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PRELIMINARY NOTE:  I know that there are plenty of people who are
wondering whether to buy NBA Live '96 (by EA Sports) or Sony's NBA
Shootout.  I haven't played the EA title, so I can't answer that question. 

Anyway, I bought NBA Shootout last night and these are some early thoughts
and description for those who haven't seen it yet. 

First the stuff I like (this may be long :) ): 

**  The game begins with a nice FMV intro (though I hear EA's is amazing). 
From there, you can choose to play an Exhibition, New Season, Continue
Season, or Playoffs game.  You can choose the number of rounds in the
playoffs (2, 3, or 4 rounds), the number of minutes in each quarter (2, 3,
4, 6, 9, or 12 minutes), and whether to play in Simulation or Arcade mode
(simulation mode allows for player fatigue, fouling out, substitutions,
and time outs).  You can also choose whether the annoying "computer
assist" mode (i.e., the computer makes it easier for the team that is
behind) is on or off and whether the equally annoying "replay all dunks in
slo-mo" mode is on or off. 

**  There are all of the NBA teams, including the expansion teams.  Also,
nearly all of the NBA players are represented (including the elusive
Michael Jordan, disguised as Roster Guard #99, and Charles Barkley, aka
Roster Forward #99).  There is a picture of each player (kind of like his
"trading card" picture), though some are dated.  Also, some of the more
recent trades (e.g., Laettner to Atlanta) are not in the game.  There is a
trade player mode to correct this. 

**  There are buttons for Turbo, Dunk, Jump shot, Pass to the man you
face, and Pass to the man closest to the basket (on offense); Turbo, Shot
block, Steal, and Switch to man nearest ballhandler (on defense).  Yes,
this means that there is turbo both on offense and defense :).  You can
also choose between two offensive sets and two defensive sets on the fly. 
You can pick which two will be available before the game and during
timeouts.  Offensive sets include Hi-Lo Post, Box, High Triangle, etc. 
Defensive sets are just full or half-court press. 

**  Very nice graphics and animation.  The players all have nice-looking
home and away jerseys, with the number.  They have facial features and
their body size, skin color, and hair (including facial hair) is pretty
accurate.  Also, I've heard that Sony used motion capture to animate the
movement in this game.  It shows -- player movement is fairly realistic. 
Sometimes, though, it seems almost *too* smooth.  This is a bit hard to
explain, and maybe I am too used to Genesis basketball games, but your
players feel a bit like Hockey players in NBA Shootout...  they kind of
glide along.  You can't stop or turn on a dime, like you can in most video
basketball games.  And sometimes it seems a bit slow.  Still, it looks
very good.  The stadium floors are all basically correct (but,
unfortunately, no beehive pattern in Charlotte), and reflect the lights
and the legs (but only the legs!) of the players.  It all looks very good. 

**  The ref calls both offensive and defensive fouls, backcourt
violations, ten second violations, and five second (inbounding)
violations.  A foul can knock other players over (pretty realistically),
and your player can get "continuation" on a foul.  The ref is unseen,
though.  I kind of wish you could actually see the ref running along with
the players in these games, but I guess that would tax the polygon engine
to the point of slowdown .  This lack of a "real" referee is most
apparent in foul shots, since your player has to run down his own rebound
to shoot the second shot. 

**  During timeouts (in simulation mode only), you can substitute players
and decide whether to crash the boards, whether to have the computer
automatically "switch" (defensively) when you get beat off the dribble,
and whether to double-team the ballhandler. 

**  There are many usable camera views, including one called "One Player,"
which chooses the best view on the fly during one-player games.  There is
a free-camera in Replay mode which is *way* cool, because, unlike the
almost-as-cool freecam in FIFA, you can really move it *anywhere* -- up,
down, left, right, tilted around, up in the rafters... you can even rotate
the angle to the point where it is upside down.  The only drawback is that
replays are extremely short (only the last very few seconds) compared to
most sports games.  The attention to graphic detail is evident when you
use this free camera; all of the players have faces up close and are not
too pixellated. 

**  Your players actually *do something*, unlike NBA ITZ, in which they
stood around for most of the game.  If you hold the ball at the top of the
key, your players will set picks for you and make cuts.  I absolutely love
this, and this alone makes the game for me.  It certainly makes this game
loads better (at least in the simulation department) than NBA ITZ. 

**  You can use the Multitap for up to eight players at once.  Like most
sports games, players can be teammates or adversaries. 

