About this time last year, at E3, I was chewing the fat with a 2K Sports representative about NBA 2K11 which already looked to be the monster it would become. Long dominant in the pro basketball genre, the game with Michael Jordan on its cover was going to be 2K’s Sunday punch to EA Sports. “That’s the idea,” the guy told me. “Get an exclusive deal without paying for it.”
Take-Two’s quarterly report yesterday included a list of “key titles announced to date for the remainder of fiscal 2010″. It didn’t include NHL 2K11, which some are taking as the death of that franchise.
The National Hockey League dropped the puck on a new season Thursday night, turning sports fans’ thoughts to ice — and to hard hitting, fast-paced one-timer-from-the-slot action, qualities that 2K’s NHL title can certainly supply on a console.
One of my worst nightmares—next to the one about a high school reunion—is attending a preview event where I’m the only girl and I have no idea how to play the game.
2K Sports gave out its player ratings today for NHL 2K10 and, fun-with-spreadsheets style, we present you this year’s superlatives—dubious included—among the 1225 players on this year’s roster.
Talking to Randy Hahn for yesterday’s column about announcing NHL 2K10, I tested how deep his vocabulary runs in the game. I threw out a dozen hockey terms – some basic, others esoteric – and asked Hahn if he’d said them.
The scene is familiar: Midway through the first period of an NHL game, and the shot knots up the score. Randy Hahn considers the action for a split-second and leans into his microphone.
Ten new screens from NHL 2K10 went out the door yesterday, spotlighting pre-game festivities at four arenas, and closeups of some league standouts whose names you’ll be hearing quite a bit.
The picture gets better, showcasing an all-star shift sewn together in a pretty tight montage of faces and places. It winds up with coverboy Alex Ovechkin, who dekes Martin Biron and shovels in the backhander like he’s pitching hay.
Well, I’ll be interested to see how they pull this one off in NHL 2K10 – the shot mechanic, not the “warming-hands-over-red-hot-stick” quicktime event. Animation only, or new feature? You make the call.
