NHL 2K6 Impressions

Sully · Post by **Sully** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:56 pm

Call me a dumbass, but I didn't want any drastic changes made to the 2k engine. I absolutely love it. As far as the bugs, I'm not denying that there are some, but I've been fortunate enough to not experience any....yet.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:59 pm

Sully wrote:Call me a dumbass, but I didn't want any drastic changes made to the 2k engine. I absolutely love it. As far as the bugs, I'm not denying that there are some, but I've been fortunate enough to not experience any....yet.

Right...I didn't want any either. Just a little tweaking here and there and it's all good.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:59 pm

It's all ironic to me...but in the end 2k6 will once again hold the crown for the best hockey game available. That's all there is to it.

I expected this as I've always liked the way the 2k hockey series has played. Like most, I've had some time to get some games in and I'd have to say 2k6 so far is the most fun in the series. With MVP, NCAA, and now 2k6 hockey.. it has been quite a good year for console sports games. I can't remember when I've been so engrossed in console sports gaming.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:08 pm

I'm really loving this one as well. The sim gamespeed is great, I feel like I can actually cycle the puck this year on more than just power plays, and there's something to the wrist shots that I can't quite put my finger on... I feel like I have a lot more control over them this year. I'm surprised to find myself liking the presentation as well, mainly because everytime I thing something deserves a replay, the game seems to agree with me and gives me one.

I basically stole Leebo's settings and am having varied games. Really, really fun title. I'm not sure what the deal is with the wraparounds, though. Is it that they're too easy for the user to pull off? I've tried a handful and only gotten one through.

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:10 pm

I ended up playing 4 games of my franchise and in the first game the first goal scored against me was the phantom goal behind the net then I immediately changed the the net off moorings to on and didn't see it anymore. A couple of games later a player crashed the net and knocked the net off, so I'm kind of confused as to what that setting is supposed to do.

Anyway after starting out 0-3 I finally ended up getting a win in an overtime shootout with Lemieux getting the only goal in the shootout. All of the games have been very competive from the computer AI with a variety of goals and some great pressure put on me in my defensive zone.

Brought a little of NHL Rivals flavor into the game by naming my coach Dick Fain and adding 33 1/3 to the custom soundtrack.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:20 pm

finally got the game today! can someone tell me what basic slider changes I need to make to get me started? I only had time for one game on All Star, but came away pretty impressed. It was like last year's game, but had a litle different look and feel about it that I liked. Some of the new animations are real nice. I love the windup of the slapshot.

Some quick observations:
-lack of hitting by the AI - I outhit the AI about 40 to 18.....worse than NHL06

. I am assuming that sliders can improve this.
-lack of scoring by the AI - I should have gotten lit up in my first game on All Star, but the AI only won 2-0.
-penalties were out of control.....anytime I barely used the right analog stick, I got called for a penalty. I'm sure this can be corrected with sliders.

I was impressed with the look of the game. I looks sharper and nicer than 05K's verison and the play by play I thought was pretty good. The announcer gets excited at times and it adds to the game.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:23 pm

vader29 wrote:Brought a little of NHL Rivals flavor into the game by naming my coach Dick Fain and adding 33 1/3 to the custom soundtrack.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:35 pm

Just fired up the game for the first time tonight and was fairly impressed. Has anyone see this though. This was my first game mind you.

I'm St. Louis hosting the Mighty Ducks...I pull down Federov who is on a breakaway. I get called for a penalty and Federov gets the "penalty shot." Remember the CPU is playing Anaheim. The CPU (Federov) leaves the puck at center ice and skates in towards the goalie and makes a phatom wrist shot, all the while the puck still sets at center ice? WTF?

Other than that the game played pretty well.

Jeff

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:11 am

One thing I'm confused about... does 'momentum' refer to player physics, or the team momentum that leads to that whole 'disable controls' thing where you can prevent your opponent from using, say, one-timers for a given amount of time. If it's the latter, I'd really like to turn it off, but it isn't letting me do that mid-franchise. I turn off momentum and then when I check again later it's back on, even though I've ostensibly saved my changes.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:22 am

Jeff wrote:Just fired up the game for the first time tonight and was fairly impressed. Has anyone see this though. This was my first game mind you.

I'm St. Louis hosting the Mighty Ducks...I pull down Federov who is on a breakaway. I get called for a penalty and Federov gets the "penalty shot." Remember the CPU is playing Anaheim. The CPU (Federov) leaves the puck at center ice and skates in towards the goalie and makes a phatom wrist shot, all the while the puck still sets at center ice? WTF?

Other than that the game played pretty well.

Jeff

somebody else reported the same exact thing....might have been in this
thread earlier on. weird, huh?

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:24 am

Slumberland wrote:One thing I'm confused about... does 'momentum' refer to player physics, or the team momentum that leads to that whole 'disable controls' thing where you can prevent your opponent from using, say, one-timers for a given amount of time. If it's the latter, I'd really like to turn it off, but it isn't letting me do that mid-franchise. I turn off momentum and then when I check again later it's back on, even though I've ostensibly saved my changes.

the only "momentum" they talk about in the game's features is the team momentum. that's why I am confused when people say they enable momentum and notice a difference in the skating? we need some clarification on this I think.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:12 am

Slumberland wrote:when I check again later it's back on, even though
I've ostensibly saved my changes.

