NBA Live 07 (Xbox 360, 2006)

Despite the addition of several previously missing modes, NBA Live 07's many gameplay flaws and uneven visuals relegate the series to the bench for yet another year.
Once the initial luster of shooting hoops during load screens and seeing realistic players drenched in sweat wore off, flaws such as missing features and impossible-to-make free throws made NBA Live 06 on the Xbox 360 a letdown. EA has addressed many of these problems in NBA Live 07, adding several game modes and superstar controls, but many key issues remain. As a result, NBA Live 07 again comes off as unpolished; it just happens to have more ways to experience the rough edges.
NBA Live 07 boots straight to the practice gym, where you can warm up your moves with Tracy McGrady. Here you can select from a number of game modes via the well-designed menus. Play now, season, and online return from Live 06, and new this year are dynasty mode and the NBA all-star weekend. The all-star weekend includes the rookie challenge game, three-point shoot-out, slam-dunk contest, and of course, the all-star game. The dunk contest is easily the highlight of the weekend mode due to its depth and the large number of great-looking dunks you can perform.

Dynasty mode places you in the role of general manager for the team of your choice. After hiring an assistant coach, assistant, trainer, and scout, it's off to training camp where you set your team's training priorities. Over the course of a season, you can use your staff in a number of ways. Assistant coaches can research rumors and schedule team events, assistants work with players to improve their skills, trainers help players heal faster, and scouts can evaluate talent year-round in preparation for the draft. In addition to monitoring players' happiness and overall team chemistry, you'll need to keep an eye on their fatigue levels to make sure they don't get too worn out over the course of the season. If you're looking to improve your team via a trade, you can do so. Another way to better your squad is through the draft--a process made easier if you keep your scouts busy during the year. Your team can still perform well if you don't keep your staff occupied every day, but putting in the work will yield tangible results.

Introduced on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox last year, but new to NBA Live on the Xbox 360, are "total freestyle controls." Each superstar player is designated as having one or more of the superstar abilities--high flyer (great dunks), scorer (athletic layups), playmaker (fancy passes), post (power dunks), and shooter (variety of jumpers). The best of the best have three levels of skills, as well as another set when they're "in the zone." These additional tiers let them pull off even fancier feats of skill. Level-one freestyle moves are performed by holding LB and either pushing a direction on the right analog stick or pressing a face button. The level-one moves are easy enough to do, and while some are more useful than others, they add a lot of variety and pizzazz to the game. The additional levels of freestyle control look slightly cooler but aren't any more useful. Once again, EA has failed to provide an adequate instruction manual, so the only way to learn these moves is by trial and error or by going into the control-settings menu every time you want to try something new. You can change players' abilities on the fly, but you won't need to do so very often.Hopefully the people in EA will fix these problems.

This game is awesome. All 30 NBA teams are in it. The rosters are as of the beginning of the 2006-2007 season, so Allen Iverson is still on the 76ers. This game has the best graphics of all the NBA Lives so far. Also, it has an awesome soundtrack. Some game modes are Play Now, Dynasty Mode, Slam Dunk School, All-Star weekend, 1 on 1 practice, individual practice and much more. In Play Now mode you just select your team and play. In Dynasty Mode, you take control of an NBA franchise for 25 years. You can trade players, sign free agents, and release players. Players DO retire. This would usually be between ages 35 and 40. If you want to make the game easier, you could get all player stats up to 99, by using edit player before entering dynasty mode. In Dynasty mode there IS an NBA All-Star weekend. In the Slam Dunk school, you learn how to become the best dunker in the NBA. You can even do MJ's 1988 dunk from the free throw line. In NBA All-Star weekend you can particapate in the rookie challenge, slam dunk contest, three point shootout, and NBA All-Star game. In 1 on 1 practice you can choose any player out of the NBA and select another player out of the NBA to play against. The first player to 11 points wins. Three pointers count as 2 points and two pointers count as 1 point. In individual practice, you select one player and do any type of practicing you want. It doesn`t matter if it`s dunking, three point shooting, or just fooling around taking full court shots. This is a great game, which every NBA fan would love.

NBA Live's transition from the last generation of consoles to the current generation has been fraught with problems--too many to list here. Nevertheless, the team at EA has kept plugging away, and it seems the third time is the charm. There aren't really any new features to speak of in NBA Live 08, but the gameplay has seen vast improvements on both sides of the ball. You'd never think it was possible after the last few years, but NBA Live 08 is much-improved and actually…good. Forget how last year's game played; it's a whole new ballgame in Live 08. For starters, the default camera angle has been changed to a dynamic broadcast-style perspective. It's easier to see what's going on and also cuts down on the number of shots you'll put up from behind the backboard, though that still happens far too often. The controls are where the game really shows improvement. The basic scheme is mostly unchanged, but it's a lot more responsive this year. It's a piece of cake to perform a crossover, pass the ball, perform a hop-step, and then decide whether to dunk with the square (or X) button or shoot with circle (or B). This results in a fast-paced game with lots of sharp passing and great finishes. Some people might find the game to be a little to run-and-gun, but there's no denying that the gameplay is exciting. It would be even more fast-paced, but players tend to stop to receive passes on the fast break, and ball handlers will sometimes inexplicably slow the break with a lob pass. There are a few other things that are in need of improvement. Players miss some absurdly easy shots down low, and the officials call the games too tight (especially charging). Furthermore, defense is haphazard, and outside of fast breaks, players tend to stand around a lot and don't do much to get open. Regardless, the game plays much better than it did previously.

The whole "superstar icon" bit from 07 is gone, but there are still ways to differentiate the stars from the scrubs. Top players such as Kobe, LeBron, Arenas, Wade, and Dirk each have a special go-to move that makes them really valuable when the game is on the line. With the exception of some of the big men, the move is generally some sort of side step or step back that leads to a nearly unstoppable jumper. They're a bit overpowered, but it is nice to be able to count on your star player in crunch time. The other way to tell the great from the merely good is to press the left bumper or L1 button. This brings up your player's hot spots, a color-coded overlay that shows what part of the floor that particular player is most successful shooting from. This may not sound like a significant feature, but there's a huge difference between a player's shooting percentage in a hot zone versus a cold zone. As a result, you'll find yourself working to get players open in specific parts of the floor. You'll even pass up open shots because you know a player isn't good from that area and there's another player with a better shot. Both of these features are quite useable, even if they are poorly explained in the pitiful instruction manual.

It seems as if the developer's resources were focused entirely on making the game play better, because otherwise there aren't any significant new modes this year. You can take part in the slam-dunk contest and three-point shootout. You can also participate in the rookie challenge as well as the FIBA tournament, neither of which anybody really cares about.

I bought this game a week ago, and I was in for a big surprise.
You are first introduced to the transforming gym, and you can play a practice session as McGrady. I don't really like McGrady, so at first, before I knew you could change your player, I was very upset.
The game modes were reduced since last year, and 1 on 1 is missing from the selection. However, the All Star Weekend is very entertaining and the 3 Point Shootout really makes for an enjoyable time, along with the Dunking Contest.
The new EA sports games are very overdone and flashy, which is why I like the 06 games much better, but thats my opinion. Its your opinion whether not to buy this game, because even though flawed, this game makes for hours of entertainment.

This game is the best. It let's you disect your opponent on how you wanna score. Take him to the hoop with a dunk, a scorer, post up, pure shooter, or a playmaker. Highly recomemded. Put the game speed up!!!!!