While I’d love to see roster editing patched into NBA Live 18, and would certainly encourage EA Sports to do so if it’s all possible, I’m not expecting it to happen.
Implementing roster editing in NBA Live 19 may be quite feasible – and I certainly hope that it is – but adding that functionality to NBA Live 18 through a patch is likely a very different story. That may be easier said than done, at least if you’re talking about patching it into the current game. Obviously, NBA Live would also require some changes to its interface and the way it handles data files in order to accommodate roster editing. The limited roster editing in NBA 2K14 was partly due to the way that the user interface was designed, and saved files subsequently handled. I imagine that there are some technical challenges here. At this point, “next year” really has to be next year, in NBA Live 19. Sadly, despite the pleasing progress that NBA Live 18 has made, gamers hoping to create their own rosters have once again been left feeling disappointed. With NBA Live skipping the 2017 season entirely in favour of an extended development cycle, the hope was that many past staples of the series, including roster editing, would finally make their return. With each new game in the series, those words have become more and more frustrating to hear. However, while NBA 2K would begin bringing back key roster customisation features the very next year, NBA Live did not.īeginning with NBA Live 15, roster editing has continually been set aside for “next year”. It’s worth noting that the current generation version of NBA 2K14 was also far more limited in terms of roster editing functionality, so we can perhaps chalk it up to teething problems as both games made the jump to the new platforms. It was disheartening to see its absence in NBA Live 14, but it was also somewhat understandable, given that the game was being rebuilt after years of scrapped plans and false starts. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for roster editing to be implemented in the current generation of NBA Live games.
Ideally, we also need a method of sharing custom rosters with each other, but at the very least, we need the ability to make our own modifications to the rosters in NBA Live.
Whether it’s getting a big trade into the game before the next update is pushed through, correcting a mistake in the most recent roster, or creating a brand new experience, roster editing functionality is a must. It’s still vital that we’re able to make changes instead of having to wait for the release of the next official roster update. That’s assuming, of course, that there isn’t a way for it to be implemented in this year’s game.īack in May of last year, I discussed the importance of custom rosters in basketball video games. While other areas of the game have rightfully been prioritised, roster editing is a staple that must return in NBA Live 19.
We haven’t seen roster editing in the series since NBA Live 10, and gamers are understandably getting impatient to see it return. However, there is one feature that’s conspicuous by its absence in NBA Live 18, and that’s roster editing. The team at EA Tiburon has to feel pleased with the more positive reaction to NBA Live 18, not to mention motivated as they begin work on next year’s game.
NBA Live appears to be on the right track, and even cracked the top twenty downloaded games on the PlayStation Network in September. There’s more fluidity on the sticks, the controls have been expanded, and with The One, the game has a much deeper career mode along with some solid connected experiences. While there’s still room for improvement, it’s had the best reception of any NBA Live game on the current generation, among gamers and reviewers alike. With NBA Live 18, EA Sports’ long-running basketball series has taken some pleasing steps forward. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on the current lack of roster editing functionality in NBA Live. We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games.