NHL 2K6 Information, Screens, and 360 Video footage

Airdog · Post by **Airdog** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:26 pm

Video: http://www.gamespot.com/x360/action/dea ... 051305.asx
(NHL is 2:59 in): The animations seem much improved, especially shooting and skating looks smoother. But it's quite short and not of the highest quality (the video I mean).

http://sports.ign.com/articles/614/614945p1.html

The information seems like the same old hype that every hockey game has in its press releases every year.

The most recognizable difference for me would have to be helmets can be knocked off. There are obviously some new goalie animations in those pictures as well.

Airdog · Post by **Airdog** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:28 pm

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/nhl2 ... 24712.html

This preview mentions that you can schedule practices and scrimmages in franchise mode.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Tue May 17, 2005 2:29 pm

I am really looking forward to this one!
NHL2K5 consistently amazes me every time I play it.

If they can improve on a FEW things, this game will be
golden:

-more varied scoring (how about a few long slappers go in a little more often?)
-less dumb penalties by your own AI controlled guys
-Defenseman join the play and cross the blue line better
-tone down the uppercut effectiveness in fighting

that's all I can really think of.

Airdog · Post by **Airdog** » Tue May 17, 2005 3:35 pm

JackB1 wrote:I am really looking forward to this one!
NHL2K5 consistently amazes me every time I play it.

If they can improve on a FEW things, this game will be
golden:

-more varied scoring (how about a few long slappers go in a little more often?)
-less dumb penalties by your own AI controlled guys
-Defenseman join the play and cross the blue line better
-tone down the uppercut effectiveness in fighting

that's all I can really think of.

As far as long slappers going in a little more often, I think that it would help if traffic in front of the net would be a little more effective or if rebounding was somewhat close to being realistic. Very rarely is there just a bang-bang rebound whereby the puck goes off of the goalie/post and the player immediately taps it in without getting stuck in a one timer animation.

Toning down the ridiculous spearing, and other Intense Contact Control penalties will go a long way in reducing dumb penalties by AI controlled players. For 2K5 the addition of interference made playing the game better.

Defencemen joining the rush properly is one aspect of this game that has been hurting for a long time, especially since 2K4. Defencemen in 2K4 and 2K5 are terrible at holding the blue line or receiving and delivering passes. Working on this aspect of the game will also increase the possibility of solid goals from long distance slap shots.

The game is quite close to being amazing (at a Winning Eleven level) so I hope that Kush really does clamp down on a lot of stuff this season. I hope that not all of the technological advances that next generation systems afford are not spent solely on visuals and things like more realistic physics on the puck, collisions, and goalies are implemented. I fear that those advances won't be in place until the 2K7 editions though, when more emphasis is placed on the next gen games instead of current systems.

jujuhound76 · Post by **jujuhound76** » Tue May 17, 2005 4:54 pm

Airdog wrote: Defencemen joining the rush properly is one aspect of this game that has been hurting for a long time, especially since 2K4. Defencemen in 2K4 and 2K5 are terrible at holding the blue line or receiving and delivering passes. Working on this aspect of the game will also increase the possibility of solid goals from long distance slap shots.

I agree with this statement completely. Most of my frustrations with 2k5 can be attributed to poor defenseman play. I would love to see quite a few new animations around the blue line and something like a force field that keeps the puck in the zone unless you are obviously trying to leave or being forced out of the zone.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:38 pm

It appears VC is developing exclusively on the X360, at least for now.

I've not heard word about the 2K games appearing on anything but the X360.

So that could be a significant draw for some sports gamers.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:51 pm

Airdog wrote: the game is quite close to being amazing (at a Winning Eleven level) so I hope that Kush really does clamp down on a lot of stuff this season. I hope that not all of the technological advances that next generation systems afford are not spent solely on visuals and things like more realistic physics on the puck, collisions, and goalies are implemented. I fear that those advances won't be in place until the 2K7 editions though, when more emphasis is placed on the next gen games instead of current systems.

I would take Nhl2k5 Over winning eleven anyday, Not once have i felt cheated by the AI .
All i would hope they copy from that game is the situational animations.
More Animations means better skating , and add more to the AI keep making them more realistic each year.
I like Winning eleven a lot but it can be frustrating. Nhl 2k series is by far my #1 game Franchise Nothing else comes close in amount of play time.
Cant wait to see what the PS3 cell proccessor can do for the AI in yrs to come.

Airdog · Post by **Airdog** » Wed May 18, 2005 11:51 am

More 360 footage:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/748/ ... ids_1.html

Nothing really of note at all, really.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Wed May 18, 2005 1:18 pm

It really just looks like a spruced up version of 2k5. They added a few graphical enhancements with the 360 power but that's about it. It looks like it's going to play exactly the same. As good as the 2k series has been i think it's really time for a new engine. Even with good sliders from last year i felt the game just didn't offer enough variety of goals, by both human and cpu. The CPU offensive AI is pretty terrible. They usually don't know when to shoot or pass and they can't set up anything resembling a real play. To me this 360 version just looks like a xbox port. Let's hope we some major imrpovement from now to launch.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed May 18, 2005 1:22 pm

Come on, that's gotta be footage from the original Xbox.

You could almost count the polygons on the puck.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:10 pm

Skating looks better. And nice "S" move at the end.
My excitment level has gone down a notch.

rubba19 · Post by **rubba19** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:02 pm

Remember, this is KUSH we are talking about. They'll find some way to screw it up.