pretty much everything goes in.
The only thing i've noticed thats different while on defense is that you can now 'defense lock' on the ball handler (and i think on off the ball players as well) where holding the left trigger you will get this target underneath your players name and the more red it gets, it means that they will stay locked on that player, so you wont have to move the analog stick at all.
Isomotion (NBA 2K) vs Quickstrike (NBA Live 08)
i feel from at least playing the Live 08 demo, i prefer the quickstrike form of offense to the isomotion. Where in isomotion it feels a little random trying to get your player to do what you want.
The animations have been tweaked, they were already very good to begin with in 2K7, but there's lots of subtle touches like when the opposing team has scored and your point guard has the ball, he will (most times) do this accelerated run without use of the turbo, trying to get his team to grab a quick point back. As mentioned before, players interaction and reaction is a lot cleaner and for the better.
Presentation has taken a backwards step, compared to last year, where we had the 'showtime' theme of 2K7, compared to the drab greyscale computer-like menus of this year. Though on the court, its the same as ever. Though no player announcements like Live 08 before the start of the match.
One very cool feature now this year, is the post game analysis. You get your rudimentary stats for team and each player, but now there's an option to watch the main highlights from the game, or individual highlights from players who made an appearance in the game. For example, while playing as the Celtics, Kevin Garnett had a monster game where he picked up a double-double scoring 24 points and cleaning up on the rebounds, grabbing 15 of them. You can now see his contributions post game.
As well as game highlights/ individual player highlights, the last one is 'top 3 plays' whether it judges a spectacular pass for a bucket, or a monster dunk etc.
I've yet to try the 'blacktop' games yet, where you can try out the dunk contest amongst other things.
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