FINALLY!!
Added 10/7/2009
Let the madness begin! I had the game since June, but because I am an assistant coach with an AAU team, I am just now getting around to rating this game. It is, hands down, the most perfect basketball sim ever created. The only thing more they could have done was make the graphics crisper, and added more HS tourneys. Everything else is here.
On the recruiting trail, everything is intact. The AAU season, JC/HS players (all the way down to the Frosh), even the REAL recruiting early and late signing periods. You can play AAU games, and the more you play the more you learn about a player. It's broken by region, and teams have names that resemble AAU (Triple Threat, Air Down There, etc). It even shows you the kids college choices and your chances of landing them. The only thing, and i'm being VERY nitpicky, is I would love to have more "real" camps that were avail at this time- like the Adidas Big Time, Nike Camp, King City Classic (then called King James), and Nike All-American. I also would have loved to see a "different" crowd at those games (coaches, agents, scouts)
In season is perfect. All the teams. All the tourneys. And even all the AUTHENTIC stadiums (yes, Scottrade Center, the amazingly large KU logo, and A. Rupp Arena are all on the court). There's the weekly post game show, and a good 10 min selection sunday showing. There's also early and late signing period, and the McD game. Again, being VERY nitpicky, I would have loved to see an inclusion of the top 50 hs programs, and a selection of D2 and Juco teams for transfers. The HS teams could have weekly showcases that you could play and evaluate talent. Also, I would have loved to seen either Magic's Roundball and/or Capital Classic/Jordan Game also.
All in all, perfect game. I don't even see a need to buy another college game, unless it's an updated mode of this one. Hard to even look at the NCAA basketball, after owning this one. Finally, the madness can end :-)
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College Hoops 2k8
Added 4/6/2009
Great game, represents the madness of college basketball.By the way, im unstoppable with my tarheels.lol.
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My Favorite Game
Added 11/11/2008
I've never played the EA Sports basketball games, only 2k Sports. But from what I know, this is the best college basketball game. No question about it. If you like college basketball video games I can't imagine you being disappointed with this one. I mean it's not perfect, I'll admit, nothing ever is, but it's still good enough to be really amazing. Remember, this is just my opinion and I happen to enjoy it. I don't want to give away too much.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Best BasketBall Game Out
Added 9/3/2008
This is the best basketball game to date. If you want the real deal not just another rendition of NBA Jam but true bball the way you play it on the hard court at home, this is the game you are looking for. A true basketball simulation.
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Glitchy, unrefined, frustrating, and just not fun.
Added 7/13/2008
College Hoops 2K8 marks the end of an era, as 2K9 in the series will not be produced due to contractual issues with the National Collegiate Athletic Association and 2K. Thus, we are discussing the last College Hoops game which will ever be made by 2K. Sure, you'll still have March Madness from EA Sports to gulp down every year, but many gamers' preference lie with 2K Sports. With that being said, the idea behind College Hoops 2K8 is awesome, but in the end, the gameplay falls short and renders the game frustrating more than enjoyable. I almost get the feeling that if the series were prolonged to 2K9, everything would work out better because I felt the game was maybe one year away, but of course, we will never know.
First, the good about the game...
The visuals look fantastic. I have a 32' Sharp Aquos 720p HDTV and the visuals are absolutely stunning. The game itself has every major D1 team, and their home courts look absolutely outstanding. You can see players' emotions erupt on the court after missing a layup or after drawing a foul, the animations look beautiful...I can't really say much else other than the game just looks good...
2K Share is a great idea. 2K Share gives users the ability to upload Rosters and Sliders into the 2K database for others to share, so instead of running a team with #2, #3, #4 and #5 on your team, you can have real names. I have my sliders at default, but if you please, you can get someone else's sliders also.
All American mode teaches you the nuances of the game, from running lines to defending and utilizing low post moves. The player ratings are pretty accurate and the Soundtrack (with College Fight Songs) is relatively impressive also...much like the EA versions of the college games.
Of course, with any sports game, you have your Legacy/Dynasty mode also where you can take on a team for many years, There are two of these modes in 2K8. First, you can do a Career Legacy, where you're given a list of 50 schools from Mid-Major Conferences (that are relatively bad), where you try and build up your team and move to larger schools through the process. Or, if you don't want to do that and just want to dive into the LSU's of the world, you can just do an Open Legacy, where you can just choose any team you want. No matter which you choose, the first screen will introduce you to the ABL (American Basketball League) where you can scout and play as the recruits and receive bonus points. In season, you need to train your players, do bonus drills (similar to the All-American Challenge), Recruit, and all that fun stuff. The review show at the end of the week is vastly improved also, with Clark Kellogg and Bryant Gumbel at the desk. All in all, the mode is pretty well rounded and fair.
Now, to the negatives.
The reason why I rated the game so low is because of the gameplay. The gameplay just has so many glitches it makes it impossible sometimes to really enjoy the game. For example, getting a hand in the face to disrupt the shot is easy for the CPU to understand, but you have to really disrupt the shot in the exact right place, otherwise they make everything. If you get a blocking foul, 75% of the time even if it's a continuation, you have to take it out of bounds. Your tall players are basically idiots in the low post - If you're matched up against a smaller center, you have no idea how easy it is for the smaller player to rebound and reject you, even if you're almost half a foot taller than them. Tall players don't know how to dunk, which leads to many, many, MANY missed layups each game. The missed layups is absolutely ridiculous, especially the ones where the player is wide open with no one around them. The CPU plays their players about 85% of the game, and they never get tired, which means while they should be on the floor breathing heavily, they're draining shot after shot. You'll get a ton of fouls called on you, and even if you get some steals, you'll see the ball almost spin right back to the other team because the ball physics are so out of wack.
You know the saying 'Defense Wins Championships'? It doesn't apply in the game. If you are facing ANY team with good 3 point shooters on the perimeter (80+) and you don't know how to defend to the CPU's standards, you're gonna be in for a ridiculous display of shooting. Why? They drain everything and even if you're flying in their faces, the CPU doesn't process your blocking of shots as 'disrupting the shot', so you're gonna see them shoot over 85% against you. I'm not even talking about someone like UNC having great shooters...I'm talking about the Gramblings of the World...a great offense in the game will destroy a great defense.
The '6th Man' idea was conjured up this year to really feel home court advantage. At Wisconsin, we had the Grateful Red, and we carried the longest home winning streak in the nation for a brief period. The idea is beautiful, but the execution is poor, to say the least. The crowd yells at inappropriate times, and when a game is close and you hit a key basket, they stay quiet. Kinda unrealistic. I would hear the crowd turning against my players, telling me I can't do that after a foul or telling me thanks for coming after I loss a game. Also, when you're in the Red (meaning huge momentum boost), you'd figure it'd keep going up if you continued the run, but it gradually decreases for no reason. Just bogus sometimes, especially when I need the momentum, being the small school that I am, I need to use every advantage I can.
So just know, if you decide to purchase the game, it's alright. The modes are there, and gameplay up to a certain difficulty is realistic. But once you push it too far, you'll see some steals spiral back to the CPU, you'll see CPU defenders jump exactly at the right time the ball comes down (while you can't, because if you wait too long, you won't get any rebounds), and just random stuff that makes you mad throughout the game. It's frustrating, and if 2K8 were given one more year to work out all these glitches, the game might've rivaled NBA 2K8 is one of the better sports games on the Next-Gen consoles.
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