NHL 2KI am a huge Hockey fan. You wouldn't believe how much I know about Hockey. Maybe it has something to do with being a Canadian, I dunno. So I guess you could say I am the perfect candidate to review this game. NHL 2K is the third game in the now famous "2K" series. I own the first two, and I have to say, I think that they are the best games in there respective sports. Madden 2000 has all the stupid nick-nacks that are not really needed, NFL 2K just cuts to the chase and has all the features that I want. So this is where we come to NHL 2K. About a couple months ago, the previews of NHL 2K looked less than promising. Reports were saying that it was way to slow. But, it seems that 'Black Box' pulled a cat out of its hat. Black Box is a Vancouver based company that is made of former Radical Entertainment and EA Sports employees. These are the dream team of hockey game development. Together they have created the single most impressive Hockey game ever. After playing NHL 2K for quite a while, you wondered why you ever wasted your time with all the previous Hockey games. When I first put in the disc and seen the games graphics, I wasn't as impressed as I was with NBA 2K and NFL 2K. But I found that it takes time for the visuals to really shine. It's all the small things, how realistic the ice looks, how realistic all the jerseys are, and how awesome the charecters look. I was playing a game with my team, the Vancouver Canucks, against the big, bad St. Louis Blues. Than Pavel Demitra scores a softy on me, so I decide to look at the instant replay. Wow, it looked just like ol' Pavel!. But it's not just the visuals that is inpressive about this game. The Artificial Intelligence is very good although not as good as NHL 2000. Also, the huge level of detail helps to make the setting more realistic and authentic. The choice of almost every jersey in the history of that team is a very cool feature. I can play with the Colorado Avalanche in there old Quebec Nordiques jerseys!. Like the previous two games, NHL 2K has some major short-comings. One, is the lack of a fake shot. What's up which that???. That's a key way to score crusial goals and that leads to the next thing thing game lacks, goals!. Call me an impasiant Generation-Y'er but I love 6 to 4 games!. I don't play hockey games for a 1-1 tie. Maybe it's the fact that the goalie AI is TOO good!. All in all, a great game!. Buy it if you like Hockey games,
rent it if you don't!. |
