Last year when 2K Sports hurriedly ported College Hoops 2K6 to the new Xbox 360 it left a lot of gamers with a bad taste in their mouth. 2K6 was literally a port of the Xbox version, right to the letter; it even looked a lot like an Xbox game and for $60 was one of the biggest rip-offs of the year. The 2K7 version is more of what people expected from last year's game, at least in terms of feeling and looking like a true 360 product. If there was any hesitation about getting this year's game due to last year's mess – wait no longer. College Hoops 2K7 is a game every college basketball fan needs to own.

There are a lot of changes and additions to the College Hoops feature list, some big and some more nuanced. Perhaps the most striking is that of Team Unity; this feature tries to simulate the way a good team that knows each other and plays well as a unit can overcome individual weaknesses. A squad of highly experienced seniors may have an advantage over a team with a lot of new faces. This is represented by huge ratings boosts for players that have earned a lot of playing time. It can make the average player tough to stop, and it can make a good individual player seem out of place. It's an extremely potent feature and is also very controversial.

Out of the box, Team Unity is way overdone. You can disable it all together or reduce its effectiveness via gameplay sliders, and 2K Sports gets huge bonus points for allowing such customization, but when you first start playing the effects of Unity cannot be denied. It's a tough sell that a poor 3-point shooter would suddenly turn into Jerry West just because he's playing with his normal squad. Player ratings can ebb and flow as much as 15 points due to this feature, so tweaking its effectiveness is going to be a matter of taste.

Aside from Unity, other on the court changes include vastly improved offensive intelligence on the part of the CPU. Not only will it try to feed its best players but one long standing issue, a lack of 3-point attempts, is no longer a problem. The 3-point shot is the most important shot in college basketball and in the past you'd rarely see it taken advantage of unless there was a very prolific shooter on the team, and even then they'd simply come down and rifle a shot without running the offense. Now, average shooters won't hesitate to jack up a bomb if left open and it's not uncommon to see a CPU team shoot 15 to 20 a game, which is not at all unrealistic. This is a key addition for those that like to play against the AI. Rarely are you left yelling at the screen, imploring the AI to take an open shot.

Thanks in part to a more patient computer player the games have a much better flow to them. The AI doesn't run down the floor and launch a shot within five seconds; it works the shot clock and tries to exploit your defensive scheme in order to get an open look. When running a 3-2 zone it's fun to watch the CPU try to exploit the middle of the defense or try to find an open man in the corner, where the 3-2 lacks a real presence.

Defensive AI is also improved with the fact that more zone and match-up zones are used. In 2K5 and 2K6 way too many teams ran either a base 2-3 or a straight man to man defense; in 2K7 they'll press (and breaking it is not easy) run double teams, etc. All of this simply makes for a more compelling game.

The control scheme is a bit different to that of NBA 2K7 because you need to set up an alternative layout in order to use lead passing, which is really vital when trying to run a fast break. Otherwise there is way too much catching and stopping when trying to press the issue. The default layout uses two buttons for ISO-moves (spins, etc.) It's highly advised to tweak the controls to your liking in order to see real fast breaks.

There are a few stumbling blocks on the floor, though. Shooting issues, especially lay-ups, continue to hound the game on default settings. A quick boost of the lay-up or inside range slider fixes this, but there's really no need to make gamers change these settings. It's a fine line, though. You don't want a bad player to shoot 65% from the floor but you also don't want the same 6'11 stiff to play like Greg Oden without the wrist injury, either. As always, your mileage may vary, and you need to find the settings that work best for you.