Anyone get NHL2K6 yet?

Anyone have any impressions yet? I plan on picking it up in the next few days, is there going to be any league action around here with it?

Well, uhm... is that what you Canucks really have to listen to?

Those on the west coast get a different group of guys who do the CBC broadcasts and we have Jim Houson (sp?) and John Garret for most of the games in Vancouver.

Edit: Woah! Why is my post all the way up here!?! Some sort of post time warp.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!!!

EDIT: Posts go backwards!

Vector wrote:
Well, uhm... is that what you Canucks really have to listen to?

Those on the west coast get a different group of guys who do the CBC broadcasts and we have Jim Houson (sp?) and John Garret for most of the games in Vancouver.

Edit: Woah! Why is my post all the way up here!?! Some sort of post time warp.

Just seeing if I can reply to Vector... IN THE PAST!

EDIT: Dammit, the reply is in the past, but not as far back as Vector. Time paradox averted.

Picked it up today - traded in 2k5, got 2 whole dollars!

Anyways, we should wait until the first roster update to start our league.

gwartok wrote:

... is there going to be any league action around here with it?

Heck yes there is.

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/928297.asp
I heard *Legion* was seen on Live with it last night but he didn't feel like sharing impressions with us so far. Bastard!

What I have read has turned me off a bit but I'm going to pick it up anyway. I'm such an easy slut.

Wasn't on Live (just "Live Aware"), but just popped it in for a few to give it a try.

Impressions:

Two initial bad impressions. One, the announcers. I figured, "hey, Hockey Night in Canada guys. Canadians worship hockey, so these guys must be the best of the best, right?". Well, uhm... is that what you Canucks really have to listen to? Is it like a John Madden thing where the guys are way past their prime but have the name recognition to stick around? Because dey be BO-REEENG. Give me Thorne and Clement back.

Other bad impression - rosters hopelessly out of date. I knew it'd be cutting it close, but I did expect to see Roenick and Demitra on LA. At the very least, I expected the game to ship with old rosters but have a roster update sitting there on Live waiting to make it all better. Nope! No roster update yet.

Oh, one more thing - the new rules are in effect, but the AI doesn't seem to realize that sometimes. CPU players still skate short of the redline instead of blasting across it for breakaway passes. Hopefully something that gets fixed.

Gameplay? Gameplay's still great 2K hockey. I like the ability to do coaching changes on the fly, as well as the icon-based passing.

Well, uhm... is that what you Canucks really have to listen to?

Only those that don't understand french.

I got it on day one. Haven't put a ton of time into it, but some. A couple of things:

1) Still several bugs. Three times now -- twice by me and once by the CPU -- the center is not in the faceoff circle for the drop. He skating around like a dork, but the puck gets dropped and the other team gets it. Line changes are borked this year. In some cases, mostly when they show replays, you have a split second to try to get your line change and then it starts ignoring button presses.

2) I'm using a roster file that is accurate up to September 7th, except there are no rookies in it currently so you won't get Crosby and his ilk. Still, better than nothing.

3) Hits are overdone this year. Supposedly turning off the new enforcer feature helps, but I haven't found it to be the case, even with hitting power all the way down. I get knocked off the puck like a chump all the time, way more than last year. Green should be giddy but I'm disappointed.

4) I need more time with it, but both on-the-fly coaching and pro control passing work and work decently, especially the on-the-fly coaching thing. However, with those new controls changing lines -- when it works (grumble) -- and especially changing strategies on-the-fly as in 2K4 is tough to get used to (changing strategy requires you to pull in both triggers then D-pad it).

5) Replays ice texture looks like ass. Don't know if it was needed for some reason, but it really stinks.

6) I've seen some neat goals when I can get a shot off. Goalie looks very good with the new animations. Skating feels a lot different this year with players seeming to get some more momentum that must be overcome, and the full-stick-control feels less effective due to them seemingly decreasing the effective area of the stick. That's a good thing actually as it was slightly too effective last year.

