 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Visual Concepts |
| Publisher: | 2K Sports | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 (4 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
The actual games flow pretty well. On lower difficulties, you can just ignore plays and still win. Once you set the difficulty higher, running the set offensive plays can help you out significantly. These plays, which can be set for each team in the options menu, allow you to call and run plays. Unlike prior efforts, running plays works well in NBA 2K8. This is primarily due to the plays being displayed on the floor. This isn’t flawless, as you often find that the plays won’t register your movement (stalling the play) or disappear if you move wrong, but this is the best implementation of plays in a game that I’ve seen. Defensive plays are present, but I found that man-to-man and the full court trap/press are really the only effective ones in 90% of situations.
The on-the-fly menus work, although it is extremely easy to get distracted while changing subs. In these menus, you can change team playstyles, substitutions, coaching options and call plays. By default, substitutions, time-outs, and plays are all automated. Generally, options like this can be saved to the profile. However, this feature is notably absent from NBA 2K8. Instead of simply saving this to the game options, players must pause every game they start in order to prevent the AI coach from making an unwanted substitution. As a whole, the AI subs aren’t that bad. The option to set a rotation (minutes/game) is present, and your AI coach can either sub by rotation or by fatigue. As usual, fatigue is a problem in the games. You’ll notice players that routinely log extensive minutes get extremely tired. Most of this can be attributed to the video game style of play most people use, but also this is explained by the lack of media time outs. Basketball on the pro (and college) level provides for media timeouts throughout the game, and just including these at the appropriate points would really help with the fatigue factor.
The Association, NBA 2K8’s franchise mode, is excellent. After picking a franchise (along with owner descriptions), you get to the meat of the mode. The first thing you get to do is set the roles of your current players (starter, role player, 6th man, prospect). On off-days, you can hold practices to improve your squad’s ratings, and you can run individual drills to work on a particular player’s skill. Your owner sets goals, and you have to keep him satisfied to keep your job. If you don’t feel like dealing with an owner, that aspect of the Association can be turned off. Rookies can be scouted and worked out. On top of all of this, the contract system is inching closer to real world status. You can not only change the way money is distributed, but you can also add in option years and no trade clauses. The mode is extremely deep, and you can lose hours in developing and grooming your squad to make runs at the championship trophy.
Overall, the biggest problem I have with the offline mode is the difficulty. Sports games as a rule don’t handle higher difficulties fairly. Once you raise the difficulty, expect things like the CPU blocking your shots 20+ times a game while shooting 70% and outrunning your players. The standard answer for the 2K difficulty problem is to play around with the numerous AI sliders until you find a mode that is not only fair, but challenging. The default foul settings were something I adjusted almost immediately, as I found the lack of whistles very disturbing. Generally, a good way to get an idea of how to set your difficulty sliders is to lurk around on the 2K Sports forums and take the suggestions off of those message boards. Some of them won't work with your play style, but at least one poster will put up good sliders that you should be able to work with.
Posted: 2007-11-15 21:28:51 PST