Things must change for NHL 2k9

[HIFIcanadian]

I am getting to that point where I have no faith in this game, the online servers are horrible, I do mean horrible. It seems like when 2ksports fixes something on this game another pipe leaks...this is getting really stupid and it seems every year something goes wrong.

-User invites....they don't work
-League Crashes, heck you can't even touch anything on there without worrying about a crash
-Not registering the game 50/50
-Draft is not working


I mean come on, for example, I got on the phone with 2ksports getting on them about the Draft not working, I called everyday and finally they fixed it. Do you know when I called them? In November in which now its not working all of a sudden. Really stupid, what do you guys do, do you fix something and say screw it their asking too much were gonna mess up something else? Im sorry but I dont usually complain but this is really getting to a point where you ask yourself **Do I really want to waste my time with this game and have a bunch of stress cause of a league and online server??**. You wanna be the #1 Hockey game?? start building bridges with your customers.

[thafutureiz]

Yea for sure...things must change with 2k online.. I only play games online and I am thinking about getting this... I am playing MLB rigth now and the online play is horrible... CLean ur act of 2k >>>>PLEASE.... u guys have so much potential. Ur just not using it..

[Savoie06]

The Three A's
1.AI
2.Ambience
3.Animations(Skating,Shooting,and Checking)

[Cee_Nasty_00]

The Three A's
1.AI
2.Ambience
3.Animations(Skating,Shooting,and Checking)

The OP is focusing on the network play and net issues not in-game game play.

The league invites don't work for NBA nor NHL at all so cleary someone who oversees/manages the 2k league site has done a big mistake that 2k hasn't even cared to fix, also what the hell is wrong with the NHL league's that you can't do anything in the league website but just post? If you touch any kind setting or even do a trade online the league will crash 100/100 times, when one gets online(system)and tries to access the league it just freezes at 'getting league settings' and your game then freezes and to make matters worst the online league drafts don't work for NBA nor NHL, are you serious? how are leagues going to continue to other seasons? It is pathetic that you have a mediocre technician to overlook/manage the 2k league websites infrastructure thats even if you have one employed @ the moment. We payed for this game to be serviced till its just close to the succesing title which is what 10-12 months, likely you can cut service without notice but why not notice and let the customers what is going on. Now I can't league in NHL for 3 months and a half until 2k9 that's nice of 2k to do to their loyal fanbase, you get 11/10 for execution :rolleyes: .

[vanhalendlrband]

Yea you're right, these horrible glitches that severely effect gameplay both online and offline need to be fixed, and if they are this fall i'll gladly gladly except the no last roster update for 2k8. If not i will return this game no matter how good the gameplay is when its not glitching, like every single NHL 2k since 2k3, just full of glitches but if u can get a good game going for awhile it can be fun till the next glitch.

The glitch i can't stand is the Game Styles glitch where you play a game or you load it and somewhere along the way your game style gets overridden with default settings for absolutely no reason and no fault of my own.

And just like the last glitch the User Soundtracks glitch that just all of a sudden goes back to default music and overwrites the save on my user soundtrack so i have to do it all over again.

Goalies moves have improved big time, but they still aren't there yet, and i think 2k knows this tho. Thats why all the controversy i think with 2K8 and 1up.com i can see why now and even tho 2k once you're playing is the most realistic hockey game out there, 1up.com was right about almost every other thing, and i never realized it until last week, and i hate that article before, but i think somebody needed to finally tell 2k "hey this is unacceptable for a 70 dollar game", and if i hear one more stupid argument about how someone thinks we should pay more than 70 bucks i'm gonna burst a vein cuz i don't even think we should be paying 40 bucks and definitely 2k6-2k8 on 360 all should've been 19.99 like the xbox versions.

Or the stick frozen glitch

the easyness of goals, the glitch goals ruin online play for new comers, and other people. THey no longer see a sim NHL game, but a game where once you learn a certain move you can score 15 times in a 5 minute game even against the best of people. It makes the game just utterly boring for me, espescially in Franchise mode where i basically can't lose with glitch goals, that tells you something is NOT right with the scoring in this game, contrary to other people who couldn't bare to lose those scoring ways in fear of actually having to learn what hockey is. (BTW i'm not one of those guys who loses and *****es about it, i actually play and i lose some i win some, and if someone does those moves to me i'll do them back, if i can even get a games started....next glitch)

The networking errors and tellins us we can't use a router and stuff, a bunch of crock.
The only thing i can say about that is if your router isn't xbox live compatible it will not work well with any XBOX game for the most part.

Opposing team cheering for a goal that you scored glitch.

