Graphics

It seems that to be honest the game’s playability was second on the list to buffing up the graphics, which EA have to their credit done an utterly amazing job on. The backgrounds compared to the players of course are weaker, but the actual player models are so good that you can see the sweat on their skin, the material of their shirts and the veins standing out in their arms. The game is going to shine on a HD TV but even on a normal TV it looks pretty impressive.

I can safely say that from looks alone, NBA Live 06 is definitely one of the first next gen console games. But there are more problems around the corner in this game than innovations.

Animations

Some of the animations are spot on, fluid and give a real feeling of life to the models. Some of the animations look as though a drunken monkey is operating a hand puppet, they are jerky and off frame in several places. So any joy felt by watching the awesome animations, is dashed when you see the player collisions and animations, stick, unstuck and sometimes almost moon-walk across the play field.

Sound

NBA Live 06 has some good sound, EA haven’t skimped here and there’s a variety of background noise. The crowd will quieten down in anticipation of a shot, or become loud and raucous when they get overly excited – it all helps to bring the game to life in this respect. The player grunts and the various slams and thuds as they connect have a solid feel to them and overall the sound for the game is very good.

Hits and misses

NBA Live 06 really should have shined brighter than anything, but it is seriously marred with missing features and clunky animations. The graphics engine is superb and the presentation is top notch. But the game suffers over LIVE and also the lack of the franchise mode, proper replays and the awful shooting method conspires to drag the game down into the ranks of the mediocre. The AI is fairly good although your team AI seems a little bit lax, while the computer opposition AI is fairly sharp; again this feels as if this section of the game was rushed along with several other things.

I can only hope that EA ditch the free shooting method for the inevitable NBA Live 07 and deliver the Basketball experience that we’re all waiting for, until then rather than shooting hoops it’s time to do a few rounds with Tiger Woods and score some goals with Fifa, this should give you a clue as to the next two reviews.