New NBA game to "evolve" basketball
In a way we haven't seen for "a decade".
Peter Moore believes NBA Elite 11 will "profoundly evolve" the basketball genre in a way that hasn't been seen for "a decade". The game, incidentally, arrives on PS3 and Xbox 360 this October.
More goes on to claim (in a press release) that the new one-to-one control system is what fans have been "begging for" for years.
Dubbed Hands-On Control, this does away with pre-animated moves and brings in analogue-stick freedom. That probably means that twirling the stick makes your character twirl the ball around his back. It sounds similar to FIFA's skill moves.
And this this isn't just for dribbling, but for dunking, diving, fadeaways, mid-air adjustments, blocks and steals. On top of that, "skill-based" shooting requires "accurate user input" in order to score points.
Enabling all these innovations is a re-thought-out engine that thrusts real-time physics to the forefront.
"NBA ELITE 11 will give gamers the same skill set that a pro basketball player has at his disposal,” exaggerated the game's creative director, David Littman. "It is like being on a basketball court with an amazing set of skills."
This transformation meant EA needed a new name, hence Elite. Whether this will all be hot air - and whether EA can provide more than a tech demo - remains to be seen. Nevertheless, this is welcome news for fans of an undernourished sport-genre compared to FIFA and Madden.