I am willing to accept that I may be in the minority on this issue, but when it comes to hockey videogames, I have always been more of 2K Sports guy than an EA Sports guy. I know, I know, the EA titles are the ones that win all the awards and praise from journalists (which I’m supposed to be), but the EA offerings always feel too arcade-like to me, and I prefer more of a simulation experience. Granted, 2K Sports doesn’t make it easy to achieve that experience, but with some tweaking and teasing of the in-game sliders, it’s not long before the game feels just the way I like it. And yes, I know that the EA Games can be customized in a similar manner, but the 2K series always has more depth.
However, one area in which the NHL 2K franchise has always lagged behind has been the visuals. The difference seen in the 2009 versions of the respective titles was quite staggering, and with EA continuing to improve their graphics engine, I was worried that NHL 2K10 would fall even further behind. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
In this latest batch of screenshots from 2K Sports it’s easy to see the improvements that were made to the game engine, providing much more realistic and detailed player models than their last offering. Some of the players still look a little zombie-like with their lifeless expressions, but overall it’s a big stride in the right direction. Now if they could only bring back a Fantasy Draft option for Franchise Mode, I’d be in heaven!
Richard Mitchell is a video game addict living in Toronto. He has been gaming for more than two decades, and despite multiple interventions, continues to game today. He has an Xbox 360, a PS3, a Wii, a Nintendo DS, a gaming PC, and a life, and does his best to juggle them all.
will it still have freaky beard? that’s the question.
The beards look rather realistic, sadly.
The graphics look to be a step up from 2k9. And they have so many shots of people on their knees or backs doing stuff that it pretty much has to be a new feature in the game.
Yeah, since they hired Ovechkin as their mo-cap athlete, I imagine we’ll get all kinds of crazy shot types now. I just hope they’re situational (shooting as you get checked or tripped) and cannot be done on command.
Those screenshots are pretty amazing, but… yeah… that sure is a whole lot of knee-on-ice action.