NBA Live 2006 is a fun fast paced Basketball simulation that satisfies most Basketball fans.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay wise NBA Live 06 was quite excellent. The games have a default of 5 minute quarters but the scoring is still pretty high. The game is extremely fast paced; even teams like the Spurs and Pistons can be played like the Suns. Making the game open ended to what way you want to play it. You can fast break it every time and try to catch the defense sleeping or you can slow it down and throw the ball inside, its all up to what you want to do and again any team can be played with those styles, although a team like Dallas or Phoenix will play better in a fast break offense, you can certainly play very well slowing it down. Same goes with the Spurs and Pistons they can play fast if you choose to. Additionally most players in the game play like their real life counter parts, meaning you wont be making any threes with Shaq or dominating down low with Nash, each player has their own unique talents, bringing me to the next aspect of the game which is new this year Superstars. Each team now has at least one superstar that can execute something they are good at, for example some are play makers like Nash, some are scorers, power, etc. And these talents can come in handy if you know how to use them. There are only a couple of things I did not like about the gameplay. First of all some players play much better or much worse than they should be making it extremely frustrating because you know they cant do those things in real life. Also sometimes the games seem almost pre destined, for example when a team is down they will hit ridiculous shots, and you wont be able to hit anything, meaning they almost always come back, at least on the harder modes, and if there’s a couple of seconds left in the game and they are down by 5 or so, they wont miss a shot unless you block them or if it’s an impossible shot, although I have seen those go in. I like the opponents to be fierce, but I don’t want it to feel like its sabotaged almost. Additionally, the controls in the game are decent but you will definitely want a gamepad for this game as it’s somewhat clunky to play with the keyboard.
GRAPHICS
NBA Live is a pretty decent looking game. But it’s somewhat disappointing that this game looks like the PS2 version even though the PC is capable of so much more. I expected the game to look closer to the 360 version than the PS2 version. Again so much more was possible rather than just porting the game over. The players themselves look great some are very realistic and closely resemble their real life counter parts but others are not as good. The courts look great they are very detailed, the crowd however hasn’t changed much over the last 3 years or so, I expected that at least the whole crowd be 3d but no we still have 2d people in the back. It might just be my expectations of seeing much better on the PC, but overall its not too impressive.
SOUND
Now the sound has been always a huge part in Basketball games because of the actual announcing during the game. NBA Live definitely went above and beyond for sound as they got two of the best announcers in the NBA, Steve Kerr and Marv Albert, and they talk right while you play which adds greatly to the experience. It makes it feel like you are actually in an actual NBA game. The music in the game also fits the theme. My only complaint is that Steve and Kerr repeat themselves quite a bit making it sort of boring hearing the same thing over and over again, it doesn’t happen too often however as they talk about the actual players on the team you are playing as.
VALUE
NBA Live is fun to play and you will find yourself playing exhibition games a lot. But there are lots of different options, you can play a whole season with a team of your choice, or you can play franchise mode where you keep on building your team over time. Or you can simply play 1 on 1 with any players of your choice, or you can even join the festivities at the All Star Break and participate in the Slam Dunk contest, Three point shootout, rookie/ sophomore game, or the All star game itself. There is a lot of replay value in NBA Live 06. Additionally you can also play online with other people which is also fun, but not as great as it sounds the multiplayer component is somewhat weak. Overall NBA Live will have a lot of options for you to keep itself entertaining.
CONCLUSION
Unquestionably, NBA Live 2006 is the best basketball sim as it’s the only one on the PC, but that doesn’t mean its bad quite the opposite the game is very fun to play and is brings almost any basketball fan what they would want from it. NBA Live 2006 is certainly an improvement over last year’s game and hopefully the next release will be even more enjoyable.