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EA Sports’ perennial basketball franchise makes a next-generation appearch. NBA Live 06 for the Xbox 360 includes a brand-new graphics engine and some next-generation features that truly make you feel like the next generation is upon you. Unfortunately, some concessions were made to get this game available in time for launch, so you’ll miss some expected features like a franchise mode.
NBA Live 06 gives off a great first impression. The game loads to a basketball court where you can shoot and dunk while the game loads. Once it’s done loading you can keep playing in this practice mode or enter one of the game’s modes. This includes quick play (which lets you keep playing the practice while that mode loads), a season mode, and create-a-player. NBA Live 06 is a bit light on gameplay modes for the Xbox 360 but this is somewhat expected with the transition to the n new console.
The game’s gameplay should be familiar to fans of the series, though it is slower and more sim-oriented than recent games. The actual gameplay is very similar to the current-generation versions with the exception of the superstar controls. In fact, a big reason that NBA Live 06 feels slower and more realistic is due to the removal of superstar moves, which were essentially exaggerated moves for the cream of the crop. You still have the separate dunk button and accompanying crazy dunks, you still have the ability to tip in shots or dunks, and you still have freestyle dribbling thanks to the right analog stick. You’ll also notice that the freestyle stick can’t do quite as much as you remembered. The game still lets you call plays using the D Pad so that you can try and plan a double team. One of the less favorable additions is the new free-throw shooting system. The game requires that you pull back on the analog stick and then push forward but it isn’t intuitive in practice.
NBA Live 06 makes full use of Xbox Live. You’ll be able to play online. We had a great itme playing online though we did notice that there were some lag and framerate issues at times. This doesn’t too negatively impact the game, though. If you just want to impress local friends, the game includes offline multiplayer for up to four players.
The game’s visuals are amazing. You’ll see that the player models are astonishing with incredibly highly detailed faces for all of the players and coaches. The player models look incredibly realistic thanks to awesome skin textures that properly show muscle tone. The game’s lighting is stellar, too, and definitely an improvement from current generation basketball titles. The game’s animations are superb, too, with a number of top-notch dunk and juke animations. Even the way they move down the court is noticeably improved from current generation games. The presentation is great with broadcast-quality camera angles introducing the arenas when you begin a game. There are a few collision issues but they are small. The game looks even better when playing in progressive scan or 720p, though the framerate does drop at times when playing in 720p.
The game’s audio is similar to the current-generation version of NBA Live 06. The soundtrack is once again provided by EA Trax and is largely compromised of hip-hop songs. The sound effects are pretty similar to last year’s but still sound great. The commentary is provided by Marv Albert and Steve Kerr, who replaces Mike Fratello since he is now coaching.
NBA Live 06 looks great and has some truly next-generation features that make you say “wow.” With solid gameplay backing it up, it is easy to tell that EA Sports put some work into this. It’s definitely recommended if you didn’t pick up the game for current-generation consoles. If you did, and are willing to part with the franchise mode and the superstar moves for much better graphics, then this is right for you. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Dec 9, 2005
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