Xbox 360 - College Hoops 2K8

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and unrealistic movement that appear to be out of the game player's hands. There are times in which the game will seem to take control of your player moving him in a direction you didn't even press. For example, I vividly remember one instance in a real tight game in which I was moving the ball up court after a defensive rebound and right when I get past the half court line, my player all of a sudden started moving backwards even though I was still holding down the button to move him forward. This resulted in a back court violation that had me wanting to throw the $50 wireless controller through the TV. Other animations are pretty non realistic, like a player will literally skate towards the goal and perform physically impossible moves in order to get the ball over the taller defender. When ever these contrived animations occur near the basket, 99.99% of the time, the ball will go in the basket, regardless of how tall or how many defenders are around him. I have also notice it's impossible to closely guard a player unless you double team him or just do it manually without holding down the LT button. Any effort to closely guard a player with the LT held down will cause the game to take over and move your defender 3 or 4 steps away from him, giving him a pretty good look at a shot or getting past you without much trouble.

The game sounds pretty good, but nothing too spectacular here. It sounds like a basketball game is the best way I can sum it up. However one thing that is quite annoying is the announcers' constant and frequently incorrect blabber. I get tired of hearing, "they're in....mantoman!" every time the opposing player brings the ball up the court. I also have noticed many times that the announcers will announce the wrong score or will at times be 2 or three plays behind of what is actually happening on the floor. I have learned to ignore most of it, but the "mantoman", is something I can never ignore. HIGHLY ANNOYING.

The game play here is a hit or miss, I suppose depending on the mood the game is on a particular day. It is highly inconsistent and downright frustrating at times. First of all, your players miss WAY too many wide open layups and shots right under the basket. Nothing is more frustrating than having your near 7 foot PF or C miss a WIDE open shot when he can obviously just drop the ball in the basket. In addition to this without adjusting sliders, the CPU will block 25 - 35% of your inside shots, so its not uncommon to have had your shot blocked 15 - 25 times in a SINGLE GAME. There was a patch released for these and other problems, but they didn't seem to help much so I had to do some fiddling with the slider settings even after the patch was applied.

Continuing on the game play, any person you are not controlling is a complete idiot much of the time. For example, I get out of another lame CPU double team in the backcourt and I run down with only the opposing teams' center and my center right under the basket. As I approach the basket, the CPU Center comes to guard me leaving my center wide open for an "easy" shot. However instead of staying near the basket so I can get the ball to him, he will always for some ungodly reason run AWAY from the basket nearly to the 3 point line. This not only puts me in a one on one situation with the opposing and taller center who will most certainly block my shot, even if I were to pass to my center who seems to want to take a 3 point shot instead of just slamming it home, it will give the defense ample time to recover and pretty much kill my opportunity at an easy two. They do this EVERY single time and why they do it is beyond me.

As far as defense goes, many times it seems pretty much pointless to try to play defense. Because of the inability to guard anyone closely your guy will always get past you and will either score the bucket, get fouled or both. Even if the CPU misses a shot you can almost bet that the 6 foot PG will outrebound your C and PF and score 2 on the put back. To me, you never really seem to be completely in control of your players, especially on defense.

In addition to this the computer will ALWAYS hit wide open jumpers no matter what team it is. I really wish I was exaggerating in this regards, but I am not. The only time I can remember the CPU missing wide open shots is when they are attempting a half court buzzer beater. Needless to say your team doesn't hit EVERY open shot, heck they can't even make a shot one foot from the basket on a consistent basis. The same goes for foul shots, I have played nearly 100 games, and out of all those game I can only count 6 times that the CPU actually missed a foul shot. Additionally, if you drain a big three, the CPU will always do the exact same thing on its very next possession no matter how many guys are on him or how close they are to him. To me, the game just seems quite scripted in order to keep the game close. I would expect this kind of mess from EA Sports, not 2K. All of this got me wondering if 2K actually made this game or did a EA Sports mole infiltrate their headquarters and sabotage the code.

The things I have mentioned above do not occur in EVERY game, but it certainly occurs enough for me to take notice of it and frequent enough to cause me to not to be THAT eager to play this game regularly as I will always wonder if my next game will be "one of those games" again. I don't expect to win every game, but the way the way the game chooses to keep things close is way too obvious. I have never had a problem with 2K's AI until this game so it comes as quite a surprise. Don't get me wrong, I love 2K as a company and overall I think they make the best sports games, but for some reason CH2K8 just doesn't quite measure up to 2K's other sports titles.

In conclusion, I still have fun with this game, but not without messing around with the sliders, and even sometimes that doesn't help to combat the game's "EA Sports mode". I would say that 2K should go back and improve the AI, but since they are not going to make the College Hoops series anymore, there is really no use. It's shame they are no longer going to make College B-Ball games, because all they really need to do was improve the AI and the gameplay a little and this game could easily be 5 stars in my book.

Xbox 360 - College Hoops 2K8

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the players sweat and the jerseys move when ever the player is in motion. One bug flaw that could bring the game to a lower level is that easy layups miss sometimes that normally those players would make blindfolded. Overall 2K makes a great and fun game for the college level.

Xbox 360 - College Hoops 2K8

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The arenas look O.K., but not nearly as good as you'll find in March Madness 08. Player models are good, but again, I don't think they come close to what MM has produced. 4). The menu screens, though minor, 2K really needs to update those. They get the job done, but they're a bit outdated. Again, MM 08 has the better menu screens. 5). The color commentary: 2K8 needs to really work on this. It's just not as exciting as it should be.

Overall: this game is fun to play besides some minor issues. It lacks in certain areas compared to MM 08, but I think overall it offers the better gameplay and depth and freedom you will want in a college basketball game this season. 8-10.

Xbox 360 - College Hoops 2K8

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The arenas look O.K., but not nearly as good as you'll find in March Madness 08. Player models are good, but again, I don't think they come close to what MM has produced. 4). The menu screens, though minor, 2K really needs to update those. They get the job done, but they're a bit outdated. Again, MM 08 has the better menu screens. 5). The color commentary: 2K8 needs to really work on this. It's just not as exciting as it should be.



Overall: this game is fun to play besides some minor issues. It lacks in certain areas compared to MM 08, but I think overall it offers the better gameplay and depth and freedom you will want in a college basketball game this season. 8-10.

Xbox 360 - College Hoops 2K8

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The arenas look O.K., but not nearly as good as you'll find in March Madness 08. Player models are good, but again, I don't think they come close to what MM has produced. 4). The menu screens, though minor, 2K really needs to update those. They get the job done, but they're a bit outdated. Again, MM 08 has the better menu screens. 5). The color commentary: 2K8 needs to really work on this. It's just not as exciting as it should be.





Overall: this game is fun to play besides some minor issues. It lacks in certain areas compared to MM 08, but I think overall it offers the better gameplay and depth and freedom you will want in a college basketball game this season. 8-10.