Monday, August 31, 2009

2K holds conference call to chat about newest upgrades to NHL franchise
By Michael Lafferty

“One of the things I think with sports is that it is open; nothing is scripted and so it’s never the same.”

Hockey is one of those games that looks simple, but can be a nightmare to realize in a video-game. After all, you have five players (and a goalie) capable of going anywhere at any time, moving offensively with or without a puck, or positioning defensively, all in a confined area against a team of like numbers. The obstacle positions are ever changing, but the goal remains the same. Oh, and then you put everything on ice where you have to manage quick cuts, speed runs and quick stops to change direction.

It looks easy but anyone who recalls the first time they laced up the blades and stepped onto a sheet of ice can tell you that it is not.

So the challenges are pretty huge when it comes to putting together a video-game that embraces the sport and all that it entails. 2K Sports has done precisely that, and continues to innovate, as evidenced in the changes announced for NHL 2K10.

Among the new features are:

• Completely rewritten AI, enhanced defensive controls and stick lifts, stumble shots, a new defensive skating model and new incidental contact and small animation systems

• All-new rink intros for each arena, improved goal celebrations, enhanced visuals, and greatly improved, true-to-life character models, with San Jose Sharks commentators Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda returning with new broadcast commentary

• NHL 2K10 features a new contract/free agency system, improved roster management, an updated financial model, dynamic player progression, and fantasy drafts

• Play a franchise season game with or against a friend on- or offline, or play a traditional game against the CPU

• Publish your franchise stats and standings, and upload game highlights and screenshots to your personal page at 2KSports.com

• New seamless online integration connects players in Team Up games, tracks your progress with My Player Card, and offers full league, leaderboard, tournament and 2K Share support

• Create a persistent team with friends by designing your uniforms, developing a unique team identity, and then competing against other created teams online, offline and in Franchise mode

The publisher held a conference call Friday to talk about the pending changes. On hand for the calls were Ben Bishop (producer), Abe Navarro (lead gameplay producer), Nicholas Shewchuk, 2K Sports (producer) and Anthony Yampol (gameplay producer). Media tossed out a series of questions for the trio to answer.

“This was our second year of developing this year at this complex. We had a lot of things we wanted to do with 2k9 but we didn’t have time.”

“Gameplay was a huge focus for us.”

Now since this was a round-robin type of conference call, with questions previously submitted by the media in attendance and the answers were flying fast and furious, for the purpose of this story, the questions will simply bear the 2K moniker for the answers. Now to the goodies …

Question: what is the biggest change over last year’s game? 

2K Sports: The gameplay has changed and that is combined with the visuals. The game looks a lot better. Not only does the game look a lot better but it plays a lot better.

What is new in 2K10 that will make previous owners of the 2K brand want to upgrade to the newest iteration?

2K: Gameplay and visuals are two of the big ones, but there’s a ton of other things, like big hits, the AI has been completely rewritten and new strategies. We’ve made quite a few changes in the game and it’s evolved quite a bit.

What has your team learned from last year’s game that has been used to improve 2K10?

2K: Kush Games had been developing NHL 2K series for several years and last year was the first year for us to work on it. It definitely took a while for us to adjust and get used to that code. The other big thing was just working on the Wii for the first time. We finally got that all under out belts and we hit the ground running for 2K10.

A few questions were dropped in about 2K and the EA Sports titles, asking about differences and such. Ben Bishop replied that “our game really has a really good organic feel to it, there is always something going on,” he said. “It never feels like you are doing the same thing over and over again.” And with online and the franchise mode, as well as with the different modes “there is a lot to keep people coming back,” he said. “Hopefully that stands out with the people who get a chance to try out the game here pretty soon.”

It is said you are slowing down the pace of the game – what was the impetus behind that?

2K: We are not slowing down the game by any means; hockey is a really fast-paced sport.

Are there any plans to simplify the control scheme (much like EA Sports did with the retro control scheme it introduced previously)?

2K: We’ve always had a classic control mode for retro gamers and we’ll have it again this year. The standard scheme will have button controls as well as the analog stick for stick handling.

What are some of the things that hardcore fans are going to be excited about in this year’s game?

2K: If I had to pick one thing for the hardcore gamers, it would be the sliders. You can get whatever you want out of the gameplay experience.

The overall scheme of any sports game is almost a rinse and repeat scenario. What are, in your opinion, the compelling ingredients in a game that makes players want to play for a long time?

2K: One of the things I think with sports is that it is open; nothing is scripted and so it’s never the same. Every game I played it’s what if I my goaltender had made that save, what if I made that pass, or what if I blocked that shot – so it’s kind of a different game and a different experience for me every time I come back to it.

Online has been huge for it, too, because that really gives you a different experience.

When considering the reality of sports and an arcade feel for game’s sake, how do you please both the sports’ fans and gamers?

2K: I really don’t think of matter between choosing between the two as much as it is a process when designing a new feature. We look at real life as an idea for a game, and from there it’s just a matter of how do we make it fun, and how do we implement it with technical restraints.

Can we expect regular roster updates?

2K: We do certainly plan to do roster updates on a regular basis. Typically we try to see how the season is going down. If there is a big trade or something out there, we will try to get one (a roster update) out there fairly quickly. Otherwise we hope to do one once a month.

How have the control schemes been refined or changed?

2K: The first thing we wanted to do was to make the passing a little bit easier to do. You can press the pass button and then go up to the puck and one-time pass it. Last year you had to press the button, hold it and then go up the to puck and release the button to pass. So it’s quite a bit easier.  Puck-handling is a lot smoother and cleaner this year.

How in depth will the franchise mode be?

2K: I always think of franchise as the main mode people like to play offline and it’s more directed to the hardcore users. That is definitely something we go for and we’ve added in a lot of new things this year. Different things like GM personalities and team budgets and things that relate to the financial business side of hockey. We’re pretty excited about franchise this year and I think some of the more hardcore users are going to have fun with it.

Will the Wii version make use of motion controls and will it support the Wii-motion Plus?

2K: One of the things we did with the Wii was we tried to scale back the motions a little bit and just focus on the key ones – shooting, poke checking and body checking, so you didn’t feel like you were in motion constantly. So I think that has improved. And then another huge thing for us this year was being able to incorporate Wii-motion Plus. That changes the experience entirely. There’s a lot of 1-to-1 motion.

How will the PS3 and 360 versions differ?

2K: Honestly, they are almost identical across the board. Further on that was doing the same thing with the Wii version. With the Wii version you’ll get almost all the same features you get on the 360 and PS3.

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