Freestyle players is ingenious, it was needed long ago, everything else is solid and people stop trashing Dwyane Wade!!!
On to the game. I play these games.... alot, so i know better than most if this is a good entry to the series and i can say confidently it is the best yet. To be honest the games have got to the poitn where all i'm looking for each year is updated rosters and player ratings (Darius Miles is still woefully underrated as a scorer but never mind that) and slight graphical modifications. But EA as usual have gone one step further, keeping all the elements that made last year's edition great (All-Star Weekend, Dynasty etc.) and then added in something that will make the series stand out agaisnt all others, the Freestyle Superstars.
In the NBA there ARE players who can just not be stopped (COUGH Dwyane Wade COUGH) and in the past the games havn't reflected this, i mean you could shut down Kobe on any given night or force Ray Allen to miss every shot he takes, DOES NOT HAPPEN!!!! Thanks EA for allowing Vince to drive the lane on any defence, Korver to shoot over anyone and Big Ben to shut down anyone who dares enter the paint.
The fast break has been a problem before but now you actually have the CPU controlled team-mates driving to the hole instead of shying away if they don't have the ball. Add this to the improved alley-oops which you don't have to press a specific button for anymore and have yourself a pretty fair fast break game.
Also now you don't steal the ball every tiem you press the button which is an improvement on last year where you could easily get 20 steals per game, way above the NBA average. The whole game plays better and most of the soundtrack is better (who picked those tracks by MIA and Black Eyed Peas???) so it gets a thumbs up from me.
NBA Live 05 and 04 before that were very strong so as long as you're improving on them you have a success and 06 does this and more.