Gamers coaching at larger schools that will pull in players regardless will probably want to skip the bland games, as the empty venues and terrible audio makes them rather boring. The game leaves behind the commentary, and instead pipes in what sounds like tinny background music as if playing on a boom box running on low batteries.
Sadly, when you start with a Career Legacy and are tied to a small program, recruiting can be a long, fruitless task. It is not uncommon to walk away without a single recruit at the end of the process, leaving your scholarship unused and team largely unchanged at the end of the year. Winning cures all ills though, as the more successful your program is, the better your chances of landing a solid player (or better yet, a better job) are.
Those not interested in the serious time and attention commitment required for Legacy Mode will be happy to note that the game does provide a separate Pontiac Tournament outside the career system. Gamers can quickly fire up the tournament with an automatically generated bracket, and easily swap teams in and out of their seeding.
The one major change when playing through the tournament is that you have two ‘Sixth Man’ meters, one for each team. This gives the tournament games a realistic feel, as the crowd is equally loud when each team starts gaining momentum. In keeping with the realism, players and teams get hot and take over a game in a hurry. The game also does a solid job of making each game played a serious challenge, meaning that upsets are a way of life; just as they are in the real tournament.
College Hoops 2K8 is often too detailed and complex where it does not need it, and fails at the most important part of the game; the gameplay. They get quite a bit right, but the stiff player movement is tough to look past.
