What do you think?

[gosharks]

Okay, pretty much all of you saw the NHL 2K9 gameplay demo for the Wii, right? What did you guys think. In your opinion, from what you saw from that video and screenshots as well, tell me what you think of NHL 2K9 so far.

In my opinion, from screenshots, the game looks great! (on XBOX 360 screenshots) The only problem is that it looks like the players' skates are in the ice. Not digging in, but disolving in. The screenshot from the XBOX 360 that shows Nabokov making a save with the jumbotron in the background looked so realistic!

For now I say great job Visual Concepts! :thumbsup:

[Savoie06]

Well,gameplay wise,it's really too hard to tell,because the series has a history of playing better once you adjust the sliders.From what I saw on the Wii,while the hitting was definately still a bit much,it did seem like it might be harder to flatten a player this year.The real time goal celebrations are nice,but could be even better if the players actually gathered together instead of having five seperate celebrations.Having the 2 Linesmen and 2 Referees is nice as well.

Graphics wise,they definately seem a bit more polished than ever before.Including the stick flex is nice as is having WHITE ice.The players look fine,with the exception of the goalies.Of course that Kipper photo was most likely a close up from a cutscene or something.It just looked awful.The other goalie shots seemed fine,though I wish they would change the masks.Overall,it definately seems that VC is making an effort,which is really all you can ask for.I'll rent it and fiddle with the sliders before I buy it. If I like the gameplay after slider adjustments,I have no qualms owning two hockey games.

[Fuzzy_Bunny]

What do I think? Well you asked so here goes...This hockey series is my favorite, especially since the EA series is still arcadey boring crap. It's fun for a a little while but I need depth in my hockey experience and 2k delivered that. But now the future seems dim for 2k hockey. Playoff beards and driving the zamboni? WTF? who cares those are not features in a game those are little bonuses that you don't mention on the box. That's bad! What about gameplay? No we get a New soundtrack? I have a 360 I can make my own soundtrack, I could give a crap, besides I turn all of that noise off anyway, I just listen to the chatter on the ice...That's awesome. Nothing about advanced stick handling or improvements to last years control scheme, just a simple default control scheme. But the advanced control scheme gets the attitude of "why would you want to play with that?" So to all of us that invested the time and the artritis to prove it and love every minute of it...go F yourselves 2k is serving the die hard baseball fan for those much needed wii dollars and you can just keep hoping this piece of trash will turn out better than last years. Look I know it's not out yet, but those features leave alot of bad things to the imagination and a lot to be desired. And one more thing...I hate Drew and Randy..........I am a sharks fan that turns the radio on when I watch the game. I rather bang my head into a wall and talk to squirrels than listen to those two idiots.....All Bad!!!

[macpuck]

Fuzzy ... you're soooooo negative. And, what's worse, I think your instincts are extremely good. I think 2K aimed all of these unimpressive "changes" (notice I didn't call them upgrades) at the wii console and doesn't much care about ps2 or 360 owners. I believe we will look back in the near future and realize that the last year of NHL2K hockey was 2008 and that wasn't even a great game. But at least it was playable ... even with all the glitches, disconnects, lack of roster updates and mediocre graphics. I'm afraid we're going to wish 2K had just tweaked/improved a few elements instead of the making the mess I'm reading about.

[gosharks]

I agree with you Fuzzy, except for the part where you say you hate Randy and Drew. I absolutely love Randy's announcing! Have you heard his goal-scoring calls? I actually find Dan Rusanowsky and Jamie Baker very annoying and dull.