2K Sports has revealed more new features for College Hoops 2K8. New to this year's iteration of 2K Sports' College Hoops series are PlayVision and Play Designer. Here's Visual Concepts president Greg Thomas on the new features:

PlayVision and Play Designer work hand-in-hand to allow gamers to learn the fundamental movements of basketball plays and in turn enable users to get a much more realistic college basketball experience.

The all new Play Designer lets gamers create their own plays from beginning to end and customize their playbook. Gamers can determine where their players begin a play, tell each player what to do using numerous moves, and then bring in various types of defenses to test their plays against.

PlayVision comes in during the play's execution. It draws out each play step-by-step, detailing where on the court to pass, move, and watch for a screen. Each step of the play is illustrated with a different graphic, so it's easy to execute a play precisely. When playing with two or more people on the same team, PlayVision indicates where the gamers need to set up their players to execute the play.

College Hoops 2K8 will be available this fall for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 2 and Sony PlayStation 3 home video game consoles.

Some of you may recognize Greg Oden, the former center of the Ohio State Buckeyes gracing the cover of 2k Sports' latest iteration of the phenomenal college basketball game, College Hoops 2K8. 2K Sports reveals some new features to their upcoming game which will bring gamer's college basketball experience to a whole new level.

Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts for 2K Sports talks about the new All-American Training Challenge and the 6th Man Advantage features the game will be sporting.

The All-American Training Challenge gives gamers a feel what it's like to be in a basketball boot camp with all the former basketball stars coaching you through the many drills. Match yourself up with the multiplayer support and you got yourself one competitive game mode that will test your skills on the digital court.

The 6th Man Advantage feature gives the game a more realistic aspect that the home crowd brings to the team you're playing. If you do well and play your heart out, the home crowd can raise your team's spirits and take the air out of the opposing teams morale.

All in all, 2K Sports is working hard to give fans authentic college basketball action season after season. College Hoops 2K8 will be available this fall for the Xbox 360, PS2, and PS3.

2K Sports has announced that it will be conducting the first nighttime, outdoor motion capture event for their upcoming title NBA 2K8 (PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) today in New York City at Harlem's well-known Rucker Park.

The event will be co-hosted by the Entertainers Basketball Classic (EBC) and NBA 2K8's cover athlete Chris Paul, as well as other NBA stars such as Andre Iguodala, Gerald Green, Gerald Wallace and Rudy Gay. These athletes' moves will be recorded for inclusion in NBA 2K7.

"Our talented motion capture team can adapt to almost any environment," said Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio. "With our advanced motion capture technology, we're delivering the next generation level of realism to our sports titles and to have a motion capture shoot conducted at a real basketball venue adds even more authenticity to our game."

NBA 2K8 is slated for release this fall.

The 2007-2008 NBA season hasn't even started yet, but incoming rookies Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are already starting a rivalry that could rage on for years. Durant is EA Sports' poster boy for NCAA March Madness, so here comes Oden as 2K Sports' cover athlete for College Hoops 2K8.

"Greg Oden has been called a 'once-in-a-decade player' and he made an undeniable impact in college basketball," said Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio. "His amazing talent combined with dedication, work ethic and winning attitude will continue to make him a great basketball success. These admirable qualities easily made him the natural choice to represent College Hoops 2K8."

Oden has recently been selected as the number one draft pick overall by the Portland Trailblazers who are ushering in a new era with the arrival of the former Ohio State Center. He led his school to the national championships in his only NCAA season and was selected as the league's best defensive player.

"It’s a great thrill to be selected as the cover athlete for College Hoops 2K8," says an elated Oden as he describes the sense of honor that comes along with being associated with what he feels is the most authentic college basketball game experience to date.

College Hoops 2K8 has been received well by critics all throughout its run in the gaming scene. This season, it looks to do more of the same on the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles.