7) Along with the hitting power, it seems that players require more time to recover from any incidental contact. So, if you get knocked off the puck, you'll diddle around even more than last year before being fully mobile. Maybe more time with it is needed, but it feels a bit weird to me right now.

8) The PBP is okay, but the color commentary is pretty bad. Making up for it, the custom soundtracks actually work well and I spent my first 45 minutes with the game loading up my custom music and goal horns, so now when I score at home I get the RBC Center horn, Rick Flair's "woo-woo"s and the "Woohoo" song or whatever it's called. And when other teams score against me in their rinks I get whatever their horn and music sound like :).

Long-winded, I know. Overall... I don't know yet. Perhaps once I get used to it I'll be a convert, but right now I can't help but be a little disappointed in it.

I've had the dude-not-in-faceoff-circle bug happen once.

I don't know about the hits. I'm playing Hall of Fame difficulty and the CPU isn't as effective at knocking me off the puck as they were in All-Star difficulty last year. But maybe it's just a case of my Kings not being pussies.

You're dead on with the smaller range of the "full stick control". That goes for the CPU too - you can actually send a slap shot through traffic and have a chance of it getting near the goal. I LOVE being able to call for the offense to screen the goalie, then rifle the shot and have my CPU teammate deflect the shot in.

One good change - defensemen are MUCH smarter in the offensive zone now. They will try to hold the puck in, and you can actually pass it back to them at the point effectively.

I'll be happy when:
a) Rosters are updated
b) AI gets tweaked to ignore the red line (if not in a patch, then it MUST be done for the 360 version)
c) The face-off bug gets fixed

The reviews complained about the wrap around goals beeing way too easy to pull out. What's your take on it? Will it cover online play with cheese?

One good change - defensemen are MUCH smarter in the offensive zone now. They will try to hold the puck in, and you can actually pass it back to them at the point effectively.

Praise allah! One of my biggest gripes last year.

Mr.Green wrote:

The reviews complained about the wrap around goals beeing way too easy to pull out.

Haven't been able to pull one off yet myself. Maybe it works well on Amateur or Pro but on Hall of Fame it's not happening, for me at least.

That 2khockey.net site has a video "dispelling the wraparound myth".

any comments on the franchise mode? Did they get the salary cap in?

No comments. I hate franchise modes. I am happy to say that the game, unlike too many sports games, still has a SEASON mode. I'm getting pissed at games that dump the single season mode in favor of ONLY a franchise mode.

I just want to play a virtual season in any given sports game. Anything beyond the one season the game is made for is just totally fake. Fake schedules, fake transactions, fake new players... no thanks. I know some people are all over it, and that's fine, but I HATE HATE HATE seeing games dump the "season" mode and think that's OK.

I actually love Franchise modes in games and am interested in getting ALL of the details from someone who bought 2k6.

I just picked a copy up tonight... sweet zombie Jesus the announcers are bad. I mean, horrible. I loved the commentary for 2k5, and this is just a complete 180. Haven't grasped the strategy or line changes yet, but I've only played one game so far. I almost wish I'd kept 2k5.

If I can get my gamertag on my brother's Xbox and set up some wireless lan, I'd love to try a game on Live with someone. We'll see how it goes.

I got my copy today but I'm stuck at work tonight. If anyone wants to try out the live play this weekend give me a yell.

Holy sh*t, the announcers blow. It's like listening to the f*cking "Rainman" call a hockey game. Horrible, horrible stuff. And last years was so good, too. WTF?

My favorite from these two weenies: "That hit was so hard.....he fell down". Jesus, what a f*cking newsflash. Maybe mass, momentum, and gravity work different where these black belt linguists come from, so they're surprised?

I played my first online game last night.

What's the deal with the "tag up" offsides option?

And I vote our league has "1 20 minute 5 v. 5 OT" as the OT option.

And last years was so good, too. WTF?

Last year's guys work for ESPN. The license 2K no longer has (among others).

What's the deal with the "tag up" offsides option?

Old offside = if you have a player in the offensive zone before the puck enters the zone, you are offside. The whistle is not blown unless you touch the puck. However, no matter what you do, you are offside until the other team brings the puck back out into the neutral zone. So essentially, your offensive attack is over, and the other team is allowed to bring the puck out of their zone unchallenged.

