by:	November 21, 2005

With NBA Live 2006, you have a lot of what you had in the past versions of the game, as well as some new. In NBA Live 2006 for Xbox 360 it looks like a totally different game from the past versions, but they actually took out most of the game. I will admit, as I have many times before I am not exactly a fan of any kind of sports game unless you are talking skateboarding or golf. I can’t imagine the development environment with Live though. It must have been something like this “Alright so we will just put a few new things in the current-gen console versions, but it will still be a solid product, so let’s see with this new version, lets tack on a $60 price tag, but make it worse gameplay wise from older versions of the game, but make it look like a really nice tech demo that you can control!” Still if one thing makes this game stand out it would have to be the visuals, but any basketball player can tell you, that it isn’t how you look but rather how you play that wins the game.

So the first thing you will notice when you start up the game is the spectacle of the visuals. You start out in a virtual basketball court, which also serves as your menus area. You are given a basketball player and you can practice while the game loads up. When it finally loads you are teleported, and the camera pans to the big screen behind the court, and sucks you right into the game. That part is actually really cool. Also, I couldn’t but smile in amazement at the visuals, as each player has incredibly realistic faces, muscles that move, veins in their arms, high-res tattoos on their arms, clothing that waves, and overall they just look fantastic. The clothing doesn’t quite wave like the clothing in NBA2K6 on 360, but because of that, it isn’t as over exaggerated either. The courts are all well designed with crowds that are three dimensional, if not a little on the crappy looking side, and fantastic lighting and shadows. The crowds even react to what you do. The actual players have fantastic dunking animations, but their facial animations never change, and they move very badly sometimes when just dribbling the ball. Other strange things, is how their hands move, as they seem to be completely sprawled out at all times, and while the sweat effect is cool, you would think these players would be slipping all over the place for how much they are dripping. The camera angles, which make me wonder who the hell was in charge when making the game all, are horrible. The default is some TV type camera, which is off to the side, not helping you see the action. The best one, which is off to the sidelines, is really far away, and you can’t see the action or the finer details of the game. Almost like they are trying to keep you away from some sort of strange problems.

Well now that you know how great the game looks, time to tell you why it is so horrible: no franchise mode at all, other modes taken out and so on. This should convince you right now to stay away from this game. Want to see the game’s neat visuals? Well your in luck, you can get the best and only good part of the game on the Xbox Live Marketplace for free in a downloadable demo.

NBA Live 06 also has your standard multiplayer. You can play with four people offline on your Xbox, or two on Xbox Live. You get a good array of rankings, and information that lets you know how you have been doing compared to other players, but don’t expect a variety of people to play with. Depending on when you are playing, you will run into the same players, who know exactly what they are doing. So unless you are really good at the game, you will probably want to stay away. Then again, at certain times early in the morning you will come across people who will probably be more attuned to your skill.

The sound is what you would expect from an NBA game. The loud thuds of the ball on the court, the squeak of sneakers, the sway and sound of players moving around each other, and the thunderous crowds, along with bells and whistles are all here. If you haven’t already guessed, the soundtrack is mostly hip-hop based, but if that isn’t your thing, or if you are tired of some of the generic hip-hop tracks, then you can simply switch it to your own brand of tunes. The commentary in this game is actually pretty good, and I often don’t say that, but you will hear commentary that is very random at times, and doesn’t repeat itself. The guys who do it, are doing a pretty good job, and you get a bette feel that you are actually watching the game on the TV with the commentary. In that respect the game has actually done pretty well.

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So all in all, just stay away from the game. Download the demo for the visuals, and get NBA2K6 for your basketball needs. I don’t know what is wrong with Electronic Arts, but they will probably somehow get away with taking the modes out since tons of people like NBA Live anyways. Don’t be one of those suckers though, and stick to some of the better 360 launch titles instead.

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