I've been a loyal 2K sports fan since NFL 2K on the Dreamcast. But I'll be damned if they're games haven't gotten stale and boring for me over the past few years. I had no desire to replay MLB 2K5 (cleverly disguised at MLB 2K6 and 2K7) for the thousandth time and pay my hard earned money for it, so I switched over to Sony's MLB: The Show series, and have never looked back.

Similarly, my other big sports game purchase for the year is hockey. I switched from EA to 2K in 2002, after tiring of crappy scorefests and repetitiveness from EA's NHL series. But I'll be damned if the same process that happened in baseball - the repetition and lack of innovation - has now plagued the 2K hockey series as well (really going back to 2K4, actually).

Now I'm really torn. NHL '08 (PS3) looks totally awesome, has a new physics engine for awesome hitting and individual puck physics (i.e. it is its own object now, rather than attached to the player, so you can do cool dekes), a create-a-play feature, and the ever-popular Skill Stick. But 2K also has come back with their version of the skill stick, and better graphics.

I've always disliked the EA games because they seem to have too much scoring for my taste. But lately, the 2K games have been marred by horrid goalie AI and cheap CPU goals.

I was wondering if there were any hockey fans out there considering this same decision, and if you exist, give your opinion in this here thread.

Thanks,
DJ