As the 1st game I powered up on my new 360, I was blown away the the graphical prowess of this game. My initial reaction was that it looked so good I wanted to $hit on myself! Seeing Dwayne Wade in action the first time while playing the shoot around in the menu screen gave me high hopes that this would be THE basketball game of all basketball games. The menus are intuitive and fresh and the crispness of the visuals will leave you in awe. The problem is that the actual game play is less than spectacular. It's okay, but I've played better on lesser systems. You can tell this game was rushed like the rest of the 360 launch games. Player movement feels sluggish and choppy. The animations don't seem to connect well, and having a game with great graphics but choppy animations makes no sense. All in all the game is a bit boring and disappointing. Though the stadiums look amazing and players look pretty much like their real-life counterparts, there was little flair and emotion conveyed on the court and I felt like I was just going through the motions and couldn't wait till my 5 minute quarter was over. I'm glad this Live is no dunk-fest but the on-the-court action is so bogged-down it makes me sleepy. Free throw shooting is achieved by pulling the stick down and pushing it up to simulate the follow-through of really shooting the ball. Sounds good on paper but unfortunetly its a crap shoot as the game never tells you how to do it right, so expect less the Shaq-like percentages. 2K6 is better looking and more fun and exciting and having played it right after Live, I was even more blown away by 2K6's graphics and became even more disappointed in Live. 2K6 has a franchise mode, Live does not. 2K6 has better stat tracking and records all types of interesting stats and tendencies that make you feel more connected to the experience. Live just doesn't feel as complete as 2K6, as usual. There really is no reason to pick up Live over 2K6 this year. To satisfy you curiosity rent it first, but I'd recommend that you buy 2K6 NOW!.
This game is awesome. I purchased it for the 360 today along with Madden from my local Game Rush Block Buster, then went to another game store with an Xbox kiosk and asked the manager to let me test it out. He was very k... Read Full Review
Gameplay: I really do hate the default camera in this game. It's just a simple basketball game that is very laggy, jumpy, and buggy. The framerate in the game jumps every single time you quickly run, pass, or shoot. It'... Read Full Review
