The Blog for the Sports Gamer Three guys who love Sports Gaming rant and rave about various stuff.

NHL2K10 first impressions

One thing is for sure, I am enjoying the games that I'm playing thus far.   The easiest way for me to tell how much fun I'm having with a sports game is when I celebrate after my first win.  I scored a short-handed game winner against the Pens with 16 seconds to go and jumped off the couch.  To me, that means that I'm getting into the game, and enjoying what I'm doing.

So far, it feels like a nice game of hockey.  There is a good flow and it seems like you can score some nice goals in your games.

The control scheme seems to play quite a bit differently from the EA series, but that's neither a good or a bad thing.  It's just different.  After a time, I was able to get used to it and was able to pull off a few one-timers and pull off a couple of special moves and beat a goalie for a score.

I wanted to try and post some of my franchise blogs, just to see how that feature worked out, but for whatever reason, I cannot connect my Xbox Live account to my 2K account.  (I can connect my PS3 account to it though.  Perhaps there are some Xbox Live issues tonight that I'm not aware of.)

One disappointment that I do have is the fact that the rosters do not include any of the rookies.  I know this is a normal thing, but I was really looking forward to seeing how Tavares was ranked for the Isles.  Rumor has it that the newest roster update will be up within the next day or so, so maybe the rookies will be included there.

I have seen a few other issues (defenders not taking the right approaches or angles in trying to get the puck from the a player bringing it up ice, goalies being a bit out of a natural position,) but some of those things might be able to be corrected with a good set of sliders.

I would have to say that after playing 3 games tonight, my impressions are pretty favorable.  I wasn't a huge fan of the series last year and was glad to see that they were changing direction this year, and thus far I like what I've seen.

Right off the bat, I would say that the game is definitely worth a rental for a hockey fan.  Purchase... that will take a bit more time to decide.