No more of the 2k3-2k8 glitches, not only are they glitches but they are all really really insanely annoying glitches, like seriously Guiness Book of World Records should be here for the Game Company that has made more people lose hair than any other company in the world, "With the most annoying glitches ever, and a game with near perfect gameplay, 2k players often have male pattern baldness by age 18"

I agree with HIFI exactly, i've been sitting here in these forums since 2K4 trying to show 2k the fan support for this obvious new game that pushes the boundries so much that it must be hard for a new company to keep up with maybe not enough sales or something. But then 2K5 came out and things were good for 2k at this point and with the horrid glitches that came that year i felt insulted by 2k, and i had hopes out for 2k6 2k7 and 2k8 and i told them each time about how unacceptable this is after never complaining and tryin to be understanding of the glitches, and i tell you what they never once built a bridge with me and they're about to lose one of their biggest supporters in the Vancouver area, i've told so many people in this city about this game, and even this year i couldn't convince anybody cuz they played and the glitches shown right through and i honestly couldn't convince them to buy something like that and of course they bought EA which doesn't annoy you near as much, altho i'll never play EA until i see what 2k does with 2k9, and if this roster update thing was canceled for the Wii version and is full of glitches i will positively not buy a 2k games EVER again, i have bought 2K2 through 2k8 brand new spanning the Dreamcast (when most of you weren't even here on the SEGA Sports boards), XBOX, and XBOX 360. Everything i say goes largely ignored and u can look back to posts i made about these very same glitches however all the way to 2k5 if they even kept those boards up still. I might not even buy a hockey game this fall, as much as i'd love to play in a tournament i might have to suck it up and stand up for my rights, which i'm sure will also be ignored by 2k and then slowly but surely you'll see 2k start to crumble because of not caring for what the little guy has to say.

[2K Admin Ron]

Not that Kush did anything wrong, but with VC taking over as you guys read in the initial release and things moving more "in-house", expect a lot of these things to seriously improve. Maybe not 100% completely in year one, but you should see a significant improvement for this year's title.

[Hank]

Not that Kush did anything wrong, but with VC taking over as you guys read in the initial release and things moving more "in-house", expect a lot of these things to seriously improve. Maybe not 100% completely in year one, but you should see a significant improvement for this year's title.

Thanks Ron.
This is great news. I'm well aware of the slow progress needed to start a game from scratch but this series' needed it badly.
I can't wait to see what VC had done.

I'm praying that they can turn around both the NHL and MLB series'.

[Cee_Nasty_00]

Not that Kush did anything wrong, but with VC taking over as you guys read in the initial release and things moving more "in-house", expect a lot of these things to seriously improve. Maybe not 100% completely in year one, but you should see a significant improvement for this year's title.

Thats good.. but truthfully it doesn't fix the problems to the people that payed money for 2k8, how can something that has worked more time than not just completely go broken.I like the bold statement, sublimaly saying? Kush are some lazy bums,lol, but i have a question to ask now...

I was having a conversation other day with a e-contact/bud about 09 & 2k9 blah blah n finally he commented to me thats it's still gonna be the same people behind 2k9 because Kush is part of VC.I don't know what word he said if i was(no insult though) when I said I don't believe 2k would make this announcement of VC now taking over if it's going to be just about the same staff of ""KUSH"" behind 2k9 and they(2k) wouldn't lie to the people nor try to deceive us like this... but now I wonder? So Ron, whats up?

[sleepytercel]

I wouldn't call Kush lazy, and they have attempted some pretty bold ideas and innovative attempts. However, I will say that Kush has been a designer of other developers work, and it has detered their quality when it came to their own changes. Unlike the NFL and NBA series that VC originally created from scratch and continues to advance upon, Kush has been advancing engines that they never originally created, and I believe it as being a good portion of the quality issue that they have had.

[b-Dub]

There have been some reports that some Kush members made the move from the LA-area to the northern San Francisco Bay Area, where VC is located. Having some people go would be good, as they would bring a familiarity of the code with them, and that would be valuable for when VC started working on the game.

[Hank]

sleepytercel, I agree with what you're saying.
However, I felt that Treyarch's NHL2K3 was the best hockey game of it's time.
It had flaws but the gameplay and 'flow' of the game felt much better to me than any of the Kush developed games.

That could be because, as you said, they didn't develop the engine from scratch.

I just hope that if this is basically the same team making 2K9 as 2K8 that they get things correct starting from scratch.
If they start off on the wrong foot, it could be disastrous.

[vanhalendlrband]

I wouldn't call Kush lazy, and they have attempted some pretty bold ideas and innovative attempts. However, I will say that Kush has been a designer of other developers work, and it has detered their quality when it came to their own changes. Unlike the NFL and NBA series that VC originally created from scratch and continues to advance upon, Kush has been advancing engines that they never originally created, and I believe it as being a good portion of the quality issue that they have had.

I see what you're saying, and as someone mentioned with 2k3, there was a change it almost seemed like they started skating on glass and yea 2k3 to 2k4 lost some things, but i never wanted to admit it.

2K8 would be perfect if those bad glitches were gone.

[macpuck]

As long as we are speculating, consider this possible scenario. Let's say the parent company decides, in November or December, that it believes the farmed-out development company (Kush) has gotten a little stale and isn't responding to their suggestions for improvements. And let's say that the parent company decides the bring the game in house but figures that the best way to do that is to hire 15-20 people from Kush who were most responsible for NHL2k8 development. Due to a series of unforseen difficulties (money, etc.) the parent company is unable to lure those 15-20 people way from Kush in order to revamp the game. Instead, they are able to hire only two or three of the Kush developers. Meanwhile, their relationship with Kush deteriorates because they tried to raid their staff. Now they not only can't continue where the Kush developers left off, they can't even figure out how to update the roasters because the two or three people they were able to "steal" from Kush don't have all the know-how necessary for an update. All of the sudden Visual whatever is in a panic with very few options available to it. About the only alternative is to incur the wrath of the disappointed 2k8 customers (sorry, no roster updates) and to start all over. That's how we (might) have arrived at this unhappy place.