College Hoops 2K8 Review

The college basketball season started just a few weeks ago, but the
intensity that usually waits for March has showed up early this year.
Mercer and USC, Kentucky and Gardner-Webb, and even an exhibition win
for Findlay against Ohio State. I’d be willing to bet that these are
just early examples of the intensity of college basketball. This is
why we wait patiently for eight months to enjoy following our favorite
schools. It’s been a tough road capturing the college atmosphere on
next-gen systems, despite their ability to do so much more than
previous consoles. 2K Sports’ College Hoops series has improved
slightly, but this looks like the year that it could reach
All-American status.

2K Sports made a lot of changes in all of the right places to ensure
that their game is fun, innovative, intuitive, and current. Legacy
Mode and Dynasty Mode are beefed up with the ABL Tournament, where you
get the chance to see and play as the best high school prospects from
around the country and recruit accordingly. 2K Sports also promises
that the more you put into these modes, the more you will get out of
them. Gamers who want to breeze through by simulating everything won’t
experience everything that the modes have to offer, especially the
enhanced recruiting. You’ll be able to track every single player’s
stats with coach scouting reports and see, as the season progresses,
the rising and falling of different characteristics as the player gets
hot and cold streaks. You’ll get to see if that high school recruit
was really worth attention that would put Kelvin Sampson to shame, and
if not, you’ll have to bench that punk and find a better replacement.

The new and highly-touted “6th Man Advantage” feature will have your
school’s home crowd going off at all of the best moments in the game,
like key rebounds and steals or huge, momentum-shifting dunks. Games
have done it before, but College Hoops 2K8’s lead producer Zach
Timmerman promises that 2K8 will impress you with its crowd intensity.
Of course, it’s not just the big schools whose crowds will react. “I
feel like there are a lot of mid-major teams out there that have
really improved, and you’ll have trouble competing against some of
them,” he claimed in a conference interview. Expect new
crowd animations, cheerleader tumbles, and mascot performances.

Mechanically, other features have been added or improved. Lock-on
defense makes its appearance from the NBA 2K series, and an on-screen,
real-time diagram will help you call out the game’s 100 different
plays. If you aren’t a basketball brain of any kind, you probably
won’t know the difference between any of the plays—this nifty feature
will really come in handy and possibly teach you a lot more about the
intricacy of the game. The shot diagram that is now featured in all of
the different 2K and EA basketball games will help you figure out
where your player’s best shot can be found. Other than diagrams, a new
feature called Maximum Passing will let you use the Left Bumper or L1
button with the face buttons to perform four different
passes—sometimes only the correct pass will avoid a turnover. Lastly,
new and improved isomotion controls will help you get the ball down
inside with smoother dribble moves than ever before.

Similarly, the presentation is also a lot better. A halftime report
loaded with detail will help you figure out what you need to work on
and who you need to bench. It’ll offer tips and advice on what you’re
doing wrong and what to do right to get back into the game if you’re
losing. The A.I. has been improved, as always, and Zach Timmerman
admitted, “Releasing our game after the NBA 2K team launches their
game every year helps us to figure out what people liked and didn’t
like about that game, and we can work on a few things to improve
ours.” On the court, player movement has been streamlined to appear
and feel as fluid as any basketball game has ever been. Watch a video
of this game in action; the movement animation is absolutely
incredible.

“My favorite feature, the one I’ve anticipated the most, is 2K Share,”
said Timmerman. 2K Share’s most important element is that it lets you
rename players and upload the re-named rosters online for any other
2K8 owner to download and use—this means that, if it bugs you that
much, you can change the names of every player on all of the 339 teams
in the game. Oh, and there are three new teams—all of which, I’m sure,
will be Final Four candidates—South Carolina Upstate, Cal
State-Bakersfield, and Florida Gulf Coast. College Hoops 2K8 is just upon us, with a November 19th release date.
Look for a Game Freaks 365 review to follow shortly after.