NHL 2K10: First Look (Gamespot)

[willrolls]

Gamespot has posted their first look at NHL 2K10.

Quote:

"The demo of the game was brief but developers gave us a good sense of what the approach is this year. Since moving development away from the now-defunct Kush and bringing NHL duties to 2K's internal Visual Concepts studio, the focus has been two-fold. Last year, it was simply getting a playable hockey game out the door on a shortened development cycle. While that game was met with lukewarm critical reception, the focus for NHL 2K10's full year development has been to continue to lower the barrier of entry for more casual hockey fans. With NHL 2K10, opening up the game to more players includes making the game more appealing for multiplayer. As producers put it, they're looking to put the "party" back in multiplayer hockey videogames, adding a sense of fun to the game while focusing on the essentials that will please the true puckheads. A big part of that focus has gone into the game's presentation--there's a new menu system that looks like an improvement from previous years (not that that would be hard--2K Sports in-game menus have been ugly for years). In addition, the game's character models have been tweaked, including more attention on accurate player faces this year."

[CarryTheWeight]

The developers are talking about continuing a trend of making the gameplay "fun" and "accessible" yet claim that there's enough depth there that true hockey fans can appreciate the game regardless. It looks to me that the game is trying to be the second coming of NHL Hitz Pro...which is great news for me, since I still play the game religiously, but may put off some more experienced 2K players. I suggested in the "Developers Are Listening" thread that the gameplay experience could possibly be catered to both groups of "hardcore" and "casual" gamers using different sets of options and controls...maybe this is what they're trying to do.

Additionally, it seems many things have been improved this year, including "features that gamers have called 2K out on", as described in the article. Without any major screens or information coming from 2K, we'll see what they mean when the time comes, I guess...

[slickdtc]

Glad that we finally got some information on the game besides some pictures of the mo-cap sessions. With that said, we really didn't get that much information. Especially for a year in which the NHL 2k series needs to really do it big or else it could be curtains.

I'm sure everyone will be (already is?) up in arms about them talking about casual fans and party multiplayer. For those of us who didn't just lock on to those words, I am very excited, still, to see the game in motion and get more thorough information.

Regardless, I still think that I'll be shelling out the money for both NHL games this year. I think they'll both bring some serious hockey action to the table, though it'll likely be completely different with the only similarity being that it is ice hockey licensed by the NHL.

[baa7]

"...the focus for NHL 2K10's full year development has been to continue to lower the barrier of entry for more casual hockey fans."

And we saw how well that worked with NHL 2K9 and MLB 2K9: the dumbing down of gameplay, and the removal of player ratings, sliders and game options -- all the gameplay depth that has set 2K games apart from the competition. And now they're systematically jettisoning all that and targeting the pick-up-and-play casual gamer, for financial reasons obviously.

The thing is, sim fans were willing to put up with the annual glitch cluster#&@$ that 2K released every year. Casual gamers won't be so accommodating. If their games are going neo-arcade now, then 2K had better have a plan to also improve their QA, or else neither group of gamers will be purchasing their games in the future.

[Flyermania]

This series is really turning its back on what made it popular to begin with --- the sim aspect.

[tabulaRasa]

It could be that this article is scewed towrds the Wii crowd to get them interested since they are solo on that platform with hockey. PR-write up.

And then that the game is more SIM on 360/ps3. Who knows, but if they do go arcade this year, they are pretty much Fkkd. Never let a PR department dictate the core of a game, they are clueless most of the times.

But , according to Shadow and WWTC the game is SIM at the core and is getting really good. Let´s see....

[RealmK]

I still think its going to come down to AI and if the sliders actually work this year. 2k9 would be actually decent if the AI wasn't so god awful at positioning and didn't like to hit first, play puck later and the goalies didn't flop for the sake of showing off the nice goalie animations.

[daflyboys]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

I still think its going to come down to AI and if the sliders actually work this year. 2k9 would be actually decent if the AI wasn't so god awful at positioning and didn't like to hit first, play puck later and the goalies didn't flop for the sake of showing off the nice goalie animations.

Not to mention 2K8.