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Better than 06 and an excellent value!

User Rating: 8.6 | NHL 07 PS2

By kaypro1234 | Review Date: September 19, 2006

I rented NHL 07 for the Xbox 360 and played the Marketplace demo of NHL 2K7. In the end, I bought NHL 07 for the PS2. Why? NHL 07 for the 360 has incredible textures and the challenging but rewarding Skill Stick. However, the frame rate is low and choppy with lots of skipped frames. Control is hindered by this uneven graphical performance making it difficult to control the player. I could have lived with these problems if there were more features, but the game is bare bones. There are no European leagues and the season and dynasty modes are too stripped down. Also, there are only a few cut scenes during games. Even the three stars skating out at the end of a game has been replaced by a static text window. Disappointing. Also, for all the talk about the puck physics no one is mentioning the magnetic, magic movements of the puck which are worse than in the current gen versions. The puck will vacuum into a players stick and during dekes or before a shot I have watched the puck moving back and forth on its own while being several scale feet away from the player. Players also bunch up awkwardly in the middle of the ice or start animating frantically as they encounter a barrier like the boards. The lack of a sprint button is also unrealistic. I always turn the overall game speed down to make it more realistic, but hockey players don't skate at the same pace all of the time and there should be a way to manually control player speed.

2K7 has the same great game play that the 2K hockey series has had since the Dreamcast. However, it still lags behind graphically in terms of textures, proportion, scale and the choice of colour, all of which are distracting . Also, as in previous 2K hockey games, the annoying and significant frame rate jump that happens right after the face off is still there and as annoying as ever. The cut scenes are awkward and detract from the immersion as they do not seem to flow smoothly from the game play engine. The new camera angles are impressive, though.

I decided to play it safe and go with the PS2 version of EA's game. I am glad that I did. First of all, the graphics are actually quite solid. This is a budget title to be sure and elements such as the menu screens use low resolution textures and there is no16x9 wide screen option. In game, however, the graphics are very good. They seem a touch smoother (higher frame rate) than in 06 and the scale and proportion of the player models and set pieces are excellent. The puck physics are better than last year's game with fewer incidents of questionable movements by the puck and lots of unpredictable bounces and deflections. There are a nice amount of cut scenes that add to the atmosphere and the commentary is arcade in style but does the job. The players respond well to control inputs and there are quite a few control options with drop passes, left stick dekes and more, along with the ability to customize the controls by re-mapping the actions to different buttons. There are quite a few game play sliders so it is possible to adjust the game to a more realistic level. Annoyingly, high stick penalties happen far too often, but adjusting the aggression and penalty sliders seems to help. Playing a budget PS2 hockey game on an HD TV with my 360 sitting silently by is a little disappointing, but I just refuse to pay $64.99 CDN for a game with choppy, uneven graphics and fewer features, no matter how high resolution the textures are. I recommend NHL 07 for the PS2 as a solid, well rounded and adequately featured game of hockey that is a bargain at $29.98. If you can get past the old school graphics that are best viewed on a standard definition 4x3 television then you won't be disappointed.

NHL 07

Better than 06 and an excellent value!

It's like pizza...even when its not great, its still very good.

I thought this game was awsome