bit-tech Shopping: Electronic Arts NHL 08 (PS3)

• 480i (SDTV)
• 480p (EDTV)
• 720p (HDTV)

Rating: 8

Time with product: 30 Days

Strengths: Very Good graphics and game play. The players move fluidly, and it easy to move and pass the puck around. The game is incredibly fun.

Weaknesses: No 1080p support on PS3. Come on EA thats inexcusable. I also found controller options to be difficult to use. Scoring a goal is basically by chance, so the more you shoot the more you score.

Summary: The game does have a few weaknesses, but overall its still a very good game, and definitely a step up from the last hockey game i played NHL2K6. The default setting make you shoot the puck using the right joystick, and it was difficult to get used to that initially. Its was definitely new to me. The triangle, and square buttons didn't control anything under default settings which was odd to me.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 2

Strengths: Some smoother animation, a few more realiztic aspects (over predecessor puck redicecting/tipping)

Weaknesses: New shot system a fair adjustment for '07 playters, simply not enough new to pay for 08 if you have '07.

Summary: I own NHL 07 for the PS3, and had been planning to pass on '08 until hearing rave reviews about the additions to gameplay and especially the new analgo-stick shot mode. Overall, it hasn't lived up to the hype -- hockey fans who don't own '07 will do well to pick up this title, but if you've got '07, then '08 is a year you can easily skip.Some of the new additions -- puck redicrection -- aadd to the experience... But as dfar as I can tell, these all enter the gameplay "automatically" -- in other words they're little more than new animation ratehr than a fundamental change to hoe the game is played.One exception is the new shot system using the analog stick -- now that I've gotten used to it, it does add a littel more control... But it took quite a while to get used to it, and a lot of my early games were lost reverting back to the '07 control scheme (which generally ende up producing a lot of pointless whiffs when improperly translated to '08). Even now that I'm used to it, though, it just doesn't seem to have been owrth the money or the effrot re-learnign the controls.For a new PS3 owner and hoceky fan, a must have. For someone who owns NHL 07 -- a reason to wait (at least) for '09.