As always I am looking foreword to the new wave of EA Sports games to come out. September through November is like an early Christmas for me buying all the new Ea sport games (except the Triple Play series). With the Hockey series, as my personal favorite, I just buy it as soon as I see it on sale somewhere without even renting it. I got lucky this year. My brother came over one day and flipped the game to me because he had rented it for me, along with others for him, while he was at the rental store. Again, I got really lucky and saved $39.00. This was, by far, the worst Hockey game they made in the series. I am not sure what EA was trying to due with this years version but, for those of you that play EA sports game stay away from this complete joke! Stick with 200.
Graphics
Honestly the graphics were no better and in my opinion a little worse. Since the graphics in the previous versions have been so good this was a bit of a surprise to me but, the graphics were still solid. The problem here was, the game ran much slower even though the graphics were a little worse. They still give you the 4 options to turn the graphics in and out of the game up or down depending on what you want. The only improvement here is, the stadiums. They look more realistic to the actual stadium where you are playing and the fans move around during a break in the action. This definitly does not make up for the no improvement in game play graphics and running slower.
The game can be run at different resolutions, 640 x 480, 800 x 600, or even at 1600 x 1200 if you want but, you will find the game running extremely choppy at any resolution other than 640 x 480. I wish they would have spent more time and effort in the game itself rather than worrying about how 5 people in the world like the way the game looks and plays at resolution 1600 x 1200.
Game Play
The game has some ups, but the downs outweigh the ups big time. One improvement on the ice is, the way to puck moves around. You can steal the puck much easier this time around. This goes for you and the AL giving the game a more real feel in this category. The puck will also hit the players and bounce around the ice making it much more difficult to score. This was a great improvement.
One huge down point is, in the activity of all the other players you are not controlling. I play all the EA Sports hockey games controlling only one position at a time. I change from center to left wing to right wing after every period. Just something I like to do so I wont be able to score 10 goals per game at 5 minute quarters. Because of this I really noticed how boring the other players were. In previous versions you could tell the difference in a couple of the coaching strategies you choose. Not here. Your other players always go to the same place and do the same thing no matter what strategy you choose. This is for offense and defense. In turn, this really takes the realism and fun out of the game.
You do have all the options again to turn up or down certain game play options. This is a nice feature to have making the game easier or harder depending on what you want. The problem here is, since the game play is so bad it really makes no difference. The only 2 things you will notice a change in is, skating speed and how long your players stay knocked down on the ice.
Commentary
By far this is the most disappointing change in the game. A flat out joke. I mean joke in a literal since. They did bring back the main announcer, but brought a new side kick in for him. This was always the best part of all the games in this series but another part that NHL 2002 has completely ruined. The main announcer tries to give you a play by play announcement of the action while his counter part tells jokes and makes smart remarks the rest of the time. You can't even score a goal without a stupid joke or comment made and an argument between the two announcers occur. EA even went one step further with the jokes and made the PA announcer say nothing but jokes throughout the game. This is where all the previous versions made the game really have you feeling you are watching the game on television. Now you will feel as if you were listening to two men trying to act like Abbot and Costello.
Sounds and Music
There is one feature worth bringing up I liked about the sounds of the game. You can now hear players scream at one another while on the ice. This ads to the realism of the game somewhat and a worthy addition. The rest of the sounds are pretty much unchanged. The music is all right and will not drive you nuts while you are in the menu screens of the game.
Controls
The controls are the same besides one little add on that doesn't work well at all, the lob pass. By holding the pass button down your player will attempt to lob the puck to another player in the air and over the defenders stick. The is a great idea but rarely works with any success. The puck gets to your player so slow the he is mauled before he has a chance to do anything with it. Another attempt for an add on in this game that failed. Overall the game controls are easy to learn and master as in all the versions of the game.
Major Add On
As if EA didn't screw with the game enough they decided to add a Pokemon style player card system in the game. As you play the game and do do certain things at certain difficulty levels you will receive money for your player name you make. This money can be used to buy player cards. When you receive a player card, of a player you have on your team, you can activate it during the game to make him a "hero" for a period of time (the time depends how good the card is). This will up the activated player stats during this period of time. The cards you buy will be like buying Pokemon or Magic cards where you will receive commons, rares, and very rare cards. You can also get celebration and easter egg cards. You will find most of the cards useless and the ones you can use do not make enough of a difference to make it worth it. There is no trading of the cards. All you can do is sell back the cards you don't want. All though this maybe fun for the kids to enjoy, the adults will find it absolutely worthless. Trying to boost up your players while playing the game, can we get anymore arcade then that? Pretty sad.
Coaching And GM Mode
The GM mode still has no salary cap and just a 10 season franchise mode makes it kind of worthless. However it is a great idea and I love being able to trade, draft rookies, and sign free agents. When you get to seasons 7 though why bother with the rookies since the odds are your team will not be picking first. You mine as well just trade off your rookie studs for older better players and get your team awesome as soon as you can. This also takes out the fun of creating a player. Your player will only get a 10 year career no matter what. They really missed the boat here again. I'm hoping someday EA will realize there is a salary cap (as EA has in their Football game) in Hockey as well and players would like to play more then 10 seasons with created players.
The coaching is also unchanged. All the same strategies are there. This is in depth enough to make it a nice feature but, with the new AL in this version it is yet another why bother. In previous versions you could notice a change in play with most of the strategies you choose. As mentioned before your players will do pretty much the same things no matter what strategy you are using.
Conclusion
This is the biggest disappointments in a game I wanted in a long time. With nothing worthy improved and enough add-ons to make the game worse I will wonder what EA was thinking for a long time. The old saying "if it's not broken don't fix it" really applies with this game.
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