TGS 2000: ESPN NHL Hockey Night Hands-On

The game has all the players and teams from the NHL, along with all the typical game modes you'd expect such as exhibition, season, and playoffs. Everything about the game looks and sounds fairly standard, but once you actually hit the ice, the game loses its PS2 luster because of the poor controls. In its current state, ESPN NHL Hockey Night is easily one of the hardest hockey games to control. The players turn terribly slowly, which makes it hard to really react with any degree of speed to the fast pace of the game. Visually the game looks quite good, but not anywhere near as good as EA's NHL 2001. In addition, the models used for the players are fairly solid and have smooth animation.

We'll have to wait to see how the final version of ESPN NHL Hockey Night turns out. The game is currently scheduled for a November release in the States.