Quickie reviews

First, and very quickly, Juiced! 2. Racing games are one of my guilty pleasures. I don't buy them very often and I rarely rent them. When I do, though, I want it to be fun. The last racing game I was really really into was Need For Speed: Most Wanted. That game was fucking kick ass. You had your normal racing game with a street racing twist. While that has been done before, NfS:MW threw cops into the races and gave a really exciting twist to the play.

Juiced! 2 was not good. It was bad. When you create a "next gen" game, the graphics need to be rock solid in its presentation. I have always been a huge huge fan of creating your own characters in any game. I have always felt that unless you are making a game where the main character HAS to be someone, you should be able to have a nice, deep character creation system. Juiced 2 didnt have anything like that. The racing was...spotty at best and there was nothing close to an actual story. They tried to make a game with a lot of options but each of those options was not well done at all. It is a poor game with a pretty flash but terribly confusing game play.

Next up is All Pro Football: 2K8.

I have been playing Madden for a long long time. I am used to the controls, the game play and everything else. APK is the love child between Madden and Blitz! the league. The graphics are...well the graphics are pretty shitty for a next gen game. It looks like it was ported over from an early PS2 game. But I am not a graphics whore, so I looked past this. Its all about game play in every game and thats whats important in this game.

APK does a good job of creating a realistic football game. Obviously, EA has all the rights to the NFL teams and players so 2K8 was forced to do something different. They give you the ability to select a variety of old school players to head up your team , then select how you want your Offense and Defense to be generated. From what I saw, once you select your star players, 2 gold,3 silver and 6 bronze, the rest of the players are randomly sent out to other teams in the league. You could end up facing a team with all bronze players, or a mix. Its interesting and provides a different set of teams to play each season.

You do, though, only get to play a single season with your team before that season is over and you have to start again. That is really annoying. You would think that this is 2K8s first attempt to take down Madden that they would include a franchise option, a career option. Something beyond one season. Maybe next year for this.

The game play on the field is different than Madden but fun. The game does not move as fast as Madden and as the QB, passing is tough. If you take a QB that doesn't scramble, then you cant throw out of the pocket with any ability at all. It makes it challenging. The games I did play, running the ball was what most teams did. The passing game is difficult and you need to be precise with your throws. Make sure you set up your QB before throwing the ball.

The presentation is well done, though you will start to hear the same commentary over and over again. Also, there seems to be many times where your gold stars do just as well as bronze stars. You also have a really really hard time kicking and punting the ball. The game would serve to have a meter or something for kick offs, field goals and punts.

2K8s first try back into the football market is a decent attempt with a lot of need to polish their game. Better graphics, better controls and more difference between your gold stars and the rest of the players. I wouldnt buy the game but it was worth the rent.