All Pro Football 2k8 thoughts

I should first start by saying that I haven't had this much fun with a football game in many years. The game is incredibly fun to play, controls like a dream, and plays great online. Of course, nothing can be perfect and in the world of video games that axiom is often painfully made all the more real. I suppose if someone made the perfect game, we would never stop playing it, but I doubt that is going to happen. Here are the pros and cons as I see them:




PROS:

• Incredible animation. Things like the QB stumbling in the rain after the snap to gang tackling and punters slipping in the snow just scratch the surface of a robust animation system.
• Excellent AI. The computer plays you smart and tough in this game. Games against the AI are satisfying and fun.
• Fun running game with Legend backs performing as their real life counterparts. I absolutely got murdered by O. J. Simpson. (Seriously though, he killed me).
• Stunning detail in the stadiums and a huge variety of uniform customization.
• Silky smooth online play. I'm 2 - 0 so far... Look for Flying Norseman if you want to play.
• Announcers are good and not too intrusive.
  
• Sliders actually seem to do something unlike other games I could mention.

CONS:

• The menu system is an absolute mess. This has been a problem with 2k sports for a while. They need to through out all their code and start from scratch in this area.
• No Franchise mode. You can only play single seasons. I am not sure how they would have implemented this with the Legend players, but they could have used generics for franchise mode.
• Not enough Legends. Sure you can create them, but the player editor isn't very robust and it is hard to get the likeness of legends you want to create. Players like Fran Tarkenton and Eric Dickerson and many others are glaringly absent.
• Computer AI in the last minutes is shaky at best.
• Punts against the AI can almost never be returned.

I am holding out hope that the 7 testicled monster that is EA Sports won't come crashing down and not allow 2k sports to have another go at football. EAs exclusivity with the NFL is running out soon and 2k Sports have proved that they can make a great football game so hopefully the PTB at the NFL are paying attention and don't fuck things up like they did the last time and award exclusivity. In the meantime, there is a lot for me to enjoy in this game and I will playing it for many months in the future.