First impressions...

The first thing I noticed right off the bat is that the game is a lot deeper this year. Between the gameplay modes, dunk contest, and customization stuff there is a lot to mess with. I started off and got right into a game. The controls are pretty familiar, but are a lot more extensive this time around. I haven't even figured out all of the different trick combos yet.. there are just too many. There is no tutorial this time around but there is a practice mode where you can take a player and mess around which is very helpful.

The game is a lot prettier than in volume 2. The player models are more realistic instead of the past cartoonish models that Street used to have. Probably the most impressive thing is the different environments. Each court is very unique and has its own atmosphere. I already messed around with the create a court a little bit and even though I didn't have many points to get the better options, I was able to check out what they had. There are a ton of different choices for each feature on the court. You can make your court a rat infested crud palace or it can be a really fancy with everything from advertisements to bleachers.

I also created a player to try and build up over the course of the next few days. Right now he is terrible, rated about 17 across the boards.. and he's 5'7 like me so he's totally useless. The create a player is not as deep as something like Tiger Woods, but it gets the job done. There are a whole lot of different clothing items though.. ranging from Reebok T Shirts to throwback jerseys. About the only thing I don't like about this part of the game so far is that it takes a couple of seconds to load the page of items when you scroll down (this is one ps2, I did not receive an XBOX version).

The gameplay itself seems to be a little smoother and less rigid, giving a feel of a little better control. The transition from one trick move to another also feels a bit more fluid than in past versions. Overall though, I think you'll find that gameplay is largely similar to its predecessor with minor tweaks of improvement instead of vast changes. I was not a huge fan of the gameplay of Street V2 but so far I am enjoying this one a lot more.

I got in the dunk contest a little bit, I'm going to have to mess around with it some more later on. It's much easier to get off a successful dunk than in the NBA Live 2005 dunk contest and the atmosphere is better as well. I have not been able to figure out all of the different dunks.. because just like the tricks in the regular game there are so many options. It seems like something that can be a whole lot of fun though, so I am looking to playing around with it some more.

OK I was able to find the tutorials.. I thought it was weird that there weren't any lol. I should be able to pick some of this new stuff up a little better after doing these.

[elchicogordo]

Great! I was hoping for a practice mode

[Human Highlight]

how is the create a player mode? when making the face, do you pick the feature from a wide variety e.g. if you want to change the nose, will there be a screen with different noses to choose from?