Hockey fans rejoice, because Take-Two's 2K Sports has recently spilled a few details on NHL 2K8, their sports hockey title to come out September 2007 as originally planned by the company. While much of the other details may be revealed at the upcoming E3 Media & Business Summit, 2K Sports was kind enough to whet hockey gamer appetites for the time being.

 

And as the title faces off against EA Sports' NHL 08, NHL 2K8 will be utilizing a proprietary NHL Signature Style, allowing 2K Sports to model and simulate players just as they are in real games. The company has also announced that they will be modeling branded equipment and skates to complement the realism added.

NHL 2K8 has been announced to be heading toward the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PS2 and is currently being developed by Visual Concepts under the 2K Sports label. Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts, had this to say at the conclusion of the announcement:

Building on the success of NHL 2K7, we have developed a title that is a truly accurate portrayal of the game and how it is meant to be seen and played. NHL 2K8 represents the complete next generation gaming experience and showcases the talent and experience of the development team. NHL 2K8 is an incredibly realistic hockey simulation and we are proud to create such an exciting video game.

If there's anything we know about successful sports games (and TV commercials), one essential factor to take into consideration is star power. With that said, 2K Sports announced today the sort of faces that will be making it into their upcoming All-Pro Football 2K8 game, which promises to (re)introduce some of football's more memorable players.

"Imagine an offense featuring John Elway, Thurman Thomas and Jerry Rice going against a defense led by Ronnie Lott, Mike Singletary and Reggie White," said 2K Sports studio's Greg Thomas. "By highlighting the signature abilities of the game's greatest legends, we have created a highly customizable and unique football experience tailored for the football fan."

Another important detail in the press release is All-Pro Football 2K8's console destination: Gamers can expect to pick copies of this game for the Microsoft Xbox 360, and Sony PlayStation 3 consoles by this summer. That's all the info we've got for now - stay tuned for further updates.

Not set to be another MLB game, The BIGS from 2K Sports and Blue Castle Games (PS3, Xbox360, Wii, and PSP) is bent to set itself apart from all the other baseball titles. With outrageous power-ups, and special effects for fielding, pitching and batting, the upcoming title is shaping up to blaze up the charts.

2K Sports' president of visual concepts, Greg Thomas had this to say about the title:

With The BIGS, we want to take the baseball genre to new heights and redefine what a baseball video game can be. The BIGS has the fast learning curve of an arcade game coupled with deep play mechanics, amazing visuals, and hero-like presentation of real MLB players that will keep gamers coming back for more. The BIGS will showcase dramatic highlight reel moments at every at-bat, creating a truly epic baseball title.

We'll see how the visuals go in this baseball multi-platform videogame, hopefully when 2K decides to give us more than screenshots (*cough* videos *cough*). The BIGS screens today feature the different MLB stadiums - fans should recognize some landmarks on them - and the players. Anyway, there hasn't been any news of the exact release date but we'll keep you posted. For the meantime, check out the screenshots.

The rest of the screens right after the jump!

Four long years after Electronic Arts managed to gain the blessings of the NFL and began a monopoly on football-themed video games, it looks like the company may now finally have to watch out for some competition.

So, taking the cue from Midway Games (who previously decided that it didn't need a contract with the NFL in order to make a video game about football), 2K Sports is now getting up from the sidelines and has just announced its latest title, All-Pro Football 2K8,scheduled to be released by this summer. The company though has not yet specified which console/s this game's for, and its announcement merely says that it will be for "next generation video game systems".

This re-entry by 2K Sports is a welcome news for fans of football video games, as this broadens the range of choices within the genre. However, there is the question of what sorts of players and teams this new title can offer, since the NFL players are already taken. It has been speculated that 2K sports can either create whole teams of fictional players, or work with popular players of previous years, though this latter choice would entail signing individual deals with the players the game company wishes to have on board.

Despite this looming issue, Greg Thomas, president of 2K Sports Studio Visual Concepts, is confident with the company's new venture. "I think that we've come up with some very unique ideas on how to play a football game and I think that there's room for both."