Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

[asu666]

Hopefully another 2k football game will release in 2009....If they are smart they will release it around the super bowl in early 2010.

I think a June release would be perfect. It's beyond the baseball launch window, but in the month before NCAA comes out when football fans are jonesing hard for a new experience.

[TDKing]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

Yeah, and they can call it Backbreaker 2k10.

[allBthere]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

despite all the 'what killed it was ______'
they should have ____________

etc.

it's a very good game imo. Of course I wish it had a franchise mode, but the reality is that I'm still playing it now. I played a season game last night actually, and I was one who bought the game before it's official street date. I've only had one online game, since I prefere offline. That's an incredible feat imo.

like a poster above said 'if no one plays it, it doesn't matter' which is why we won't get a sequel anytime soon.

I also think you guys give consumers too much credit. I think most people didn't know how customizable the game was, and that it didn't have a franchise mode.

How many more people do you think would have bought it if it had more customization and franchise? 50,000 maybe??

It's the marketing from Take Two which is laking in the sports titles - the only one I've seen a decent presence for was the new nhl game - the guy getting the tatoo (dumb ad). I think the majority of people didn't even know the game existed. Look at what Ubisoft does - in the UFC for the past 2 events, 2/3 of the fighters had farcry2 shots on, and the ufc presented the 'farcry2 instant replay' etc...you have to do stuff like that, and they could have had commercials of guys arguing who the goat was and settling it on the field etc. they was so much they could have done, but they didn't.

Because I don't care what anyone says, the game is very good, I STILL play it! I didn't think I would either - I've probably got over 100 hrs of gameplay, so missing features or not it was well worth the purchase.

How many people over in the madden forum are already done with that game? How many people were done with it before october started?

[StormJH1]

The price point argument is kinda irrelevant b/c this game sold so poorly, people seem to be forgetting that it was readily available for $19.99 about 2 months after release! (Not a good sign)

The lack of depth in this game KILLED it from the get-go. The Legends concept could have worked, but you could tell that they viewed it as little more than a marketing answer to not having a license, and did very little to make the legends play and feel like their real-life counterparts. Steve Young can't even outrun defensive lineman on the bootleg, and what's with Barry Sanders doing the Dirty Bird in the end zone after a touchdown? Heck, if you would've given me randomly generated players and name customization, I could've created Generic Black Guy #7 and re-named him "Barry Sanders," how would that be any worse?

It's sad when Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff DS has a better depth of feature sets than a console port of one of the best football games ever (2k5).

[sixtydashone]

Lack of franchise mode is the one and only reason why I did not buy this game. I remember seeing the previews and I was so excited for it to release, then it finally released, and everybody was complaining that it had no franchise mode. Huge disappointment imo.

You can try to analyze all you want on the reason why franchise was not included, but bottom line was people wanted it and it wasn't there.

[dunelly]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

Focused too much on useless features and gimmicks instead of working on a pure gameplay upgrade.
Franchise? who cares if the gameplay sucks balls

[LBzrule]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

Sorry, but I'm not buying the 'testing the waters' theory from 2K. They knew that they had a tremendous NFL2K5 engine to work from. So gameplay and features were already there.

All they needed to do was:
Recreate that same game for the next gen consoles (graphics, gameplay, etc)
Strip the game of anything representative of the NFL
Sign a few legends
Give it full customization with roster sharing and online league play and you might not have spent alot of money getting the product on store shelves. I know it's kinda quick and dirty, but it works and $ is saved and, hopefully big sales earned!

Add to all of this the money 2K would have saved by NOT developing and releasing PRIZEFIGHTER and pouring that $ into APF Marketing and it almost becomes a no-brainer. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20. But somebody at 2K Sports is making some pretty bad decisions (Prizefighter, MLB Stickball, Ping Pong?). Too much wasted dollars are being sunk into bad ideas instead of the more popular sports brands we know and love. It's not too late to save the football game. But time is wasting!

BigBlue

2kSports is owned by Take Two and they make many decisions. VC didn't develop Prize Fighter, MLB Stick Ball or Ping Pong so none of that has anything to do with their football game. But now that Kush is gone VC has to pick up the slack on those, which is why you shouldn't expect anything football related anytime soon.

