NBA Live 06

Written by Matt Swider  on March 10, 2006

Review: Like TNT NBA Thursday in High-Definition whenever my HD cable box malfunctions.

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Xbox 360 owners who are also sports fans should be in gamer heaven because when it comes to major sports titles, companies have all the bases coveredЕ Well, all the bases except for baseball. EA Sports dominated launch day with football, soccer and golf, while 2K Games took care of hockey and snowboarding. Both publishers put out their own basketball games too, the only sport to see competition on the system's first day. Even though EA's NBA Live and 2K's NBA 2K6 are based on the same sport, their next-gen debuts are fairly different. Live 06 is a lot like the rest of EA Sports' lineup: stunning, but stripped of modes. 2K6, on the other hand, surpasses Live's feature set but it's not as flashy. For early adopters that want to impress friends with the finest next-gen graphics, it'll be a tough choice between looks and longevity.

NBA Live 06 is as close as it comes to live basketball from the comfort of your couch and console. The introductions at the beginning of each game really get you pumped up with jaw-dropping player models and electrifying arena effects. You'll see beads of sweat slide down their faces, strain of muscles with their every movements, and tattoos and veins all over their bodies (exact tattoo designs, but probably not exact vein definitions just yet). Besides realistic players on the court, the rest of the game's 3D models are rounded out by players on the bench, coaches on the sidelines and fans in the stands. When paired with an HDTV, the rebuilt graphics engine of the Xbox 360 version stands out with energetic crowds full of life and lights that reflect off of the squeaky-clean wood courts and Shaq's forehead.

In addition to highly detailed player models, player animations are also extremely realistic. For example, as you dribble at half court and wait for another teammate to get open, players push off of their defenders and demonstrate a lot of emotion in the process. However, while individual animations like this are superior looking, they're sloppily strung together. As a result, the court is full of highly detailed movements that are choppy with every transition of the action. The camera is another point of imperfection. The default broadcast angle sometimes sits behind the backboard when throwing the ball in from out of bounds and the replay camera has been ejected from the options menu. Instead, players must promptly press the L button after a shot that the computer deems replay-worthy. Miss the quickly-vanishing replay camera message and you're out of luck. Animation and camera issues aside, this first-round graphics engine of the new generation creates the best looking basketball game that money can buy.

EA Sports didn't just rebuild the graphics engine for the Live series, but also the loading screen for games as we know it. Players can fool around during the loading process, which is a big leap over the moveable game or company logo seen in other titles. As cover-athlete Dwayne Wade (or any other players you select in the menu), you shoot hoops in sort of a practice mode that includes up to four other people and keeps score. While this idle screen is extremely stylish, the menu that you bring up is stripped of modes. The Xbox 360 version of NBA Live leaves out some current-gen modes, many of which are essential like franchise mode as well as favorites like dunk contest and three-point contest. Also, the new superstar moves found in the other versions of Live 06 weren't added to the Xbox 360 edition.

The moves that are found in the game's control scheme should be familiar to long time followers of the NBA Live series and should be easy enough for new players to pick up, too. However, everyone will find the new free throw shooting technique very difficult and absolutely terrible. There's no proper instruction on how to perform a free throw shot with the right analog stick and, even worse, there's no indicators to provide feedback on the accuracy of each shot. Even with practice, I found it easier to make any hole-in-one in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 than to make a single free throw shot from the foul line in NBA Live 06.

The free throw shooting may not be convenient, but the control over making changes to the playbook or making substitutions has proved to be just that. Whenever there's a stoppage of play, it's possible to make on-the-fly changes without resorting to the options menu. The rest of the in-game controls feel natural, but if you press a wrong button, you'll hear wise cracks from the commentators Marv Albert and Steve Kerr of TNT NBA Thursday. For example, if you accidentally press the dunk button at half court, they'll laugh and say УHey holmes, only use the dunk button when you're near the basket!Ф Not to forget about the serious commentary, the pair also provides very specific remarks regarding players, detailing their current situation in the game and relating it to past performances. It's nice to see more than the generic play-by-play as well as the rude commentsЕ that is, when they're directed toward other players.