After seeing how 2k Sports All Pro Football 2k8 seems to be shaping up at the moment, I have to ask the question; were most of us too hard on EA's first next gen release? Don't get me wrong APF will be a good title worth purchasing if you're into the 2k products, or just looking for a change of scenery, but honestly a lot is missing and the core gameplay looks very similar to NFL 2k5.

Just a couple years ago EA Sports was being roasted by their own fan base for the missing features, sub-par gameplay, and a watered down franchise mode. Yet, 2k admittedly bypassed a franchise mode for their new football title due to time constraints. Evidently it's not as easy to make that first jump to a brand new console as a lot of us made it out to be, leading me to believe that we were far too critical of Madden 06 on the 360. It no longer looks like EA was merely being "lazy" or no longer caring after monopolizing their market, not the case at all in my opinion as it now seems clear that this is simply the nature the beast, it takes time to build a game from the ground-up in yearly intervals.

Looking at APF the dynamics of the gameplay seem identical to their previous title, the playbooks also seem identical, and even some of the commentary might be recycled as well. Again, I'm not out to bash either product, I love 2k Sports just as much as I do EA Sports, but I think this is just proof that EA never went lazy on us, at least in regards to their next gen releases.

With all of that said it'd also make it unfair to compare Madden 08 to APF 2k8, being that this will be their first year back into developing football games, and as mentioned it takes time to create a masterpiece. Let's wait a couple years before we decide to crown a champ of next gen football. I know I'll be buying both titles, and really I hope these two companies continue to push each other, but let's appreciate EA's effort in moving forward and come to realize just how time consuming the process of building a truly complete game really is.