[kcxiv]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

Lack of franchise mode is the one and only reason why I did not buy this game. I remember seeing the previews and I was so excited for it to release, then it finally released, and everybody was complaining that it had no franchise mode. Huge disappointment imo.

You can try to analyze all you want on the reason why franchise was not included, but bottom line was people wanted it and it wasn't there.

THey were never shy on what this game was about from the get to. They always said there was going to be no franchise. Just a season mode and the game was for online play.

They were very upfront about the game from the get go. They didnt try to burn anyone. They laid it all out there before the game was released. They also said that this game was for online play and for the hardcore fans that were left out the last few years.

WHile they could have did put alot more into the actual game with more features and what not, they just wanted to keep the cost down somewhat and give out a good game of football, IMo they did that. I played the living crap out of it for about 6-7 months. I lasted a whole 10 days with Madden this year. lol

[StormJH1]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

THey were never shy on what this game was about from the get to. They always said there was going to be no franchise. Just a season mode and the game was for online play.

They were very upfront about the game from the get go. They didnt try to burn anyone. They laid it all out there before the game was released. They also said that this game was for online play and for the hardcore fans that were left out the last few years.

WHile they could have did put alot more into the actual game with more features and what not, they just wanted to keep the cost down somewhat and give out a good game of football, IMo they did that. I played the living crap out of it for about 6-7 months. I lasted a whole 10 days with Madden this year. lol

First of all, whatever 2k represented the game to be isn't particularly interesting to me. Just because they might have said up front "Well, we're not going to have any franchise or customization," doesn't excuse the absence of those features in answering the question of "Is this a good game?"

Second, when you say that they omitted these features to "keep the cost down", again, you must be referring to 2k's costs b/c this game retailed for either $49 or $59 right off the bat. For example, if were playing Too Human or 007: Quantum of Solace, I wouldn't like either of those games more after learning that the developer saved all kinds of money in development costs...I still paid $59!

Finally, people keep saying that this was "meant to be an online game". How so? What special features make this MORE of an online game than Madden or NCAA, for example? NCAA '09 has an online dynasty that allows competitive recruiting and a roster sharing feature. Practically EVERY 7th gen sports title can be played online, so how does online play differentiate APF2k8, other than the fact that you happen to like this particular game?

[StormJH1]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

If you look at all of the removed features and the fact that the visuals are barely an HD-port of an NFL 2k5 engine, a fair marketing for this strategy would've been as a $15 or $20 XBLA game that essentially operated as a facelift on an XBox original (2k5), but in HD and with all NFL references removed. Heck, maybe even $25, but going that route could've at least suggested why a football gamer should buy this game AND Madden, much the way PS3 users ate up that terrible SOCOM: Confrontation game for $39 on PSN.

[DonRSD]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

If you look at all of the removed features and the fact that the visuals are barely an HD-port of an NFL 2k5 engine, a fair marketing for this strategy would've been as a $15 or $20 XBLA game that essentially operated as a facelift on an XBox original (2k5), but in HD and with all NFL references removed. Heck, maybe even $25, but going that route could've at least suggested why a football gamer should buy this game AND Madden, much the way PS3 users ate up that terrible SOCOM: Confrontation game for $39 on PSN.

socom is fantastic after they fixed the lag.

[Ijeswannaknow]

Since 2K dont have the NFL Licence...why dont 2K make All-Pro Football 2k9 as CFL 2K9 and continue on....this would be nice! 2K should use the Canadian Football Leauge and make the best game ever with great features,animations, graphics, presentation, game modes and Living Rosters...its just an IDEA for 2K and us loyal 2k fans!!! 2K will be back on top once again!!! While Madden is scratching his head saying like always..."I just don't uderstand why teams run on 3rd and long!!!
LMFO!!! C'mon OS!!!

[mwjr]

2K8, as it is, is a good game.


The replay value, however, is lacking and that, IMO. is directly related to the lack of a franchise.

I'd be playhing it more often if a franchise mode was included as an option.

[MeanMrMustard]

Lack of franchise, pure and simple.

I could care less about legends — if the game had had a deep franchise mode and rosters made up entirely of made-up players, I would've given it a shot. As it stands, I won't even pay $10 for it used.

[catcatch22]

Re: Testing the Water with All-Pro Football 2K8

I don't sim, I play games so franchise mode means nothing to me unless the gameplay is good. I think most people would rather have a franchise with bad gameplay so they can sim.