It's
rather funny that for a game with good defensive AI, the rebounding AI would be
so tarnished. NBA Live 06's computer players do a good job of switching
to an open man and rotating around so that they don't leave an open man open
for long. The computer also does a good job of trying to double team players
and you'll sometimes get to see the animation of an offensive player in trouble
trying to find someone to kick the ball out to.
Defending
the passing lane is very rewarding in NBA Live 06. I do like it's
tougher to pass the ball cross court without having it being picked off. This
should help curb pass happy players who just throw the ball around without
being careful. I found myself using the icon passing for the majority of the
game so that I had a lot more control on where it goes.
The
offensive action on the court sides more to the arcade style rather than the
simulation style partly because of the Freestyle mode that I will talk about in
a bit. With most of my games, the majority of the points are driving lay-ups or
dunks. Jump shooters do get more into the act in the series, especially those
with the sharpshooter Freestyle characteristic. Even so, you can live just
driving and performing slams or feeding it to a center that can muscle it down.
Whether
you are Milt Palacio, Ray Allen, or Mike Wilks, guards that have a semi-free
look to the basket will almost always tickle the bottom of the twine. I'm happy
to see that jumpers are a lot more effective and even open jumpers at that but
the CBA level guards should not be raining jumpers on me like Larry Bird at the
3-Point contest. It wasn't abnormal to see even the most mediocre player on the
other team drain the twenty foot jumpers with consistency. While these are
pros, even the most seasoned pros can't nail 85% of their jumpers.
The
introduction of Freestyle Superstar mode gives you another EA feature to abuse,
and abuse you will. There are six different types of modes. Lebron James will
have the high-flyer mode whereby he'll sky over the opposition and slam in
their faces. On defense, he'll have the stopper mode where he'll be able to get
that great steal to lead the fast break. Ray Allen, for example, has the
sharpshooter mode which enables him to get off quick shots with deadly
accuracy. Some players have multiple modes that you'll have to choose to use as
you can only have one offensive and one defensive Freestyle mode at your
disposal during gameplay. Using Larry Hughes, I was able to average over five
steals because the Freestyle mode just amplifies his already great stealing
ability. Lebron could easily get to the hoop many times because of his great high-flyer
Freestyle. With Zydrunas Ilgauskas abusing centers with his scorer Freestyle,
it was easy for my Cleveland Cavaliers to cruise through most games even at
higher difficulty. Freestyle does add some great animations to the game but
they have to tone it down some in future releases.
While the
Freestyle mode gives you great scoring and defensive opportunities, the general
control of the player seems to hinder you at times. You'll see a lot of sliding
going on and that does lead to some easy baskets for both teams. I've also had
issues where my player would continually move one way even though I was pushing
the analog stick the other way. This seemed happened on inbound plays and while
it wasn't often, it happened enough to be annoying. I've also experienced times
where I would drive and hold the shoot button only to have my player stand
there dribbling the ball. When I press the shoot button, I expect the player to
go into the act of shooting. Instead, my dribble and pull up jumper became a
dribble and stand around while the opposition converged on what little space I
had left.
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