All-Pro Football 2K8 (Xbox 360, 2007)

In 2004 Visual Concepts released one of the greatest football games of all time with ESPN NFL 2K5. And it was only $20. No sooner had SEGA and VC popped the cork on the champagne than EA swooped in and signed an exclusive licensing deal with the NFL, essentially killing the 2K football franchise. Fans wept. The VC team redistributed itself to help out on other sports titles. All seemed lost for 2K fans. Now, three years later, Visual Concepts has finally regrouped with a new gridiron title sans NFL license. All-Pro Football 2K8 plays and feels a whole lot like NFL 2K5, but the brilliant presentation and feature set of VC's last great football game didn't make the next-gen transition.

Because it lacks the NFL license, no current pro players, teams, or stadiums can appear in All-Pro 2K8. To make the experience satisfying, Visual Concepts gathered a bevy of retired pros and allowed gamers to draft their own teams. The Hall of Fame roster is impressive. Dan Marino, John Elway, Jerry Rice, and Dick Butkus are among the superstar roster. There are also a healthy number of lower-tier pros, many of whom had decent but not Hall of Fame careers. There's also Eric Bienemy, the former second string running back for the Chargers known only to a few thousand people. And yes, O.J. Simpson also made the list. Don't worry, the Juice is searching for the real killers on the gridiron.This large collection of more than 240 players is assembled into your own personal motley crew the first time you turn on All-Pro 2K8. You get to select two Gold Star players (Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, etc.), three Silver Star players (Randal Cunningham, Leslie O'Neal, etc.), and six Bronze Star players (Jim Harbaugh, Alvin Harper, etc.). In other words: Gold = Hall of Famer; Silver = Pro Bowler; Bronze = Played in the NFL. There is never an option to alter these numbers. You can't sacrifice three Bronze players for a Gold. There are no trades. There's not even a true draft. Even if you just wanted an All-Star scrimmage with a friend, you are out of luck. This limitation is perhaps All-Pro's greatest fault. For a game that must find replayability without a franchise mode, "have it your way" should have been All-Pro's motto.

Perhaps what's more frustrating is that in the barebones season mode, you will play against other teams that have a great variety of skilled players. One team will have no Gold Star players, while another might have five. This was done intentionally to avoid parity in the league. But that could have been achieved by putting some variants in coaching and player AI. Instead, every team tends to play pretty much the same. Even as you bump the difficulty, only the hidden statistics change; the AI only becomes minimally more improved. This is a stark change from NFL 2K5, which had some of the best AI around.

Visual Concepts' most radical departure from what we've seen previously from football games is the complete removal of statistics. Instead of seeing that Jerry Rice has a 99 in "Catch" and "Route Running," the greatest wide receiving in NFL history is measured by his special abilities. Rice is a Route God, Clutch, has Break Away Burst, Soft Hands, and earns a Leadership Bonus. These abilities define Rice in real life and on the virtual field. Each player has some number of abilities. Obviously, the upper-tier players will have more than the Eric Bienemies of the world.

2kSports knew that gamers would be all for another version of their super popular football game that looked to be on the verge of blowing a certain perennial game out of the water, but then the NFL license was snapped away and gamers have been without for a few years.

Now, back with a 'new' version, All-Pro Football 2K8 brings you legendary players and a collection of nobodies in a 'fantasy' style game that allows you to play with your favorite players of the past.

Unfortunately, the game feels stuck in the past, too. The game engine feels like it's been virtually untouched, and the graphics definitely do not have that 'Next-Gen' feel to them. The game really feels like a port from the NFL 2K5 with altered rosters and made up teams to take the place of the NFL teams that they can't use since the NFL license is owned elsewhere.

The depth of this game leaves something to be desired, as you just get a season to play, instead of some sort of Franchise mode to grow and develop your team.

I would give a B for effort, except there just doesn't look like there was much effort put in. Maybe next year 2KSports and Visual Concepts can put something that will really catch your eye.

Overall, I would not recommend this game to a casual fan. Die hards may enjoy it for a while, but this game is pretty weak.

This game will probably appeal more to people who play online, otherwise wait until madden comes out because of the lack of a franchise mode will kill it for you.
Those of you who enjoyed 2k5 will love this title. It has improved graphics and most of the A.I. "glitches" that plaugued 2k5 have been addressed. People playing 2k5 online made a living with taking advantage of bad offensive line and defensive back A.I. not to mention the onside kick glitch and the punt/FG block timming glitch. They also toned down the ease of "trucking" multiple defenders with a powerbacks. Another thing you will not see in this newest installment of the 2k franchise is QBs running at will on you while your defenders aimlessly pick their noses. Needless to say it is alot more enjoyable to play online now without much of the cheesing that went on.
Online play is made user friendly with your ability to edit your offensive/defensive playbooks, audibles and depth charts all offline so you don't have to waste time tweeking everything everytime you play a game. People who also long to create replica jersys of their favorite teams will be happy to know that you can get very close to the real life counter parts because of the endless amount of colors and graphics available to them when you create your uniforms. There are codes online that will get you almost any teams uniform you want if you don't want to do the work yourself.
Passing is made a little more difficult because your outside receivers are offscreen and you can't pan left or right to check on them especially when you want to make sure the hot route you assigned went through properly. Your receivers still drop that "gimmie" catch with no one around them every once in awhile. Running is more challenging because defenders don't get trucked so easily. Time is drops down to 20 seconds after you chose your play so you can't call audible after audible like you could in 2k5.

This game will probably appeal more to people who play online, otherwise wait until madden comes out because of the lack of a franchise mode will kill it for you.
Those of you who enjoyed 2k5 will love this title. It has improved graphics and most of the A.I. "glitches" that plaugued 2k5 have been addressed. People playing 2k5 online made a living with taking advantage of bad offensive line and defensive back A.I. not to mention the onside kick glitch and the punt/FG block timming glitch. They also toned down the ease of "trucking" multiple defenders with a powerbacks. Another thing you will not see in this newest installment of the 2k franchise is QBs running at will on you while your defenders aimlessly pick their noses. Needless to say it is alot more enjoyable to play online now without much of the cheesing that went on.
Online play is made user friendly with your ability to edit your offensive/defensive playbooks, audibles and depth charts all offline so you don't have to waste time tweeking everything everytime you play a game. People who also long to create replica jersys of their favorite teams will be happy to know that you can get very close to the real life counter parts because of the endless amount of colors and graphics available to them when you create your uniforms. There are codes online that will get you almost any teams uniform you want if you don't want to do the work yourself.
Passing is made a little more difficult because your outside receivers are offscreen and you can't pan left or right to check on them especially when you want to make sure the hot route you assigned went through properly. Your receivers still drop that "gimmie" catch with no one around them every once in awhile. Running is more challenging because defenders don't get trucked so easily. Time is drops down to 20 seconds after you chose your play so you can't call audible after audible like you could in 2k5.

Well for it's first year in the making it's got a solid base. This game gives you the classic NFL 2K gameplay with rosters packed full of HOF's. Players included are: Joe Montanna,Jerry Rice,O.J. Simpson,Barry Sanders,John Elway,and many more. This game is well worth the value price you can get it for now!