In his latest movie, The Woman In Black, Dan traded his Hogwarts uniform for a totally new role as a Dad.
Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
College sports fans rejoice. It’s college basketball season again and that can only mean one thing. My Syracuse Orangeman jersey is coming out of storage and College Hoops 2K8 from 2k sports is available. Am I excited? Well… Kind of. For me the college basketball games always just seemed a little less fun than all those NBA games out there.
The die hard college hoops fans out there are probably thinking how could I possibly even compare NBA and college hoops games. They are two different animals; apples and oranges. In real life maybe, in the virtual realm of video games not so much. Just different arenas, different jerseys and no names, but we’ll get to that later.
The game itself is actually quite good. The graphics are smooth and clean, and are every bit as sharp as next gen gamers have come to expect. I found myself watching the pregame warm-up for a couple minutes, and I immediately appreciated the realism of it all. The digital fans looked more like a real crowd than I have ever seen. Usually the fans are constantly doing the same thing or doing everything in some unnatural looking unison, but not these fans. They really seemed to have a life of their own. Same goes for the players during cut scenes. During the warm-up some players would shoot, others lay up, some would miss, most would score. It did not feel like a preprogrammed act, it looked and felt real.
The game has all the typical features of sports games nowadays: Legacy mode, Coach mode, tournament options as well as some mini games. The in game options are all there as well, with the ability to control everything from substitutions to how hard you want your team to go for rebounds. A nice new feature for 08 is the ability to create your own play, which comes in very handy if you are not satisfied with your teams playbook. The controls are good, new additions like the maximum pass ability let you choose how your player passes the ball: chest, bounce, lob etc. Lock on D is another helpful feature for those of us, like myself, who are defensively challenged. Everything I wanted was there.
The most commonly overlooked aspect of a game is whether or not it is fun to play. Today’s games are so visually stunning that it is easy for designers to forget that they are, first and foremost, supposed to be fun. Case and point, I would rather play Pac Man than Superman Returns for 360. Fortunately, for college hoops fans, 2K’s offering this year is both fun to play and easy on the eyes.
When it comes to Sports titles the experienced gamer knows that there are really only two viable options: 2K or EA. Each company brings different strengths and weaknesses to the table and at the end of the day it is a matter of personal preference as to which game you will enjoy more. I found that the 2K titles are slightly more arcade-like while EA games are generally more life like.
College Hoops 2K8 follows this trend and is definitely a closer relative of NBA jam than EA’s NBA basketball offering. I don’t want to give the impression that this is an arcade game but sometimes it can feel that way. Fast breaks are fast and mastering defense will only take you so far, offense is definitely the priority. The addition of features like the “sixth man meter”, which when filled gives your team a boost, add to the fun but take away from the realism. In the end it is up to you to decide what type of game play you prefer.
My only gripe with this game, and really it is with every college sports game, is the lack of real player names. I understand the NCAA’s position but I don’t understand why the issue cannot be resolved. It is a lot more fun to play as Paul Harris (Syracuse guard) than it is to play as #11 SG. Unless you know virtually every player by number it can be hard to see who has the ball, which after the third failed 3 point attempt with my center thinking he was my point guard, can become quite frustrating. They do allow you to enter the names manually, but to do the entire league would probably take until 09.
All in all, College Hoops 2K8 is a great game that is fun to play. It has deep controls, awesome graphics and cool extras. I had a blast playing with my buddies, but if I was not a serious college basketball fan I would probably pass on this one. However, if you just have to represent your school (GO CUSE!) you can’t go wrong with this title.
Graphics: 4.5 / 5.0
Gameplay 4.5 / 5.0
Sound 4.0 / 5.0
Replay value 4.5 / 5.0
Enter the College Hoops 2k8 Contest
