NHL 2K7
Hitting the ice with cinematic class… NHL 2K7 returns!
Tags: NHL 2K7 Categories: Reviews, Xbox 360 Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 22nd, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| NHL 2K7 (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Sports | Yes | ||
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The last couple years have been horrible for pro hockey fans. There was the entire year wiped out by the lockout/strike, following by a season shortened by that same conflict and resulting in NHL games disappearing off not only broadcast network TV, but even off ESPN and relegated to the purgatory of The Outdoor Network (or Channel, or whatever they call themselves these days… Outdoor Life Network? Completely Irrelevant Channel? Whatever…).
Hockey games went on for some of that stretch, but with no real-life NHL to be based on, it all seemed a bit pointless. Developers couldn’t even do roster updates, since there were no real rosters to base them on. Finally, all that mess is in the past and “soccer on ice” fans can once again not only enjoy the real NHL, but revel in the videogame equivalent. 2K Sports body-checks the market with an almost completely redone effort by developer Kush Games, NHL 2K7 for the Xbox 360.
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The most eye-catching new feature is the eye-candy itself. NHL 2K7 features what’s called the “cinemotion” presentation, which adds a cinematic element to the game. Every time you play, the game begins in the locker room where the coach is giving his players a last-second pep talk. Then the team files out onto the ice in a style that captures the personality of individual players.
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Gamers can choose between a sports-game-standard commentary by broadcasters Bob Cole and Harry Neale, or play the game to a hard-rockin’ soundtrack with music provided by the likes of Mudhoney, Hot Hot Heat, The Postal Service, The Thermals, Nebula, Kinski, Arlo, Band of Horses, The Constantines, Seaweed and many others. Playing the game set to music rather than broadcast-style adds a new wrinkle to the traditional sports game formula and should be sampled at least once, and also makes a good alternative once the play-by-play voice work starts to wear thin.
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The cinemotion system also incorporates new next-gen camera work and attempts to make each game tell a bit of a story by covering locker room intermission pep talks and post-game fanfare. For those who despise such frills, don’t worry – you can skip over it. The audio also now incorporates better into the game playing experience, as well, since a directional sound system means you can find open teammates for passes not just by on-screen spotting, but by player chatter audio cues. If you learn to listen carefully enough, you can even suss out what your opponent’s coach is planning by what he’s calling out to his players from his spot in the team box.
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The skating physics are also much improved this year, making it obvious that Kush Games is interested in taking the next-generation sports game experience to a whole new level not just in terms of pretty graphics, but in ways that affect game play. Opposing players feel more solid when you collide into them, the puck behaves more realistically and gone are the days when you could make a hard-skating player spin around on a dime and change directions in order to deliver a check and steal a puck. Now, natural momentum on ice is calculated into the equation so that your players actually feel like they’re playing on ice, not air.
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The franchise mode has also been given a makeover and now team chemistry plays a huge role in the success or lack thereof of your franchise. No longer can you cut players, sign free agents and make trades willy-nilly without affecting the cohesiveness and locker-room chemistry of your team in ways that directly affect their performance on the ice. Division rivalries, home-ice advantage and other elements are also given new emphasis. If you’re playing Dallas, for example, and you travel to the Xcel Center to play the Wild, the crowd’s negative reaction feels a lot bigger than in the past.
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Of course, the player and stadium models look outstanding, with a new emphasis on close-ups and replays that feels less intrusive than such features do in most sports videogames. That’s not an easy trick to pull off. A word should also be mentioned about the game’s print manual. At a time when EA Sports can barely be bothered to put together a four-page manual anymore that covers even the new features and the basic controls, kudos must be awarded 2K Sports for actually giving enough of a damn to include a newbie-friendly 60-page print manual full of controls, mode descriptions, coach’s tips and more. Praise the puck!
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Xbox Live integration is more complete than ever and measures up blow-for-blow with anything that EA Sports is doing online. Sure, EA Sports may have live score feeds from ESPN, but EA has otherwise completely wasted and ignored their ESPN license. 2K Sports, by contrast, feeds you live real-world sports scores online, albeit without the ESPN branding, so there’s really no ESPN advantage for EA Sports to claim on that count. Maybe by the time the 2008 games hit the market, EA Sports will finally do more than ticker-feeds with their ESPN license, but that hasn’t happened so far.
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In the end, for delivering sheer visual and game play thrills and a solid reworking of its core franchise for the next-gen 360 platform, there’s little doubt that NHL 2K7 is a solid, fun, playable title that leads the way into glimpsing the potential of what next-gen sports gaming should look to deliver; not just eye-candy, but better physics, better AI and a better overall experience than current-gen sports games. EA, that’s not a headache you’re feeling; it’s a lack of sleep from the way 2K Sports is once again breathing down your neck to shock you out of complacency!
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ New cinemotion engine delivers an electrifying visual gameplay experience that tells a story. + Hot soundtrack, and the ability to import your own favorite tunes. + Great online integration, with easier-to-find roster update downloads than EA Nation offers. + Team chemistry, rivalry games and home-ice factors add new elements to franchise mode. |
8.9 |
| What Doesn't | |
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– Bob Cole and Harry Neale aren't exactly at the top of their game this year. – E-mail system needs more team-affection consequences integrated. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| NHL 2K7 provides a fresh start for next-generation “soccer on ice” game fans. | |
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Tags: NHL 2K7
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 22nd, 2006 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox 360 Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
