NBA Live 06 has a lot in common with your favourite supermodel, or at least the perceived stereotype - it looks absolutely stunning, but is lacking in depth.

When the introduction sequence starts up, it all looks very promising, as a basketball hoop rises at the end of the court and clicks into place, then the player, Wade, appears, looking so good that he's checking himself out! Realistically shaped and proportioned, with excellent, smooth definition of muscle tone and sweat visibly running down his face and arms, it really is a big step forward for graphics. And then the problems begin.

The first big omission is the lack of any kind of tutorial mode. Sure, you can practice shooting hoops to your heart's content, but for newcomers to the game (something NBA Live 06 should surely be making itself friendly to) it's a steep learning curve indeed. Diving into a game with Play Now, you'll find yourself frustrated by the ease at which the opposition keeps on scoring, the way it's far too easy for you to foul your opponents, giving them free shots that they use to score extra points almost without fail, and the difficulty of stealing the ball back, or even defending competently, as they steam down to your end of the court and score as if you weren't even there.

It's not that the controls are tricky to understand; they're mapped out in a logical way that's easy to pick up and remember. However, the way they translate to the game leaves the player in the dark for a good while, before you start to get the hang of things - and losing a few games with your opposition keeping a drastic lead isn't exactly great incentive to persevere. On offence it's simple enough to move up the court and pass between players, but when it comes to pulling off those vital shots, it's hard to know whether or not you're timing the release of the shoot button correctly and so you miss a frustrating number of baskets, while the opposition have a pretty high hit rate. Defence is worse - it's rare that you're able to steal a ball at first, the players circumnavigate your defensive stances with ease, and the amount of times your blocks or rebound attempts result in a foul can be ridiculous. If you do persist, gradually you get a feel for the game and start to get better, but even on Rookie mode you'll find yourself being hammered for quite a while.

The problem is, some of the actions on the court don't quite seem quick enough from the button presses, so you feel like you're just a split second behind the action, a split second that naturally makes all the difference in a fast-paced game like basketball. Getting the timing right for the basics of shooting a basket or stealing a ball is really tricky, and while I'm not saying it should be easy, it should at least be intuitive. Gripes aside, once you start to get into the gameplay and score a few wins, the fun factor does increase. Still, you can't help but feel, despite the wonderful animations in the game, that the gameplay is a little stilted and slow, while player interactions aren't handled as well as they could have been - something absolutely crucial for such a fast-paced and interactive sport like basketball.

While newcomers are alienated by the lack of a tutorial system and the game's uncompromising AI, fans of the NBA Live series will be sad to see the cut down game modes and moves. All you get is Play Now, Season Mode and Xbox Live play. The Dynasty Mode and Slam Dunk Contest are gone, while the Superstar moves have also been removed, robbing the game of some of the depth it had on Xbox. Still, while I have been complaining a lot thus far, NBA Live 06 does have some things going for it. EA's standards of presentation are always very high and the menu system is simple and clear, giving you easy access to Roster Management and Line-Ups for all of the major basketball teams. You can easily customise your plays from a huge range within the playbook, changing players and positions, even signing new players or trading them for your team of choice. You can also make changes on the fly as you play, during stoppage time. All the major US teams are included with stats for the 04-05 playoffs and season.

Graphically, as I've already touched upon, NBA Live 06 is very impressive. The player likenesses are detailed and accurate, while the animations are smooth and very realistic. The court itself looks amazing - a huge stadium packed with individually animated fans cheering you on, and while these obviously aren't as detailed on the players (showing a stark contrast at times in the close-ups) they really do complete the atmosphere of being there at the centre of a real basketball game. There's a fantastic Create A Player mode and the amount of options here is staggering - if you spent enough time messing around with the many ways that you can manipulate every aspect of the face, you could certainly come up with an accurate representation of yourself, whatever you look like. This extends to the body too, with plenty of options for height, muscle size, tattoos and accessories like sweatbands.

Sadly, none of this can really be seen in play, due to the lack of cameras that get close up - the four available views all show almost the entire court and stay well back from the players, making you feel distanced from the action, and if you start fiddling about with the height and zoom settings, you end up not even seeing the basket a lot of the time as you or your opponents score, with the camera really behaving strangely and missing the action altogether. So just pick the view you like best and put up with it, is my advice.

The sound is spot on - a few good hip hop tunes accompany the menus, while in-game the sounds of squeaking trainers, the ball bouncing and contact with the hoop are all about as real as they could be. The commentators, while at times a little repetitive, are also very well voiced, with plenty to talk about for each team and even individual players, as well as various situations like repeated fouling, last second plays, good or bad defensive moves and the teams' overall progress as the game unfolds.

As with most sports games, the best fun comes when taking on opponents either in local multiplayer or on Xbox Live, and as always the level of competition is high, despite the fairly limited following. At least you can feel better about losing to a real person rather than the impeccable computer AI (that's not to say that the AI players don't make mistakes, just not many!) and you can also chat with your opponent (best do this in an unranked match) to get some tips and maybe even a bit of coaching, if you meet someone friendly.

NBA Live 06 shoots ambitiously from downtown but bounces off the rim - while the presentation, graphics and animation are superb, the game is let down by the unintuitive gameplay and the scaled back modes available. It fails to appeal to people who aren't a fan of basketball games and is lacking compared to other sports games and even its own Xbox version, both in its content and the feel of play. Newcomers will be put off by a tough difficulty curve and gameplay that's less than easy to get to grips with (with no tutorial to help them out), while seasoned fans might find the scaled-back approach disappointing. If you want something that looks wonderful, then by all means give this a spin, but if you want something that plays wonderfully, there's no shortage of Xbox 360 games already out that simply demand to be purchased. And NBA Live 06 is not one of them.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).