For gamers: NHL 09 is the real deal

Sean Leahy has a detailed review of EA Sports NHL 09, which was released yesterday in many stores in NA. I managed to pick it up and my initial reaction is the same as Leahy's: this is the electronic equivalent to crack. I've only just begun the "Be a Pro" journey, but just three games in I can see that I'll be doing a lot less sleeping, eating, reading and paying attention to loved ones in the forseeable future (especially since real hockey starts soon too).

I haven't tried joining an online league or team yet - I figure I'll need to be at least passably acceptable as a player first. Still, if anyone else has a PS3 out there, look me up and feel free to add me as a friend (mgnome9).

For gamers - A NHL 09 Preview

Mike Chen finally returned from oblivion and he's brought with him a fairly in-depth comparison of NHL 2k9 and EA Sports NHL 09. The most passage for me was his description of the "Be a Pro" gameplay:

EA's implemented a new Be A Pro feature which lets you basically be one player for an entire season. Part of the appeal of this is creating your own player, then getting drafted by a team and simulating the experience of just being that one player for the entire season. For the purposes of the demo, though, you understand the gameplay aspect of it, and I think it's actually really cool. In this case, you play as the center for the entire one-period demo (either Sidney Crosby or Henrik Zetterberg). As the center, the camera follows you regardless of where the puck is, though an arrow appears to help you with where you should be going.

This feature gives gamers a totally different understanding and context for the game...

Here's an example: on one shift, I won the faceoff back to my D; I went into an open area on the half-boards and called for a pass, then passed it off to my wing in the slot. The puck caromed around and out the zone and a big blue arrow pointed me towards where my defensive responsibilities were. I got into the the defensive zone and looked for the open Red Wing in the slot while my two Penguins defensemen covered down low. I got behind my guy, lifted his stick, then lightly checked him until the puck cleared. My pinching D was rushing the puck, so I stayed behind him, and as he broke into the zone, I stayed on the blueline to cover his position. Once he dumped the puck to a wing, he swung back around and I drove the net.

That sounds fantastic to me. Looks like I'll have to get a PS3 this September.

For gamers out there

Greg Wyshnyski posted an interesting interview with EA Sports producer David Littman. Apparently EA is looking to go groundbreaking with their next NHL title by creating a MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) "league"...kinda like World of Warcraft:

Your goal is to get this character to "legend" status both online and offline. And you're going to get hockey cards on the way to show your status.

We're tracking these players with the performance tracker. Someone that has 100 goals and doesn't play defense will not be the best player in the world; the best player on the leader boards will be someone who plays a full, rounded game of hockey. He won't be someone who goes off-sides all the time. Because nobody wants to play with the guy who goes offsides all the time.

Since you have your own guild, you can just trade a guy.

...

And during the game, there's voice chat with the team. You asked before about pitfalls in playing the game: Not communicating is the biggest one. Saying "I'm open" or "at the point, at the point!" is important.

We're hoping that there's going to be a lot of forums set up, and teams creating Web sites for their guild.

You know, you can see everyone on the leader board; if you see a defenseman that has "A's" across the board, you can immediately talk to that person and invite them to your team. Tell him, "Hey, we need a defenseman and we're making a run for the Cup."

Im personally not a big gamer. I've never played "World of Warcraft" and I dont even have a next-gen console. That said, this all sounds incredibly fun and may force me to pick-up a PS3 when this title drops.

Between "NHL 09" and real hockey this winter I may end up severely neglecting my friends/family/lover(s)/personal hygiene. Good times ahead!