I've had many positive memories of basketball from watching the Charlotte Hornets in person beating the Bulls in their Michael Jordan prime to winning a local basketball tournament when I was playing in elementary school. However, my appreciation of basketball has waned of late, with not even the introduction of the Bobcats making me a fan again. Is NBA 2K8 the basketball game to end all basketball games, and the one to bring me back into the fray?

The game mode that's going to get the most play is almost assuredly The Association mode, which has you acting as the coach of the team of your choice, working to build a dynasty and force to be reckoned with. You'll have to analyze team chemistry to see how your players play together, give your stars the amount of time they want on the court or risk their anger, hire free agents, draft the right players to fit your team's needs, set your team's practice time to focus on specific goals, increase the performance of particular players, and many more options. If you go with the default mode too, if you don't do a good enough job you just might be looking at your owner firing you and hiring someone else. The Association mode is really deep, but sometimes too deep considering there are so many options and it isn't always completely obvious how to access an option or change (or you're unfamiliar with some terminology, you fiddle around, and the next thing you know you just tweaked your team into a mess that can't win one game).

Besides The Association mode you've also got the ability to play a single season, a playoff scenario, play the rookie challenge game that has the freshmen against the sophomores, or you can practice or do a situational, which has you trying to win games under different scenarios, such as scoring so many points with only so long to still play. Also new is the slam dunk contest, but more on that later.

NBA 2K8 is a basketball game probably like you've never played before, and one that will certainly divide players due to its leanings towards realism that greatly slows the gameplay down. Movement is a big deal when it comes to this game as a new movement system has been implemented that makes characters perform more like their real-life counterparts, so you can't have an opponent endlessly spinning and performing jukes left and right as if their feet were on a swivel. This year speed plays a factor, and if you find yourself running at full gallop, don't expect to be able to stop and turn on a dime. The new system does indeed make the game move more like basketball, but it hampers the enjoyment factor of the game; it makes great plays all that more outstanding since they don't happen as often now, but it can make scoring a real pain in the butt.

On offense things are especially strained, as it's really frustrating trying to do some things as simple as pass the ball without someone shoving their hand in the way and stealing it. Bigger gripes, though, come from such instances as driving to the basket only for your player to fall down, and yet there is no foul called when it seems that the defender tripped him and knocked him down. But the thing that makes me curse like a Jerry Springer guest comes from the fact that the opposing team can make three-pointer after three-pointer with nary a miss, and that they can make some crazy and outlandish lay-ups and always manage to find an open man when you can't do the same. I hate the fact that even though I'm right on top of the basket the game still won't let me attempt a slam, and will instead make me do a lay-up. I also don't like the fact that I can try a lay-up or a relatively short shot, time it so I release at the perfect time, and that dang ball will still rattle the rim, twirl around, and bounce out. I've had open men go up and completely miss the ball – misses like this should happen only with elementary school kids (trust me, I should know cause I did it often back then). It's also insane that opponents can play the post perfectly, back you up, spin around, and make the shot, and yet you can't do anything beyond put your back to someone. It's times like these you'd often consult the manual to see what exactly does what, but the manual is so thin that it only features the new gameplay tweaks and fails to tell you how to properly play the game.

I always play sports games with the local team if possible, and so I fired up The Association mode with my Charlotte Bobcats…and proceeded to lose ten straight games in a row. I got close to winning a few times, including an eventual overtime blowout, but the fact is my team still sucked. I tried to play as other better teams to improve my enjoyment of the game, and though I was able to finally win a game, I'm still at the point where I'm losing way more than anything else, and I'm only playing on the Pro setting. The last basketball game I had was a 2K for the Dreamcast when the Hornets were still based in Charlotte, and I remember playing that game on the All-Star setting and being able to school the best teams…now I can't even win on a normal setting.

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