Graphics: 7 / 10
Graphics for NBA Live 06 for the Xbox 360 are clearly a huge leap forward in appearance. Once the game starts you will see an almost photorealistic player model on your screen as the camera pans down to the court.

It’s only after the jump ball takes place that you begin to see one of the game's glaring flaws. Animation for the player models is quite awkward. The feel and look of the plays as they take place just has a stiffness that draws you out of the experience EA Canada is clearly trying to create.

However, you will see amazing detail in player faces. The players sweat in real-time as the game continues, and player sizes are now up to scale, which means no more seeing players the same size as Shaq when they are a point guard.

Sound: 9 / 10
The sound in NBA Live 06 is the brightest spot of the title. The crowd noise is generated in real-time as they react to whether the home team is doing well or getting blown out. Game commentary is handled by Marv Albert and Steve Kerr and they do a great job setting the mood and supplying info. The sounds of the on-court actions are also crisp and heighten the experience.

Controls: 6 / 10
NBA Live 06 suffers from some of the worst control schemes in recent basketball games. Many other games, including the other versions of NBA Live 06, now feature more intuitive control delivered by the use of the right analog stick.

NBA Live 06 for the Xbox 360 instead uses a direct copy of the NBA Live 2005 editions control scheme. This means no right analog shooting or move selection. Factor in an almost unusable free throw control mechanic and what you have is a game that looks next gen, but plays old gen.

Gameplay: 7 / 10
NBA Live 06 succeeds on many fronts. It does immerse you in the experience that is an NBA game. It features a smooth frame rate for the most part, a create-a-player feature, and decent online support. Is it a crime to wonder why some games can support 32 or 64 players, yet sports games continue to only deliver two players? However, the player animations, lack of a genre standard franchise mode, and horrible free throw shooting mechanic keep the title quite a few marks below what the dev team was aiming for.

Longevity: 6 / 10
A major problem with a lot of Xbox 360 launch sports titles is the longevity. NBA Live 06 is no different. Lacking an in-depth franchise mode and only sporting a simple two-player online interface make this game a great rental if only to witness the amazing player models. If you are a sports fan you can find much better value on the Xbox 360.

Overall: 6 / 10
NBA Live 06 clearly suffers as most next generation launch sports titles do. Developers have to spend the majority of the development process building a new engine and sometimes they aren’t able to tweak all the little problems out of the title. This problem could of course be negated with more development time, but the strict deadlines for sports titles prevent that. Overall, NBA Live 06 comes off as a tech demo that is full of promise for the future versions of the game to come.