Fundamentals will always be the key to success on a basketball court. How well you can dribble, shoot, and play defense will always determine whether you win or lose. This continues to be the problem in NBA Live 16

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“ Only the biggest names got the full face-scanning treatment ... Some Players just look a bit... off.

Broken Ankles

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“ The advantages that ball handlers have over defenders is so significant, it makes playing defense feel pointless.

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Pounding The Pavement

“ The easy to pick up and play Live Run provides short, sweet hoops fun.

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“ Ultimate Team is a fun way to make the most of NBA Live 16.

Presentation has always been a high priority in EA Sports games, and NBA Live 16 is no different. The ESPN licence is used extremely well, giving the feeling that you’re watching a live broadcast. Lively crowds fill the realistic arenas, which were built using EA’s scanning technology, and that adds to the authenticity. Once again, the game commentary is led by Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, with Jalen Rose handling the halftime and postgame shows. Nobody does a particularly good job, though, and Rose in particular feels completely unnatural and more like he’s reading from a script.Sadly, the real problems with NBA Live 16 begin immediately after tip-off. To start, most players move identically to one another, with stiff, cartoony animations. It’s jarring to see such a good-looking character model move so poorly. Worse, noticeable input lag made the controls feel sluggish, which led to frustrating turnovers.Since playing defense isn’t very effective or fun, a sort of shootout atmosphere emerged, where I would just let my opponent take open shots, knowing that I had to answer on the other end of the court. If a shot rims out, though, it feels like a complete crapshoot. Six-foot-tall point guards constantly out-rebound centers, and even if you’re in perfect position someone else will most likely swoop in and take the ball away.Not every aspect of the gameplay is bad, as there have been a few significant improvements over last year’s mediocre NBA Live 15 (review) . The new shot meter, for example, is a much cleaner, simpler way of shooting the ball. After releasing your shot, you’re given a percentage above the shooter’s head, which lets you know the probability of success based on how you timed your shot, as well as a small indication of any mistakes you may have made. Understanding how to shoot properly has never been more clear. Running the pick and roll works pretty well too; holding L2 calls a teammate over to set a pick, and releasing it tells him to roll towards the hoop or sit back for an open shot.The player you use in both Pro Am modes is the same as your Rising Star, EA’s version of 2K’s MyPlayer. Rising Star returns mostly unchanged, the good and the bad. It’s still fun to take a created player from the draft to superstardom, but the scrupulous grading system in each game continues to be a drag because it encourages you to play selfishly instead of working as a team. I constantly felt punished for passing on my own open looks in favor of a teammate that had an even better position.If you want to create a more personal experience, you have the ability to use the GameFaceHD app, which uses your phone to transfer your image into the game. While this seems like it could be cool if it worked, I was never able to make it look right, so I ended up using a preset character.