I've been having trouble with my settings savings. It's been happening too often to be considered an accident. Sometimes they are saved and sometimes the momementum is turned off, shot is back to auto, pinning is back to default, or I even had the difficulty level go back to Pro from All-Star.

laurenskye · Post by **laurenskye** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:10 am

I noticed when momentum is turned off the "disable controls" is gone but I don't know if it does anything else.

The settings I did was:
Sim setting
All-star
turn CPU speed burst down to equal with human
turn pinning all the way up
turn net off moorings to on

There might be a few more tweaks but it plays great like this.

Wrekcut1 · Post by **Wrekcut1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:26 am

Why did they remove the Manual Deke this year? This was a great feature last year and it says in the manual that it is in the game by holding down the left trigger and hold b, but it doesn't do it, it just protects the puck as if you are just holding down the "b" button by itself. I don't know how many of you used this last year, but it was very very good. It really let you place your shots and let you feel like you had a real chance to get the puck in, unlike right now where it feels like it is really up the computer to where your shot goes.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:45 am

JackB1 wrote:
Slumberland wrote:One thing I'm confused about... does 'momentum' refer to player physics, or the team momentum that leads to that whole 'disable controls' thing where you can prevent your opponent from using, say, one-timers for a given amount of time. If it's the latter, I'd really like to turn it off, but it isn't letting me do that mid-franchise. I turn off momentum and then when I check again later it's back on, even though I've ostensibly saved my changes.
the only "momentum" they talk about in the game's features is the team momentum. that's why I am confused when people say they enable momentum and notice a difference in the skating? we need some clarification on this I think.

In the manual it says that momentum is team based. I remember reading that if you have so much momentum you can turn off some of your opponents abilities...like speed burst time...for a short time period. That is stupid...if you are a sim guy.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:48 am

Wrekcut1 wrote:Why did they remove the Manual Deke this year? This was a great feature last year and it says in the manual that it is in the game by holding down the left trigger and hold b, but it doesn't do it, it just protects the puck as if you are just holding down the "b" button by itself. I don't know how many of you used this last year, but it was very very good. It really let you place your shots and let you feel like you had a real chance to get the puck in, unlike right now where it feels like it is really up the computer to where your shot goes.

I'm not sure I understand your statement. Manual dekes are mapped to the right analog stick...just like last year. They work fine for me.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:53 am

Sorry for the 3rd straight post but...My initial impressions of the game are very favorable. I have played 3 games and haven't seen any of the bugs mentioned. I realize what people are saying about the game feeling the same as last year but there is a definate difference in my opinion. The momentum of the skaters is better (IMO) than any previous ver. I love the wrist shot animation too. My only gripe so far has been the high scoring. I have scored 5+goals in every game so far. Shot totals are a bit high also. Sliders are at sim default so I will be tinkering. One cool thing I like is how all the scoring chances are replayed between periods/after the game...very cool. More later on today.

Wrekcut1 · Post by **Wrekcut1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:07 am

You are thinking of the wrong kind of Deke...think of it more as manual control of your stick. Last year you held down the left trigger and B button and used your left joystick to place your stick and the puck where you wanted it and released the B button to shoot.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:17 am

Wrekcut1 wrote:You are thinking of the wrong kind of Deke...think of it more as manual control of your stick. Last year you held down the left trigger and B button and used your left joystick to place your stick and the puck where you wanted it and released the B button to shoot.

Oh, you mean protect the puck...my bad. I did see a setting to turn that on/off in the menus. Its set to "auto" by default if Im not mistaken.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:19 am

Diablo25 wrote:My only gripe so far has been the high scoring. I have scored 5+goals in every game so far.

I was seeing a little too much scoring as well (Sim, All-Pro, 8 min). I maxxed pinning and reduced the game speed by one notch (to 2) and it seems to be a little more realistic.

Wrekcut1 · Post by **Wrekcut1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:29 pm

Diablo25 wrote:
Wrekcut1 wrote:You are thinking of the wrong kind of Deke...think of it more as manual control of your stick. Last year you held down the left trigger and B button and used your left joystick to place your stick and the puck where you wanted it and released the B button to shoot.
Oh, you mean protect the puck...my bad. I did see a setting to turn that on/off in the menus. Its set to "auto" by default if Im not mistaken.

No it was called a manual deke last year....protect the puck was different. I guess there is no better way to explain it, except if you still have last years game go in the manual on the game and look at it and try it. You will see what I mean. It was kind of a pain to learn, but very useful in the games.

From the way it looks no one used the feature, so maybe that is why they took it out. What a shame. It was really good.

Wrekcut1 · Post by **Wrekcut1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:51 pm

Diablo,

Sorry, you were correct. They moved it to the right thumbstick, but you have to hold downt the left trigger when doing it and release the left trigger to shoot the puck.

Thanks for the help.

BasketballJones · Post by **BasketballJones** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:25 pm

My only complaints thus far are the short time you have to make line changes and changing on the fly. My other problem is I've had the game freeze on me twice trying to edit lines during the game. I like to edit the powerplay lines each period. Anyone else experience this freeze issue? If it is constant, I won't do in game edits.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:37 pm

The freezing issue has been experienced by some of this thread's readers before. I just leave my change of lines on auto but I make the fatigue level high, so that I can see all 4 lines playing. Just curious why you like tinkering your PP lines each period?

BasketballJones · Post by **BasketballJones** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:24 pm

It sounds dumb but I'll take all my point scorers from the first two periods and put them on one line or on one of the two pps. I always leave at least one defenseman on each line.. Thanks for replying it's not a major issue with me just as long as its not my game disc.