NHL 2k6

[Nemecys X]

Well I finally got NHL 2k6. It showed up in stores a few days late, I'm guessing because of TS Ophelia (I'll ad mit, I was a little nervous about a storm named after an emotionally-disturbed woman who drowns herself). It's still a little early to give a complete review, but I'll cover the basics.

Good (so far):

-The glitches seem to be fixed (I hated in NHL 2k5 how I would modify the control sceme and presentation, but before every match it would go back to defaults). Everything seems to be working smoothly with no problems standing out.

-More special teams, including the 1980 US and USSR Olympic Teams. I can play the game from Miracle all over again!

-Enforcers. If you don't know by now, I like brutal hockey. This is why I constantly praise NHL 2002. 2k6 does a great job at this, including the option to actually desegnate someone to be an enforcer.



The Bad (so far):

-Graphics and sound are a little more cartoonish than before, not as much as the EA games, but not as realistic as the previous 2K titles. One of the things I loved about the previous games is how accurate the announcers were. They are not quite as good in this. Again, it's only a minor thing.

-If you create an enforcer, certain stats have caps. That's fine with me except he you modify any of the specific stats, he loses his "super enforcer" status. I'm not sure what that means, but I didn't like it when I put my friend in the game, and they wanted one of his stats to be a 50.

-Line cohesion. I haven't tested this out yet; it was only reported in the gamespot.com review. It's supposed to be that certain players won't play as well when on lines with certain other players. I haven't seen this yet, but it might ruin a few of my plans, such as putting Domi, Brashear, and Cooke on, literally, my checking line.



Overall a big improvement over last year's game, particularly in the glitches department.

Take care,

Jay

[Nemecys X]

Okay more info so I spent all day yesterday playing:

-In Franchise Mode, you can train individual players in specific areas to improve their shooting, stickhandling, or defense (which includes checking). For some reason, they left out skating, maybe because most of the stats that are limited for enforcers are skating stats.

-Also in Franchise, you can have your team scrimage to improve line chemestry. That's good because I finally got Lindros, Brashear, and Domi to work together on my PAIN Line (yes you can name individual lines).


-A couple small gripes:

-When the cpu runs both teams, the camera goes back to default. Not a major problem, but it does exist. Also, for some reason, player names are not displayed in games when the cpu controls both. Again a small glitch, but something noticable.


Still loving the game. Ran the game from the 1980 Olympics. USSR beat USA 3-2. Oh well, Brooks said they'd win 9 out of 10 games.

Take care,

Jay

[Matt]

Lots of people have been ripping on the announcers, but Cole and Neale are legendary announcers. They do Hockey Night in Canada for God's sake! How can that NOT be an upgrade over the dull Gary Thorne and the even duller Bill Clement? Obviously I personally find the commentary a HUGE upgrade, but to each his own....

btw...GREAT game, not 100% perfect, but still the best hockey game ever produced.

[Nemecys X]

Personally, I prefer the announcers in the previous games, but I don't have a problem with the ones in 2K6. The ones in previous games just seemed a little more accuarate in their observations (sometimes it was spooky when they were dead-on about a created player's performance (overall, not just in the game)!

I love the pro control! You have to be quick, but you can set up perfect passes and one-timers that actually go one.

I noticed one glitch, and I'm hoping it's an isolated one. We had just won the Stanely Cup, and my player's were stepping up to receive their awards when the game locked up. I suddenly heard, "And Robert Blake steps up to receive his award," over and over again. As I said, that's the only time it occured.

I was shocked when, during one game, my player (I created myself and a couple of friends in the game) body checked the opponent, and the opponent fell back and landed on my player's leg, nearly breaking. I was about for about a week. Talk about kicking my own @$$!

Jay

[Shon Maxx]

I started playing this game again and ended up with a few events that I found funny and shocking. Basically, they're things I couldn't repeat if I tried, and maybe things hokcey fans might enjoy;

I was playing as my created team, The Orlando Wrath. Two of the fowards charged towards the goal and attempted a one-timer, but the goalie deflected it. Then I noticed forward #3 charge up right behind the other two. I hit the shoot button, and he knocked the rebound right behind the goalies back.

Another time, I fired the puck in. The goalie tried to stop it, but it got caught under his skates. While he turned to look for it, he accidently kicked it in. Thanks for the help!

My forward was on a breakaway when he collided with an opponent. Both men went dowm, and the puck sailed right under the goalie's legs and in.

I was in front of the goal when the opponent knocked me down. He tried to clear the puck, but he hit it the wrong way...right into his own goal!




Take care,

Jay