NBA Live 16: Elite Player Ratings, Release Date, GameFace Scan Info and More
The extensive NBA Live 16 demo released on Tuesday; whether you're an NBA 2K fan or not, you have to admit NBA Live has come a long way since its debut on current-generation consoles.
The full game releases on September 29, but the demo gives gamers a free run of the biggest addition to the series' feature set: Live Pro-Am.
This was first teased at the E3 gaming conference earlier in the year, but now we're seeing the full idea take shape. It's essentially very much like NBA 2K's MyPARK/Crew/2K Pro-Am concepts. You create a player and take him to the virtual court to team up with others online to battle more teams of human-controlled players.
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The creation process also mimics an NBA 2K feature. Live introduced GameFace HD, which allows gamers to use a mobile app and their cellphone or tablet to scan in their faces. The idea is to generate a photo-realistic re-creation of themselves for their Live Pro Am and Rising Stars player.
Here's mine. It's pretty sharp, isn't it?
Scanning your face in NBA 2K was an awesome concept, but it was challenging. Lighting had to be correct, and there were a few nightmarish renders created as people attempted to work out the kinks.
That hasn't been the case with GameFace HD.
The entire process takes just about 10 to 15 minutes if your lighting is sufficient, and the system isn't as finicky as the one NBA 2K15 used. For anyone having issues, here's a tutorial on completing the process:
After you've scanned your face and saved it to the EA Sports servers, you can move over to the demo to begin your Live Pro-Am or Rising Stars experience. You'll have to pick a position and style before you take it to the court:
Here's a look at my first game:
From an overall depth standpoint, it doesn't appear that NBA Live 16 will be able to compete with NBA 2K16, but singularly, Live Pro-Am is a blast to play.
What About the Real Players?
In case you're not one for creating yourself in the game, NBA Live 16 will have all the real NBA teams and players with its traditional modes. Real teams and players mean ratings are bound to take center stage as we wait for the full release.
On Saturday, the ratings were released for all of the top players at each position. Here's a breakdown of the highest-rated players. You can see all of the ratings at EASports.com.
- LeBron James (Overall - 97)
- Kevin Durant (Overall - 96)
- Chris Paul (Overall - 95)
- Blake Griffin (Overall - 95)
- Anthony Davis (Overall - 95)
- James Harden (Overall - 95)
- Marc Gasol (Overall - 95)
- DeMarcus Cousins (Overall - 94)
- LaMarcus Aldridge (Overall - 94)
- Russell Westbrook (Overall - 94)
- Steph Curry (Overall - 94)
- Dwight Howard (Overall - 92)
- Andre Drummond (Overall - 91)
- Klay Thompson (Overall - 91)
- Carmelo Anthony (Overall - 91)
- Pau Gasol (Overall - 91)
- Zach Randolph (Overall - 90)
- DeAndre Jordan (Overall - 90)
- Paul George (Overall - 90)
- Kyrie Irving (Overall - 90)
- John Wall (Overall - 90)
- Damian Lillard (Overall - 90)
- Kawhi Leonard (Overall - 89)
- Kobe Bryant (Overall - 89)
- Jimmy Butler (Overall - 89)
- Dwyane Wade (Overall - 88)
The first thing that jumps out to me about this list is the fact that there are seven players rated higher than cover athlete Russell Westbrook. Most make sense, but Westbrook and his fans might take issue with the guard being rated lower than Marc Gasol and even Blake Griffin.
It's also a little peculiar that Griffin would be rated as high as Anthony Davis. If this is purely stat based—or even related to physical ability—LeBron James, Kevin Durant and possibly Chris Paul are the only guys who should be rated higher than Davis.
Also, Kobe Bryant is clearly the recipient of a lifetime achievement award with his 89 overall rating. There's no way he should have the same rating as Jimmy Butler; the latter is one of the best two-way players in the league. At this point in Bryant's career, he's a liability on defense.
That said, you'll have to take control of each player in the game to get a real feel for how effective you can be with them. Aside from Live Pro-Am, the demo also features eight playable teams: Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets.
With that selection of teams, you'll have chance to test out nine players from this list. Have fun.
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