I managed to do two things this weekend: put together a new TV stand and play NHL 09. While it's nice to have the TV elevated off the floor, the former was not nearly as fun as the latter.
I was big into hockey games going back to the classic Genesis titles but I had gotten away from them until recently. NHL 08 rekindled my interest in the games and 09 has added gasoline to the fire.
The big draw has become the online and offline Be A Pro modes. What is it? You play as a single player on the team of your choice. No switching between all the players and no control of the coaching decisions. When you're guy hits the bench for a line change, you sit, when he plays, you play. While the scope of play is therefore more limited than the usual total team control, I also found it liberating. I don't agonize over team losses because I'm not wholly responsible for them. I've also got a finer appreciation of the role of a single position and the discipline to confine yourself to that role. Try to do too much and suddenly you're out of position. Bad things tend to happen when you're out of position. Seeing a great play materialize out of solidly playing your position is a great reward and more meaningful because the play had to form outside your sole control.
Online play only takes this sensation and improves it. Now, it isn't you and a bunch of AI guys but you and a bunch of real people. Being online poses the same hazard of asshattery as other online games but the experience when you can find a team of people willing and able to play team hockey is the best online sports game experience I've had. It took me a bit to convince myself to try to go online (fears of idiot kids and morons) but, once I did, I was hooked.
Once nice feature: during games, the only chatter you hear is from your own team. A nice touch to at least avoid some random idiocy.
There is one catch to all this concentrated win: joining games can be seriously buggy. Seriously, annoyingly buggy. There's nothing that can more efficiently sap fun than to constantly struggle to get into a game. Once in, the game is gold. Getting there can be way more of a struggle than it ought to be. Hopefully, whatever is causing the problems can be patched. It's not bad enough not to bear but it ought to be patched. It needs to be patched.
I'd stop playing in protest but... I can't do it. I'm already thinking about by next shift on the ice.
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