NBA Live 06

There aren't too many other basketball games on the PC to choose from. That's why I decided to give NBA Live 06 a try and here's my brief review.

NBA Live 06 picks right up where 2005 left off. The game modes include Quick Play, Play Online, Season, Dynasty, Playoffs, NBA All-Star Weekend, Freestyle Challenge, 1 on 1, Slam Dunk School and Individual Practice. Of course, there is also a Roster Update (with create-a-player option).

Dynasty mode, which plunks you in the chair of the general manager, has several new additions. You can now hire assistant coaches, scouts, and trainers. Each staff member will have his own unique job on the team. Assistant coaches help you train players, scouts provide information on upcoming players for the college draft as well as give you reports on your next opponent, and trainers can be assigned to helping your injured players heal faster.

The biggest addition to gameplay is the new Superstar mode, which is a special set of controls (special moves) that are available exclusively to the top NBA players in the game. These mainly consist of special shots, dunks, and passes, but there are a few defensive ones as well. These moves may look incredibly cool, but they aren't balanced properly - the teams without superstar players have no chance.

My biggest problem with the game was rebounding. It's really very hard to steal the ball - the rebound is sometime impossible. For instance, there is absolutely no way the Earl Boykins (5'5 feet tall) can grab an offensive rebound from Tim Duncan (around 7 feet tall). This creates many frustrating moments and makes the game pretty unrealistic. Another issue with the gameplay was the AI of my teammates. I felt like I need to control all 5 players simultaneously(!) because the AI is awful. Passing is hit or miss! OMG. Also, In my opinion, the gameplay is too fast, and it looks like the players are skating on the court, instead of running. Yes, it is arcade-like, for some this may be a turnoff (or benefit, depending on your perspective)

So, is NBA Live 06 worth buying? Well, despite the flaws, the game is fairly fun to play ... for a day or two. Then you start thinking if you couldn't have done better with those 40 bucks!

related links: homepage, cheats, NBA Live 06 CDROM

Minimum System Requirements: 1.0 GHz Intel Pentium III or higher, 256MB RAM, 32 MB DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video card*, Sound card with DirectSound support and DirectX 9.0c compatible driver, 16xCD-ROM/DVD-ROM, 1.6GB free HDD space,

INTERNET PLAY (2-8 PLAYERS, 2 PC's, 1-4 PLAYERS PER PC)
- 56 Kbps or faster Internet Connection
- High speed serial port (16550 UART) required for external modems
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1
- 1 NBA LIVE 06 CD per PC

* Supported 3D Graphic Accelerators: ATI Radeon 7500, 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700Pro, 9800 Pro, 9800XT, ATI All-In-Wonder 9700, NVIDIA GeForce 2/MX/GTS/Ultra, GeForce 3/Ti, GeForce 4/MX/Ti, GeForce FX series, Intel i865g Onboard, NVIDIA nForce Onboard, NVIDIA nForce2 Onboard, Radeon 9100 Onboard. /During testing, some video cards using the Geforce2 MX, and Geforce4 MX series chipsets had problems running the game with driver versions lower then 61.76/

snd: 3/5 - acceptable, repetitive commentary, soundtrack includes a variety of hip hop from bands like Black Eyed Peas, The Perceptionists, Chamillionaire, Jae Millz, etc.
gfx: 4/5 - fairly good for the most part, nice dunk animations, player models are a little cartoonish (notably, the heads are too big for their bodies)
playability: 3/5 - mediocre, improved Dynasty mode, new Freestyle Superstar feature, poor AI, controls and interface are not intuitive, laggy online gameplay, bugs present in NBA Live 2005 are still present in 06!!
genre: basketball sim
platform: PC 2CD (also available on PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GC and PSP)
release: November 2005
developer: EA Canada
the game is similar to: NBA Live 2005
publisher: EA Sports