Shortly after the news broke that the NBA Live series was being renamed to NBA Elite starting with 2011's title, an EA representative said that the changes in the upcoming game will "usher in the future of basketball games." It was a bold, however, unsubstantiated claim. And it still is--but, the official announcement of the name change this morning carried a few details about the mechanical changes that gives us a glimpse at what that representative was spitting the big game about.
Foremost, NBA Elite 11 won't feature dice rolls. A skill-based shooting system that takes into account inputs based on position will replace the behind-the-scenes voodoo that once decided if a player's shot hits or not. In addition to this, NBA Elite 11 will feature a control scheme that maps movement one-to-one, no longer shackling you to animations. The physics system will supposedly be better than the norm as well. According to the press release, players will now move independently of one other, thus "removing the two-man interactions that have long taken the user control" out of b-ball simulation.
That said, I'm still not sold on if the physics or the control scheme--which seems like it'll add even more right-stick shenanigans to the game--will prove to be a point of design that will change b-ball games forever. But I'm no psychic. If I was, for example, I would have been able to tell you that NBA Live would become NBA Elite much sooner. Also, I probably would have been able to prevent that onion ring oil fire from happening in my kitchen. Or, at least, stopped myself from throwing water on it.
NBA Elite 11 hits the Xbox 360 and PS3 this October. It's being developed by EA Canada.