NBA 2K8 demo on Live

By Robert Purchese Published 19 September, 2007

Court it. Sorry, that's hoopless.

2K Sports has whizzed a demo for NBA 2K8 up onto Live Marketplace.

Every region the service reaches will be able to download the measly 325.23MB file, then test-dunk the latest instalment in the consistently good basketball series.

New to the mix this year are "Lock-On D" defensive controls, more customisable signature moves, better controls off the ball, revamped graphics, swathes of online options, slam dunk contests and all the hip-hop you can wave half a trouser-leg at.

It joins other 2K Sports news that NHL 2K8 will now feature a video capture tool, well, if you download it for 400 points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80) from Live.

NHL 2K8 and NHL 2K8 will be available on PS3 and 360 in October.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (12) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Darren #1 5 years ago

    Can't wait to check out how awful Visual Concepts have made the menu system this year... last year's was absolutely dreadful.

  • Huntcjna #2 5 years ago

    Ironically enough the video option known as 'reelmaker' was available on the 2K7 version aswell for a measly 400 points. :/

  • Darren #3 5 years ago

    Oh yeah, the 400 point KEY that's about 56 or 128 KB in size, i.e. the Reelmaker code is actually already on the disc and unlocked by paying for it! /rolls eyes

  • Gruff #4 5 years ago

    Not much evidence of menus in the demo. But the gameplay seems to have regressed.

  • Huntcjna #5 5 years ago

    I will probably stick with 2K7 I can't see them bettering it gameplay wise to be honest.

  • bivith #6 5 years ago

    eh? I downloaded this days ago.

  • JayeM #7 5 years ago

    Demo seems okay.

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #8 5 years ago

    3-points to Bertie for the pun-fest! He's obviously been working double-overtime.

  • NBAoz #9 5 years ago

    Hey Gruff, How's the gameplay regressed? Can you please expand on this comment? What I find interesting is that the demo of NBA 2k7 weighed in at over 1GB, yet this demo is only just over 300MB!

    I'm still downloading this demo and should be able to have a go tonight. I have already played the demo of NBA Live 2008 and it is heaps better than both NBA Live 2006 and 2007, HOWEVER it still is no match for NBA 2k7...

  • Machiavellian #10 5 years ago

    Well if this demo is any indication of NBA2k8 the It will not see a purchase from me. I am hoping they just threw something together and put it on live because this demo was missing a hell of a lot of stuff. I could not do any special moves, I could not call any Offensive or Defensive plays. Basically the only thing I could do was run up and down the court and tose the ball up. NBAlive08 demo is leaps and bounds over this demo and I hope there was a mistake and this is not the correct demo.

  • Darren #11 5 years ago

    Not particularly impressed with this at all... it looks and plays OK but there seems to be a lot of slowdown, there's still jaggies and the animation sometimes look jerky or odd. Add in some weak presentation that looks like it was designed with the PS2 or Xbox in mind with its chunky fonts and you end up with a game that is weaker this year than EA's NBA Live 08 in my view. And, believe me, I really didn't expect to be saying that... :o

  • NBAoz #12 5 years ago

    Don't worry ulov3, I think you are right. I finally got to play the demo last night and I can report that it is mostly good news. I don't think the gameplay has really regressed at all. It's definitely different to NBA 2k7, but mostly in a good way. My only complaints are that the button response on jump shots appears to be a little off (i think this may be due to the new foot planting technology in the game, so i gotta get used to setting my feet first before launching a shot) and some of the animation transitions can get a little choppy (the animations themselves are great), but other than that it is all good. The graphics are improved over last years version and look much more realistic with colours that are more true to life. They have made a huge improvement with the faces and the player/court proportions and body models all look fantastic. The crowd looks heaps better too! The ring/net animations are much better this year and ball physics look to be improved this time as well. Post moves and dunks look really good too.

    The reason this download is so small compared to the NBA 2k7 demo is because they stripped out all the commentary and only put in the bare necessities for you to play.

    Overall, from what I saw in this demo, I think this will end up being an improvement over NBA 2k7 and definitely worth the purchase.

    Machiavellian - I could do special moves. They are performed exactly the same way as in NBA 2k7... I also played the NBA Live 2008 demo directly after playing this demo and IMO it is still inferior to both NBA 2k7 and the demo of NBA 2k8.

    Darren - I didn't experience any slowdown at all. No jaggies either.... You sure your TV is ok? I do agree with you on the animation sometimes looking a little jerky though. Don't know how you can say the presentation was designed for the PS2 or xbox as there is barely any presentation in this stripped down demo as it is and what I saw was quite nice with awesome replays that correspond to the actual play you just made, eg dunks get the slam cam. Subs are done better this time around where it brings up a pic of all your starters and flips the image of the guy you subbed with the new player - very nice.