Ever since my first "Blades of Steel" slobberknocker, I've been a video-game goon.
So when "NHL 10" producer David Littman called to talk about his new game and I found out that the franchise is looking to innovate through first-person fighting, intimidation and tough guys, I could already see the black eyes and scars forming on my character's face from all the abuse I'm about to put him (and his opponents) through.
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We've come to the point where we're still improving offense, defense and goalies, but we've done a really good job with those features already. What's left? That's all the intangibles that hockey has, and that's what this year is all about.
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-- "NHL 10" producer David Littman
"If you've been watching the playoffs, obviously this is a big part of the game, even more this year than previous years, and I only think it's going to get bigger how important being a tough team is," Littman says. "And if you look at the progression of our game the last four years since we've come to this generation (of hardware), the first year was really about the controls and the shootout experience. It was about one-on-one against the goalie and getting the controls right to set us up for this generation. The next year was about offense, then last year was about defense.
"Now we've come to the point where we're still improving offense, defense and goalies, but we've done a really good job with those features already. What's left? That's all the intangibles that hockey has, and that's what this year is all about."
So how will all of these new features in the game be implemented?
Click to the next page to see the five things you need to know about "NHL 10."