2K Sports' College Hoops 2K8 to Literally Make the Crowd Go Wild

2K Sports (publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software) has recently gone public with a bunch of new features for College Hoops 2K8. The company has confirmed that it has included a series of passing, shooting, and defensive tests against some of college basketball's best former student-athletes, also implementing the "6th Man Advantage" - mostly for the atmosphere, but also for the gameplay. You'll see what it's all about in a minute.

"This year, the development team has added more remarkable new features in College Hoops 2K8 than ever before," said Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio. "Having a compelling and entertaining atmosphere is essential for a college basketball title and the 6th Man Advantage adds a new gameplay element that allows gamers to tap into the crowd's energy to benefit their team. With the All-American Training Challenge, gamers will go head-to-head with some of the best college basketball student-athletes in recent history in unique practice drills that provide a fun challenge while improving your College Hoops skills at the same time."

With the 6th Man Advantage, the energy of a team's fans can motivate a team to play harder and better, having more confidence in their own abilities. Here's how it works:

- by scoring often and playing good defense the 6th Man Meter will rise
- implicitly, your team will raise the excitement level of the crowd
- when the meter is full, the home team will gain the advantage of playing with less fatigue for a brief period while the opposing team will start to lose confidence in their playing ability;

Neat huh?

As for the first new feature mentioned in the introductory column, the All-American Training Challenge will have players improving their game skills by competing in passing, shooting, and defensive tests against former college basketball standouts such as Mike Conley Jr. of Ohio State, Julian Wright of Kansas, Glen "Big Baby" Davis of LSU, Alando Tucker of Wisconsin, Al Thornton of Florida State, J.J. Redick of Duke, and College Hoops 2K8 cover athlete, Greg Oden of Ohio State, as confirmed by the official report. Also, gamers are even able to progress through these drills, while the game's multiplayer mode supports up to four players competing against each other.

College Hoops 2K8 is set for a fall release this year, for the Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 with more next-generation features to be detailed soon.