College Hoops 2K8 (Sony Playstation 3, 2007)

Though its NBA franchise gets plenty of attention, 2K Sports' College Hoops series has flown under the radar of many sports fans, despite being quite good in its own right. Like 2K7 before it, College Hoops 2K8 isn't tremendously different from its predecessor, but it's the small changes, like new gameplay mechanics and an improved legacy mode, that make this year's installment great and one sure to please college basketball fanatics.There are plenty of ways to stay busy in College Hoops 2K8. You can create your own chants, players, schools, sound clips, and highlight reels, and new this year, you can create your own plays. The interface isn't particularly easy to use and requires a lot of sometimes frustrating trial and error. But you get out of it what you put in, and all the work pays off when you've created the perfect play. If you're the sharing type you can share all this content online, or you can hoard all your knowledge and use it to crush your foes. There are more ways to play the game than ever. You can set up your own conference tournaments and even the NCAA Championship in the Pontiac Tournament mode, or take part in the College Hoops Classic. Coach mode lets you call the plays while your players execute them, and new this year are the All-American training challenge and tutorial modes. Here you'll go through a number of drills against well-known former college ballers designed to teach you the ins and outs of 2K8's somewhat convoluted control scheme. Going through this training mode still doesn't make the new passing control any less complex, since you still have to decide what type of pass you want to throw by pressing a shoulder button and then a face button. But it does a good job of introducing the controls--an area in which previous 2K Sports games have been deficient.Online play lives up to the high standards of other 2K sports efforts. A real-time ticker shows the latest sports news, and the online front page shows college hoops news as well as upcoming games and current scores. Once online, you can take part in a quick match, custom match, or unranked play against a buddy, or join or start tournaments and even leagues. Our online games suffered from a bit of lag here and there as well as the occasional jerk that does nothing but shoot three-pointers with the same guy over and over, but for the most part the games ran fine and were enjoyable. All of these modes are solid, but college basketball fans tend to head straight to legacy mode to lead their favorite team or alma mater to glory. Once again, you can play an open legacy, where you're able to take over the school of your choosing, or career legacy, where you start at a small school and either lead the school to prominence or do well enough to use the school as a stepping stone to a better coaching gig. The mode is quite similar to last year's, right down to the cumbersome menus. Frustrating menus aside, there's a lot to legacy mode--even more than last year. Amateur Basketball Leagues (high school teams) have been added, giving you unprecedented access to scouting high school players before the season starts--you can even play their games. The recruiting process has seen some changes, but they're mostly cosmetic and have little impact on how you actually recruit. You'll find some players that have at least a passing interest in your school and then request game tape, watch them in person, e-mail or call them, set up campus visits, go to their homes.

Its sad that a game I had 2 years ago I get another system besides my 360 and I still wanted college hoops 2k8 and the reason why? It is still the best hoops game and ea sports still cannot add something called realism and slow the arcadish gameplay down. The live series is a joke and college basketball 10 that game is rubbish the presentation is a 10 the gameplay is a 3. College hoops rosters are easy to redo and I can put John Wall and Calipari's cats together in about an hour. The actual college hoops engine will say the last name of the player ingame and lets you choose from a huge list so most of Kentuckys current roster will be easy to add even for 2009-10 and this game was the last year 2K had the license for ncaa basketball before ea bought it out so they could put out crap titles that fans feel they need to buy. Face it the only way to stop ea is to stop buying there crap titles. I am ranting because I want 2k back in there making fantastic college hoops games again.

Graphics are weak but game is older, lots of depth in legacy mode, I like being able to control aspects of my team like how they train, doing bonus drills and recruting. Career legacy mode puts you in at a small school coming off a bad season, you have to then do well to keep your job and add points to yourself as a coach so you can be more effective in all aspects. Then after doing well for a few seasons you get better coaching jobs, game is a simulation style, so it trys to make sense of your crazy playing style,lol. The bad is some wierd visual glitches and small things like cheerleaders not getting off the floor quick enough and minor issues like too many injuries in simming the games.

Gameplay: 8.3
There are some oddities, like a team that just hits a dry-spell for no apparent reason and can’t even make a simple lay-up, and there is a bit of a learning curve to fully appreciate the nuances of the game. The user interface can appear to be more painful than it actually is, but the game AI is very good.

Graphics: 8.4
From the courtside cameras, the game looks terrific. The players tend to lose something when seen up close, but the animations are solid.

Sound: 8.5
The ambience, from the crowd to the arena announcer, is there and the play-by-play is handled well by the trio of Verne Lundquist, Bill Rafferty and Tracy Wolfson.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.4
Some more attention could have been given to the ‘create’ modes, but the additions made to this year’s release are very solid.

Multiplayer: 8.2
Online tourneys will challenge those who have the thirst of strong competition.

Overall: 8.4
A very good game that should have fans of the college game excited. The 2K team has upped the ante when it comes to game mechanics and that makes College Hoops 2K8 an enjoyable and challenging experience.

Highly recommend this because this is the only college bb in town outside of ncaa bb 10 and that wasn't great. Good gameplay and the online servers are still up so you can download rosters to keep up with this year. Don't play a lot for it though cause it an old sports game but if its less than 5 dollars pick it up.