New to College Hoops 2k8

[hockeyturtle85]

Man I am overwhelmed.

I was able to pick up NCAA Basketball 09 quite easily and navigate it and figure it out.

CHoops is crazy difficult. So much depth. I mean it looks dated, and looks great, but man... my brain is exploding.

My very first time every playing any College Hoops game btw...

[OSUPiper]

Quote: Originally Posted by hockeyturtle85

Man I am overwhelmed. I was able to pick up NCAA Basketball 09 quite easily and navigate it and figure it out. CHoops is crazy difficult. So much depth. I mean it looks dated, and looks great, but man... my brain is exploding. My very first time every playing any College Hoops game btw...

You are in the right place to begin figuring it out. The depth gives it so much replay value.

[Suntan Superman]

The only reason I regret selling my Xbox 360, I currently have no way to play the game as it still hasn't been made backwards compatible on the One. I've oft thought about picking up a 360 just to play again.

If you have questions feel free to ask, I still remember that game like I played it yesterday. There's no stupid questions.

[hockeyturtle85]

Thanks guys.

So I've always been a EA sports guy pretty much from Madden games growing up and I still play the NHL series some.

I loaded this thing up, and browsed around the menus. I found myself having to look at what buttons to push because it is different ya know. Like Y to sort... right stick does the menu from any point etc...

So I played like 1/2 a game. All on default. What I noticed immediately is that this game plays much better than NCAA Basketball 09. (Which I have, I do not have 10)

So out of the box... right off the start 2k8 plays a much better game of ball than 09. It just feels better. Moves better, shoots better... the arena looks amazing on court at least, and while the graphics do feel very much dated as they should for being 11 years old... it played very well.

So I'm very happy with the gameplay. Superb compared to 09. It made me never want to "play" 09 ever again.

The menus were confusing... I went in, and looked around. The tutorial blows away 09. It isn't even close. The menus were fairly hard to navigate, that really messed me up. Maybe I'm just new to it. I don't know.

What kills me is the arcane type of text the game uses. It is blocky and ridgid. It isn't smooth at all. I mean it's okay and it works, but it gives the game a "dated" and tough to read feel for me at least.

I loaded up a Legacy for the very 1st time, and like I was saying yesterday, my mind exploded. I was able to load up a 09 Legacy for the 1st time and within 1 hour knew what I was doing a few weeks ago when I tried it out.

2K8's Legacy looks better in every possible way. And I just know from looking about that it is superior. So in my heart I know that 2K8's "Dynasty" mode slaughters 09's easily... but it was so tough to get around.

I spent like 10 minutes at the AIHL or whatever it was called. The Amateur thing trying to understand it. I mean that is essentially a high school all star tournament thing?

And it just gives me a better chance to scout? I was extremely confused.

Then I just simmed through that. I targeted a few guys, and when the real season started I simmed through a few games and noticed the preseason shows.. and stuff like that...

Which blow 09 away. The simming results seemed much better as well. The stats and just overall simming seemed better.

I started to recruit, which is a large part of Dynasty/Legacy mode. And I had to pick which coach did what action? Why does that matter?

That was very confusing. Any tips going forward on the mode? Or is it just a matter of playing it to get used to it?

It looks like a lot of fun, but seems clunky to navigate through. But I know it is 09 x 20 times better lol

From a 1st impression.... 2K8 is a bit more dated overall, graphics are slightly not as good as 09, but the gameplay is amazing.

2K8 is all substance with less flash I think... while 09 is better looking and more user friendly I think. My intial reaction was to give up and get a refund, but 09 is easier for me... but the Hoosier in me wants to learn this game... the curve is there for sure.

Thanks for the long read.

[nwgatorfan]

your best bet is to just start reading all of the threads here and pick up as much as you can. There's a reason it's still a great game 11 years later.

[OSUPiper]

If you love real college hoops, you will never give this game up.


To some of your comments, many people like the AAU summer league scouting. I simulate it and could not care less.


There are too many upsets in simmed games. I used to sim NCAA tourney games to keep from the crazy cinderellas in every Final Four. Now, I actually sim a few games at a time for CPU teams in the regular season to reduce the outrageous upsets. I found that my legacy has way better NCAA seeding as a result. I have not had to re-sim a NCAA game since, but it takes some work to set this up.


Overall, you can tailor the game to be what you want it to be.

[hockeyturtle85]

Quote: Originally Posted by OSUPiper

If you love real college hoops, you will never give this game up. To some of your comments, many people like the AAU summer league scouting. I simulate it and could not care less. There are too many upsets in simmed games. I used to sim NCAA tourney games to keep from the crazy cinderellas in every Final Four. Now, I actually sim a few games at a time for CPU teams in the regular season to reduce the outrageous upsets. I found that my legacy has way better NCAA seeding as a result. I have not had to re-sim a NCAA game since, but it takes some work to set this up. Overall, you can tailor the game to be what you want it to be.

Yeah man. I just played my 1st full game... just now.

IU against ILLNI. I was home.

I noticed the 6th man thing (which I love) fills up to green... then goes to red... then it can go back down to green.

I noticed my player's would have a flash of green under them when it maxed out. I assume this is them "feeling" it?

It was a blast. I won. I didn't know many controls... and played around with a few things, but man the options are limitless.

Imagine this gameplay and custom options in a modern day game. It would be crazy.

Yeah, I don't think I could ever give this game up. I've decided I'm going to attempt to learn it and do some cool stuff with it.

It is very much overwhelming to a newb though lol.

[Suntan Superman]

So for recruiting, you choose which coach does what because coaches will have different attributes. For instance if you have an assistant with B+ charisma, it's better to have him go after the big recruits, as his charisma will do more to attract them.

The ABL is nice, I normally track local/regional players through it to give me a sense of realism in local recruiting. Also you can put a guy on auto-recruit as a Freshman, and recruit him to your school for 4 years.

Closed Legacy is the real deal btw. You level up your coach as you go along, you get new job offers, you can get fired. There's an entire new world to get lost in. It does only last 40 seasons though, my favorite was a save that lasted over a year where I spent 14 years at Northern Colorado, 6 years at Colorado, and 20 years at Wisconsin. At one point I had such a dominant dynasty going at Wisconsin that I switched my offensive system entirely mid-season just for a challenge.

You will end up losing chunks of your life to the Closed Legacy mode, especially if you end up trying to chase a blue blood job like Indiana.