NBA 2K6 for Xbox Reviews & Ratings by IGN

When there happens to be a corporate monster like EA ever expanding over the landscape of sporting videogames, like a massive all-consuming cloud, it must make other developers and publishers feel a bit like the underdogs, no matter what they're working on. Luckily, these determined companies are still out in the market pushing their product without the hindrance of complacency inherited from EA having wrought a death grip on the sports videogame marketplace. NBA 2K6, while being simultaneously released with EA's NBA Live 2006, looks like a significantly different hoops game than we've seen from the 2K crew in the last couple of years, up until the moment you step on the court. Though the screws were tightened on certain gameplay aspects like Isomotion, the big differences this year lies in the presentation. With ESPN effectively jumping ship to EA, Visual Concepts was left searching for ways to present 2K6 without the appeal of Stuart Scott and anything else associated with the ESPN brand name. Luckily, this eliminated Bill Walton from the commentary booth, but as a replacement we get, dare I say, "Expert" analysis from Craig Seger, who sounds about as knowledgeable of the game as Randy from Pee Wee's Playhouse. Though the lack of the ESPN license may turn you off from this year's title, 2K6 is the most well-rounded game in the series, but only moderately so. Though it certainly looks and sounds different, once you tear off the warm-ups and start pickin' and rollin', it feels just like last year all over again. If this were a PC game, 2K6 would be a patch for 2K5 with some bug removal and updated rosters.

When there happens to be a corporate monster like EA ever expanding over the landscape of sporting videogames, like a massive all-consuming cloud, it must make other developers and publishers feel a bit like the underdogs, no matter what they're working on. Luckily, these determined companies are still out in the market pushing their product without the hindrance of complacency inherited from EA having wrought a death grip on the sports videogame marketplace. NBA 2K6, while being simultaneously released with EA's NBA Live 2006, looks like a significantly different hoops game than we've seen from the 2K crew in the last couple of years, up until the moment you step on the court. Though the screws were tightened on certain gameplay aspects like Isomotion, the big differences this year lies in the presentation. With ESPN effectively jumping ship to EA, Visual Concepts was left searching for ways to present 2K6 without the appeal of Stuart Scott and anything else associated with the ESPN brand name. Luckily, this eliminated Bill Walton from the commentary booth, but as a replacement we get, dare I say, "Expert" analysis from Craig Seger, who sounds about as knowledgeable of the game as Randy from Pee Wee's Playhouse. Though the lack of the ESPN license may turn you off from this year's title, 2K6 is the most well-rounded game in the series, but only moderately so. Though it certainly looks and sounds different, once you tear off the warm-ups and start pickin' and rollin', it feels just like last year all over again. If this were a PC game, 2K6 would be a patch for 2K5 with some bug removal and updated rosters.

On the Court

Bear in mind that the 2K6 series is more of a basketball sim than other hoops games on the market. There's no Off the Heezy's, no tossing the ball off the backboard for a dunk, and very little no-look between the legs passes on the break. Even with Visual Concepts focus on representing authentic free-flowing NBA games, honestly, defense was a joke last year. On any difficulty level below All-Star, all it took was a few Isomotion crossovers with a hop step and Speedy Claxton could drive the lane and finish on teams like Detroit or San Antonio, no problem. On the flip side, if you bumped it up to the toughest difficulty level, and fed the rock to big Shaq Diesel or Ben Wallace in the paint, they couldn't even back down on the kid selling nachos. For 2K6, most quirks like these have been removed, but I emphasize "most". Defense was revamped for this year's model making it much more difficult to slash to the hole on teams with solid D. Squads with strong perimeter defenders will cut off passing lanes and step up to prevent players from driving to the basket every time down the floor. Even cutters like Dwayne Wade will find it difficult to attack the rim on good teams, making success more dependent on using the new Dual Player Control to call screens or other plays in the appropriate situation.

It's about the fundamentals, like your middle school coach always said.

What Dual Player Control does is allows the ball carrier to select a man off the ball and by using the D pad, activating one of four different commands for that player to execute. It's a great feature because it doesn't require an offense to run a play requiring all five players. With a quick two button sequence you can run Kobe off a screen or post up Amare Staudemire on the blocks while the other teammates continue doing what they were doing. I found myself running DPC on offense more often than calling regular plays because it's simple, effective, and more can go wrong when CPU drones are responsible for executing a five-man play.

Individual player characteristics, something nonexistent in previous years, play an important role in 2K6. For example: long-armed Teyshaun Prince can intercept passes and block perimeter shots with more regularity than other guards not blessed with a freakish pterodactyl-like wingspan. Shaq also has his arsenal of drop-steps and turn around jumpers down low, which is expected since he's the cover boy, er man, and he spent some time in the mo-cap studio with the 2K team. Everything from T-Mac taking on entire teams by himself, to Steve Nash dribbling all aver the floor occur throughout a 48 minute game, blessing the superstars (and only superstars) with a personality rarely seen in any sports video game. These are all much needed improvements from years past, but don't make me want to play the game any longer than I did 2K5.

