2008 Football Rundown (page 2 of 2)

A Legend's Success: NCAA Football 08

With both NCAA Football 08 and Madden NFL 08 under development by the same studio, there are a lot of unsurprising similarities between the two titles. Both games use the same engine (with the same dynamic animation system), incorporate some of the same features, such as "Super Sim" gameplay in which you can play an entire game through the eyes of a single player, and even display the same brilliant weather effects driven by The Weather Channel. No matter when or where you play, the real-life local time and weather of the stadium's city will be reflected in-game.

Nevertheless, the two franchises will play quite differently, not so much on the field as off it. NCAA Football 08 introduces a new-to-next-gen game mode called "Campus Legend". The mode allows you to create a player at the high-school level and advance his career all the way up to pro-football. It does of course start small: you invent a high school and its football team in a city of your choice, then work your way up the playoff ladder against other schools in the area. Play your games right and your star player gets noticed by scouts, who will offer him scholarships to their respective universities.

Once your player gets into a college, you can take him through all four years of his tenure there (including off-field lifestyle, practices, and so forth). As an added bonus, once you've gone through a full four years of college football and made him a true campus legend, you can transfer him into Madden NFL 08, placing him into the draft pool there for later pickup by a pro team.


A Pro Bowl for the Ages: All-Pro Football 2K8

There's really no question that EA's pulling out all the stops with Madden and NCAA, and there's a reason: Take Two Interactive's All-Pro Football 2K8. Developed by sports veteran Visual Concepts, 2K8 marks the revitalization of a franchise not seen since ESPN NFL 2K5, and the inevitable reemergence of the EA/2K sports rivalry.

Unlike EA's twin franchises, 2K8 is modeled after fantasy football, taking the most renowned names of the game from every period in time and putting them together on the same field. You can create your own teams, build them up with rosters of the finest players in the history of football and play against equally-brawny opponents in over-the-top themed stadiums unlike anything seen in the real world. While the rules of gameplay on the field will remain true to life, 2K Sports' non-affiliation with the NFL allows the company to expand trash-talking and injury potential well beyond what the NFL allows.

What will result? If what we've seen so far is any hint, 2K8 will be a far more energized and over-the-top title than EA's equivalent. But whether fans will prefer that fantasy and energy to Madden's realism and control is a question only time can answer.

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