My Opinion of the Flaws in this game.

[zhaoyun707]

I think they need to fix the whole AI system. They especially need to fix the run blocking and pulling guards on sweeps. They need to fix the pass protection on manually blitz, and blocking 3-4 defense with 3 man rushing in.

[nyknicks33]

I have no problem with generic OLs missing blocks.

They are generics, and they should rot just as equally as the generic LBs, DBs, and WRs in this game.

If anything, the generic OLs block better then they should.

[Gunther]

First I think for online play they did a damn fine job most of us forget the glaring problems in 2k5 at this point.

I think the slightest boost in game speed would make it a much better game. A lot of peoples opinions and frustrations with APF stem from the ability to build your own team anyway you want. Cries of overpowered offense and such things are just a symptom of team builds.

[Valdarez]

I think the slightest boost in game speed would make it a much better game.I have flip flopped on my view of the game speed, and I couldn't agree more with your statement now. I play on fast mode when I play offline and it's much more realistic with speed on blitzes and big hits which just look awesome when sped up. We're missing a LOT of big hits with the slower speed. The only downside to the fast speed right now is the 'ice skating' or 'sliding' effect which I think is due to the introduction of player momentum. When making sharp turns on fast speed players will just slide, as if there isn't an appropriate animation for the movement or the animation itself can't keep up.

I still think fast is just a hair too fast to be realistic, but it's closer than the speed at which we currently play, which is too slow.

[Numbski]

Very true on all counts. Minh is right about the 3 man fronts. I almost exclusively run 3-2/3-4, and especially 3-2 vs the run I should get decimated. I typically don't. The other guy should get all day to throw, and decent percentage of the time they do, but there are times when my d-line gets through and I standing there wondering how. All three guys are double teamed, yet one gets by? Wow.

Granted, I'm in the rare minority that will pick 1-2 star offensive linemen, so hey. Don't kid yourselves about the brokenness of pulling guards. I have saved replays here when I had 2 Silver Tackles, 2 Gold Guards, and a Silver Center.

GOLD guards. They still blatently miss blocks that were easily gotten, but instead they turn upfield to pick up a safety or something stupid like that. If I field that squad, your defensive front should rightfully be reeling. Sure, the rest of my squad should be ho-hum at best, but you'd best be quaking in your boots if I choose to just blast you off the ball every down and you just sit back in a nickel or dime. 4 generics, 1 star, or even 2 stars should NOT cut it vs that offensive line. I should get just about all day to throw, and I should be able to line anyone I want up in the backfield and be easily picking up 3 yards per carry unless you dedicate yourself to stopping the run, yet you'll have better success with a Gold HB and a generic line. That's just not right. Sure, okay, occassional mistakes happen, but I should be seeing the equivalent of miracle catches in the blocking game from that line. I see them often enough from the receivers, or the miracle broken tackles from backs, but can't buy a block from a Gold guard? No. :\

[nflhitman]

Whats crazy is you can go and play with the fast speed in a Custom lobby. The fast speed is more realistic and the D-Line actually makes more plays than they do now. What do they say the difference from the Pro game compared to all others? The speed of the game is a lot faster than it is on any other level of football. that should be reflected in this game. You should have to think faster when you drop back to pass unlike how it is now.

[ElGreazy78]

Very true on all counts. Minh is right about the 3 man fronts. I almost exclusively run 3-2/3-4, and especially 3-2 vs the run I should get decimated. I typically don't. The other guy should get all day to throw, and decent percentage of the time they do, but there are times when my d-line gets through and I standing there wondering how. All three guys are double teamed, yet one gets by? Wow.
I love how it's clearly shown this is a major problem with the game yet you run the scheme exclusively.

[Numbski]

Understand that I think the offensive line blocking is the problem here, not the defense. What is your complain again though - the 3-2 and 3-4 both, or just 3-2?

The offensive line's blocking AI is hosed. So if you feel a 3 man front needs to be banned, that would be a sad state of affairs as a whole. If you're unhappy about the 3-2's alignment because of how it puts the near safeties a few steps back (as they should be), thus the o-line fails to block them on many occassions - dunno man. There are a whole lot of strategies in this game that shouldn't work but do. I run a 3-2 to stave off what I can't help but perceive as an overly-good passing game.

