Round 2: Sound
Sound in a game so intense and in your face as Ice Hockey has got to be done well and is very important in regards to well presented commentary and music which is less likely to have you reaching for your iPod. EA have always done well when it’s come to making you feel like you’re there via the play by play vocals and rich crowd sounds, but the music is just more generic pap which even though it’s different from last year’s offering on the menu, it certainly doesn’t sound like it.

2K has come on leaps and bounds since 2K6, with the hockey guys taking a leaf out of the NBA team’s rulebook and opting for a very decent and informative commentary, changing from the booth, to the ice-level and back again. The sounds are very good too, with reassuring whacks as wood hits plastic and the thump of man against shaking plexi-glass really doing their job. Special mention has to go to the Cops TV show theme which plays every time a fight breaks out on the ice. The first time it came on I chuckled for quite a while and it’s the little touches like this which make it all the more appealing. Add to that a pretty sweet soundtrack from bands like Mastadon and The Offspring and we have 2K clawing one back just before the end of the 1st period.

EA: 1
2K: 1