dragonjp
July 23rd, 2007, 10:54 AM
I finally got my hands on APF 2K8 Saturday, and I have been playin' the game ever since! I have been waiting for some real football on the Xbox 360 for a long time, and with all due respect to Madden 06 07 and NCAA 07, the best football game on the 360 is All Pro Football 2K8! OK, let's calm down... Despite the fact that I have been 2K-4-LIFE going back to NFL 2K on the Dreamcast, I am nobody's fool, and I can give an unbiased review after playing APF all weekend.
I owned Madden 07 and NCAA 07 (I know, I was weak... I was in football withdrawal; forgive me 2K5 fans) but after almost a year of gathering dust as I played a season of "2K6" with my updated rosters, I traded both games for APF 2K8. I lost interest in Madden 07 almost immediately after receiving it. Between the steroidal player models, the charging for alternate uniforms and player tips on Xbox Live Marketplace, the boring franchise... I was really hurting for some football and still got bored quickly. I give it a 7.5, an extra .5 for eventually making the alternate unis free on Marketplace. I just kept being drawn back to 2K5...
NCAA 07 was better than Madden, but not a big leap above... Loved the recruiting mode (seems to get better every year), but once again I felt cheesed by EA with the lack of features. Most alarming was not including my favorite feature in NCAA, "Create-A-School". Oh brother. And how could they release the game without all the stadiums? NCAA 07 gets an 8.0.
I've been playing all of my Xbox 360 games from day one on an HDTV, which you can tell is what the games were designed to be played on (fair or not). APF is easily the best looking of the three games, with player models and movement even better than 2K5. The gameplay immediately sucks you into the game, especially the running game, which was a chore on the other games. If you are a fan of running backs, this is the game for you. You really don't miss the NFL at all after you dig in to creating teams. The Legends will soon become an obsession for you, as you create team after team after team. You will want to play them all, believe me. To me, the Legends are much more engaging than the current rosters for the NFL (especially since I can download them onto 2K5). Still, this game has its share of problems. No franchise is a killer (It's the real reason for the reviews lower than 8.0) for those who won't/can't join an online league, more legends/stadiums/logos/city names is a no-brainer, and what would put this game in the "10" score category is a "Create-A-League" option that would let players name their own league, design a League logo, name conferences/divisions, choose from 8 to 32 teams for the league, design/edit all of the teams (Legends Draft?) and then start Season or Franchise modes, something Madden or NCAA could never do. I give APF 2K8 a 9.0, an extra .5 for having the balls to take on EA without having the NFL license. It's really an 8.5 game, which is probably disappointing for many who waited soooo long for this game, but that score still makes it better than both of EA's 07 offerings. We knew that APF 2K8 was just Visual Concepts getting its feet wet with football again. Imagine what they have got up their sleeves for APF 2K9! With more legends and just a few additions, All Pro Football could be around for a long time....
I owned Madden 07 and NCAA 07 (I know, I was weak... I was in football withdrawal; forgive me 2K5 fans) but after almost a year of gathering dust as I played a season of "2K6" with my updated rosters, I traded both games for APF 2K8. I lost interest in Madden 07 almost immediately after receiving it. Between the steroidal player models, the charging for alternate uniforms and player tips on Xbox Live Marketplace, the boring franchise... I was really hurting for some football and still got bored quickly. I give it a 7.5, an extra .5 for eventually making the alternate unis free on Marketplace. I just kept being drawn back to 2K5...
NCAA 07 was better than Madden, but not a big leap above... Loved the recruiting mode (seems to get better every year), but once again I felt cheesed by EA with the lack of features. Most alarming was not including my favorite feature in NCAA, "Create-A-School". Oh brother. And how could they release the game without all the stadiums? NCAA 07 gets an 8.0.
I've been playing all of my Xbox 360 games from day one on an HDTV, which you can tell is what the games were designed to be played on (fair or not). APF is easily the best looking of the three games, with player models and movement even better than 2K5. The gameplay immediately sucks you into the game, especially the running game, which was a chore on the other games. If you are a fan of running backs, this is the game for you. You really don't miss the NFL at all after you dig in to creating teams. The Legends will soon become an obsession for you, as you create team after team after team. You will want to play them all, believe me. To me, the Legends are much more engaging than the current rosters for the NFL (especially since I can download them onto 2K5). Still, this game has its share of problems. No franchise is a killer (It's the real reason for the reviews lower than 8.0) for those who won't/can't join an online league, more legends/stadiums/logos/city names is a no-brainer, and what would put this game in the "10" score category is a "Create-A-League" option that would let players name their own league, design a League logo, name conferences/divisions, choose from 8 to 32 teams for the league, design/edit all of the teams (Legends Draft?) and then start Season or Franchise modes, something Madden or NCAA could never do. I give APF 2K8 a 9.0, an extra .5 for having the balls to take on EA without having the NFL license. It's really an 8.5 game, which is probably disappointing for many who waited soooo long for this game, but that score still makes it better than both of EA's 07 offerings. We knew that APF 2K8 was just Visual Concepts getting its feet wet with football again. Imagine what they have got up their sleeves for APF 2K9! With more legends and just a few additions, All Pro Football could be around for a long time....