Another step toward that authenticity Visual Concepts has been molding for the franchise now six years running. Individual player control feels more realistic with players required to pivot or shift their weight when changing directions, and not just gliding up and down the floor on an all out sprint. They could have done a better job with collision animation, though as we're still seeing the same animations when players collide when contesting dunks or lay-ups. Most of the time when a defender is about to swat your shot the same animation will occur letting you know that it's not going to drop, so get ready for a loose ball. We'll likely have to wait until the next generation before dynamic player collisions can be seen in a basketball video game, though. Specific characteristics are not just an individual focus, but also a team concept as well. If you watch enough of basketball to know the style of play of certain teams, you can see in 2K6 that CPU controlled teams like Phoenix will fast break more often than, say, the Spurs or Bobcats, forcing you to adjust your game plan depending on each week's game. Bump up the difficulty level past pro and no longer can you just work those money plays over and over for easy wins, as they may work for against one squad but not the other. This subdues a good chunk of the repetitiveness that inevitably sets in while grinding through an 82 game season.

Other new features finding their way into gameplay are the strip and rip system for stealing and intercepting passes, and the shot stick. Both require the use of the right analog stick to execute, and one (the shot stick) you should never use intentionally. Strip& Rip lets the defender direction-specific steal; depending on the angle you flick the stick. Instead of one dedicated steal button, now defenders can reach around the back of the ball carrier to poke the ball away, or lunge toward the floor to intercept a bounce pass across the court, spicing up the mundane feeling of playing D. It's the best way to force turnovers, but if you don't utilize it correctly, you'll be hit with an absurd amount of reach-in fouls, so be careful. The shot stick dedicates the same analog stick to controlling shot selection on offense. In theory, you can control the direction of a shot like fade-aways, or runners by pulling the stick backwards or forward etc., but it's implemented so poorly that even after hours and hours of playing games, I was just as likely to try dunking from the free throw line as opposed to a pull-up J, even though I twiddled the stick the exact same way. It feels too awkward using dual analog control to drive and shoot in a b-ball game; all while holding down turbo, or having to pass in the blink of an eye. It's a good idea by VC to throw a little twist into the shooting game, but it's more efficient to just use the dedicated shooting button (x, square, etc.) on offense.

AI

Apart from the team and player personalities, AI still the remains the Achilles heel of the NBA 2K series. CPU controlled players act very erratically, and overall everyone without marquee status perform unlike they would in real life situations. I've seen Yao jack up an early three from way downtown, and Nash swat away a KG tomahawk into the stands. I know this sounds hipocritacle; I did say earlier that the superstars play with their actual personalities on the court, and they do for the most part. These little gems occur few and far between, but they're so outragueous it'll make you squint and say: "Excuse me….?"

From an overall standpoint, the game is still far too easy, though not as much so as last year. Only after bumping the difficulty setting up to superstar will experienced players feel challenged and have to think about calling the right plays at the right time and D-up every trip down the floor. The CPU leaves clear lanes open to the hoop and rarely contests outside shots even if Ginobli just dropped 15 tre in a row. Play on anything below the middle of the road All-star level and the weakest players in the league can school the franchise players all day long. The pacing stays true to the nature of the NBA though, so the quarter-to-quarter flow of season games feels neither too fast nor too slow, than the real deal. Bottom line: If this isn't the first hoops video game you've ever played, bump it up to the second toughest difficulty or 2K6 is just too easy and gets boring, fast.

24/7 & Association

The two primary single player modes in the game are the most fun aspects of 2K6. I would go as far as saying 24/7, the street ball/career challenge filled to the brink with individual challenges and unique mini-games, is possibly the coolest single player campaign in any sports videogame, period. Users start off customizing their virtual balla's info, appearance, etcetera, etcetera, (you know the way it works) and takes them on a tour of the US, stopping at courts in a steel mill in Pittsburg, Venice Beach in LA, and the white house lawn, to challenge celebrities and NBA superstars alike. When I got called out by YEEEEAAAAAHHHH BOOOOOOOEEEEEEEYYY, himself, Flava Flav, my initial reaction was "this is the greatest game ever…" However, the celebs only go down in star power after the Surreal Lifer, but still: how often does one get to ball against a Viking helmet sporting Flav? At about 15 hours long, 24/7 isn't too time consuming, depending on your allotted time for gaming, but it's more fun entertaining than playing through a normal season or a multiplayer game with your buddy. Even the development drills, like attacking the basket, are hella fun. Plus; you can customize your own pair of kicks, all providing different attribute boosts for your character like dunking, or speed, which answers the age old question:

Yes, Nike's do make you jump higher.

The Association got some new personality and updates this year. What has evolved into the deepest franchise mode of all basketball games on the market gets even deeper this year with the inclusion of individual player development and focused team practices. Both allow the user to select certain drills for the team or a specific player in preparation for upcoming games to boost the overall team or player ratings. The team drills are all simulated, so you can't run the weave, which would have been sweet, but all individual drills (which happen to be the same available in 24/7) can be run by the user, effectively merging two of the best features in both gameplay modes. Want to make Tim Duncan a tre point shooter? Build up his stats before games with the jump shooting drill, and he'll be knockin' em down like Larry Bird in no time. This level of versatility and adaptation ,plus quick menu navigation, rarely find their way into already immersive franchise features, giving 2K6 one of the most functional and downright best single player campaigns on the market.

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