the canucks just HANDED me a victory on a silver platter...

[ColeJ.]

dallas stars @ vancouver canucks... slightly modified 74's sliders (modified for tighter defense, a little more pass assistance, so i could finally pass to my dmen without clearing the zone for the other team, and a few other minor tweaks)...



i decided to have turn-back-the-clock night in vancouver, with the canucks wearing the blue and green from the 70's, and dallas wearing the primarily yellow, with green shoulders seals' jerseys from the 70's.

puck drops, i win the faceoff... my first pass up the ice is whiffed on, and naslund grabs the loose puck, skates into the zone, completely undresses sergei zubov with a deke, and pops it past marty turco. 1-0, 20 seconds into the game, first shot of the game. faceoff back at center, morrison wins the draw, bertuzzi takes it into the zone, pass back to ohlund at the point.. slapshot, deflected by bertuzzi, goal... 2-0, still in the first minute, shots are 2-0... i'm down 2 goals already, and the puck hasn't even been on the good side of center.

i pause the game, debate whether or not to put mike smith in for marty, decide to give him one more chance, take a timeout instead, hoping that the video game coach could smack some defensemen in the head and get them thinking straight. some time passes, we get down to the last 5 minutes of the period, and out comes my line of steve ott, aaron downey, and niko kapanen.

deep in my offensive zone, kapanen and ott start a nice little give and go, but i'm completely robbed by clouts. the puck's going back down the ice. i take control of steve ott, and hack the **** out of jovocop with the right thumbstick... no penalty, but jovo turned back at otter and slashed right back. 2 minutes for slashing, dallas on the power play.

set up a nice little power play, and i score a goal by daley, assisted by zubov, on a d-to-d one-timer, on an overly passive PK. next play, the kapanen line is back out again, and downey decks jovo in the corner, on what should have been a boarding call. jovo gets back up, hipchecks downey in open ice, another penalty. power play starts, i try to set up a cycle down deep, but ohlund takes out modano... 2 man advantage. i score quickly on the 2-man advantage to tie it at 2-2, but then i'm still on the power play. i score again, and we're up 3-2.

the pattern continues this way, only with less provoking on my part, as i'm scared to take a penalty myself... the canucks just pound me and pound me and get 12 minor penalties in the game! i go 5-for-12 on the power play in the game, because they can't stay out of the box... after the last powerplay of the game, the canucks decide to turn it on and try to make a comeback, as it's 5-4. they apparently switch to all out aggressive offense, but i'm basically in the trap with NO room in the neutral zone. stu barnes picks off a pass, scores on a . 6-4. they come back at me, set up a beautiful passing play, but clang it off the post... i make a few passes, and get junior lessard and rob dimaio on a 2-on-1... lessard to dimaio to lessard, goal. 7-4... this is with about 5 mins left in the game.

and if that wasn't bad enough, with john erskine, i drill the puck into the offensive zone with about 20 seconds left in the game, with the slapshot button, so it goes straight to clouts... he can't control the puck, and it drops into the high slot. clouts DIVE to cover up, but it's too late, as steve ott picks it up and taps it into a vacant net from the crease... it's 8-4, and the place starts booing :)

that is BY FAR the biggest win i've ever had in a game that i didn't earn :) the canucks handed me this game... has anyone else ever been able to get the computer off their game? is that what happened, or was it a pure coincidence? they go up 2-0 on 2 shots, before i even touch the puck... but i start taking a few jabs behind the play to their big bruisers, and they completely lose their cool and make a steady stream to the sinbin.

i don't feel i earned the win at all, but it was certainly gratifying. the computer had been kicking my ASS all day with mid-game goals, when i just lost concentration, so it felt good to win a game like that on the road against the computer that had been picking my under-sized defense apart until this game.

[dtw!]

Originally Posted by ColeJ.

has anyone else ever been able to get the computer off their game? is that what happened, or was it a pure coincidence?

Having not played the game I can't comment whether it was coincidence or what, but at least you are entitled to think that you got the CPU off their game.

It would be very cool if it was not just coincidental. The CPU often gets my game off in all hockey games. I'd love to do the same to them in return.


Effin release date is still far away...

