One of the biggest changes this year is the shot stick. Instead of just using buttons for different types of shots, you'll take a different shot depending on which direction you push the right thumb stick. You can lean in a certain direction, pull off a hook or a turnaround, or just try to throw down a dunk. Sometimes, the shot taken feels random. There are a few animations corresponding to the possible positions of the players and the direction of the stick, so you don't always know exactly what you're going to get when you use it. That's not good, but it's fair to say that you can usually count on an appropriate shot, it would just be nice to know exactly what it's going to be. You can also get different results by holding in the trigger for a more aggressive move. Jump shots are still done with a button press.

The new free throw mechanic is as good as any. Instead of lining up moving targets or filling up meters, you just pull back on the stick to load up for the shot, then let go at the exact moment the shooter releases the ball. The better the shooter, the more room for error you have. Regardless, it's an extremely difficult mechanic to master. The first several games played saw a lot of shameful percentages.

Another new concept is team chemistry. It will go up and down during a season, and it affects performance on the court, but there's no indication as to what can be done about it or what caused it.

Players of 2k5 will be glad to know that the power of the hop step has been toned way down – it's not a lock like it used to be.

When it comes to the post, big men come out of the box a lot less often this year. Of course, if you don't run the offense, they'll come to you sooner or later. But if you set them up they'll stay put and wait for a pass. Then you can back your man down, pass out of a double team, whatever. The play in the paint is so smooth – the animations are great – that almost too many points come from the inside.

Stealing is a little harder than before and you can attempt to swat the ball in a specific direction. But against a decent ball handler with speed you'll pay dearly most of the times you try. After a steal attempt, it's impossible to stay in front of your man if he decides he's going to the hole.

The other thing to look out for on defense is the automatic switching and double teaming. If you play as a defender away from the ball, the computer often assumes you want to guard players you run close to when all you're doing is following your man. Other than that, there aren't any tricky defensive animations that get you out of position.

But "out of position" is a good segway into a bigger problem with 2k6. There are issues with substitutions that will be a major disappointment to some players. The biggest problem is with auto subs. If a team has a sub that's playing out of position, it confuses the defensive matchups and you get ridiculous things like centers guarding point guards on the perimeter. For example, if you move a shooting guard over to small forward, or have two power forwards playing at once, the matchups get confused. Once it happens, you can change the matchups for your team manually, so it's not the end of the world. But if it happens to your cpu opponent, you're out of luck. You might be watching a center/point guard matchup all night. For those who spend a lot of time playing in Association mode (dynasty), this is a shame.

There are other quirks, but nothing as bad as that. Fatigue causes energy levels to never go back to 100%, even after the half. That's realistic, but it might be related to the problem of who ends up on the floor. At the start of the half, some starters are often still on the bench. And the cpu doesn't seem to understand the essence of 'foul trouble.' Players with two or three fouls in the first half stay in the game – resulting in a whole lot of foul outs. This should be relatively simple – players with a few fouls that early in the game go on the bench. You'll rarely see it handled any other way in the basketball.

Playing online against real people means you don't have to worry about these problems, and a big improvement was made with one simple change from last year – your opponent's pass icons don't show up on your screen. It seemed an obvious mistake last year, so it's great that it's been changed.

While the loss of the ESPN identity hasn't hurt the hockey game (NHL 2k6), it results in quite a hit to this one. Even though the player models and likenesses are fantastic – maybe the best in any sports game, the rest of the presentation suffers: it's generic and clumsy. The menus are horribly organized and counterintuitive, particularly during Association play. Even after repeated use, the placement of many items just doesn't make any sense, and the use of the stick for navigation instead of the more certain triggers or directional pad is frustrating.

NBA 2k6 is far from a perfect basketball game. The matchup problem could be a deal breaker for some, but not everyone. As some things got better, the things that got worse have gotten a lot worse. What's also notable is how much the game has changed in less than a year even though the series had just one more release before a new generation of hardware became standard. If the big issues can be fixed for the Xbox 360 version – look out. This could have been a fantastic game.