ESPN - NHL 2k5 - Impressions - Let's Here 'Em

[Lockdown]

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I want it all.  Even really early impressions will do.

[TheMissingLink]

I've been watching vids of Operation Sports' copy and saw a game go 0-0 (I believe) into the 2nd overtime...this, obviously, shows me they didn't tweak the goalies and makes me a tad ticked.  Ah, but there are some games like that, so only playing it myself will answer that question.

The game is in a truck about 50 miles away from me  The roomies and I intend to watch the game at 4:30 (USA v CANADA) then play all night.  You'll get some impressions outta me by the time the day is through

[Devil]

I'll have my Doivels (Devils/Oilers) beating up on the Flyers by around 5:00 tonight.  :lol:

[Lockdown]

O.K.  So remember when I said I would be waiting for you guys to tell me which game to get?  

Yeah... whatever.

So the manual is as crappy as ever.  It is basically divided into 3 sections.  Section 1 talks about the new features, which is basically Franchise Mode improvements, Party Mode, Full Movement Fighting, Always Online, Dream Team stuff.  Section 2 is the biggest, and goes over EVERY control known to man for the 3 different settings (Normal, Intermediate, Advanced).  Section 3 is all about Live! and how to invite people to games, etc, etc...

And my score for the cover is 1 out of 10, considering they weren't smart enough to put a Flyer on the cover.  Idiots.

I'm not really sure why I even buy hockey games, as I am so monumentally terrible at them... but it's so hard to resist a sports game.


Go Flyers !

LD

[Devil]

We'll play Thursday night...

[Lockdown]

In!

[Devil]

We can play nice and early (around 8:00?) so you can get your beauty sleep.

[Lockdown]

Sounds good to me.

Saw you on tonight.  Typed you a nice long message.  But it wouldn't let me send it cause it contained "inappropriate" language.  Lame!  I didn't even use anything close to inappropriate.  

I did say I hate the small font Kush insists on using.  Maybe they didn't like the word "hate".

Anyway, played one game against the Devils.  Won 1-0.  Esche had 29 saves against the Devils...  (would be nice... but I'm not thinkin!)  There are 5 difficulty settings I think... I played the one right in the middle.  That would be level 3  (I forget what they call it... Pro maybe?)  

Brodeur had 27 saves and let a 1-timer through on a Flyer power play.  Now that is believable.

Of course, who am I to judge, I suck at hockey games... I just like to play them.  I think I will also turn the friction up a notch for both players and puck... this way I have more control.  I know, I am taking the realism away, but hey, the options are there, I might as well use them, right!   :wink:

The fonts used in game are too small.  The speed and feel of the game feels pretty good though.  I am used to playing EA's game though, so it will take more time to judge this.

I get confused between players alot.... maybe I need to zoom in more, as you would think Flyer Black would be easy to differentiate from Devil White, now wouldn't you?

As for something I L-O-V-E about ESPN hockey... the options.  Jesus Christmas, there are a ton of options.  I mean, it is staggering.  Basic, Advanced, Super Duper with a Twist Advanced.  You even have a full strategy page for each individual line (if you want it) for God's sake.  It is flat awesome.    

Anyway... I will leave the real impressions for those of us that know hockey a hell of alot better than me.  But so far, after 1 game and a bunch of drills, I guess it's pretty good.  I need much more time with it though.  One thing is for sure though... they give you a heck of a lot of control of your players and your strategies.  And I do like the overall feel.  But the amount of control you have can almost be overwhelming.  

My prediction when I play Devil on Thursday...

Devils: 10
Flyers: 0

But you know what?  I love sports games so much, I don't even care!

See you online.

LD

[Devil]

Played one game at All-Star and beat the Bruins 2-1 with all the default settings.

A few points:

- Game seems a little better than last year.
- Control on the right stick helps.
- I scored 2 goals (last year it would have taken a month)
- I'm with Ponch on the graphics. They seem good but somehow blurry?
- Shots still seem a little high (Bruins:50 Devils:30)
- Rosters are a little off but the league is hardly settled so it's gonna change a lot if/when they play again

Interested to see how the game tweaks out with some slider settings.

As for your message. I can't imagine you using any foul language towards me!  :wink:

[Lockdown]

No really!  I used no foul language.  (I leave the foul language for our boards, so that everyone can enjoy it!)

It must have been the word "hate".

