NHL 09 and NHL 2K9 - rabbit221

Once again I'm plagued by insomnia at 4 A.M. so I feel I need to take a second and explain why both NHL 09 and NHL 2K9 fail to capture the essence of hockey for me. For me, it's all about the atmosphere. The fans. The announcers going a little wild when their team scores a goal or comes back to win from behind. The horn BLARING when the home team scores a goal. The crowd going nuts when they're team is doing good.

If you look at this aspect in NHL 09, it's very bland and boring. Once you've played one game, you've heard just about all the announcers have to offer. And the crowd? Total humanoid sausage fest, not a SINGLE woman in sight. Not that that matters but come on, at least LOOK like you attempted to put some effort into the audience. After playing NHL 09 for awhile I feel like the games that I play online are boring now. Goal celebrations don't seem all that great either. It's almost always the same animation. I don't feel like it captures what it's like when your leading goal scorer fires one home to put your team ahead. Another thing that bothers me is a. the music selection for the games and b. the music you hear in the arena throughout the game. I honestly feel like the playlist includes only 3 songs. I mean, how much effort does it take to watch a few NHL games and compile a list of songs that can be played during breaks in the game. Sure the organ/piano pieces are fine, you hear those at games all the time. But the songs they play in the arena just don't feel like they belong at a hockey game. If you're going to go through the trouble getting all the horns right, why not do it all right. Recreate the ENTIRE arena, not just the goddamn ice rink. Get signature songs that teams play for certain events. You're EA for cryin' out loud. It's not like you can't afford some of this shit. Even when I look at other EA Sports games, I feel like NHL gets shit on and it's at the bottom of the resources list.

Let's talk about improvements. Like I said earlier, I would LOVE to see a variety of announcers for the different teams if possible. If that's not possible, at least SOME variety. By the end of the first month of playing this game I'm sick of hearing the announcers they have in-game. They just seem so lifeless. If I play a baseball game or a football game, it's clear there was a lot of work put into the voices of the announcers. But when I play NHL 09, I can't help but feel like they've shortchanged me. As I said before, I would love to see the atmosphere amped up. REALLY put some effort into bringing the crowd alive and making look like it's full of REAL people. This is the 360 for fuck's sake, not the PSX. Bring each team's arena ALIVE. Make the people who play as the teams they root for proud. If you're gonna call this game NHL, concentrate on the NHL. Don't half ass a bunch of foreign leagues that 1/4 of your target audience is going to play. When I play as the Blue Jackets, I want to know without a doubt I'm playing in Nationwide Arena. I want to see the arena and go, "Hey I saw that when I was there!" If a baseball game can include the ENTIRE park recreated WITH the city skyline and some of the immediate surroundings behind it, there should be no reason why developers cannot recreate an entire ice hockey arena. Even do the shots from outside like MLB 2K9. Do SOMETHING to make me feel immersed.

Another area I feel needs MAJOR improvement is the collision detection and puck movement. The puck is NOT a magnet and player's sticks are NOT made of metal. I would love to see some real physics applied to this game if possible. I would love to see more variety in dekes and the way players move the puck. They seem so stiff in NHL 09, put some LIFE into those fuckers, make them look closer to REAL than a fucking manequin standing with a puck. The only time the players seem to resemble ACTUAL people is when they're in animations or cut scenes.

And for the love of God, IMPROVE THE GOALIE A.I. I don't even know where to begin on this one. How many times have you seen an NHL goalie deflect a shot with his blocker, only to sit there staring into space, wobbling like a fat kid who needs to shit, while the puck floats over his back and into the net. TAKE NOTES FROM NHL 2K8. That was some of the best goalie A.I. I've ever seen. How many times have you seen an NHL goalie drop down on his side when a player just comes close to the post? I don't know who you've got doing your goalie A.I. EA but FIRE HIM IMMEDIATELY.

I'm looking forward to NHL 2010 with cautious hope, hoping that they actually listen to their fanbase and choose to make this game better. Or even better, scrap it and start from the ground up. NHL 2K9 did it and they made some progress. Not the best NHL game ever, but goddamnit if they didn't improve over their last one. EA just put out the same bullshit as last year hoping no one would notice.

They did patch it though, so there's light at the end of this dark, dank tunnel.