Pros: Excellent modes, beautiful graphics.
Cons: Unrealistic AI and engine, lag during play, limited Freestyle skills.
The bottom line: NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360contains lots of dazzling extras, but the basic mechanics are messed up and glitched. Stay away if you want a decent basketball simulator.
Electronic Arts has been around for a long time. So has its NBA Live basketball franchise. But even with experience under its belt, EA fails to impress with NBA Live 07 for the Xbox 360. With the reintroduction of the Dynasty mode and All-Star weekend and the long awaited addition of Freestyle Superstar Controls, NBA Live 07 is full of additional modes, but its lacks the basic mechanics during gameplay.

Gameplay

NBA Live 07 included the Dynasty mode, which is the first appearance on the 360. Other modes include season, exhibition, Players will be given more choices during the draft and overall team management. Players can choose to play the game based on real life data (statistics from the NBA 2006 season) or mix things up and choose their own favorite players to go balling with.

As with the Dynasty modes in other NBA Live games (for other consoles), players will be playing the role of General Manager (GM) of the team. GMs will have their choice in hiring assistant coaches, standard assistants, scouts, and trainers. Each position will add or detract from the team’s performance. This team will be the people who schedule practices or press days and manage the team while the GM is away. There is an interesting aspect of Team chemistry that will affect on court and off court performance of your staff and players. GMs will be able to monitor the statistics of all the members of the team between teams and arrange for individual or team practices.

There is also the addition of a new system of fatigue logging in the Dynasty mode. Depending on the amount of playing time your players get and the amount of time spent on the road, the strength of your players will be affected – adding to the risk of injury. I found this system to be somewhat annoying. During one stretch of two to three road games, I found four of my starting lineup of five players sitting on the bench due to injury.

The addition of Freestyle Superstar Controls should not surprise you if you’ve played NBA Live on other consoles. The elite players in the league are classified from levels 1 to 3. The higher the level, the stronger the player. A Level 3 player, for example, is someone who will consistently dominate the court in every single game. With higher level, comes greater skill. Superstar controls allow players to demonstrate their unique abilities, whether it is to fly and dunk or to switch into a playmaker or a shooter.

There are only 5 Freestyle skills that you will be able to use in game. Unlike the current NBA Live titles on the PSP, which has a total of 8 skills, NBA Live 07 feels somewhat limited and contained. Gone forever from the game are the defensive superstar skills. The 5 remaining Freestyle skills are High Flyer, Scorer, Playmaker, Post Player, and Shooter. Each with their astonishing abilities, these do add to the overall experience of the game. It was simply nice to complete flashy dunks. The controls for the use of Superstar Freestyle skills require the use of the right analog stick in combination with the left bumper. It was fairly easy to get used to and the game manual did a good job of explaining each of the controls.

A disappointment of NBA Live 07 was the removal of the X-Factor, which in previous versions, was the clutch player who could become a superstar in the game based on their performance during the game. This has always felt like an important feature, because it allowed lesser known players to gain abilities you probably wouldn’t see often.

Further disappointments come from the overall physics department. I was very frustrated that my level 3 inside players would miss over half of their simple dunks. Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, strong players in the NBA, miss their shots consistently in NBA Live 07– both in the paint and on fast break attempts without any defensive players. Speaking of which, none of the players are especially strong. It feels that the entire game engine needs improvement in order to make the physics much more realistic. Being flashy and cool doesn’t matter when you can’t even hit a simple layup.

The AI also felt flawed. Sometimes it felt smart and aggressive; other times it left many holes in the game. But unfortunately because of problems with the physics, I was unable to capitalize on those flaws. Seriously though, there are constant glitches and problems. The game was lagging offline and stopping and freezing now and then in between games. I expect this to be the game’s internal problem and not the Xbox 360 to be at fault.

Graphics

It seems that this is the only praiseworthy part of NBA Live 07. The graphics are beautiful and stunning. You’ll probably recognize the household names in basketball by looking at the generic faces of the in game players.

The visual effects are well done and pleasing to watch. The visuals are a big plus to an otherwise lacking game.

Sound

The background music is fun and changes up quite often. EA Trax offers an entire lineup of songs to listen to. I found the audio commentary in game to be quite interesting at first, but that ended up being repetitive later on so I ended up turning off the commentary. Just for the record, the commentary is done by Marv Albert, Steve Kerr, Greg Anthony and Ernie Johnson.

Controls

The controls are simple to learn and fairly intuitive. The included game manual does a good job of explaining the basics. Learning curve: approximately half an hour.

Online Multiplayer

NBA Live 07 offers integration with ESPN. Every twenty minutes, players will receive a short 2 minute podcast via ESPN radio. Also, there is ticker that will show scores and news at the bottom of the screen once players are logged onto Xbox Live. There are options to read full stories direct from ESPN or even watch video clips with the ESPN Motion feature.

Besides the extras, there are the normal games that players may play against other users. There was some lag while playing online.

Final Thoughts

NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360 is excellent visually and contains a huge array of excellent gaming modes. But unfortunately, it doesn’t have the basic mechanics down and the engine is flawed in many ways – causing both glitches and lag. Stay away if you’re looking for a decent basketball stimulator.