Jazz. A genre of music that only the pretentious understand, or so I'm told. Perhaps that's why I get on with Jazz more than I get on with any other type of music. I walk around with an air of superiority while sipping on my Starbucks I-don't-give-a-crappuccino. He totally has no fashion sense, she clearly needs to wear more makeup, this coffee is perfect but for the undertones of burnt roast bean, and my boots are looking as shiny as ever today, I wonder if anybody will notice. Parading down the street with my On The Go Jazz Playlist, I'm in my comfort zone. I'm safe.

Then NBA 10 flies through the letter box. Literally flies. People who listen to Jazz are OK to exaggerate.

EA always fill their games with a killer soundtrack, anybody who has ever played an EASports title will agree. The thing is, Jazz couldn't be more different from the music contained within this basketball title. Perhaps we would never get along. Then something happened. Some homie started busting rhymes; his lyrics, so potent, so angry yet so chilled out, they invaded my eardrums and whispered me secrets. Thanks to NBA 10, I'm no longer pretentious, and my rose tinted spectacles have been lifted - I see jazz for what it is. Uncool. R&B, Hip-Hop and Rap, those genres are in. Jazz is out. I am in. And in is the place to be, with the cool beats, and the commentators who have so much to say you'd think they were getting paid for talking. Oh yeah.

With the Jazz spectacles lifted, I was able to see something that I can only describe as too-real. The graphics, NBA 10 has them in spades. Compared to previous iterations NBA 10 delivers something so lifelike that you may have to look twice. And even looking twice wouldn't be such a chore. The players move like you'd expect real players to move, they dribble the ball with actual real-player finesse - credit is given where credit is due, animation like this when controlled by an indecisive player like me has to be seen to be believed. As you can imagine, moving a player with the thumb stick is one thing, but to make it look like these players were not controlled by a thumb stick, removing on the spot rotating and foot dragging, just making things fluid - well, they've nailed this and polished it to perfection - much like the shiny basketball courts, and the baggy kits that hang from the sweat laden players.

Of course, seeing and hearing is believing, but what exactly have we got to believe in?

The usual modes are here that are present and correct in most sports games, including the previous NBA Live titles. Dynasty Mode puts you in control of your favourite franchise, and allows you to take your team to the top, where as quick play modes do exactly that. You can create customised players with hundreds and hundreds of clothing items, tattoos, and facial features to ensure that no homeboy basket ball player looks the same, and then you can your character online and play the new Live Run mode, which sees you control your own character competing against other would-be basketball stars. Get a court full of your friends and the whole thing feels like a real throw about, co-ordinating dunks, or playing lone wolf and pitting steals against your mates - it's a real laugh.

In fact, NBA Live 10 is quite online centric. There's a live ESPN ticker that feeds game scores directly to your console, which gives you a warm community spirit feeling. If you're serious about your basketball, the Dynamic Season mode leaves a lot of distance between this game and its rivals. In a nutshell, you're going to be able to receive patches that update all the roosters for the basketball teams as the season is played out in real life. Once you've received your updates, you can play along as your favourite team and essentially change history in a semi virtual sense. For example, your favourite team might be Milwaukee Bucks. They might have lost a game last week. So you can go back into the game calendar, play the exact same match against the same players that the Bucks played in real life, and win that game for the Bucks. When you get to the end of the season, which obviously takes time because you have to play along with the live games, if you'd changed the history for the Bucks, and you've made them do better than they normally would have, you can take your team to the NBA Playoffs and win the final. Additionally, and quite smartly done, if a player is performing really well in the real world, their stats will increase the reflect this. So when you're playing a dynamic game you're essentially playing something that is more real than you could have ever imagined.

Of course, you'd expect all this to be provided free of charge having shelled out for a new release, but EA charge 1200 MS Points for the privilege - scandalous, and rather disappointing, but the mode itself could be worth the charge if you're a massive fan; but the double edged sword says that if you're a massive fan then you shouldn't have to pay extra in the first place, because if you wasn't a fan of basketball, you wouldn't have picked up the title, right?

Still, in light of this NBA Live 10 remains a solid title bursting with features and graphical elegance that may blow your mind. The AI is more intelligent than it has ever been and the players control brilliantly, not to mention that the soundtrack is amazing, icing off a visual treat. Loading screens are filled with the ability to shoot hoops in a NBA themed hanger as top players, which means that even when waiting for a game, your thumbs will always remain busy. A blend of seriousness and laid back features like the Live Run are perfect for pleasing seasoned players and enticing new ones alike; even players who used to enjoy Jazz. Yep, it's true; NBA Live 10 really is a ball!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).