NBA Live 2006

THE BAD:
-Created Characters
-Defense
-Game-Play
-Play-Makers
-Shoes
-Very Slow Loading Times

SUMMARY:
~Boy where do I start, let me start of by saying welcome to my very first official review. Today's game we are going to go over is the most hyped up sports game of the year NBA Live 06. Let's start off with the basic game modes introduced to us. Season Mode: Basically the standard season mode where you take your team through an nba season trying to win an nba championship. Dynasty Mode: A more upgraded version of season mode where you must take control of your team as a general manager by keeping an eye on your players contracts, future draft picks, and by managing your teams progress through the season. Playoff Mode: You choose the teams you want to compete against in the playoffs to win the nba championship. NBA All-star Weekend: allows you to play all star games such as the rookie challenge, 3 point shootout, slam dunk contest, and the NBA all-star game. Freestyle Challenge: compete one on one against the computer in the 3 point shootout, the dunk contest, and one-on-one. Slam Dunk School: Learn how to throw lay-ups and dunk the basketball so you can compete well against the pros in the dunk contest. Individual Practice: Allows you to practice playing basketball with what ever player you want. That wraps up the game modes, so now it is time for my break down of NBA Live 06. Let's start of with what is bad about Live 06. This year EA threw in a new feature called the play maker which allows you to do certain tricks which allows you to play offense or defense better then normal by fooling or rejecting your opponents. Basically this is the worst attempt I have seen to enhance the game-play, it just makes Live 06 harder to play and is worthless. Then of course you have your standard plays you can call while in game, which to me just gets in the way and can be annoying. Defense is also bad this year because it is incredibly hard to try and guard your opponents without getting a foul or getting fooled. Created characters and shoes are also very very bad in Live 06. Created characters for the fact that they give you crap to work with and once completed you get an ugly generic picture to go together with your ugly created character, no where as good as Live 04's created characters. Shoes for the fact that they look like crap as well, I mean how can you improve the graphics but not improve the shoes graphics?

Last is game-play and loading times. These two fall under the same category for the fact that the game is very sluggish with loading and during a basketball game. And the game-play is just crap with the bad features the added to Live 06. There are some good thing about Live 06 which I will now discuss. All-star mode is greatly improved this season because the better graphics seem to some what enhance the game-play, as well as a couple new dunks and comments for the dunk contest. Dynasty mode is also improved for the fact that it go's a little deeper into storyline, and you can resign your players at the end of the year, downfall is that it only lasts 25 years. Graphics are also improved pretty good, but not as good as ESPN 2k6. Still the graphics are better looking and go good with new animations added during a game. Now for my final analysis. You should definitely not buy NBA live 06 because it is the worst installment in the series which seems to be going down hill the last 5 years. I suggest you buy ESPN 2k6 instead for the fact that it is better in almost every way and costs 10 dollars cheaper. You make the choice if you want to stick with NBA Live's repetitiveness or ESPN 2k6's explosive addition to the world of basketball games.