Attention all sports fans, EA just gave you guys a whole bunch of reasons to get excited. Starting up with a motivational speech and intense shots of action, the latest instalment in the NHL franchise landed with a very stylish cinematic that went over well with the crowd. Followed by a brief glimpse at the new PGA Tour and then finally, the latest NBA game; the jewel in their sports-centric crown.
For the grand reveal of NBA Live 16, they bought out the big guns with “the Hoop Gawd”, who demonstrated a nifty new feature called GameFace HD. A mobile feature which allows you to scan your face via your smartphone and have it placed upon your own customer player. The results were surprisingly impressive, completely demolishing any claims that it could be a cheap gimmick. Sadly the feature is restricted to NBA, but more than likely it’ll cross over into future EA Sports titles in the near future. This was also coupled with “Live Motion”, which allows more free-flowing, dynamic movement that adds a new layer of realism to the game and opens it up for a lot more individuality in play style.
There was brief talk of EA Sports Ultimate League, which allows players to have complete control over their teams and keep their finger on the ever changing pulse of the sport world. With ever shifting content that will update as real life players move between teams. Completely rebuilt passing and catching features adds greater depth to the game and new button-sensitive inputs that give the player greater control over their shots. Online play was also featured, with talk of improved servers and better matching of opponents. It was all pretty standard on that front.
The proceedings were concluded with a gameplay trailer, all recorded in-game, demonstrating all of the new features in action. It was slick, silky smooth and showed off the power of next-gen perfectly. If this small slice of footage is anything to go by, the final product will be highly satisfactory. No release date was given for NBA Live 16, but we can sure it won’t be the last that we will be seeing of it.