Tag-up offside = If you have a player in the offensive zone before the puck enters the zone, you are offside. The whistle is not blown unless you touch the puck. However, instead of having to wait for the other team to bring the puck back out, you can get back onsides by having the offside players "tag up" at the blue line. Once all offside players are tagged up, you are no longer offsides, and so you can continue the attack in the offensive zone instead of having to allow the defensive team to bring the puck back out into the neutral zone unchallenged.

The NHL implemented tag-up offside rules for this season.

Thanks, stinky. I'll start using that to my advantage now. Mwahahahahaha!

ColdForged wrote:

Perhaps once I get used to it I'll be a convert, but right now I can't help but be a little disappointed in it.

Getting closer :). Playing a season with some simulation settings someone posted and have had some very enjoyable (single-player) games. CPU can be a tough opponent, nice goals scored by me and CPU, just starting to use those new controls and liking them. The bugs are annoying -- and I'm reminded of them every time I try to do a line change, dammit -- but I think the gameplay will be good.

Got it on Friday. My first impressions were that it's not as bad as I feared it would be but the 20$ price ain't a bargain either. The UI is even worse than it was before, wich is quite an accomplishment, the game manual is a joke, the graphics are below average and the announcers are... well honestly I couldn't care less about that.

As I thought, the Pro Control (tm) system kicks ass on paper but not that useful and I'm not sure I'll use it much. On The Fly Coaching (tm) is neat but having to pull your thumb from thumbstick to the D-Pad can be a pain, especially since it often didn't register the damn button press.

It's not all bad though. As Certis said, Thank Dog now your defenders aren't affraid to cross the damn blue line wich gives you more options on offense and... well I can't think of anything else nice to say about it for now. What bothered me the most with the series before is still rampant: Randomness that makes the game feel like a turn based RPG. Goalies giving too many dumb goals, players missing passes and missing the net for no good reason, etc... Perhaps it is more realistic but I play the real thing every Thursday night and that's all the simulation that I need. When I have my ass on the couch I want a god damn game but hey, if I can still beath Psycho, Coldie and Certis out of dumb luck I guess it's all good.

Green's opinions are invalid due to his hard-on for NHL Hitz and other fruity arcade hockey games. "I bought this simulation hockey game and it's too much of a simulation" Go buy NHL 2006 you heathen

I played a couple games against my brother this past weekend. The commentary is the same story as every sport game, good play by play, bad color. I love clicking the right thumb-stick and having a button assigned to each player for passing and some of my go-to goals aren't quite as effective as they were in 2K5. So far so good but it's tough to form an opinion until you've played a good number of online games.

I dunno, I refuse to associate "videogame" and "simulation". It's just dumb. Unless it's an RC racing game or something in wich case it would make some kind of sense.

You've obviously never played NHL-Hitz pro, kid! You could tweak the settings to make it as "realistic" as you liked and fool yourself into thinking you were "simulating" hockey sitting on the couch with a joystick in your hands. At least, you won games because you had played better, not because of some weird calculations involving statistics and dice!

Naw it's not that bad and I'm looking forward to kick your ass again and all that jazz.

At least, you won games because you had played better, not because of some weird calculations involving statistics and dice!

Son, I lost ONE hockey game this season with the Washington Capitals. Dice rolls my ass

Certis wrote:
At least, you won games because you had played better, not because of some weird calculations involving statistics and dice!

Son, I lost ONE hockey game this season with the Washington Capitals. Dice rolls my ass :hump:

Against who huh, WHO!? My point exactly.

All Ancient history, ladies.

Yeah, so anyways, when will the new league start? We should probably wait until an accurate roster comes out, huh?

SwampYankee wrote:

We should probably wait until an accurate roster comes out, huh?

YES.

Yeah, so anyways, when will the new league start? We should probably wait until an accurate roster comes out, huh?

And nail down the settings we want, yeah. I'd give it a couple weeks.