Out of all hockey games I have played this is by far the best ever. The graphics are great the player models are great the gameplay is great and the options are great.
First of all let me start off by saying I am a big Hockey fan I love everything about hockey except one thing The Minnesota Wild why can't they be better. Anyway I bought this game a few weeks ago and have just finished playing a full season and have found that it is actually really addictive to keep playing this game.
You start off by choosing whether you want to play and exhibition, season, playoff, tournament, or shootoff, and it these aren't enough you also have the option for a quick start where the computer chooses the teams. As you play through the season all the stats are viewable and I mean everything. Right down to shot percentage.
The funniest thing to do is put yourself into the game via create-a-player now EA has hit on something here you can customize things right down to the eye color but with good comes bad. The bad thing about create-a-player is you can jack your stats all the way up 100's across the board making everyone you create a superstar. Now you can't tell me everyone that's going to play this game is going to be unbiased that just doesn't happen if you ask me attribute points should be decided by experience like in NBA 2k2.
Anyway if you decide to take a created player into the NHL you can watch him build his own legacy. The computer will keep his stats through a 10 year career it will also keep track of milestones you accomplish like your first goal you 100th, 200th and so on. Which brings me to my next thing EA has brought the Madden card concept to the NHL this in itself is a little addicting side treat.
The graphics in this game are the same as those of the PS2 with a little more polish and less jagged edges to them. The player models are great looking and resemble there real life counterparts pretty good. The crowd looks good from the front but when you get against the boards you can see them up close and this is a mistake all you see is a bunch of animated carboard cut-outs.
The control of the game is close but not quite a bulls-eye it can sometimes feel a little sticky but you will barely notice it if your not looking for it. The actual button mapping of the game is simple enough you have your standard speed burst, pass, shoot, deke, and a couple of new things added in like spine right and spin right.
Now as for the hitting most of the time the hits look real enough and trust me they look like the hurt but every now and then especially when doing the big hit you will notice the hits look very awkward. And when the camera goes to the hit camera you can really see it somehow or another you manage to send somebody flying when you hit them with you rear and going away from them how this special force was acquired I do not know but it's there.
Camera views are very standard far close side broadcast blimp and action views. And now EA has thrown in something different called the Hit,Save,Breakaway,and goal camera what this is, is a different camera that appears when something big happens on the ice like a good shot a good save a huge hit things like that. What the camera does is turn a different tint of color green, blue, or red depending on what it is then zooms in on what is happening.
The cool thing about this game is that you can turn it into an arcade experience or a simulation game depending on your tastes. The way you do this is go to the settings mode and there you can choose normal settings or advanced settings in the advanced settings you can be very specific right down to how much friction the puck encounters going across the ice.
Of course this game is multi-player like any other sports game out there and that where some really fun things start to happen you get four friends playing this game and you have a party going on my friends and I did this one night the four of us on one team against the Blue jackets we made our own guys every last one of them big hitters and weight 250 pounds and went out there and just pumeled them when we were down 3 people on the other were out of the game.
Considering this is one of the first generation hockey titles for the xbox it shows some definite potential for hockey on the system.
Now time for the sound department the sound on this game is great especially with the dolby 5.1 and if you have surround sound you'll love this. I just love feeling the thump when I plowed somebody over or hearing them yell out in pain when something broke.
Graphics:9
Sound:10
Control:7
Fun Factor:8
Replay:8
This game is a must have for all hockey fans out there.
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