Hockey seems to be a sport that is constantly overlooked, but as I've learned watching my own Carolina Hurricanes struggle through the season and into the playoffs, when you get sucked in it can be the best sport you never really paid attention to in the first place. Sure, it's the opening weekend of football season, but perhaps those players sliding on the ice should be the ones getting more attention than those on the turf. In a recent conference call, we got to have Scott Krager - Project Manager, Kush Games – and Colin O'Hara - Lead Designer, Kush Games answer some of our questions. So what do fans of NHL 2K8 have to look forward to this year?

Every year, no matter what sports game it is, the gameplay is always changed to try and make it as realistic as possible, and fixing any exploits that can lead to instant points, scores, or goals. For the longest time, one sure way of getting a much needed goal in hockey was to get an open man, pass them the puck, and let them get a one-timer off; it doesn't always work, but for the longest time it has been the defacto shot of choice for scoring, one players have gone back to time and time again since the early days of NHL sanctioned hockey. Though one-timers will still play a factor in the game like they do in real life, expect things to not be as easy this time around. As Colin O'Hara told us: "One of our goals this year was to make one-timers sort of more mature, bringing it to the next-generation of hockey games. So we've eliminated a lot of the awkward angle shots like backhanders and a lot of that floating to the puck they have done in previous games. And in addition, we've made it a bit more challenging to aim a one-timer, so you're going to have to concentrate a bit more, line your guy up a little bit more, and in a realistic way. If you just throw the puck across the zones, chances are you're not going to hit the net. If you get a nice setup, and a forward is in the slot, we want to provide that sort of realistic approach."

Though the fundamentals of hockey haven't changed, one thing that has is the jerseys, which feature a new design that were implemented this year. The developers had to change things up themselves to reflect the change, and so you'll get to play the season out with the brand-new uniforms. When talking about the inclusion of the new jerseys, Scott Krager told us: " When word went out that the NHL was going to introduce new uniforms, we were naturally very interested in seeing how that would play out. There were a lot of rumors going around about tight, spandex like outfits and going to restrict movement a lot. But when we finally got a look at the uniforms and got information on them, they are very cool. They are a little bit more form fitting, but at the same time they are hockey jerseys, so our fears about how they would restrict movement were a bit eased in the sense that they weren't restricting in a physical standpoint. On top of that, we really learned from the NHL that a lot of what the uniform is about is the weight and moisture system, so the streamlined kind of covered a couple different aspects. So incorporating them into the game were more a graphical task than a physics one. So we redefined our player models to represent the new look and uniforms."

One thing that can really draw a player into a simulated game is the atmosphere of the sport itself, and one such aspect of any sport are the announcers. The way in which games use announcers has come a long way, but they have still shown faults, with the most noticeable being the stitching that can come when trying to bridge two individually recorded commentary lines to make one single, longer statement. NHL 2K8 has addressed this issue this season, offering something new. As Scott told us about the new additions to this year, "We've added new commentary. We spent a lot of time recording new lines, and we also updated the commentary system to remove the stitching effect where you have two lines composited together to create one, and sometimes that comes off as a notable stitch, so we updated our system to give it a much more natural sounding effect."

Besides some core gameplay and presentation tweaks, there is still a ton of other extras added to NHL 2K8, including new control schemes, moves, and much more. Colin told us quite a bit on the new features this year: "We have the Pro Stick that lets you stick handle in almost a 360 degree arc in front of your player. There is a player differentiation so not every player can have the same sort or range and speed of puck movement. There is definitely a differentiation from your top line guys and your third and fourth line guys. You'll have to play the game a bit differently depending on who you have on the ice at the time. And this is also a defensive feature, because we implemented all new puck checks, which are contextual to where the puck is, so if the puck is far away the puck check animation is different than if it was right at your feet. And this gives a real life sense to everything, since it is easier to knock a puck out of someone's possession because they are a bit more powerful. So it's foremost an offense feature, but it's with the defense as well. We also have a new Superstar move, which lets you do some of the most famous moves in the history of hockey. There are twelve of them and they have a two button combo and it's pretty simple – pull a trigger when you're on a breakaway, or anytime really, and if you successfully enter a button combo they'll do this move, and each move has a requirement, so not every player can do these moves. In addition to that we have an all-new faceoff feature, which is the most in-depth and realistic opening we've ever seen in a hockey game. Basically you use the right stick to control your stick and there's lots of little timing things, like if you go too early once, you get a warning, if you go twice you can get kicked out of a faceoff, and there's all sorts of other things like tie-ups, a clean lean, so every faceoff is going to look a bit different."