It's also unfair to claim you can't run vs a 3-2. You can. You just have to have a team built to run the football. In the games I've played against Bofa and even more recently Val, they can and do gash me up the middle quite regularly. Stretch plays don't work very well against that defense, but should they?

I think where I'm seeing breakage is that traps should just rip me to shreds. If you have a star or two on the offensive line, they do - but the guards are busted, so that 3 man front gets away with it. Anyhoo - I don't use the 3-2 "properly" anyway. I'm often dropping a linebacker into deep middle along with 4 safeties giving me a cover 5, and that leaves my 2 corners and my other linebacker to cover underneath. If you line up in an I-Form and are persistent, you'll get yards against that. The math is there on ISO runs. You have 7 blockers and a runner vs my 3 linemen and 2 linebackers. The 2 near safeties will get in there, but not before you get 2-3 yards off of it.

[nyknicks33]

I have a silver OT in NFL2k league and have very few complaints, he's dang solid.

Ive also played with guys like Larry Little, and he's a monster more often then he wiffs.

Mistakes happen, sure..the same with everything else. We all know that about this game.

The way to talk Numbski, I sometimes feel like you must be playing a different game then the rest of us. You seem to expect these guys to be flawless and mistake proof, each and every single down.

[Valdarez]

The OLine needs a little work, but not a lot. People just don't like to pick OLineman, mainly because they can run without them. OLineman aren't all that bad, they just miss a few tackles that they shouldn't when you run Power plays. If you ever want to have fun, get 2 Star Tackles, 2 Star Guards, a Star TE, a Star FB, and a Gold Speed HB, and a Bronze Star QB, and then 3 Star D-Lineman (I used Bethea, Manley, and White (Gold)).

[Numbski]

I have a silver OT in NFL2k league and have very few complaints, he's dang solid.

Ive also played with guys like Larry Little, and he's a monster more often then he wiffs.

Mistakes happen, sure..the same with everything else. We all know that about this game.

The way to talk Numbski, I sometimes feel like you must be playing a different game then the rest of us. You seem to expect these guys to be flawless and mistake proof, each and every single down.

Not at all. I can give you some solid examples that you can easily replicate. Pick an all-star line, then go into practice mode.

1. Call a screen pass left. Drop back and hold onto the ball as absolutely long as you can get away with. The linemen will get out to the left to block for you. Watch home many of them just stand there and don't attempt to block anyone.

2. Call an guard-pull play. Traps are the most obvious, but there are sweeps too. Check out how often the guard just ignores a tackler coming right for your halfback, instead he's more interested in blocking up someone in the secondary.

Easily repeatable. Far more often than not, this is what you'll get, and these are with Gold and Silver linemen. It's not my imagination, it's VERY real.

[zhaoyun707]

The OLine needs a little work, but not a lot. People just don't like to pick OLineman, mainly because they can run without them. OLineman aren't all that bad, they just miss a few tackles that they shouldn't when you run Power plays. If you ever want to have fun, get 2 Star Tackles, 2 Star Guards, a Star TE, a Star FB, and a Gold Speed HB, and a Bronze Star QB, and then 3 Star D-Lineman (I used Bethea, Manley, and White (Gold)).

I tried that, wasn't worth is since bronze players cancels everything from bronze to gold linemen pushing them. The star linemen can push generics a little and murder every star LB in the game except gold ones and especially Jack Lambert.

[Gunther]

Well the whole object of a screen is to fool the pass rushers into thinking they are gonna get a sack by not really blocking them. It gets them up field and out of the play.

Also when a Olineman pulls he is leaving a gap for someone to come through that must be picked up by someone else or made to miss by the ball cariier and the pulling linemans job is to get upfield and block a linebacker or DB.

If those plays worked perfectly every time(Screens and tosses with pulling guards and tackles) we would all have quit this game a long time ago.
Screens are already brutal

[twosilk]

Not at all. I can give you some solid examples that you can easily replicate. Pick an all-star line, then go into practice mode.

1. Call a screen pass left. Drop back and hold onto the ball as absolutely long as you can get away with. The linemen will get out to the left to block for you. Watch home many of them just stand there and don't attempt to block anyone.

2. Call an guard-pull play. Traps are the most obvious, but there are sweeps too. Check out how often the guard just ignores a tackler coming right for your halfback, instead he's more interested in blocking up someone in the secondary.

