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.

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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.