JRod wrote:I'm glad PK is willing to sacrifice $3 a gallon for us cheap basturds that will only get a hockey game if its close to the quality of say MVP. Which it sounds like neither games are that good. Not bad but not that good.
Thanks Paul. To make you feel better, I once bought FIFA twice in the same day.
I bought Championship Manager 5 the day it came out, before the reviews obviously.
Within 24 hours it was off my machine, and that was only because I reloaded it the next morning to see if it was really as crap as I thought.
It now has a much more valuable role to play...preventing my 1860 Munich coffee mug marking my computer desk.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
I picked up both games last night and played two games of each. I set 2K6 to All-Star and 06 to Medium. In addition, I changed the game speed to be closer to real life and checked to make sure the new rule sets were in place. This brings up one question I had. NHL 06 only seemed to have Offsides options for ON/OFF/DELAYED. None of these seemed to map to the re-instituted Tag-up offsides of this year's NHL. Did I miss a setting somewhere or am I otherwise mistaken about the inclusion of tag-up offsides in NHL 06?
At the time, I didn't realize that 2K6 comes with "SIM" settings so I will try them at the earliest opportunity.
While there is an instantly familiar feeling to 2K6, I found I liked some of the subtle changes a lot. As mentioned before, skating backward at the point with the puck has a much more natural feeling to the control as players appear to attempt to keep the puck onsides a lot more. The transition between many animations seems to have improved a lot as well, improving the overall look of the gameplay. This is most noticeable in the goaltender animations, especially second and third efforts. I like the increased difficulty of executing one-timers afforded by the new setting. I saw a variety of goals scored including a CPU breakaway goal where Spezza deked Brodeur on a missed pokecheck and backhanded the puck top-shelf. In my second game, however, I did outscore the CPU by a large margin so hopefully some tweaking will increase the CPU's ability to mount an offense. I should also note that I found myself using the the quick-playcalls on the D-pad more than I expected, moreso on offense. With the ability to cycle the puck better and keep the puck at the points, I often found myself calling for screens and net crashes, once resulting in a nice deflection goal. It's nice that most of the playcalls do have a noticeable effect on your formation, I even accidentally called for a defender relase when penalty killing and my opposite forward did break from the zone as implied. Also, I think the Enforcer/Initmidation facet of the game is done in a relatively unobtrusive manner, although I think a team's own enforcer should be able to step up and intervene somewhow.
My two games of NHL 06 seemed much more arcadey by comparison. Without parroting everything that PK has already said, I will address a couple of differences that occurred to me while playing. First, NHL2K6 runs in 480P and is widescreen capable. NHL06, unfortunately, is not. As a result, the default camera appears way to close and stretches the picture out in an unfortunate way. Choosing a more pulled back camera (Classic?) helps somewhat, but is still far from ideal. When playing at the native resolution, however, it is a nice looking game. In particular, as has been the case for the past couple of years, the faces of various players are rendered with an almost eerie similarity to their real-life counterparts, especially compared to 2K6. During a replay, my wife, a casual hockey fan, was able to correctly identify every Devil on ice.
Surely attributed to my recent string of playing the 2K series exclusively, I found it difficult to adjust to NHL06's control scheme. As a consequence of this, I often felt more out of position in that game. I particularly missed the backward skating stickwork when defending your own goal. I will say that NHL06 had a more seat of the pants effect where you felt that being out of position would lead to a good scoring chance or goal for the computer. In 2K6, on the other hand, being overly aggressive didn't necessarily feel as risky as I do not yet have the sense that an opponent's rush will take full advantage of my being out of position.
In the end, based upon limited play, I would have to recommend 2K6 to those wanting a hockey sim. I think that the subtle improvements go a long way toward making the game even more realistic. I am cautiously optimistic that some of the unexplored settings could lead to a more competitve CPU opponent but if not, I believe that the foundation of the game would at least provide a high quality on-line game.
