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See the issue: October 2007

Related video: Amare Stoudemire Interview

By Sam Allard

For the second time in three years, Amare Stoudemire will be the face of Sony PlayStation’s NBA game. Here, Sony PlayStation’s senior producer Eric Waas and NBA ’08’s cover athlete dish about some of this version’s best features.

As in each previous year, the graphics have improved dramatically. Waas’ development team did extreme research, studying players’ habits and shot selection to gain this heightened sense of realism. He says, “We do investigative work to nail down the players’ tendencies, so that what they do in the game is reflective of how they are in real life. And now, we’ve got a whole slew of attributes, like three-point shooting, inside and outside defensive awareness, and the ability to shoot in traffic.”

During development, Stoudemire made sure his digital form perfectly matched his game: “My game has elevated this past summer, and I wanted that incorporated into 08.”

One of the most significant changes involves artificial intelligence, according to Waas. NBA 08 players make decisions and react to bumps, shoves and collisions based on information designers found in research. You can set picks, drive to the hole and exploit a weak defense.

“Video games have always been that if you go to the hoop, it’s almost a gimme. That’s no longer the case,” Waas says. “There’s a reason that in a real game, when Steve Nash penetrates, he rarely shoots; some tall guy he can’t shoot over is standing there. So he just penetrates the lane to create an opening. We wanted things like that to be more realistic.”

Stoudemire points out that the game’s realness has even influenced his on-court play. “The game shows you fundamentals and makes you conscious of them—like, ‘Let me try to work on fundamentals, so next year, my player will be ranked 99 instead of 94.’”

NBA 08’s defense is tougher and more rewarding, too. Raising the controller makes your defender’s hands go up so he can pick off passes and defend shots; lowering it helps you deflect bounce passes and be ready for steals.

Bring the boys over for a challenge in one of NBA 08 ’s multiplayer modes. You can create playoff brackets with the 16 teams of your choice. Or, you can develop your own player, whose skills improve as you complete a series of tasks, then challenge a friend—your player versus his.

Finally, you can take on NBA players, head-to-head. Just watch their real-life exploits in the new replay mode and see if you can outdo them.

NBA 08 is available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PSP.

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