To put it bluntly, I’ve never been a fan of 2K sports games. While they are quite popular, there are far better incarnations of simulated sports out there under other franchises.

     NBA 2K8, is the embodiment of the successes and failures in this long running series. As expected with all “next-gen” games, the visuals, from a distance at least in this game, are quite good. Whether you’re playing it on the PS3 or the Xbox 360, 2K8 looks good when playing from the typical “broadcast” perspective. When the camera is close up on players faces and their reactions, the models for the most part look good, with realistic sweat-effects. However, all of the character models have these lifeless looking eyes and it is a major drag on the visual aspect. Look closer, and the players look like zombies.

     Gameplay is a rather mixed bag. It flows nicely, but shooting is awkward and there are far too many missed shots by the user (which is you) - and that is an understatement. Even the simplest of layups or low-post shots are bricks, while the computer has no problem banking and swishing any variety of shots in the hoop. This is very disconcerting when trying to stay competitive against the computer. Even on the easiest difficulty setting (rookie), the user will continuously miss seemingly easy baskets. This is the biggest downfall to the 2K series because the gameplay will often move about the screen with fluidity, but the busted shooting mechanism is stiff and subsequently disappointing because even great jump-shooters will shoot poorly.

     The presentation is also polished here and there but is marred by a terrible menu layout. Anytime you look to cycle through the menu pages, it pops up in this odd over-lay fashion. I found this confusing since this pop-up screen acts as your only main menu, and because of that there is no definitive menu screen to refer to outside of this pop-up. I much prefer a more traditional set-up, like that of EA Sports’ NBA Live franchise.

     In the end, I would avoid the 2K series all together. It may have some good points (and is an improvement over the terrible 2K7), however, its frustrations heavily outweighs its positives. The briefly aforementioned NBA Live franchise is far better, more polished, and while not perfect I suppose, it is a far, far better choice over NBA 2K8.

     Go with NBA Live ‘08, you’ll like it a whole lot more. There’s a lot less hassle and a lot more dazzle.

-Kurt L.

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