I am on the fence with NHL06. Either I will sell it, or hang onto it for an arcade hockey niche, like N64 Gretzky or Rivals in the past. While there is some fun to be had with it, I just don't see ekeing out a sim quality game.
Have you managed to score any through the back of the net with 2k6? Reports of this glitch are quite disturbing, and if you can do it often or on demand it's a game killer for me.
In my 2 games, no. I haven't. That includes probably 4 or 5 attempts at wraparounds (all failed). I have heard of the reports, but I haven't read closely to know if there is a particular way people are getting this to occur. Obviously, based upon the reports, the potential is there but hopefully it is an infrequent occurence. I'll provide updates after further play.
During my games, I have scored in a variety of ways including garbage rebounds, a deflection, one-timer and a sweet breakaway goalie deke with Friesen.
Have you managed to score any through the back of the net with 2k6? Reports of this glitch are quite disturbing, and if you can do it often or on demand it's a game killer for me.
Web,
I only had a chance to play 1 period and then 1 full game last night and I experienced that glitch. It wasn't me who scored the goal, it was the cpu. It was at the end of the first period. I ended the game and played another game later in the evening and didn't see it. I did log in to Xbox Live before playing the second game and it made me download an update already. Maybe the update fixes this issue or some other glitches. I found it odd that an update was needed on release day.
I am a patient boy.
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait.
My time is water down a drain.
ScoopBrady wrote:I did log in to Xbox Live before playing the second game and it made me download an update already. Maybe the update fixes this issue or some other glitches. I found it odd that an update was needed on release day.
Good to see an update already is out. Nothing is odd when it comes to 2K Games and glitches, Scoopster!
I'm stoked to see that someone already has created a complete NHL 2K6 roster update for Action Replay, complete with Crosby. Looking forward to downloading that when I get NHL 2K6 for the second time , hopefully this evening.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
Maybe the update addressed Live? I heard lots of people were having trouble making and keeping connections. IIRC, there was a similar early patch last year (Though maybe not on day one!)
I won't mind if the glitch is rare, but if it is frequent or easily reproducible...
pk500 wrote:I'm stoked to see that someone already has created a complete NHL 2K6 roster update for Action Replay, complete with Crosby. Looking forward to downloading that when I get NHL 2K6 for the second time , hopefully this evening.
Take care,
PK
PK, that sucks you're not enjoying 06. I had fun with the PC demo but the lack of cpu checking and board pinning had me nervous about the final product. I held off on picking it up for the Xbox yesterday (with great restraint) figuring I could get if for the PC where the modding community could fix the lack of physical play. Now it sounds like they'll have to fix the easy goals Jack's talking about. Sorry if I contributed to you going back to EB last night to exchange 2k6 for 06. It still sounds like a fun game but I want a sim just as much as you. If 2k6 was $30 and 06 was $20 I probably would have picked up 06 yesterday too. I'll pay $20 for an arcadish hockey game but when I can get a sim for $10 cheaper I won't do it.
I am a patient boy.
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait.
My time is water down a drain.
pk500 wrote:I'm stoked to see that someone already has created a complete NHL 2K6 roster update for Action Replay, complete with Crosby. Looking forward to downloading that when I get NHL 2K6 for the second time , hopefully this evening.
Take care,
PK
PK, that sucks you're not enjoying 06. I had fun with the PC demo but the lack of cpu checking and board pinning had me nervous about the final product. I held off on picking it up for the Xbox yesterday (with great restraint) figuring I could get if for the PC where the modding community could fix the lack of physical play. Now it sounds like they'll have to fix the easy goals Jack's talking about. Sorry if I contributed to you going back to EB last night to exchange 2k6 for 06. It still sounds like a fun game but I want a sim just as much as you. If 2k6 was $30 and 06 was $20 I probably would have picked up 06 yesterday too. I'll pay $20 for an arcadish hockey game but when I can get a sim for $10 cheaper I won't do it.
No worries, Scoop. I was the asshole who raced to the car at 8:30 p.m. and put the keys into the ignition, not you.
Mea culpa.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
, hopefully this evening.
