NHL 2K8 review

Sept 14, 2007

We sports gamers live to complain. If the latest version of our favorite annual title isn't significantly different than last year's - except, of course, for every little existing detail that we already know and love - then we all moan that the developers are lazy and resting on their laurels. However, when the makers move forward with innovations to jar a mature series out of the doldrums, we writhe in loud agony on message boards around the world.

To that end, NHL 2K8 may be the most divisive sports game in years. There's no doubt that this season was the right time to shake up the series, as a simple update to last year's smooth but not-quite-next-generation effort wouldn't have cut it. And shake it up they did, by implementing a completely new set of controls that use - gasp! - bumpers to handle passing and shooting. There's a method to this madness, though, as moving the fundamentals off of the face buttons and triggers actually opens up a huge amount of gameplay variety that will (eventually) allow you to leave flatfooted defensemen on their backsides in a Gretzkian wake.