Saturday, February 6, 2010

NHL 10 makes me a loser.

I fucking hate NHL10. I should have picked up Fifa 10 for $44.00
instead. I was in the mood for a new sports game, so I checked out what
the local retailers had to offer and found all EA 2010 titles were on
sale for $44 at Target. I originally planned on Fifa, but after some
consideration I decided on NHL 10. I still rock Fifa 2000 for PS1 and am
not a huge follower of soccer so current rosters aren't something I'm
missing. I got home with my copy of NHL, threw it in the PS3 and fired
it up. Right away I was impressed with how the game looks. The graphics
are beautiful, the animations are smooth. My living room was lit up
pretty bright by the TV. My eyes took a minute to adjust, similar to how
it feels walking out of the movies on a sunny day. I started to play the
practice mode to learn some mechanics and controls. At this point in my
life I'm 15 years removed from weekend long sessions of NHL '95 on
Genesis and SNES, so I am horribly unfamiliar with hockey games made on
anything other than cartridges. After grasping the concept of the new
control set up (left thumb stick moves your player, right thumb stick is
stick handling and shooting, passing is R2 and the face buttons are
plays and strategies) I decided to start a regular game. I am well aware
there are sliders and easier difficulties, however I started with the
defaults. I got tooled 4-0. I kept my cool, it was my first game, and my
first game back into video game hockey. I started a second game and
bumped down the difficulty and tried the NHL 94 control scheme which
maps actions (shoot, pass) to the face buttons. I found myself
appreciating the alternate control setup, but wanting the newer scheme
for certain features like being able to direct a slap shot. If I were
playing against a friend also using the NHL 94 scheme I wouldn't mind it
because we would be on the same level, playing against the CPU seemed
like I was at a disadvantage. Again, I lost. I went back to practice
mode and played a 5 on 5 team practice. I went back to the default
controls and felt a bit more confident in my skills. I started another
game and finally scored a goal. I still lost but fooled myself into
believing I was capable of winning. I played a rematch, and won. I was
riding high. I celebrated with the cat. We popped champagne, high fived,
smoked a cigar, threw confetti and I picked up the PS3 over my head like
the Stanley Cup and did a lap around the kitchen on my Heely's. I played
one more game and was shut out. I figured I was exhausted after the
victory celebration and called it a night. I was ready to get back onto
the ice last night after work. I started off strong but most games
seemed to start becoming formulaic. I score once in the first period.
Opposition scores twice in the second, then once more in the last five
minutes in the third period. I can't pin point what I am doing wrong
other than being naive, and thinking I am the master of all games of all
time. I am having a good time, but am beyond frustrated that I haven't
cracked this egg. I honestly don't care about winning or losing, but I
do want to have an enjoyable, fairly competitive game. I want to relive
the glory days of 0-0 games into the 3rd period then an upset at the
last minute, then playing a rematch to the same result. I've been steam
rolled. This game has glitched out on me and froze my PS3 twice under
similar circumstances. I made a shot on goal, the goalie held onto it
and one of my players was skating towards the net, and once he reached
it the game froze. The sound continued but the screen froze, and the PS3
button didn't bring up the menu. I still plan on playing NHL 10 and
improving my record to something better than a .071 average. I just need
to not throw my controller, and practice more. Send me a game invite on
PSN: Rozzy50 and you'll get an easy win.

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