2K Share items for College Hoops 2K8

Have something that you have posted onto 2K Share for College Hoops 2K8? Leave the info in the comments section or shoot me an email via the contact form and I will add it to the list below. Rosters, Legacy, crowd chants, sliders, playbooks, ect. Include any info that is needed to search and locate the file and a short description.

To access 2K Share you will need to be connected to the internet through Xbox Live or the Playstation Network. A Gold Xbox Live account is not required as a Silver account can use the 2K Share features as well. In the menu go to “Features” and then “2K Share” and “Browse Shares”.

Roster files (Courtesy of Operation Sports)

360: “OS Complete V1″ hosted by DOAsaturn

360: “OS Complete V2C” hosted by warnerwlf98. Based off V1 but includes coaches names.

360: “Rerated OS V 2.5″ is the latest. Based off V2 but with ratings and rotations adjustments

360: “OS Community Ver3 w/Courtedit” hosted by WallyWonka. Based off V2 but includes court fixes.

PS3: “Lan’s Completed Rosters” hosted by Lanteri87

Sliders

360: ***Tomba321’s College Hoops 2k8 Slider Set*** (Details on it found here at OS)

College Football Game of the Week: Missouri @ Kansas

This year the “Border War” has National Championship implications as the #4 Missouri Tigers heads to take on the #2 and undefeated Kansas Jayhawks.

Continue on to read a recap of the game along with screenshots and highlight videos. This game lived up to the billing and you’ll want to check out the exciting ending.

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Questions about NFL Tour or March Madness 08?

I am working on putting together some questions for a March Madness 08 producer interview coming up which I plan on sending in tomorrow. With so much having already been discussed about the game and having a demo already out I’d like to hear what remains unanswered within the community about the game or anything that may have arisen based on the demo. (Thanks to those who have made suggestions. The list for March Madness has been sent in)

I should also have the opportunity to get some questions answered by the team working on NFL Tour in the near future. While there are a few previews out, some screenshots, and a couple short videos out the overall coverage has been relatively thin with less than seven weeks until release.

I’m looking for any specific questions or suggestions of topics to address to go along with what I have already gathered up. Feel free to leave them in the comments or send them to me via the contact form.

Will the trend of more reasonable prices for EA Sports games continue?

After the news of March Madness 08 and NFL Tour both being reduced to $50 it comes as little surprise that FIFA Street 3 will join them at the same price. This means the next three sports titles from EA have settled in at a new price point. But will that continue with the rest of the lineup of games?

While it was a surprise at first to see MM08 and Tour drop in price it made a lot of sense for each of them and that is true again with FIFA Street. As I mentioned along with the news of the first price changes, EA CEO John Riccitiello recently stated that they would evaluate changing their pricing strategy and we’ve seen that materialize with these games already. It wouldn’t surprise me to see that happen with other games such as the next NFL Head Coach and Nascar. The big question becomes whether or not flagship 09 titles such as Madden, NCAA Football, and Fight Night will follow along.

A lot of people may say that is unlikely to happen. Those games are going to sell well whether they are at $50 or $60 and that is true. In the end it will come down to profit. Would selling them at $50 move enough additional copies to make up for the lost revenue of the extra $10 on copies that would’ve sold regardless?

Up until recently probably not. However a very important aspect to consider is that there was a strong swell of consumers moving from the PS2 generation up to the 360 and PS3 this year. That is going to even be even more significant through the next cycle of releases as more and more make the switch.

These consumers stuck to the PS2 either by necessity or choice with the most likely factor being the cost of upgrading. They are accustomed to $50 games and in the case of sports games over the past two years they’ve probably gotten used to them being even further discounted at $40 or $30. So when the company is looking to not only retain but boost sales then price is a critical factor that has to be looked at.

It’ll be interesting to see what EA does with the next batch of titles after these three. There is a chance that they’ll move to $50 even for Madden as sales have become stagnant and with the influx of PS2 consumers becoming more of a factor.

March Madness 08 release date move and reaction to the demo

March Madness 08 will officially hit stores on Tuesday December 11th. Previously there had been some confusion over the date as it had originally been advertised as arriving a week later on 12/18 but recent mentions in producer blogs have stated 12/11. Now retailers have adjusted the release to the 11th and it appears to have settled there for good. As I reported earlier the game will also have a reduced price of $50.

The demo that came out a few days ago has brought about a lot of criticism, mainly due to the slow game speed, but it appears that the MM08 team took that feedback and acted on it despite how near we are to release. I received the following response from EA:

Just to let you know, we tweaked the game speed and fast breaks for the retail version of NCAA MM 08. The game still won’t be run ‘n gun though. We want to emphasize half-court play this year and we think that most hardcore guys can appreciate that considering their past experiences with basketball videogames.

