Ranting Kenya

This is certainly not a new complaint/request, but I really feel like I should voice it as well.

NHL 08 is probably the best hockey video game of all time. It plays like hockey, it looks like hockey, and it’s so much fun. The stick control actually does put the user in control of what happens.

However, taking this game online is barely satisfactory because once you are playing it is excellent to play. However, trying to get into a game is a major frustration, especially the first time.

The very first time you go online with it, it wants you to read what feels like 300 documents. And it wants you to create an EA account. Why? I have an Xbox live account, that should be enough. Strangely, once you do that, you never see any of that stuff again. So at least that’s a one-off.

Next, if you select “Quick ranked play”, or one of the other “quick” games, it checks for rosters (and asks you if that’s ok). If there are new rosters then it downloads them (but again, asks you if that’s ok first). But it seems like you’ve already joined game while it’s doing this. So about 90% of the time, your opponent leaves the game because there’s seemingly nobody there. So then you must re-start your search.

No big deal right? Wrong. It seems like if does that whole “checking for rosters” for every single game you play (or at least until sombody doesn’t quit on you). So annoying. EA, fix it.

The other thing that should be included in NHL 09 (and indeed every multiplayer Xbox game) is the party system. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s the system that Halo 2 pioneered on Xbox live. It’s currently used in Halo 2, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4. I don’t think there are any others.

The party system allows you to essentially create a custom lobby for you and your friends, and that party goes and plays game together all the time.

This would be ideal in NHL 09 (and indeed all games) since I frequently want to just play with one friend. Why do I have to do that whole stupid lobby system. The lobby system works on PC, but I think it’s usefulness on consoles is pretty lame.

Also, with a party system, then you and your friend could more easily take on another opponent together. Then you can eliminate all those other options for finding a match. There could be ranked, unranked, and maybe a “large-group” option. No more lobbies, no more confusion.

EA’s got the money to make their online games flawless. There’s really no excuse for not having a party system.

P.S. Can we have monthly roster updates? I mean seriously.