Anyway, I am going to zoom in a bit on the camera and mess around with the gazillion sliders and strategies they give you.  If I make the game easy enough, I might be able to beat the Devils by 2 goals!  

LD

[TheMissingLink]

Okay, impressions after about 4 games...it's easier to score.  That's the biggest difference from last year's game.  That was probably one of the few issues I had with last year's game, so that's nice.  I hate it how it doesn't always show the replay of a goal or penalty.  Even of a goal!  I want replays, damnit!  I like EA because they show a replay of every penalty, and sometimes it's cool enough I want to see again - but I have to go and do it manually.  That is quite annoying.  So far, things seem pretty cool.  Once again, player faces are pretty shitty.  Playing as the Pens, Lemieux looks spot-on - but that's pretty much it.  Playing with my roomies (who like Colorado and Detroit) and seeing their faces - you can recognize a few more, but some of the faces don't look like their real-life counterparts.  I'll be messing around with strategies and all that later in the week.

Oh and real quick, am I missing something or can you not change jerseys?  I want alternates, historic, etc. - but no can do.  And btw, I spotted a couple of nifty unlockables in the Skybox.  One includes playing in the Heritage Classic and the other is an old-school video game hockey rink...kind of interesting in what that means.

[stiffler]

Once again, player faces are pretty shitty.  Playing as the Pens, Lemieux looks spot-on - but that's pretty much it.  Playing with my roomies (who like Colorado and Detroit) and seeing their faces - you can recognize a few more, but some of the faces don't look like their real-life counterparts.

Dude, you are playing as the Penguins.  Count yourself lucky that you have even heard their names before, let alone recognize them, because the rest of the country hasn't! :twisted:

Oh and real quick, am I missing something or can you not change jerseys?  I want alternates, historic, etc. - but no can do.

Maybe you need to win them.  I am guessing it has something similar to ESPN NFL's "Crib."  Then again, maybe you are just a n00b.  Hockey is too good for you.  Check out ESPN NBA 2k5 when it is released -- you deserve each other. :wink:

[Devil]

See, Ponch, we're not the only ones in here with 'issues'

Oh, and I think you do need to unlock the old uni's

[TheMissingLink]

Okay, played about 4-5 games online.  Man, no more ranked online games with more than one player.  THAT IS RETARDED.  How does playing with more players make a team more unfair?  That's bullshit.  I play with my roomies 95% of the time and after about 6 online games, we're still 0-0 (which, actually, may be good since we went about 2-4).  Just some random thoughts:

-Which difficulty seems fair to everyone?  I've had okay success scoring on pro difficulty...and on all-star it's really hard.  

-The "hit stick" feature isn't really a "hit" stick.  It's more of a hook/slash/trip stick and should only be used in extreme situations.  We played against some dork-ass tonight who would ONLY use it and was constantly a man down.

-Goalie passing is the exact same.  I've always had my issues with the way the goalie passes it.  It's shit.  On all-star difficulty, I score many of my goals because a goalie's pass comes straight at me.  Retarded.

-I still favor ESPN over EA in terms of realistic hockey.  It just flows better.  I wish there were more variance in goals.  It still seems like it's the same one-timer-fest to get a goal in all-star difficulty.  I've only seen a couple of slap-shots or wristers from inside the blue line.  

That's all for me.  More tomorrow - franchise impressions, too!

[pr0ner]

My impressions:

The gameplay graphics don't look as sharp as last year, but that doesn't bother me much.  The ESPN sound thing is a little off, too.  I would compare it to NCAA 2005, where the announcers can be a bit hard to hear sometimes.  But, the soundeffects themselves are great.

The new fighting engine will take a bit of getting used to.  I won my first fight, but lost all the rest.  What's the average number of fights you all are getting in a 5 minute period game?  I'm getting 2-3 each game (I've only played 3, though).

Penalties seem to be called a lot more with a rougher game.  Chris Simon went to the box 7 (!!) times one game.  Seems to be too many 2-minute spearing calls, too.  But, I fixed this problem by playing a much less physical game the next time out.

I'm playing on All-Star difficulty.  I haven't won yet, since I'm playing against Tampa Bay using the Calgary Flames.  Scores were 4-2, 2-1 (OT), 2-1.  However, all 4 of my goals were scored differently.  A diving goal by Yelle and a wicked slapper from the bottom of the left circle by Iginla the first game.  A blast to the top left corner from the right point by Leopold in the second game just after entering the zone.  And, a top glove side wrister on a breakway by Iginla in the third.  Haven't scored a one-timer yet, though.  Oh yeah, I've managed to keep all the games close until the very end, when the computer will score a cheap (at least to me) goal.  Anyone else seeing this?

