I got copies of both of this year's hockey games for the PS2: EA's NHL 08 and 2K Sports' NHL 2K8. Despite some issues with both games, likely because of the hardware limitations, these are both solid titles. The biggest improvement in EA's game is the addition of the AHL license, which means the actual minor league system for the NHL-- and some of you might have these teams in your own backyard. Heck, the Springfield Falcons' facility is about 10 minutes from here.

2K Sports, meanwhile, has added Superstar Moves to the gameplay engine, allowing players to mimic some of the most outstanding highlight-reel moves of the past five years or so. This game has a bit more customization (in terms of gameplay sliders and settings to play whatever kind of game you want), but there are some presentation bugs here that are annoying, such as sound effects that aren't synched to the action on-screen and some clipping and frame rate hits.

I've ony got a couple hours in per title, but hope to post more impressions soon.