WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

[DarkFudge]

Out of curiosity, I would like to know WHICH version of 2K Hockey ( from this Gen or Last Gen) and also state briefly WHY

I've played alot of version of NHL 2K hockey and I find 2K9 to be just mediocre....but I am torn between all of the previous versions to decided which I felt was their best hockey game.

I think this could be a very interesting and enlightening discussion.


After we discuss, I may just dust off that particular version and load it into my console to play again and see if I agree

thanks

[Money99]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

Hands-down, NHL2K3 .

[DarkFudge]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

Please share your thoughts why....I just loaded up 2K3 and 2K5 on the Xbox and found advantages to both games. I wasnt clear on which one I felt was superior. I thought 2K3 had unrealistically super goalies that lacked variety in the types of saves they made and the types of goals they let up.

[tabulaRasa]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

NHL2k5 easily, it had good PBP, awesome gfx, great presentation and more forgiving goalies than 2k3, aiming that worked (unlike 2k3).

2k5 delivered a total package, that´s what 2k10 needs too. 2k10 needs classy models and textures, good PBP, great presentation and immersion, besides good gameplay. And the movement and stickhandling needs to be smooth.

Total package is the only way, showing promise ain´t enough anymore.

[Flyermania]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

For me it was 2k5. At the time, it had a great mix of gameplay, graphics, and the ESPN presentation really put the game over the top for me. Throw in Finn's editor and I played that game constantly.

[Money99]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

Please share your thoughts why....I just loaded up 2K3 and 2K5 on the Xbox and found advantages to both games. I wasnt clear on which one I felt was superior. I thought 2K3 had unrealistically super goalies that lacked variety in the types of saves they made and the types of goals they let up.

Play the PS2 version. No super-goalies, the CPU offensive AI was fantastic and it was genuinely tough getting through the neutral zone.
To me, that's why I preferred 2K3 to 2K5. In 2K5, I could let the CPU have one breakaway after another, or oddman rushes all day. It could barely score.
That wasn't the case with 2K3. Sure, it had it's flaws (the biggest being the fact you couldn't truly hit the top corners), but all the good that was in the game made up for it.

I still remember how I had to go out of town for 3 weeks. When I got back I fired up my Dynasty and played against the Avs in my first game back. I got doused 9-2 because I was very rusty on my defense and offensive breakouts. I could barely get through the neutral zone and every time I made a mistake in my end, the Avs buried me.
In not one of the 9 goals scored against me did I feel cheated. They were all earned.

I never got that feeling with 2K5. Sure the controls, presentation, goalies might have been better in some regard, but the CPU AI was light-years behind 2K3's.

[TSOLEliot]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

2K5 was great...after that it went down hill...

My second pick is 2K8 which isn't that bad the gameplay isn't quite as fun- games seem to drag no matter what setting and of course it has a few roster bugs.

The gameplay in 2K5 was solid with little slider tweaking, it has wonderful customization in franchise mode, and the ESPN presentation was a lot of fun. Every once in a while I like playing 2K5 with a few of the various rosters out there such as the 1979 season as well as historic rosters.

Graphics are definitely behind the times but back then it was great.

[DarkFudge]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

wow I see votes for BOTH 2K5 and 2K3.....Im going to have to play them both some more now

I just cannot get into 2K9....the gameplay is a mess....the animations are just too fast and robotic and I am not seeing the differences and variety in play styles from team to team and player to player....is it just me or is 2K9 a mess?

[RealmK]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

Play the PS2 version. No super-goalies, the CPU offensive AI was fantastic and it was genuinely tough getting through the neutral zone.
To me, that's why I preferred 2K3 to 2K5. In 2K5, I could let the CPU have one breakaway after another, or oddman rushes all day. It could barely score.
That wasn't the case with 2K3. Sure, it had it's flaws (the biggest being the fact you couldn't truly hit the top corners), but all the good that was in the game made up for it.

I still remember how I had to go out of town for 3 weeks. When I got back I fired up my Dynasty and played against the Avs in my first game back. I got doused 9-2 because I was very rusty on my defense and offensive breakouts. I could barely get through the neutral zone and every time I made a mistake in my end, the Avs buried me.
In not one of the 9 goals scored against me did I feel cheated. They were all earned.

I never got that feeling with 2K5. Sure the controls, presentation, goalies might have been better in some regard, but the CPU AI was light-years behind 2K3's.

Exactly how I feel as well Hank. The combination of the neutral zone pressure, ai that actually had some brains, and the fact that you had to actually work for goals, easily puts NHL2k3 right up there for me as well.