**  There are (working) shot clocks above the backboards!  YES!  :)))))
Also, Sony got the "shot clock doesn't reset on out of bounds or on shot
blocks" rule right.  In fact, it seems that Sony got just about all of the
NBA rules correct.  Big thumbs up. 

**  The announcer is good and pronounces all names correctly, even using
the nickname and "wacky NBA announcer" enunciation in some cases (e.g.,
"Joe DOOOOOOOOOmars!" or "Bryant 'Big Country' Reeves!").  The sounds in
general are good.  There is the usual "sneaker squeak" sound and crowd
sounds, which react with the action of the game.  During timeouts, there
is a stadium organ which entertains the crowd. 

**  The FMV of the cheerleaders during halftime is nice ;).  There is a
"player standout" from each time at halftime, and game stats are given. 

**  There are end of game team and player statistics.  After an exhibition
game is over, you can select "Rematch" to play again without having to go
through the whole loading routine over again.  Finally, someone thinks of
this. 

**  Saves take up just one memory block. 


Now, the stuff I don't like...

**  NO STATS TRACKING.  I guess this is the reason saves only take one
memory block.  Statistics are important, especially to die-hard sports
simulation fans.  It really amazes me that such a great game can *not*
have statistics tracking.  I mean, it has the "season" mode, right? 
Sony's other excellent sports titles track statistics (maybe not
perfectly, but well enough), don't they?  I keep thinking that maybe I'm
overlooking it, and that there are season statistics there somewhere. 
Sadly, though, they definitely aren't there. 

**  Well, there *are* game statistics.  These are the statistics that you
get after the game ends: 

  Team stats:  FGS, FG%, 3PT, 3P%, FT, STLS, BLKS, RBS (O/D), PFS,
               and (get this) Possession Time
               ... possession time??  Huh?

  Plr of the game:  PTS, RBS, STLS, BLKS

  Plr stats:  PTS, FGS, FG%, 3PT, 3P%, FT, RBS, STLS, BLKS, PF

**  If you look at the above, you'll notice that there is *NO ASSIST
STATISTIC*, and no turnover statistic. 

**  There is no player create mode (but remember, contrary to rumor,
Jordan and Barkley are there... sort of).  This doesn't bother me as much
as it bothers some people. 

**  It appears that you can make substitutions only during timeouts. 
This, of course, is not the case in real life, in which you can sub any
time the clock is stopped.  Also, if you have made subs, for example, at
the end of the second quarter to give your guys a breather before
halftime, the subs will start the second half and you have to call a
timeout to put your starters back in.  This is pretty bad. 

**  There is no pump fake or pass fake.  This is a pretty important
oversight (I assume it's oversight) by Sony even notwithstanding the
simulation aspect, since, if you accidentally tap the shot button, your
player will shoot the ball rather than (as he would in most games) pick up
his dribble.  For this reason, you'll find yourself accidentally shooting
full-court shots as you go for a rebound and you'll notice that your
players, once they start moving, *never* pick up their dribble. 

**  When there is pressure by the computer on the inbounds play, *no one
comes back to help*!  This is an annoying AI flaw and often results in a
quick turnover. 

**  The score is only shown immediately after made baskets, and doesn't
stay on the screen for a second as you bring up the ball (as it does in
the old NBA Live games).  It isn't in a corner of the screen, either. 
You'll find yourself wondering "What's the score?" quite a bit. 

**  There is no scoring breakdown by quarters at the end of the game. 

**  It's a little too easy to steal and block.  At the same time, it's
tough to intentionally foul.  Intentional fouling is necessary for a
basketball simulation, IMO, and I have yet to see it done well. 

**  The announcer, like most video game announcers, often says things like
"That was awesome!" or "Incredible shot!" when the shot was neither
awesome nor incredible. 

**  Like many PSX games, the manual is lacking, and leaves many things for
the player to figure out.  I still don't understand the "status" area next
to your player when you foul... I think it's personal fouls and technical
fouls.  If this is the case, though, at one point it said that one of my
players had two technical fouls but he was still playing, *and* I didn't
notice when he picked up the technicals.  Anyone know? 

That's about it.  In summary, NBA Shootout is a good looking, fun,
extremely playable basketball *simulation* (finally!) which is really
lacking in only one department -- statistics tracking.  However, that's a
pretty big deal to a lot of fans. 

That said, I was surprised at how much I like this game in spite of the
lack of good statistics tracking.  I have a friend from Penn who loves it
because the rosters are so extensive that Jerome Allen (T'wolves rookie)
is actually in it.  I look forward to playing against him in the
two-player mode. 

--------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Kennedy
brk@acpub.duke.edu