- Title: All-Pro Football 2K8
- Platform:Xbox 360
- Publisher: 2K Sports
- Developer: Visual Concepts
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Football
- Pros: Great animation; solid gameplay
- Cons: Not terribly different from NFL 2K5; poor value at $60; list of all-pro players isn’t that spectacular
Features
Since Madden has the NFL license, 2K had to do something different. Rather than completely manufacture everything from the ground up like Midway did with Blitz: The League, All-Pro Football 2K8 instead makes use of a group of 200+ NFL legends and puts them on made up teams. You start the game by creating your own custom team. You have slots for two gold level legends, three silver, and six bronze, and then the rest of your team is filled in by generic players. You can also customize your team logo and colors so you can make it all however you want. Unfortunately, the single-player aspect is extremely limited and there are only quick play and season modes. For online multiplayer, though, there are many more options including seasons and tournaments for up to 32 teams, and since everyone has custom teams, there is a ton of variety and it can be very interesting.
I do have some issues with all of this, though. First off, the list of legends actually isn’t all that impressive outside of the immediately recognizable names. There are just way too many guys on here that most people won’t recognize, or just flat out aren’t legend caliber, which makes filling out your team, particularly with bronze players, somewhat difficult and less exciting than it should be.
Gameplay
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, All-Pro Football 2K8 isn’t all that impressive. It literally looks like little more than a juiced up copy of NFL 2K5. There is more details in the jerseys and helmets and stadiums than before, and everything is in HD obviously, but compared to EA’s football games it looks pretty outdated. I have never been a fan of the strange looking player models where they seem too tall and too skinny and particularly the upper torso seems stretched, and that same style is fully intact here. Also, the faces of the players, coaches, and referees all look pretty horrible.One very bright spot that I noticed immediately was the animation. This is one of the best animated sports games out there, and it has a lot of little things that you’ll notice and really appreciate. Things such as the blocking and play on the line seems much more realistic than before. Unlike other games where the lineman just hook up like they are connected with magnets, in 2K8 they actually look like they are grabbing and pushing and pulling eachother. Tackling also looks really spectacular.
The sound is also somewhat of a letdown, simply because of how much of it was reused from 2K5. The announcing team of Dan Stevens and Peter O'Keefe return with all of the same lame jokes and goofy commentary as before. There are different player names here, but you can’t help but think you have heard all of this before. The sounds on the field are pretty much what you’d expect from a football game.
Bottom Line
