With basketball games inching release earlier and earlier every year, it makes you wonder how these developers deliver a product that is good since they have more than a month before the season actually begins. This has been the case ever since the competition between 2KSports and EA has become fierce since the early 00’s between football, baseball, hockey, and basketball. It is starting to become ridiculous with the basketball games as they are releasing toward the end of September and even some people are getting their hands on the games in the 3rd week of September. I understand the need to get the games out to the public for sales purposes, but I think that EA’s NBA Live would have benefited greatly with a few more weeks of development time, and the same goes for SCEA’s NBA ’08.
Visual Concepts takes what has worked so well since its debut on next gen with 2K6 and further refines the engine plus adds a whole host of new features that will keep basketball junkies busy for a long time to come. We have a very deep franchise mode, the new Blacktop Mode which includes the new Slam Dunk Contest, new 3pt Shootout, Game of 21, and a few other games this makes 2K8 the complete package in terms of features, but is this totally the complete package that gamers are looking for? Yes, that ridiculous 24/7 mode is gone which I was never a fan of and thought that VC spent too much time with that portion of the game at times than refining the main game. With every game, there are flaws and issues, 2K8 does have a host of them that aren’t enough to detract the hardcore fan.
Where to get started, but I want to touch base on the animations. It seems like Visual Concepts continues to dump animations upon animations in this game every year making the on-court gameplay look so smooth that it feels like your watching a game of NBA. With new animations, this also brings us to the foot-plant technology that has been implemented in 2K8 which also had VC rework Isomotion. For the most part, everything gells together well accept in a few areas where animation transition just doesn’t look right, but won’t be noticeable to the average joe. Most important of all, we have new passing animations, dunks, and jump shots which help smooth out some of my complaints from last years 2K7. I noticed it the most with the new passing animations; this is one area where it is hard to get right in basketball games. This year you don’t have the issue when the ball is passed to a teammate and they stop for the ball, nope its grab the ball and run.
VC also improved the alley-oops and post game, which is one area that they have had some trouble getting to work out due to the difficulty of performing some of these actions in the past or the animations just weren’t there. Especially with the post up game, this works like Isomotion giving you a variety of attacks to the basket and being able to push your defender far back enough so you can score the basket or find an open man to score. I applaud VC for working on the pieces that needed fixing and they even go as far as adding Visual guides for plays which will show you on how your guys should be positioned on the floor. This is a very nice feature that could only help people out.
The AI is a spectacle to behold in 2K8 and I say that because on the offensive side of the ball, if you are giving them a licking but their not far behind in terms of scoring, they make adjustments throughout to your play so they can try to win. This reminds me a lot of the VIP feature which you can use to play against yourself or send it to a friend, except now its more interactive in the game itself as you play the CPU.
Graphically, 2K8 looks a bit sharper than last year but the graphics in terms of players faces are still not where they should be. All of the arenas that I have seen so far look very good like always. I like to use Steve Nash as an example every year with my 2K8 reviews. Nash looks like just came out of 28 Weeks Later or the latest zombie movie, will they ever get his face down right. LOL! For the most part, a good portion of the players look like their real life counterparts which is good and I hope with 2K9 that this is one of their primary focuses on getting faces down pat. While this is a part of the animations department, it also affects the graphics, but graphically animations on the sidelines with your teammates and coach are just awesome that no other game could touch. The interaction is just mind boggling and even crazier when your nailing free throws, I was shocked. I hit the first free throw and then my player is interacting with his teammates out of excitement on making the free throw.
Commentary is provided by Kevin Harlan and Kenny Smith which is not bad but I think needs some new life come in 2K9 with getting them in the studio and recording more lines. Also I think that it could be very good if they can take the commentary team one step further by having them even talk about some of your previous games milestones to help break things up. Crowd atmosphere is good, but still not there yet and think this is another area that VC hasn’t really concentrated on compared to what we have seen in the EA games with atmosphere.
Last but not least, the crowning jewel of 2K8 this year is the new Association mode which is the franchise mode for those that aren’t familiar with 2K’s game. 2K for years has worked at trying to get team factor and personalities to work as a structured mode through a team morale system that just didn’t work as they had originally envisioned. I think that with 2K8, they have struck that perfect balance as we have a personality system that we are well aware of suchs as Unpredicatable, Neutral, Experssive, and Laid Back. On top of having a personality, they are also given a role on the team like you would have in real basketball as a Starter, Bench, Sixth Man, Sub, etc. Now each teammate AI on your team has their role + personality calculated into the type of player that their going to be so this gives them a sense of what to expect. All of these factors play a role on how well your team plays together, if certain members are unhappy and want a trade, or even worse someone that could be disruptive due to their unpredicatable behavior. I feel like VC has finally perfected their franchise mode as they have been trying for years since 2K5 to get this kind of system to work out and they finally have achieved that goal.
The Bottom Line
Visual Concepts has really nailed down the sport of basketball from the animations all the way to the little things in the Association mode which some might look at it as their trying to expand franchise, but this could be a model that others copy with their sports titles moving forward. If you’re a fan of the NBA and videogame basketball, I say rush out and go pick up NBA 2K8 as it does way too much right as opposed to the minor issues that creep up.
