Electronic Arts Canada, the development wing for NBA Live 08 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), is holding its 2008 NBA Live Summer Camp in Vancouver and it's got a handful of stars to help out with tasks at hand.

Spearheading the activities will be streak-shooting Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas who will host the events come August 29. He'll be joined by other top-caliber stars like Shawn Marion if the Phoenix Suns, Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics and Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavericks. They'll be in the fray to get motion-captured for the game.

EA Canada boasts of the world's largest motion capture studio with some of the most advanced equipment for the craft. The NBA stars, according to EA, will be fitted with a special suit for the sessions. These suits will have reflectors and will be shot by 3D cameras surrounding them to capture all the information necessary to make the graphics as realistic as possible.

The sessions intend to digitize the Go-To moves of the players that NBA Live 08 will implement. We can then expect the versatility of Marion and Howard to come to life, and we'll also be seeing Arenas in perfect form as he rains down the treys.

"One of our biggest goals has always been to develop the most authentic sports games on the market," Jordan Edelstein, Director of Marketing, EA Sports. "Bringing in some of the NBA’s best athletes to EA for motion capture gives us the means to create a basketball experience as realistic in the video game as you see it on the court."

 

We've been keeping a close eye on EA Sports' NBA Live 08 for the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360 for the past few months now and we must say that it's turning out to be quite a prospect indeed. This time, we're getting up close and personal with your favorite ballers in these close-up shots.

EA Sports seems to want us to see the nice effort they put into the detail on the player models in the game. From the skin tone, shadows and even trademark accessories, Live 08 is looking to be as close to the real thing as possible. Gilbert Arenas is looking as real as we've ever seen him in a game in the main screenshot above.

The NBA Live franchise is the best-selling basketball simulation in the past decade, building its reputation on nice visuals and deep features. In recent iterations, pundits have dissed the series for showing its age in terms of its look and gameplay, but this season's offering promises us a totally new ballgame.

  
 

Buy: [NBA Live 08 (PS3)]
Buy: [NBA Live 08 (Xbox 360)]

Electronic Arts has announced that the official NBA Live 08 website is now, well, live. If you're a sports fan looking forward to this game's release, check it out.

The website contains various video clips of NBA Live 08 cover athlete Gilbert Arenas talking about his nicknames and getting on the cover of a video game. There are also a couple of screenshots and, for those who want to dress up their computers in the colors of their favorite team, some wallpapers.

Fans can also check out the producer's blog to learn more about the game or head on over to the community talk page for some discussions with other basketball fans. You can check it out via our read link below.

 

Gilbert Arenas may be getting on NBA Live 08's cover, but that's not the only thing going for the game of basketball in the PS3. Recently, IGN got quite an extensive interview with Sony Computer Entertainment San Diego's Senior Producer, Eric Waas, regarding Sony's latest game, NBA '08, and here are the bare essentials:

• New Progression System - Create your own character then earn points by playing in different modes that can raise a player's performance and purchase unlockables.
• Trophy room is tied to player progression - milestone goals earn you trophies
• Richer online content - improved auto matching and leader board, video streaming
• Improved replays - new "zoned" events in which players must mimic certain situations
• Focused on more intelligent commentary - Kevin Calabro on play-by-play and Mark Jackson on commentary
• Fine tuned features - more intuitive Sixaxis component
• Skitching System - accurate and realistic player animations, more than 2000 unique animations
  
• NBA Live 07 minigames now online
• More realistic arenas - denser crowds, more natural lighting, unlockable introduction

That's quite a list of new features for NBA '08! Waas is proud about the new content and how they integrated feedback into making the series better. Will they break free from the suffering the series has been experiencing these recent years? Only time will tell. Expect the hoops shooting action on Q3 2007.

For the full interview, click on the read link below.

It's official. Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, a.k.a., Agent Zero, is the new cover boy for Electronic Arts' NBA Live 08. This was confirmed in a recent press conference which also showed Arenas unveiling the cover art for the Xbox 360 version of the game. You can check it out in the video below.

Arenas averaged 26.5 PPG, 6 APG, and 4.6 RPG this season, which ended a bit prematurely for him due to a season-ending knee injury. NBA Live 08 is expected to be available for all next-gen consoles as well as the PC, although a release date has yet to be announced.

The Washington Times isn't generally known as a source of video game rumors (this blogger could be wrong, though) but we came across this little nugget on the online version of the newspaper:

Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas has appeared on several magazines this season, but soon he'll appear on a completely different type of cover. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Arenas will appear on the cover of EA Sports' NBA Live.

Arenas is currently out for the rest of the season due to a torn meniscus he got earlier this month. An avid video game player, Arenas often goes online for some multiplayer gaming action and has his own Halo team.

You'll also remember that he was one of the people who stood in line for the PS3 launch but didn't manage to get one. At the time, Arenas blogged that he should've told the people he was LeBron James, so then he would have gotten one. Well, if this rumor turns out to be true, he'd have one over LeBron as the Times also reports that Arenas was chosen over the Cavs forward for the NBA Live 08 cover gig.