Customer Reviews

NHL 2K7

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought three PS3 games on launch: Madden, NHL 2K7 and Call of Duty. Of the three, I like this one the best. The graphics are amazing and the gameplay is fantastic too. If you bought the EA NHL series in the past, do not hesitate to purchase this game - it is all that and more. The only flaw - and its a very minor one - is that the menu screens look pretty unimpressive and more like PS2 quality. But really, who cares about that? The play-by-play announcer is a little lame, mispronouncing numerous names. He was obviously not a hockey fan. You can't beat Gary Thorne and Bill Clement as a broadcast team, so hopefully they can upgrade for next year's version.

This is (with the exception of NHL 93 on SNES) the best hockey game I've played. Hockey is one of those sports that seems custom made for video games. The action is fast, constantly changing directions. However, the fine details of the game were, in the past, difficult to translate to video games. Let's do a pro and con breakdown, shall we?

Pros:

- fantastic, realistic game play. Your D men on the point in the O zone will actually play the point. They'll trap pucks along the boards before the exit the O zone. Players on offense set up in position like in the real games. Players play the fore and back check when dumping the puck into the zone. Odd man rushes feel right and you're still rewarded more for being able to use the poke check than hitting. And you'll pay if you get out of position defensively. Heck, the neutral zone trap D that teams play even comes out well in the game. This factor (realism) is by far the heaviest by which I rate a hockey game.

- Graphics are greatly improved from previous gen. They could be better, but the player models look great.

- Decent commentary. It doesn't get old too fast, but sometimes the game moves too fast for the commentary to keep up. They'll often use a players name incorrectly. The only example I can think of is, say, a Goalie makes a stop and moves the puck alone to a skater. The skater may be on a break-away, but the commentator will state the goalie's name as the player on the break-away simply because the game itself has moved too fast for the commentary, if that makes sense. It's like the commentators are going to say something about the goalie's save, and the break-away at the same time, so they end up mixing the two statements into one.

- The fight system is improved too. Instead of the action stopping immediately for two players about to drop the gloves, you're promted on screen, during the game action, to press select to fight. It tells you which two players are about to go at it as well. That way you can consciously decide whether you want to duke it out, or let the game continue. If it's one of your tough guys that want's to throw down, you can hit select and it's on. If it's one of your weaker, finesse players, you can ignore the select button and continue playing without a stop in the action.

Cons:

I'll have to fine tune the gameplay a bit with the sliders, as it's a bit too easy for me to score. Granted, I've been playing on the default difficulty, so I have no room to complain. One timers are still pretty easy, and it's very easy to deke the goalies on break-aways. That's really my only complaint so far, and I'm sure that's easily fixed by bumping the difficulty up a level.

All in all, if you're a fan of the game of hockey, or just like Hockey video games, you won't be disappointed with NHL 2K7.

Don't be misled by reviews from people who've said the gameplay and/or stats are unrealistic. Everything in the game can be adjusted through the use of sliders that control every aspect of the game. Someone mentioned 80 shots per game at 10 minute periods. I play full 20 minute periods, real time, and neither side gets near 80 shots a game. Why? Adjustments. I play at All-Star level, goalie strength set to 50%, Defense 100%, offense 0%, speed at 20% or so, speed burst 37%, speed burst duration 17%. These last 3 are probably the most important when trying for realistic action. With Speed burst set too high, every play can be a breakaway. At this setting, you might go the whole game without one. If the scoring/shots are still too high, notch passing down to 70 or 60%, there are a lot of missed passes in real hockey, and if you make every pass with the setting at 90 or 100, well of course you can get a shot or two off every minute of the game, especially with the speed setting too high as well. Believe me, everything can be adjusted, I've played over 120 games with this, and still sometimes tweek these settings for a most realistic and challenging experience.

I totally agree with you. I have played this game and EA's NHL 07 on the 360. This game is superior in every way except graphics. And that is easily overlooked. Now the graphics are not bad, they are solid, but NHL 07 is better, with more detail. This game however, is superior in gameplay, realism, animations, and a noticeably obvious lack of in game bugs. EA's NHL you try and pass the puck with the goalie, and it will go in the total opposite direction. This game is just more enjoyable, more playable, and cooler to watch. The slider options are great. I usually don't like that concept, but I have effectively been able to create the type of game I want to play. I have played college hockey, and have played hockey video games going back to NHL 94, and this is definitely the choice of this years pick. Hopefully next year they will improve it visually, fix a few small problems, and leave the gameplay alone. I also want to say, I hate the coach's speech before the game. Leave it out of next year. I give 4 stars because I would like to see the graphics improved, they could be better I'm sure on the PS3, and there is some room for improvement in some other areas.

Quite possibly the best "sport" related game for the first wave launch. The graphics are awesome. I'm not even that big of a hockey fan. The ice looks outstanding. I too was a big EA supporter, not anymore.

This game absolutely blew me away. I'm a huge hockey fan, and in the past I've always gone with EA's Live series. For whatever reason, EA couldn't get their stuff together to release a version of Live for the PS3, so i went with 2k for once. I must say, screw EA. 2k's realism is top notch, the puck handling is super-intuitive, and the new camera angle makes all the difference. If you're lucky enough to score a PS3 this season, make SURE you grab this game...hockey fan or not, you won't be sorry!!

Altought I am a Brazilian fan of EA's NHL franchise, I bought this ps3 game because his excellent price (US$ 3,00).
What a HUGE surpise.... The game is very smooth with great sound and outstanding graphics.
Congratulations to 2K
A negative issue is when we unlock the older teams eg. LA Kings, the player names don't appear (It would be nice to play once more with the Great 99

Although NHL 2K8 has more features and better graphics, the gameplay on 2K7 is better.

2K Sports have finally outdone EA Sports. NHL 2K7 is so much better than NHL 2007. One thing that bothers me is how they mispronounce a lot of players names. This is minor, but they really don't aknowledge any players who's rookie season was the 05-06 season, I'm a flyers fan and players like Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, RJ Umberger, and Ben Eager are unknowns. They are on the Flyers roster and all but they don't have photos for them, or their stats are still very low. Flyers sucked this past season, but in the season prior they were good.

From someone who is not a hockey fan and hasn't played a hockey video game since Blades of Steel on NES (Damn, I know) this game is fun. Like I said I'm not a hockey fan so I wasn't sure if this game would be too advanced for someone who just wants to pick up the controls and try their hand at it. To my surprise this game is easy to play even for someone who's only knowledge of hockey is "get the puck in the net". Hell I didn't even know they changed sides after each period like tennis or football. I'm not sure how much I'll play this game but since it's cheap now it was worth picking up. The graphics are nice and the gameplay is fun and simple enough for a hockey-know-nothing like me.