Easily repeatable. Far more often than not, this is what you'll get, and these are with Gold and Silver linemen. It's not my imagination, it's VERY real.

this is so correct, i had a pulling play with little, and he just repeatedly ran right by the end, now when he hit him it was beautiful, but the a.i. makes him miss so many blocks it is not worth the pick.

[Dvigilante1]

Where do I begin?
1. gameplay is worse than 2k5. The game AI has too much influence over players compared to playing manually. Examples: Kick returns. If someone kicks the ball toward the sideline you can't stop the player animation as a result the player is either on the ground trying to get up or the player catches the ball out of bounds. Once a defender is selected it is impossible to break them out of their defensive animation assignment without losing several seconds.
2. Commentary and crowd noise is the same as 2k5
3. Can view my statistics or other players stats while in the lobby
4. The graphics on standard def are less than average. In HD the graphics look great but you can tell most of the work was done on the stadiums instead. Sideline catches look great
5. game speed is too slow
6. kicking mechanics is horrid. I see more people miss extra points than any football game in history. I first I thought it was me but it seems everyone has the same issue.
7. multi-routes is only playable in custom. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Only being able to change one route online is not realistic. This issue occurred in 2k5 not sure why it was left in on 2k8. Do you think manning is only allowed to change the route of one receiver in game.

Out of all the flaws above my biggest grip is the game AI and not being able to control players manually. Most people stick with one person on defensive and offensive which is fine but when you try to play defensive or offensively your at a disadvantage. WR's frequently drop open passes. DBs, Safetys movement presnap all backpedal before the ball is hicked when trying manually sack the QB or tackle the RB. Playing a DLine player is almost impossible to get thru the Oline but the next play if I pick another player the same Dline player can get to the QB with ease.

[Dvigilante1]

I have no problem with generic OLs missing blocks.

They are generics, and they should rot just as equally as the generic LBs, DBs, and WRs in this game.

If anything, the generic OLs block better then they should.

The play clock and game clock go superfast when the time is less than 30 seconds. There have been several times where I selected a play with 30 secs on the clock. My opponent would select theres. As soon as my players start lining up the clock goes super fast. Not sure if anyone else noticed that.

[Numbski]

Fix your default settings. You have accelerated clock set to "on", and you also have auto-strafe set to "on". Turn those both off and come back to talk to us then. :)

Well the whole object of a screen is to fool the pass rushers into thinking they are gonna get a sack by not really blocking them. It gets them up field and out of the play.

You mis-read me. I meant after the linemen pull. I can see 3 o-linemen standing around in the flats, throw the ball to my ball carrier, then watch as those linemen stand around eating donuts while the tackler blows right by all three of them to make the play. If I set the play up well enough to get blockers out there, I expect them to actually try to lay a block, not just stand there. I understand your concern about flat passes and screens, but the ones that "work too well" are where the player doesn't wait for the screen to set up, and passes the ball to a gold halfback in stride, and then starts breaking tackles. That's not the design of the play, but it works thanks to golds automagically breaking tackles. Those plays are busted two ways - firstly, if you aren't waiting for the play to develop, the AI should blow it up (or at least it shouldn't work so well), second - if you're patient and let the play develop, the blockers should actually make an effort to block.

[ballin5692]

Where do I begin?
1. gameplay is worse than 2k5. The game AI has too much influence over players compared to playing manually. Examples: Kick returns. If someone kicks the ball toward the sideline you can't stop the player animation as a result the player is either on the ground trying to get up or the player catches the ball out of bounds. Once a defender is selected it is impossible to break them out of their defensive animation assignment without losing several seconds.
2. Commentary and crowd noise is the same as 2k5
3. Can view my statistics or other players stats while in the lobby
4. The graphics on standard def are less than average. In HD the graphics look great but you can tell most of the work was done on the stadiums instead. Sideline catches look great
5. game speed is too slow
6. kicking mechanics is horrid. I see more people miss extra points than any football game in history. I first I thought it was me but it seems everyone has the same issue.
7. multi-routes is only playable in custom. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Only being able to change one route online is not realistic. This issue occurred in 2k5 not sure why it was left in on 2k8. Do you think manning is only allowed to change the route of one receiver in game.

