NOVEMBER!
Luke's Phind
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Luke's Phind -
All-Pro Football 2k8 (XBOX 360)
NFL 2K5 is one of the best football games ever created. Though the game was released twenty years ago, its graphics and gameplay remain impressive. To this day, there is still an active community of football fans who prefer NFL 2K over the Madden series. You can even phind updated 2024-2025 rosters created by passionate 2K fans. It’s a real shame we did not get another fully licensed NFL game from 2K after EA purchased the league’s exclusive rights to the NFL in 2005. The competition between EA and 2K would have resulted in some amazing football games. There is a game out there that can scratch that itch for fans of the 2K football gameplay, and that is All-Pro Football 2K8.
All-Pro Football 2K8 is a great game despite the lack of fully licensed teams and players from the 07-08 season. What we have here is essentially an early version of NBA 2K’s MyTeam. Since they were unable to use current active players, 2K got licensing from 240 retired NFL pros like Jerry Rice, John Elway, and O.J. Simpson (“Hey Twitter World”). Instead of overall ratings, these retired players are ranked at a gold, silver, or bronze level. Whether it’s season mode or quick game, you essentially draft a team fantasy-style. The catch is that you are only allowed to select 2 gold players, 3 silver players, and 5 bronze players.
Drafting fantasy teams in the franchise modes of video games is one of the most phun things in the world, so this was right up my alley. I think I get more enjoyment from drafting a fantasy team in 2K than actually playing the game. Anyway, experimenting with different gold and silver medal combinations adds an interesting twist here. I personally like to run the ball a lot, so my gold players always include star running backs like Barry Sanders. If you want to change it up, you can go for a defensive-heavy approach with gold-level linebackers like Mike Singletary. This style of drafting adds an interesting level of depth and thought to the team creation here which was much needed as it lacks the license of NFL teams.
One other highlight of this game is the player animations. 2K nailed this in NFL 2K5, and they continue this trend in All-Pro Football 2K8. I phind myself never skipping replays because the animations look so realistic and are less janky than many of the Madden and even College Football (which I still really enjoyed this year) animations. Many of the tackles hit with great impact, making juking your opponents so much more rewarding. I highly recommend watching some gameplay on YouTube if you have never seen this game before. You’ll be surprised at how good some of these animations look for a game that came out in 2007,
The two biggest downsides of this game are the lack of an NFL license and the limited game modes. The lack of the NFl license is not the end of the world, as the gameplay and graphics make up for it. However, outside of season and quickplay, there is not much else to do. Regardless, for $15 off eBay, this was a great phind this month.
