2K Sports NHL 2K10 continues with the hockey simulation series' established playability and ease-of-use. But apart from that, there is little that 2K Sports can hang its hat on.

Of that little, 2K10's new "Highlight Reel maker" is a stand-out feature that lets you cobble together your own highlight package and post it online for all your friends to see. That's pretty cool.

Sadly, even if you don't compare NHL 2K10 to EA Sports' superior NHL 10, if you just compare NHL 2K10 to last year's NHL 2K9, it still struggles to shine.

The game does feature the ubiquitous tweaks and gameplay upgrades that sequels of sequels are prone to include, with things like stick-lifting and stumble shots in a player's arsenal, but they're barely noticeable if not totally negated by the fact that players skate like they're on skis.

And where 2K hockey once outshone EA hockey for accessibility and easy controls, it's now just unsophisticated and boring. The short version: NHL 2K10 feels incredibly "arcadey," slow and choppy.

Graphics and animations have been improved, but only slightly and they're still way behind what most sports games cira 2010 (er, 2009) are offering.

Speaking of animations, the series' long-lamented goalie woodenness has had a little bit of a makeover for the 2K10 outing. But while goalies look better and move more fluidly, they still don't possess much in the way of skills. The same can be said for defensemen, again moving more realistically, but because they can't turn on a dime for the aforementioned skis they seem to be wearing, they're still pylons for most intents and purposes.

And finally, one of the more prevalent visual hiccups that has plagued the NHL 2K10 series since, like, forever, has not been attended to at all. That is, in what is commonly referred to as the "magnetic puck effect," the puck still doesn't behave as it should. Contrary to several laws of physics, the puck always seems to finds it way to a player's stick as if said stick was some sort of biscuit happy Shop Vac. Lame, as always.

Still, if you're looking for a sit-down game of pick-up hockey game so you and some buddies can have a good time bashing around and running up impossible scores, this is the game for you.

But as easy as it is to pick up and play, so too is NHL 2K10 easy to put down and forget. At the end of the day, however, that's maybe not the best way to spend your hockey dollars. EA's NHL 10, after all, can also be adjusted to play loose and easy. Plus, it's a deep and exacting hockey simulation to boot.