[slickdtc]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

I've played every NHL 2k game up to NHL 2k7 on the original XBOX. I've yet to jump into the series on the PS3. Also, I got NHL 2k and NHL 2k2 extremely late. So I didn't play them as much and therefore, can't appreciate how great they were in their own regard. I'll put it like this:

1. NHL 2k3
2. NHL 2k6
3. NHL 2k5
4. NHL 2k7
5. NHL 2k4

2k3 is usually the game that many people point to when they ask this question. The annoying thing is the SEGA created players (though some of them rocked for me) and I believe the goalies would be mixed up (if you chased a starting goalie, the backup would continue to play throughout the season). I want to go pick up 2k3 again right now. I've gone through it twice. But 2k3 is the game that really hooked me on the series. When I played the demo for NHL 2k9 on my PS3, I got that 2k3 feeling for some reason. I don't know if it's the graphics (2k3 was pretty bad graphically, and 2k9 looks similar to it) or what, but it gave me that feeling. But I loved the real time cut scenes, difficulty, and generally smart AI.

2k6 I loved. I liked 2k5, but 2k6 seemed like it was getting back to the 2k3 type game. Played through a season for the first time since 2k3 but then in the middle of my second season, something happened to my disc. I opted to wait until 2k7 because it was the summer time and I'd rather fork over the $20 for the game that was soon to be released. Maybe I should get back into 2k6.

2k5 was a good comeback after a pretty poor NHL 2k4 showing. The ESPN presentation was pretty awesome. By now, the series was pretty different from 2k3 which was only 2 years prior. It played different, but it played damn well.

2k7 I've played 8 seasons on. But I chalk this up more to me just being an NHL junkie then the game being that good. Plus, a lot of my seasons weren't very realistic... it was mostly playing tons of games like a robot. I think the game would get more love from me if the sliders didn't change when you played rivals (so ****ing annoying) and the commentating was better (Cole and Neale blow) as well as the CPU being hit happy, which, from what I've read, seems to continue to plague the series. It does play a fun realistic game at times, but it can't seem to sustain this. The way the players move is kind of awkward too.

2k4 was just garbage. It may not be as bad as I'm remembering now, but it completely changed from the direction 2k3 had the series going. And that put a lot of people off it. Plus, the rampant bugs I heard about scared me away from a lot of the things in the game (I always played with Injuries off, just in case).

For the record, I never had any problems with bugs in this game. Besides just flawed stuff (like the backup goalies in NHL 2k3), I never had any bugs that crashed my game or anything like that.

[baa7]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

2K5. And overall, it's still better game than any next-gen hockey game that's come out so far. Apparently hockey developers for both games lost the ability to program intelligent CPU AI.

[original6]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

2k3 was tops in my book, simply because the ai was second to none. 2k5 is a close 2nd, due to the greatly expanded franchise mode and enhanced controls. But nothing has yet to hold a candle to 2k3's cpu ai. If 2k3 had 2k8's goalies, 2k5's expanded franchise mode, along with both 2k8's and 2k9's control schemes, you'd have pure hockey gaming gold!

[Money99]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

Exactly how I feel as well Hank. The combination of the neutral zone pressure, ai that actually had some brains, and the fact that you had to actually work for goals, easily puts NHL2k3 right up there for me as well.

Yup, 2K3 had lots of brains to it. Too bad Treyarch couldn't have continued what they started.

NHL09 has the best AI to date. It really knows how to move the puck around and look for chances.
VC needs to look at that and take some notes.
While I enjoy aspects of 2K9 the CPU is very one-dimensional in how it attacks.

[StormJH1]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

2k5 was probably my favorite, but really, they were all pretty similar with just a few tweaks here and there. I can't remember if it was 2k6 or 2k5 that stole the face button passing option from 989's Wayne Gretzky game, but I felt that option further cheapened the game, even if it did give you a nice feel on power plays for puck movement. Probably the main thing that killed that series for me was a combination of two problems:

(1) Goalies were ridiculously good, which meant that straights shots basically NEVER went in;
(2) (Related problem) the only way to consistently score was cheeser one timers, specifically one-timers to your centerman. I played with the Maple Leafs and pretty much nobody ever scored except Sundin in the slot.

Come to think of it 2k6 might have been my favorite because they did some great goalie mo-cap (Turco was on the cover), but it had all of the problems I listed above, too.

The #1 reason I switched from EA to 2k hockey around 2003ish was the responsiveness of the controls. Wristers, especially, had a lot of weight to them, and could be executed quickly, unlike EA's sluggish check-fest at the time.

But ultimately, the series failed to evolve, and IMO, never truly became next gen. As is often the case with video games, and we never seen anything better (like EA's shot stick, awesome visuals, and AI), we'd probably still think that 2k9 is a pretty decent game of hockey. But however you want to nitpick NHL 09, c'mon, 2k9 isn't even in the same arena as EA's hockey game nowadays.

[daflyboys]

Re: WHICH VERSION of 2K Hockey do YOU feel was the GREATEST?

2K5 and 2K4 were worlds apart. K4 had so many bugs it was unplayable. I loved K3 and tried to play again recently, but it's just too outdated. I picked up K5 (for $0.78 at GS ) and the editor to see if I could do anything again. Just wanted a hockey game for our regular xbox if we ever want to play one. If I can't find a player search button in Finn's editor though, there's no way I'm doing a basic roster update for it.