NBA 07 First Look

Where did this come from? Sony's been very vocal about sticking PS3 launch titles like sci-fi FPS Resistance: Fall of Man and the slash-tastic Asian adventure Genji: Days of the Blade in our hands. We've even been kept slavering with glimpses of dragon blaster Lair, actioner Heavenly Sword, and the mud-and-sand racer MotorStorm. But we haven't seen NBA 07 since E3. It's as if it's been tucked away in the workoutfacility all this time, running laps and pumping iron.

NBA 07 looks like a gamer, with good-looking faces, mostly smooth action, and lots of those little touches that impress even if they truly don't matter: Ben Wallace's puffy hair flops around when he jumps, and you can occasionally see a bead of sweat trickle down a player's shiny brow.

What does matter greatly is the gameplay, and it seems solid so far, though it took us a few moments to get used to using the Sixaxis controller to trigger special moves. A quick flick forward triggered a juke. Pulling back created space to shoot. Sideways was a crossover dribble, twisting the controller launched a spin move, and if we were posted up in the key, a forward motion saw our big boy shove the defender back. This stuff was all still being tuned, so we weren't entirely alarmed that it wasn't as responsive as we'd like it to be.

The game itself strips out the story based mode "the Life" from the PS2 version, but adds in something that many fans may actually prefer: NBA Replay. This is basically a scenario mode that drops you into various memorable moments from the 05-06 season and dares you to recreate them.Plus, once the 06-07 season gets rolling, Sony will add five new scenarios every week, taken fromthe most exciting moments of the past seven days.

Oddly enough, basketball is the most competitivegenre in the PS3 launch lineup- though, NBA Live 07'sMIA status lately has us wondering if it's going to be late to the game -so NBA 07 is going to need mad skillz to keep up with the masterful NBA 2K7. However, if the Sixaxis stuff and scenario mode get ironed out, this could be a closer race than we imagined.

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I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.