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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

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.

[tril]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

when it comes to recruiting. make sure you have a coach with at least a b+ recruiting capability.

a 5 star recruit is harder to recruit with lower ranked coaches.

if playing a closed legacy

pending on teh school you are using, plan for the future.
look at your current roster and see who will graduate ina few years, find top recruits in your home state who are sophomores or juniors put them on the target list, (target list: press the the start button on the recruit page)

size and potential matters in this game. so make sure you scout appropriately.
find serviceable big men. size in the paint matters. Ive had plenty of 1 and 2 star bigs who filled their role.

red shirt walk ons that are low ranked but have high potential. role players are just as important as a team stacked with a few blue chippers.

make sure you train your players. not only does your team improve throughout the legacy mode, but so does every other team.

be prepared to see a bunch of upsets in the tourney, in conference play etc.

11 years in since Ive had this game and I still see new animations. gameplay never gets old.

in addition, someone created a playbook with motion offenses. find it on line if you can.

players dont stand around. its night and day between the default playbooks and the motion offense play book.

[CujoMatty]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

I go back and play a lot of my older games from time to time. 2k8 holds up super well in a lot of ways, most ways to be honest but there is 1 thing that really kills the experience for me. AI behaviour was really lacking in 2007. Lol

I’m not saying this to bad mouth the game because I really enjoy it and really don’t think that even to this day that there has been as complete a game or deep a “franchise” as good as 2k8 that really makes me want to invest years in to.

But I have honestly never seen a sports game have such a manufactured difficulty as this one. Again I really enjoy the game but it can be infuriating at times. Missed layups, out of control steals, blocks, offensive rebounds, litterally everything the game can do to artificially make the game harder it will do. A lot of people will say it mimics real life and I get it. I really do it’s just not that fun to me. I want the cpu to be better if they are a good team not force me to be terrible. I like playing games where my skill is the real determining factor. Luckily managing your team, recruiting and building yourself up to get that dream job is just so well represented that it’s easy for me to forgive the lopsided gameplay when it does happen.

Everything else has actually held up pretty well over time. 2k controls have come a long way since 2k8 but they are servicable. Graphics are dated but they are definitely not terrible. This game really is a college basketball fans ultimate opus.

[TrueSkillz45]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

With March Madness in full swing, I decided to dust off my 360 and play some College Hoops 2K8. I remember back in the day I use to play as Duke with a player I created. I did some research into Legacy Mode and seen that you have the option of either an Open or Closed Legacy. For some reason I'm not getting the option for a Open Legacy. If someone can tell me where I need to go or what to do to start an Open Legacy, I would greatly appreciate it. I know this game is 11-12 years old, so some assistance with this matter may be a long shot but figured I'd ask anyway. Thanks.

[R1zzo23]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

in addition, someone created a playbook with motion offenses. find it on line if you can.

players dont stand around. its night and day between the default playbooks and the motion offense play book.

I never knew this! I've always used custom playbooks that people made online: balanced, perimeter or post preferences depending on which team I was going up against next and based on their strengths. A motion offense playbook would make things completely different! I'll have to give this a look!

Any idea where to find it?

[sportsgamergt]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

Hey y'all, another newbie here. I'm doing an open legacy with Georgia Tech right now, and it is a lot of fun. I love the depth of the game, and I'm going to start a closed legacy once I get a little bit better of a feel for the game. My question is, how can you be good at defense? I tried a zone at first, but teams were draining 3s on me, so I switched to man. That didn't help much, as the opposing team still shoots 50-60% on me every game. Last night I played man to man the whole game against UNC and they shot 70% for the game, 80% from 3. The game is very fun, but not fun when it seems like the CPU makes every single shot it throws up there.

[eyeammine]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

Hi! Just got this game for PS3. I hope I am in the right place to ask a very silly question. Why when I start up the game does it always go into a quick game? I am having to let the quick game start and then quit it to get to the main menu. Does that sound right or is there a way to navigation to the main menu right after starting up the game. Thanks!

[Gramps91]

Re: New to College Hoops 2k8

Hi! Just got this game for PS3. I hope I am in the right place to ask a very silly question. Why when I start up the game does it always go into a quick game? I am having to let the quick game start and then quit it to get to the main menu. Does that sound right or is there a way to navigation to the main menu right after starting up the game. Thanks!

It's been a year or two since I last fired it up but I don't remember that being the case.