My initial feeling was they were setting everyone up for the shock of how slow the game’s pace would be and I still think that is the case. I don’t expect any major differences between the demo and the release copies although hearing they did make slight adjustments is certainly encouraging.

I think it is a curious decision to go that direction as College Hoops 2K8 has a pretty strong hold on the hardcore crowd along with it releasing three weeks earlier. It seems to me that EA may be alienating those who have enjoyed the title in the past. March Madness 07 had its share of issues but it was a fun game. MM08 seems to have made many technical enhancements however the fun factor may have been sacrificed in the process.

I can respect the goal of making the game more realistic and more of a simulation representative of college basketball even if that isn’t my preference. It’ll be interesting to see how the game is received since expectations have dropped. If it has improved since the build that was used for the demo then MM08 could actually be in a position to surprise a lot of people including myself.

GameShow Night winner and answers

As announced last night on air, the winner of the EA GameShow night trivia contest is headhunter239. He will receive his very own GameShow t-shirt.

Eight straight hours is a long time but it was a lot of fun. Thanks go out to the GameShow hosts who over the past several days have talked about the contest and for making the shows really entertaining to listen to.

You can read the questions and answers with notes on some of them by continuing on.

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Thoughts on the March Madness 08 demo and videos

After playing through the demo a few more times my impressions of it are below. I’ve also recorded the full demo played through two times and added those videos for everyone to watch.

Ever since the info on March Madness 08 started coming out they’ve been pushing the idea of how they slowed the game speed down. That concerned me heading into the demo because it almost felt as if they were conditioning people for it so that it wouldn’t be such a major shock in how different the game was going to flow. It turns out that those concerns were warranted.

The slow game speed really overshadows all the positives and seems to me to be at the root of most of the issues. Everything is really deliberate and heavy and the animations don’t blend as well as expected. That has led into a frustrating feeling while playing.

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GameShow Night trivia

Here are the 15 questions plus bonus tiebreaker along with the information that needs to be submitted to qualify for the EA GameShow t-shirt. Please use the contact form to send me your answers. One entry per person and the deadline is 6pm ET on Monday November 18th. The correct answers and winner will be posted on Tuesday morning.

Include your GameShow username and the email address you would like to be contacted at should you win. This is necessary to obtain your information for shipment and to verify the validity of your entry. When you send it in just have the question number and answer number, you don’t have to copy/paste or repeat the questions and answer choices.

Continue on to view the list of questions.

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Ridiculous post spotlight

Spending a lot of time browsing various message boards it becomes easy to get overwhelmed by the serious nature that sports games are treated by the hardcore fans. However occasionally you stumble across a thread or post that startles you with just how ridiculous it is. So I thought it might be amusing to spotlight one on occasion. If you find one you think qualifies feel free to email it in to me and I’ll take it under consideration for future idiotic post highlights.

A while back I singled out a writer who claimed that EA was showing racism by specifically choosing African American players for the cover of Madden. The reasoning being the obvious knowledge that the curse will strike the player on the cover causing them to have a disappointing or injury plagued season. This is a good example of what I’d like to find and ridicule.

To kick it off this winner comes from the 2K Sports forum. In an effort to add to the ultra-realism of 2K’s new boxing title Prizefighter the suggestion is made that deaths should occur in the ring.

LINK

I dont know about you but the ability for fighters to die should be in game if you take one to many punches or if you fight to long because thats really what happens to fighters boxing is a dangerious sport lets not suger coat it.

Indeed, lets not “suger coat it” people. The career mode should include the path taken by the movie Million Dollar Baby. Imagine the emotion involved. I can think of a few uses for the Wii motion controls in this mode. Think about how powerful it would be to literally pull the cord while at your boxer’s bedside. That is innovation in sports gaming.

Demo for March Madness 08 now available

The Xbox 360 Live Marketplace now has the demo for March Madness 08 available for download. As of yet I have not been able to verify whether the PS3 has received it as well.

The demo features Kentucky @ Louisville in a five minute half and comes in at 927.82 MB. You can choose from Broadcast, Classic, Overhead, Sideline, Sky Box, and Floor camera angles. The difficulty level is locked on Varsity.

I will post up a few videos and some impressions of the demo over the coming days. Initially I’ve come to find many things I really like about it but those are overshadowed by how frustratingly slow the game plays. I’ll have to see if that feeling continues as I get more time in with it.