All-Pro Football 2K8 info gets a false start?

The official story: Requests for comment from 2K Sports were unanswered as of press time.

What we heard: When 2K Sports announced that it was getting back into the football genre--regardless of EA's vicelike grip on NFL exclusivity--many fans of the old 2K Football games rejoiced and immediately demanded more information. Unfortunately, 2K wasn't really ready to talk about the finer points of the game, only saying it would be named All-Pro Football 2K8 and would appear on "next-generation video game systems" this summer.

According to one forum poster at Operation Sports, 2K is almost ready to spill the beans. Message board user "Badboy49er" claims to have gotten his hands on the latest issue of Game Informer, which he says has an exposé on All-Pro Football 2K8. His post features bulletpoints on the game's feature, as well as a medium-resolution black-and-white partial scan of the feature.

Badboy49er says there will be no Crib and no first-person football, both featured at some point in the 2K Football games of the past, but there will be late hits, improved artificial intelligence that mimics humans, and, as some had suspected, NFL legends. The familiar 1-100 sports rating system has also been abandoned in favor of what he says is a "+/- rating."

However, the real point of contention is the ability to customize the game's rosters. Because 2K does not have a deal with the NFL, All-Pro will not feature current NFL players. A portion of the magazine scan says, "You won't be able to recreate NFL teams or players. 'I've decided a long time ago we're not doing that,' says Jeff [Thomas of developer Visual Concepts]. '[That option] is not in the game, and people gotta be aware of that right now.'" Badboy49er later says that the article does not go into detail about the game's customization.

Assuming the scan is legit, the poster's game details have to be taken with a grain of salt as much of the information does not appear on the scanned page. But given the way that All-Pro Football 2K8 has to distance itself from the Madden NFL games and protect itself from a potential lawsuit from the NFL (2K's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has had enough legal issues), it wouldn't be surprising to see Visual Concepts take these extreme measures.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus, but we'll have a definitive answer once the magazine hits the racks in a few weeks.