System: Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, PSP
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Canada

EA Sport’s NBA live franchise has long been the champion of basketball video games dunking competitors for just over a decade. Solid game play, stellar graphics, and a solid fan base has been enough to keep Live series floating near the top of the hoops video game genre. With the latest installment, EA tried to improve on the lackluster showing of last year’s rushed NBA LIVE 06 on Xbox 360. Graphics and extra modes are about the only improvements immediately obvious in this year’s iteration.

Last year, NBA Live showed gamers the visual capabilities of next generation gaming and left us slobbering for more. This year, Live doesn’t disappoint in that area as EA made sure to pack on even more layers of eye candy. Player models have been fine tuned (they don’t start off sweaty this year either), arenas received a coat of fresh paint, and it all adds up to be one beautiful game. The virtual counterparts of players share striking resemblances to their real versions for the most part.

Body builds are done pretty well as far as fitness is concerned, but the overall mass of players seems a bit off. Although player models are done well, one can’t help but notice that players seem to be a little too close to the anorexic side. Take one look at Rip Hamilton in game and you’ll see how some players in NBA LIVE 07 belong on the commercials to cure world hunger. However, it does a better job of capturing the long lean muscular frames of NBA players today.

Game play has long been the calling card of the Live franchise but there are different days upon us. The choppy animations, slow response, and abysmal game speed are something that is inexcusable on a system as advanced as the Xbox 360. It seems that concentrating on the visuals of NBA LIVE 07 seriously detracted attention away from other areas of development. The freestyle mode is back and this time players can have multiple superstar styles. The ability to change your superstar style on the fly and adapt as game situations change is a big plus. Offensive and defensive AI are vastly improved and gone are the days of dunking and outlandish scores. Great job EA!

Having a degree in physics, I can appreciate and notice when proper physics have been incorporated and NBA LIVE 07 still has a long way to go in the area of ball physics, cloth physics, contact physics, and weight shifting. They’ve made progress though, and it deserves to be applauded. All in all, Live is a beauty to behold and truly exploits the power of the Xbox 360. Game play hasn’t seen any major changes and serves as a major blow in this review.

This year marks the return of the All Star Weekend which is a breath of fresh air for all the Live faithful. You can play the TMobile Rookie Challenge, 3 point shootout, slam dunk contest or the NBA All-Star game. Since the All Star modes are making a return from current generation versions, none of this is new but it was a much needed addition.

EA also integrated ESPN into the title in a way that’s never been done before. It allows you to listen to ESPN radio, and receive up-to-date stories on what’s going on in the sports world. In addition to being able to read and listen to ESPN, you can also view interviews, highlights and other video in what they call ESPN Motion. This is a neat little addition and adds depth to the title. It’ll be interesting to see how they flesh it out in the upcoming years.

“Every great empire must fall.” The reign of the champion is coming to an apparent end as NBA Live makes strides, but still finishes a close second behind its competitor NBA 2K7. Live has shown stupendous improvement from last year’s edition, but overall it just doesn’t pack the punch to warrant 60 bucks.

Bottom-line: NBA LIVE 07 is solid, but not quite there yet in terms of game play and controls. Rent it to simply compare the titles for yourself. It deserves that much at least. But a word of encouragement to the guys at EA Canada: keep up the good work because the improvement can be seen. Better luck next year.