NHL Developer Insights: NHL 2K10 Improved AI

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by daflyboys

It has held up decently for a last gen game. I recently played and the AI is still remarkable. Here's a compiliation I made a while ago from replays I happened to save (I think there's a 2K4 replay or two that snuck in). I also have a seperate couple of vids that didn't make this montage that I can post as well if ne1 is interested:

Thanks for posting this flyboy, brings back some great memories.

[onlybygrace]

Hey Flyboys...what goalie edits were done to come up with that stuff???

I still have my copy of 2k3 and would like to mess with it sometime.

[daflyboys]

Quote: Originally Posted by onlybygrace

Hey Flyboys...what goalie edits were done to come up with that stuff??? I still have my copy of 2k3 and would like to mess with it sometime.

I don't remember any longer. Grab the latest season roster I had over at 2khockey.net and the editor I uploaded here and take a look. I think I recall that I reduced the size of the goalies a bit too. Here's the only other vid I have. The AI is ridiculous....

[onlybygrace]

Wow...

Good stuff. Maybe some day I'll resort to that game.

There was no backwards skating on D that year, right???

[Money99]

What was very strange was the fact that the goalies were perfect in the PS2 version. No edits needed whatsoever.
When I sold my PS2 for an Xbox and played 2K3, I was amazed at the difference.

[daflyboys]

Quote: Originally Posted by onlybygrace

Wow... Good stuff. Maybe some day I'll resort to that game. There was no backwards skating on D that year, right???

Pretty sure not, they just switched when they needed to have good positioning.... unlike now when you can do it whenever on O or D.... even in the most unnatural moments.... just ask cheesers!

[slickdtc]

Yeah, no backwards skating then. It was automatic. Might've been better, I remember it being less clunky. We just WANTED the control of backwards skating, though we may have never actually needed it, especially since it was so badly implemented.

I have to admit, I get on the 360/PS3 versions of NHL games for really not improving all that much from that era. But they have definitely made leaps and bounds in the animations and (of course) graphics department. There was a lot of awkwardness in 2k3, to be sure. I think we can probably judge it more objectively now though, because it's old so the graphics aren't what matters anymore. But I hear so many complaints about the current games having bad player models, ugly goalies, etc. We should revisit some of these more current games, throw out any problems we had with graphics (because it'll be outdated and we won't care), and see where we stand. We may just find some beauty beneath the ugly. Though the people around here mostly care about the core gameplay and not the graphics anyway.

Awesome 2k3 videos, Daflyboys. I really do have to pick it back up. I've tried. Once a walk-in, but a kid was manning the counter and couldn't find it (online said it was in stock though). The other time I called in and they had me on hold for 20 minutes before I just accepted that they weren't going to talk to me and just hung up. GameStop, folks.

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

It didn't help with the first few next gen versions pretty much being just last gen ports with a gimick or two added for good measure. (cinemotion, play off beards, zamboni racing etc) They had really gotten away from what made the early versions of NHL2k the great games that they were, and that was making a great simulation game of the actual sport.

Definitely. There's no doubt they tried to get more fans by having these stupid casual things that eventually end up out of the game in a year or two. If there's one good sign, it's that they aren't pushing playoff beard/zamboni/cinemotion type things this year. I think that's a very telling sign. Instead we're seeing stick lifts (a nice bullet point feature but directly releated to gameplay), retooled AI, and strategies that actually work. We're getting meat and potatoes stuff instead of all that fancy BS that really doesn't attract any casual gamers and only turns off the hardcore gamers.

But like I said before, the 2k hockey feel will still remain. A lot will change, but they can't make a completely new game in one year. So I'm not going in expecting a completely different game; a game that has a lot of improvements, a lot of tweaks though is what I'm going to be looking to. And honestly, I think that will be more then enough. I've played this series long enough to like that core 2k hockey feel so if they got rid of that, I think I might actually be a bit peeved.

[Scottdau]

Not me I like graphics just as much as game play. I am a very superfical person.