After playing with the demo some, I definitely like it more than 2k9. Much better visually, gameplay wise and control wise. Presentation in 2k9 in terms of opening sequence and intros is awesome and I am not sure if NHL 08 will be able to match that but that is ok.
As for the actual gameplay it looks very good, lots of improvements and there are still some areas that they may have been addressed but without sliders I am not sure if they can be or are lingering problems.
On All Star the AI forechecks well and so does your guys however during backechecking the forwards on both teams go to far in terms of forechecking leaving the defenseman alone and backing up.
Not enough forward backchecking. Which is wierd because in be a pro on the same difficulty level the opposite can be said with the forwards on your team and theirs, they actually do a good job of getting back. Be a pro plays more sim than the regular play now.
One pet peeve of mine since last year has been the lighting. The arenas are just too well lit. Last year the player models did not have no shaded lighting effects on them so it blended well. However this year they added shaded lighting effects to the player models and yes it looks great on the players and all but now it looks wierd because the arena is still well lit thus there is an all encompassing light source. How are these guys having shadows and such when there is no true light sources around the rink. Its an esthetics bash but last year was tolerable not it just looks overdone with no true light sources. I guess I will have to get used to it
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