[McDougalfaschnitzer]

I had a great game against Colorado, not really like Cole's but it still attends to the issue dtw! brings up. I was down 2-0 after the first, and the avs were still dominating me. I played solid D and kept their lead at 2, and at a point in the period, it seemed like I finally got them off their game, because I was now winning puck battles, keeping control in the O Zone a lot more, and setting up plays. I ended up tying the game and thats when the Avs completely fell apart. If it wasn't for the goalie I would have blown them out, because I absolutely dominated them. I finally put one in and won the game. It was a great game.

[][ncognito]

The worst one ever I had was in 2k4. My friends and I had a fantasy draft season with our 3 characters in there as well. We won most of the games (well... we went about 72-3-5 over two 40 game seasons, but that's not important ) Most of the games were usually pretty close. (All-star was too difficult to score, but on Pro the computer usually couldn't. So we just stuck with pro and edited out goalies down a lot) There were the occasional blow outs of course. Games where we'd score 7 or 8, or very rarely a 9 goal game. However this one just blew all the others away.

We were playing against Colorado's team. I can't remember exactly who they had in the net, but I know Dafoe had started. He let in 4 goals on about 5 or 6 shots, so he was pulled almost right away. Maybe the Raven can correct me, but I think it may have been Emery or someone like that backing him up. I can't remember for sure, but whoever it was played about as well as Dafoe did. We scored on shots that wouldn't go in on rookie with goalie sliders minimized. Skate in, lob a shot at the net, scored. Take a slapshot in from the blueline to get a line change, score. It was disgusting. Everything went it. The goalies on their side just refused to make any save attempts, and the defense was just horrendous.

We ended up winning that game 14-0. Never had a game like it again after that. I think that's the only time we ever broke the double-digit goal mark for a game as well.

[I the end I]

Originally Posted by ][ncognito

The worst one ever I had was in 2k4. My friends and I had a fantasy draft season with our 3 characters in there as well. We won most of the games (well... we went about 72-3-5 over two 40 game seasons, but that's not important ) Most of the games were usually pretty close. (All-star was too difficult to score, but on Pro the computer usually couldn't. So we just stuck with pro and edited out goalies down a lot) There were the occasional blow outs of course. Games where we'd score 7 or 8, or very rarely a 9 goal game. However this one just blew all the others away.

We were playing against Colorado's team. I can't remember exactly who they had in the net, but I know Dafoe had started. He let in 4 goals on about 5 or 6 shots, so he was pulled almost right away. Maybe the Raven can correct me, but I think it may have been Emery or someone like that backing him up. I can't remember for sure, but whoever it was played about as well as Dafoe did. We scored on shots that wouldn't go in on rookie with goalie sliders minimized. Skate in, lob a shot at the net, scored. Take a slapshot in from the blueline to get a line change, score. It was disgusting. Everything went it. The goalies on their side just refused to make any save attempts, and the defense was just horrendous.

We ended up winning that game 14-0. Never had a game like it again after that. I think that's the only time we ever broke the double-digit goal mark for a game as well.

That doesn't even sound fun. I hate that.

[McDougalfaschnitzer]

Yeah When I win too much on an easier mode, I sometimes try to let the computer get plays so they can bring the score closer. I like losing once in a while. Luckily I've found settings that make for a good challenge.

The Nucks can be very undiscilplined so that game doesn't surprise me at all. Last night I was trying to get a win and every time the oilers had the puck for more than 10 seconds the CPU would suddenly take a penalty. Usually I was controlling somebody else trying to get the puck back and boom penalty, the oilers ended up with like 6 powerplays but i won the game on a shorthanded goal :D

Actually the only reason I won was because of cloutier he made 41 stops in the win, some which I thought for sure were going in.

[ColeJ.]

months later, i'm completely convinced that it is possible to get the CPU off their game. if you can hack, slash, and pound the CPU behind the play without getting a penalty, then the CPU will remember who did what.

i've slashed a guy before, no penalty... then he slashes me back, next shift... no penalty... then i slash him again the shift after that, and we drop the gloves.

i'm not sure how they do it, but i think it's part of the "intense contact bar" or whatever, that shows up under your player, below the speed burst thing. i've played hundreds of games, probably, and i'm now convinced that players hold grudges in this game... for better or worse, if you can get away with dirty play, the CPU will retaliate.

[Shaun]

I was playing my brother on Pro. He was the Avalanche and I was on the Canadiens. When we started, on the first 6 shots my brother took, he got 5 goals. This was under 2 minutes. I was wondering what the hell was going ona and we both decided to exit and move the Goalie sliders up a bit. When we started a new game (same teams), I won 6-3..

Weird.