What happened I thought only EA ruined great sporting games.

User Rating: 6.5 | NHL 2K9 X360
By dumptruck123 | Review Date:
First I would like to say that this is not a terrible game, it just is not the kind of improvement or lack of improvement I have learned to expect from 2k. How long now has 2k had the custom arena music feature and they still can't get it right. That is something I would expect from EA with games like Madden (I won't even get started about that steaming pile).

Customized music in 2k09 has many problems. First of all and probably the most annoying is that during most stoppages the music won't play. It only plays if the net comes off or the puck is shot out of play, both of these things happen maybe once a game. So if you are playing a tight game and your goalie has to freeze a lot of pucks, you just sit there in dead silence.

This is easily ΒΌ to 1/3 of your gaming experience spent listening to nothing. I even turned off my music selection for stoppages just hoping for some kind of noise from the 2k soundtrack and still nothing. Another problem with the custom music is that it doesn't play at the appropriate times that you have set for it. At times it plays your music randomly.

Another problem with this game is the hitting. A lot of fools out there believe the hitting should be toned down to make it more realistic with today's NHL. What about the rest of us who hate the new offense oriented NHL and want to bring back the old days of goons and grinders. Regardless of my opinion or anyone else's, the style of play on the ice should dictate the outcome of events.

Say you're like me and charging down ice looking to line someone up for a hit, a lot of times I just miss badly and get caught out of position. But if I make contact the two players shouldn't stumble back from each other like they bumped into each other walking down the street. I lined up Petr Sykora with Bobby Holik from line to line and just "bump", so we just looked at each other and continued to play bumper cars around the rink the whole game.

The rest of the game is an alright experience but these flaws hurt the overall product. Maybe I and others are being too picky but over the years 2K Sports has been the anti-EA. They usually have cared about there products and tried to improve them each year and not just add gimmicks to a game and call it new (Zamboni rides-come on).

Defiantly rent this game first before buying, as it will not be for everybody this year.

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