NBA Live 06 for the Xbox 360 was one of the games that suffered most glaringly from the drive to rush to meet launch lineup deadlines. As with Madden and a few other games, the next-gen version of Live fell glaringly short of gamers’ expectations. Though the game certainly looked like they had put some care into the graphics, the gameplay options were positively gutted, leaving some console owners wondering whether they wouldn’t be better off buying the more complete version for the original Xbox. EA took great strides and put considerable care into fleshing out this year’s next-gen version of Madden, but I’m sad to report that, though it appears they at least put in an effort, they didn’t succeed on the same level with NBA Live. It still doesn’t feel like a complete and polished final product, and is likely to disappoint.

At the very least, EA went back and filled in all the gameplay modes and intricate nuances that really flesh out the basketball experience. NBA Live 07’s Dynasty mode puts you in the shoes of an NBA GM, making you responsible for a whole slew of off the court activities that you can engage in at your leisure. You can do everything from tweak the practice routines of your players, to scout and recruit players for the following years’ NBA draft, and monitor your players’ health levels to ensure that they’re playing as well as they can. Truthfully, I have a hard time seeing anybody but the most dedicated hoops fans getting into these sorts of things, but it’s precisely the attention to detail and fleshing out of small gameplay bits that was missing from last year’s version, and it’s nice to know it’s there.

The controls in-game have finally been fleshed out as well, with the addition of the pseudo-gimmicky A