Out of all the flaws above my biggest grip is the game AI and not being able to control players manually. Most people stick with one person on defensive and offensive which is fine but when you try to play defensive or offensively your at a disadvantage. WR's frequently drop open passes. DBs, Safetys movement presnap all backpedal before the ball is hicked when trying manually sack the QB or tackle the RB. Playing a DLine player is almost impossible to get thru the Oline but the next play if I pick another player the same Dline player can get to the QB with ease.

1. Its usually your fault they go into the animation so its perfectly fine. If you manually return the returner you can pretty much catch any kick if you dont think you can catch it just catch it on the bounce.

2. Its alot better than Madden. The crowd actually gets louder on a broken tackle or a big play. They just dont go crazy after the play they go crazy during it,

3. Why would you wanna view others stats? So you know if they are to difficult to play and you can play the scrub. Their record is good enough.

4. I agree with you there.

5. I agree with you there.

6. The kicking is fine. Its actually realistic like in real life. In if you have a kicker with high kick power a 55 yarder is basically a chip shot. This kicking system is the most realistic I have ever seen in a football game. The only time I miss extra points is if the wind is 10 mph to the right. Its because Im right handed and I push the stick to the right more.

7. They purposely left out multi hot routes for a reason. People 1 hot route enough with hot route corners. Can you imagine double hot route corners. You manually cover one ill just throw to the other receiver. I probably wouldnt play this game if they allowed multiple hot routes.

[Valdarez]

The play clock and game clock go superfast when the time is less than 30 seconds. There have been several times where I selected a play with 30 secs on the clock. My opponent would select theres. As soon as my players start lining up the clock goes super fast. Not sure if anyone else noticed that.Sounds like you're only playing offline. This doesn't happen online anymore, at least not on the 360 (maybe on the PS3?).

[Dvigilante1]

Sounds like you're only playing offline. This doesn't happen online anymore, at least not on the 360 (maybe on the PS3?).
I only play online.

[Dvigilante1]

1. Its usually your fault they go into the animation so its perfectly fine. If you manually return the returner you can pretty much catch any kick if you dont think you can catch it just catch it on the bounce.

- Not sure what game your playing but any objective person would agree that when animation of a player occurs (i.e. catching a pass, defender a receiver, or kick returns) it is impossible to stop the animation.

3. Why would you wanna view others stats? So you know if they are to difficult to play and you can play the scrub. Their record is good enough.

- Whats wrong with stats? I actually meant viewing your own stats which you can if your not in the lobby. But you bring up a good point. I wouldn't mind seeing other peoples stats besides wins/losses while I wait for the next game online.

6. The kicking is fine. Its actually realistic like in real life. In if you have a kicker with high kick power a 55 yarder is basically a chip shot. This kicking system is the most realistic I have ever seen in a football game. The only time I miss extra points is if the wind is 10 mph to the right. Its because Im right handed and I push the stick to the right more.

- I agree with kickoffs. I was talking about extra points.

7. They purposely left out multi hot routes for a reason. People 1 hot route enough with hot route corners. Can you imagine double hot route corners. You manually cover one ill just throw to the other receiver. I probably wouldnt play this game if they allowed multiple hot routes.

- Every play can be defended with the right defensive play. You say kicking is realistic but then you argue having multi routes is not acceptable. Do you not watch any football games on sunday or saturday? Having the ability to change the routes of multiple receivers at the line of scrimmage is realistic.

[kcxiv]

I am on the NO to multi hot routes. Its good as it is.

[ulose22]

There are too many broken routes/coverages to allow multiple hot routes. With it on, every lobby game would be a cheese match

[Dvigilante1]

There are too many broken routes/coverages to allow multiple hot routes. With it on, every lobby game would be a cheese match
The broken coverages are result of picking the wrong defense. Thats like saying it is impossible to stop a HB screen pass, slant, or fade route. Pick the right D and you won't have that problem.

On the other side of the coin, if your saying broken routes are inevitable then the problem lies in the actual gameplay and is not the fault of having multiple routes on.

[Numbski]

No, broken coverages quite often in this game are due to a broken AI implementation.

[so504phia]

I'm sorry i've been playin football video games since 10-yard fight on the 2600! This is the best football game i've ever played(gameplay wise). So when your thinkin bout whats wrong with the game, think about the alternative. Madden