A welcome surprise coming out of today’s Live @ EA Play presentation was the reveal of EA’s returning basketball title, NBA Live 18. Boasting a slew of new features and enhancements, NBA Live 18 reflects the refreshed approach being taken by the games’ newly reformed dev-team within EA Sports.

The team promises a litany of ‘gameplay innovations’, such as a refined dribbling system and ‘physics based transitions’, a new technology designed to give added realism and fluidity to player movement.

In what appears to be a new staple of EA Sports titles, NBA Live 18 will include a single-player story mode. Titled ‘The One’, this story will see players guide a custom character through a revamped career mode. As usual, not a groundbreaking inclusion, but one that’s sure to please newcomers and, at least, offer a change of pace to the hardcore fan base.

Initial gameplay impressions from those attending Live @ EA Play are positive, which bodes well for a series looking to claim market share in an already dominated genre. The rest of us can find out for ourselves when a free gameplay demo is released in August.

Until then, check out the reveal trailer for NBA Live 18‘s ‘The One’ below: