OK, I got the idea, EA: "There can be only one!". Hockey game, that is. This game will be your sports bible, model, monument, you name it. Up to this date, no one had surpassed the EA NHL series on PC or anywhere. If you do not own this game and call yourself a computer hockey fan, you are a disgrace to the gaming community. My reasons? Here:
Aye:
1) Full NHL license (again) - this is a must for any sports game. Get the license and have real player names! I want to think that it's Yzerman or Belfour on the ice there, not some Joe Smith. This game is real!
2) Color commentary (again) - Bill Clement is one of the commentators (he hosts ESPN hockey games often), and this year's commentary is frequent and pretty accurate.
3) Fantasy draft - you can put all NHL players in a pool, assume the role of a general manager and draft your own team while competing against the computer. In my first draft, I got Yashin, Brodeur and Malakhov as my top players.
4) Teams - there are 30 NHL teams including Columbus and Minnesota plus 20 international teams with Latvia and Ukraine in addition to regular superpowers.
5) Put your face in the game - that's right, you can be a player too. All you need is a bright photo image of yourself in JPEG format, and you can import your face and create a player with your name and facial features. There is also a common selection of names, so if your name is John, the commentator WILL say: "John carries the puck into the opponent's zone" and similar things. Plus you will have many facial expressions because when you create the player, you outline the eyes, nose and mouth, so they can move later. Oh, did I mention all the real NHL players have real faces in the game?
6) Custom team and jerseys - you can make your own team of superstars. There are 2 empty teams called EA Storm and EA Blades. You pick any players you want to form a complete team, name the team and choose a custom jersey and logo. You can import the logo as well.
7) Real goalie masks - all goalies have their masks mapped onto computer models, so you will see Chris Osgood or Dominik Hasek in their standard masks or see the eagle on Eddie Belfour's mask, etc.
8) Music and SFX - music is in the same style as NHL 2000, a blend of hard rock and techno. SFX are outstanding, you hear everything happening on the ice.
9) Finally, the goalies are pulled - EA finally brought this feature from NHL 97 where the goalie will be replaced by backup if he lets too many goals in. This makes the game more authentic.
Nay:
1) Menu colors - I like the fonts, but color selection is bad. Your have white text on icy blue background, so it is hard to read. I wish they used NHL 2000 color scheme.
2) Menu pictures - I liked NHL 2000 menus with words because it was all straightforward. Now I have to point at a picture, wait for the caption to remind me what the button does and then the text menu pops up.
3) Intro video - it has computer players demonstrating features of the game. I liked older intros where they showed actual NHL footage with big hits, big goals and big grins. Bring it back!
4) Lame goals - computer often scores from the blue line and center ice out of nowhere. It does happen in the NHL, but not that often.
Bottom line: if you haven't played hockey on PC, this game is what you need. The players look real, almost like on TV (especially with a good graphics card), the teams are real, you can update rosters, and commentary and crowd chants make the game authentic.
Note: I have a Voodoo5 5500 PCI graphics card, not voodoo3 as mentioned below because there was no choice.
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