NHL 10* (or NHL 2KX if that's your bag)

* denotes this iteration is pretty much a prettified roster update.

I debated on whether or not the sucker needed its own thread. Maliabu is the only folk on the boards who plays video game hockey regularly.

Been playing the sucker for the past couple of days, when I'm not chilling out with the Beatles. It's still a great game with some neat improvements under the hood this year, but nothing revolutionary.

What I liked: Pinning against the board mechanic helps bring the game to a sim like level. Great animations all around, the biggest improvement being a god damned hat trick animation which was curiously missing last year. Plugging up the exploits helps this fucker online if you choose to play with others. More control of the sliders helps you adjust the game to your liking, plus there are tool tips for the effect the sliders do. Setting up your own private leagues is easy to do and has a good interface for managing your virtual season.

What I hated: They 'saved as' NHL 09 renaming it NHL 10. I hear no new commentary, the same expressions that got tiresome last year are still being blurted out this year. Be A Pro still has frame rate issues during gameplay - how did they not fix this? I'm not a fan of the microtransactional cheats they've littered the game with. Add to that these cheats are usable online in the league games - so why bother playing if you'll be matched up with other folk who are pumped up on digital steroids? Devoting so many achievements to a compromised game mode also annoys me. I wish more companies looked at the success of COD4 not having online achievements yet still maintained a vibrant online following.

If I had paid for this I'd feel slightly cheated. It's a fun engaging game because of the solid foundation laid down in the previous two years.

Won my first versus game earlier today. Went from overtime to a shootout. Yeah, not moving around like a fish helps, or would have helped whoever I was playing against . I kept calm, tried to keep the angles and holes in my favor. Won 2-1, it was fist pumping satisfying.

The green day track gets overplayed too much in this game. Spent a couple of hours putting some playlists together for some variety mid play. Presently, The Hips' Fireworks is my go to scored a goal song.

On the easier difficulty levels rely on one timers to score a majority of your goals. Whether you're on the rush 2 to 1 or starting a play behind the net.

Skate around so your guys are a little spread out. Pass it to the guy in front of the net (also called the slot area) and shoot for some easy goals.

They've toned down the exploits from last year where it was so easy to blast slapshot goals from the point or the outside circles. If you take a slapshot when your guy has a defender in front of you, and you go for one of the upper corners, occasionally it'll go in for a goal. You want to try shoot the puck between the defenders legs. If that doesn't work it also occasionally leads to the defender getting injured blocking the puck.