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College Hoops 2K8 | 
 enlarge | From: 2K Games
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $9.49
You Save: $20.50 (68%)
New (42) Used (20) from $8.99
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 2675
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Basketball Games
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 39312
UPC: 710425393129
EAN: 0710425393129
ASIN: B000V1OUUE
Release Date: November 19, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** ** Over 1.5 million orders shipped worldwide and more than 500 000 items in stock, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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| Features:
| • | 6th Man Advantage - Give your home team the advantage on the floor with the energy of the crowd. | | • | Maximum Passing - One press of a button puts a full slate of pass options at your fingertips. | | • | On-the-Fly Coaching - Call plays, queue up subs, check on your players and even change coaching settings without ever having to pause the action. | | • | Range Meter - Know the right spots on the floor for each player to take their shots and minimize missed buckets. | | • | 2K Soundtrack - Featuring Jurassic 5, J. Dilla, MF Doom, Dilated Peoples, The Kooks, The Black Lips and more. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
College Hoops 2K8 continues the legacy of the NCAA franchise with all new features, including the 6th Man Advantage feature that lets the crowd atmosphere affect the game performance of teams, a training mode where players can improve their skills through practice, and more. College Hoops 2K8, the #1 rated college basketball game five years running returns to the Xbox 360, with the deepest feature enhancements in the history of the franchise. 2KU - Completely redesigned arena atmosphere creates the most authentic college basketball experience ever. ESRB Rated E for Everyone
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 My Favorite Game November 11, 2008
Rob Tran
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.
Best BasketBall Game Out September 3, 2008
C. Morrison
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.
 Glitchy, unrefined, frustrating, and just not fun. July 13, 2008
nl2134 (Madison, WI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
sometimes fun, other times frustrating February 29, 2008
C. Johnson (Lawrenceville, GA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I really don't know what to think of this game. Sometimes it is extremely fun to play, yet other times its nothing but a frustration fest. This is my first college basketball game, and due to the recent news that 2K will no longer be making this series, this is also unfortunately my last college basketball game. Yes there is the EA version, but there is no way that I will ever purchase any EA Sports product. In addition to creating possibly the worse basketball games ever made, my decision to never buy EA Sports again is due to the fact that they only aim to buy their way out of competition rather than just competing.
Visually CH2K8 looks pretty good. Of course due to the NCAA regulations, none of the players look like their real life counterparts, but other than that the arenas and uniforms seem pretty accurate. The crowd could look a little better, but it's not really a big deal for me. The player movements are good for the most part, but there are some slight animation problems 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.
Best in the series January 21, 2008
J-dog (Pittsburgh, PA)
This has been my favorite XBOX franchise. Now on 360, the graphics are stunning, gameplay is much improved (ball physics), and you still have the deepest legacy franchise of any game out there. What makes this game a five-star is the pagentry of college sports. Every arena and team is different, with their only styles of play and idiosyncracies. You can get full rosters via internet, and it's a pure 5-star!
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