Very good game ,new features make this game the best in years and graphically gorgeous

User Rating: 8.5 | NHL 2K10 X360
This has been one of the best NHL games that 2K has created in recent history.

This years game controls have been made to be a lot more smooth for the player this time around and doesn't feel as robotic as last years game. When you first start up the game you'll notice the new interface for the menus once you press the right analog which is a nice change from the previous years. It's not the greatest but its fairly easy to use after the first few minutes of navigating. If you don't press the analog you'll notice the new quick game feature which allows you to play a normal exhibition game against the CPU,invite your friends to play against or with each other and play a ranked online game. If you're like me you probably will just jump right into quick game against the CPU. You can select all 30 NHL teams of course , a new 2K team,16 national teams and of course East/West conference all star teams.

Once you jump into a game you'll notice big difference in this years game as oppose to last years game when it comes to presentation. This year has all new intro movies for each team as they enter their respected arenas which is a very nice touch to make this game authentic. If you pause the game at any moment and go to the replays and zoom in on the players faces you'll see that they are not just cartoony they look extremely well done. I would say about 95% of all the players on each team look dead on. They are almost all easily recognizable especially if you are a fan of that team. Also with the graphics the players equipment looks great though the one problem I have is that the goalies look a little bit like hunch backs still but its something I can live with considering the goalie animations are still some of the best ever.

Now onto the game play ,this year has seen an overhaul on the way the game is played.Just on default alone the game plays very good and with the right set of sliders I can see this being one of the best hockey sim games ever just because of how great it plays. You will notice that its not all about crashing the net this year. Each player plays the way they are supposed to like in real hockey, all play their own position. Though I do suggest mess around with the sliders because on the default once you really get the hang of the game sometimes it can be either too difficult or too easy.

Added to the game has been a whole bunch of new animations such as stumble shots. In previous NHL 2k games if you were taking a shot on net but you get bumped by a hit you'll immediately cancel out the shot, which at times were very frustrating . Now with stumble shots it allows you to get hit and still take the shot if you're in position to do so. Its a great added feature because you can be falling and still take a shot like in real life though not always are you going to get the shot off sometimes you can miss the puck completely or shoot it wide. It wont happen all the time but when it does it looks really great and real. Scoring off them are going to be hard to do but rewarding for sure.

2K have also put in stick lifts. This is different from EA's version because there are multiple animations and different ways for the stick lift to work. In some ways its actually better and looks nicer too. What can happen depending on which player you're using and their defensive ratings is you can be faced to face with the skater press the stick lift and can stop the opposing player in their tracks and take the puck up the ice. You can also intercept passes using stick lifts as well there are lots of different ways to steal the puck off a player using it.

The mode are just like last years pretty much with the additions of season mode and straight play offs. You can also access Zamboni races from the menus as well. There are also created draft classes and 2k share which means you can upload your created...whatevers for people to download.

Overall this game is a very good game , its definitely worth a buy and for its new price tag of 49$why wouldn't you pick it up.