We’re number nine! We’re number nine!
My participation in the annual NHL tournament at the office was a success. A success in that I managed to make the playoffs and not make a total fool of myself. OK…so I didn’t make it past the first round. But I got into the post-season in fine style, with a game-winning goal in the final minute of the final match of the season, which vaulted me into one of the final wild-card slots.
Damn I’m good.
You know, Skip Pfister recently cited NHL 09 as his game of the year on an episode of Rebel FM. And he was right to do so. What a fantastic game all around. No way I would have guessed a few years ago that EA’s franchise would ever surpass the 2K series, let alone be the best overall sports game on the year.
Of course, NASCAR 09 is a close second. But you all knew that, right?
Speaking of which, the new season is set to start in a few weeks. It’ll be interesting to see if they can maintain a full field of cars for all 36 races. Unlike most pro sports, racing is almost entirely sponsor-driven, and given this economy, things are not looking good.
That’s all I can think of for my first post. I promise something more interesting in the coming months.
Does that mean we have to wait months for your next post, it’ll take you a month to come up with something interesting, or you will have many posts but the interesting one could be a ways off?
Yeah, NHL09 is the first true sports game I’ve played in many, many years. I love the sport, but I began to forget about these games in the late 90′s. Hearing all the praise praise for this game got me intrigued enough to go out and buy it. While I stink at it, I’m slowly learning and it’s getting funner the better I get. Be A Pro mode is also really fun. It’s a strange feeling at first only controlling one player and spending half the game on the bench just watching the AI, but there’s something fun and real about that. It gets you more fired up once you get on the ice and you really want to perform to keep your ratings up.
Congrats on the tournament, btw.
2008 was the best year for sports games in ages. Not only is it completely understandable to name NHL 09 as game of the year–you could easily make an excellent top 5 out of that, NBA 2K9, NCAA 09, Madden 09, and MLB 08 The Show.
Haven’t tried NASCAR, but I’ve heard good things about it as well.