Puck physics seem a bit off after hitting the goalie, with a lot of pucks flying straight up or straight over the goal, but I think I can get used to that.  Goalie passing seems improved for me, though.

Overall verdict: Thumbs up so far!

Mike

[pr0ner]

Oh and real quick, am I missing something or can you not change jerseys?  I want alternates, historic, etc. - but no can do.  And btw, I spotted a couple of nifty unlockables in the Skybox.  One includes playing in the Heritage Classic and the other is an old-school video game hockey rink...kind of interesting in what that means.

When playing with the Flames last night, I noticed a home jersey, an away jersey, an alternate jersey, and a home and away "vintage" (from '95 or so) already unlocked; all I had to do was press the R trigger to get them.  Other jerseys were there for unlocking.  I guess it all depends on the team.

Mike

[Devil]

I'm starting to get frustrated again.   :x

Lunbering CPU guys are chasing down my speedsters and guys like Hal Gill blow by, and can't be caught by Niedermayer.

Blocked shots are silly too. People aren't moving brick walls. Shots do get through arms and legs! Which is even more frustrating because the cpu plays D like pee-wee hockey. Four guys go to the puck carrier and you have no chance of getting getting around or though them.  I would say to shoot, but if 45-50 shots only net you one goal then a 4-3 game would need about 350 shots on net. Oh, and penalties? Devils v. Craps, 5 minute periods, ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE PIM!!! ELIAS got into TWO fights!! Huh? I immediately turned that down.

Sliders better help!!

EA might be the way to go again this year!

[Semaj]

Ok I just got it a little bit ago, started it up, didnt change any setting so my guess was it was an easy setting...

I was the sabres, and I played some other not quite as bad team...   Final score:
14-3.

Scoring wasnt an issue,.. I Need to learn the buttons still,.. Breakaways are much harder to scroe on than you would think.. but one timers... crashing the net, and vicious slap shots at the corners of the net still work well.  I'll spend more time leanring all the important things, like sprinting and the hit stick...  But the Hockey flows nicely and it's fairly easy to play decent defence... I'll let you know how irritating it gets at the higher levels later...

[Devil]

From searching around (Op Sports/Cyber NHL) I kept seeing something that seemed to make sense. The ratings are only really accurate in the "Pro" setting! Anything higher seems to boost the CPU players attributes across the board and leaves you behind.

This explained away a lot of my issues with player speeds, shots, goalies, etc. because I was playing on All-Star and HoF!

So I set the game down to Pro, used some sliders (forget who's) and FINALLY the game plays well!!

I feel better!  

[pr0ner]

Can you link that post?  I was wondering why the gameplay was SOO much harder on All-Star than it was on Pro.

Then again, even with that "SOO" much harder gameplay, I was still able to either squeak out a win or lose by 1.

Online soon, Devil?

Mike

[Devil]

Not sure about an exact post but more of a common theme going through some of the threads.

I just kept seeing stiffs on other teams playing like they were WAY over their heads against me and it wasn't right.

Guys shouldn't get faster just because of the difficulty level. They should play better!

[Clanwolfer]

Wow, that Pro thing is a big help, I hadn't seen that before.

Just got XBox Live working in my dorm, in case anyone has a few friends and is interested in some 4-on-4 (NHL2K5 allows multiple players per Box on Live, right?)

[TheMissingLink]

Yeah, it allows 4-on-4, but only in UNRANKED GAMES.  I only play with my roomies (we are a dominant 3-person FORCE) and our record is currently 0-0 and will stay there.  So dumb.  So we'd be up - we usually play Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and we're on the west coast.

[depward]

Clanwolfer,

Being one of TML's roomies (and brother woot!) expect to play like poop when you all first start playing.  You'll get many offsides calls, probably get dominated at the beginning.  But the core group of tml, forsberg2sakic, and I play regularily and have been for years.  And you'll eventually see everyone's kind of "style" of play, you'll be keeping that one skate on the blue line when the puck is crossing it, and things will just start to "click."  It's definately a more fun experience when you're playing with friends online than by yourself.  Good luck!