Will there be the Franchise freeze issue in NHL 2K10?

[GrifOli]

The franchise freeze issue in NHL 2K9 for Wii was so frustrating that I stopped to play it after a month. I started 3 different franchise and I wasn't able to play more than 29 games before my franchise completely froze.

Will there be that stupid freeze issue in NHL 2K10 ?

[Savoie06]

No one will know that answer until the game is released. It's not the developer is gonna come out and yes, back by popular demand, FRANCHISE FREEZE!

[pens87]

The issue with the franchise freeze on the wii was with the CPU not being able to handle injuries. If you turned injuries off before starting a franchise then there was no freeze. I hope that issue has been resolved.

[macpuck]

You would think that eliminating franchise freeze issues and other glitches would be a first priority but some of the bugs that have plagued 2K are three and four years old. I don't think we can assume they are all gone just because that's what makes sense. Even the demo won't tell us much in this regard. I believe Savoie is correct. It'll be two or three weeks after the release before we actually KNOW if most or all of the glitches are gone. I'm generally pretty impatient but I'm going to try and wait it out this year and see what others report about these issues before I buy one or more of the hockey games.

[sleepytercel]

No, the first priority for Visual Concepts was to create a new and stable gameplay engine. It was the same route that they took with MLB2K9 as well. Visual Concepts has historically made the gameplay engines be a high priority, and with the mess Kush has created through the years, I believe it was the right decision. Kush has been tacking onto an old engine that was created by another developer. In order for VC to come through in the future, they had to make the engine their own. This is why the NFL and NBA franchises did so well. Now that the engine has been in place, I can see the other aspects and features getting much more focus. They built both 2K9 offerings on a very short cycle. I won't say that the freeze will be fixed, because I do not know, but I bet it will be tons better than last year. It feels almost certain that the franchises in both NBA and MLB were hardly touched last year.

[Bruins fan 4 life]

No, the first priority for Visual Concepts was to create a new and stable gameplay engine. It was the same route that they took with MLB2K9 as well. Visual Concepts has historically made the gameplay engines be a high priority, and with the mess Kush has created through the years, I believe it was the right decision. Kush has been tacking onto an old engine that was created by another developer. In order for VC to come through in the future, they had to make the engine their own. This is why the NFL and NBA franchises did so well. Now that the engine has been in place, I can see the other aspects and features getting much more focus. They built both 2K9 offerings on a very short cycle. I won't say that the freeze will be fixed, because I do not know, but I bet it will be tons better than last year. It feels almost certain that the franchises in both NBA and MLB were hardly touched last year.

I hear what you're saying about creating a new and stable gameplay engine, but shouldn't that be coupled with ensuring they have a stable franchise engine as well? I follow your logic on gameplay stability has a game's number one priority but a close second, or a 1b, has to be overall game stability (i.e. no freezes).

Obviously 2k is not going to come out with a statement that they have fixed the freezing issue. That'd be just setting themselves up for disaster if it were to reoccur. It would be like a politician answering the question, "So Senator how long has it been since you've cheated on your wife?" But the least they could do is maybe acknowledge that there is a potential issue and they are looking into it. Then maybe offer some advice if you happen to run into said issue, like saving a backup file once a week, try turning off injuries or turning off the autosave function, etc...

[flamesfan597]

Man, the freezing franchise ****es me off. I have done 4 franchises to have them all to freeze. It needs to be fixed.

[FSOTG]

Sadly, I'll bet there will be.

[macpuck]

Franchise freezes are a deal-breaker, especially now that most people know how long this has been an issue with 2K. Their sales will keep dipping if 2K continues to put out a hockey game with the same fundamental shortcomings. How were 2K's hockey sales last year? Not so good? Thousands of gamers jumped to EA and how many do you think will jump back if franchises freezes aren't eliminated? You've got to give consumers a reason to start believing again. Creating a good game is just part of the answer. You need to come up with a game that works.

[Honome]

This year i´ll rent the game and play it for the full weekend the most possible on the franchise and if it´s still freezing i won´t buy the game for sure, will be (again) a total lack of respect with the fans... let´s hope they finally deal with this bug.