4)As a hockey player and gamer, what is your favorite new feature? Why?

As a hockey player, my favorite feature is the intensity of gameplay. The best sports fan is someone who plays the sport recreationally. Having played ice hockey I have an interest in communicating just how fast, intense and physically demanding the NHL looks to me. As a gamer, I am very excited about the evolution the gameplay has taken again this year. Look for a game that is easier to control, more fluid, more realistic, and more fun in competition than ever before.

5)Have there been enhancements or alterations to the player models or animations this year?

Again, as with the gameplay, there isn't an aspect of the look of NHL 99 that has not been improved upon. Unlike gameplay, I can be very specific. We have all new models and all new animation. We spent over a week motion capturing moves from Markus Naslund, Donald Brashear, and Mattias Ohlund of the Vancouver Canucks, as well as moves from Mike Sillinger of the Philadelphia Flyers and John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers. I think it's very important that we've worked with NHL Players in the development of NHL 99. You can't find talent of their caliber anywhere else in North America when it comes to skating and stick handling.

But when it comes to hitting and being hit, you go to the professional stunt men. Once again, this year we worked with professional stunt talent to motion capture the more physically brutal moves. We utilized more traditional film technology to "hit" these gentlemen, and the results are spectacular. We recorded the sessions on tape, and I am sure you'll see what I mean on TV later this year.

6) What was the most technologically demanding aspect of this year's game? This might be something that looks "easy," but that required significant engineering and programming to accomplish?

It's hard to pick one area as the most technologically demanding. The entire game is technologically demanding! The game's artificial intelligence is definitely demanding. The AI uses advanced math to recreate an individual NHL player competing as a member of one NHL team…competing against another NHL team. Then there's the rendering which uses advanced math to breathe life into individual models, textures, and motion data. Hundreds of sound effects play on cue, filling your arena with hockey sounds in Dolby Surround. There are the play-by-play and color commentators who follow the action and entertain the viewers at home. Don't forget the automatically changing camera angles that move depending on the location of the action. Finally, there are the menus which create different competitive challenges, track all your statistics through an 84 game, 27 team season, and even let you play with people in other cities. Let's face it, the only thing missing is the subtle scent of the ice and the not so subtle scent of hockey gear!