So, I am English, not a great fan of the old ice like sport but I have seen the avalanche a few times!!
So I thought, the box looks good, reviews have been good so why not?
And what a £40 quid well spent.
The opening sequence, although not showing real ice hockey, shows some of the finer moves of the game and is accompanied by a sharp soundtrack to boot. From there you are taken to the main menu. As you would expect from EA, it is well organised and easy to navigate. The various options are there: Quick game if you want to jump in, Exhibition for some fun with friends, Advanced modes of a 82 game season, playoffs and a shootout. A custom tournament is also available.
The game, once inside has hundreds of options from puck elasticity, to check aggressiveness. And can be immensly fun when check aggressiveness and injuries are set to maximum!! :)
In the game itself the graphics are sharp with lighting, ice reflections and the works all being in place right down to eye movements. The players are well modelled and move well and the game moves at an alarming rate. I think it actually increases reaction times!! The only quirk I can find is that it is a little bit easy to score from one spot, i will not ruin it and say where, but when in this spot the puck always flies in!! Not too NHL like when you win 45-0 in a 12 minute game on All-star level against one of the better teams!! Yet without this spot, the difficulty and positioning of the AI is very good with the difficulty really picking up in All-star and Pro modes. The ability to create your own player is in there too and with the ability to say your name if it recognises it is too cool. You cant get enough of hearing the commentator say '(Your name) scores!!' On to the commentry, again being an EA sports title you would expect impecible commentry, and that is what you get. The tow commentators work well and varied commentary is used well so you dont normally hear the same two or three phrases
used over and over. The sound of the players talking, as well as the skating, checking and shooting sounds are all well incorperated in and do not detract from the fun at all.
The control system too is very responsive with the players doing what you want, when you want all the time. They are also very simple to pick up and learning to play this game does not take long at all!!
The only problem I had with this title was a tiny bit of slowdown when skating near the benches during a line change but this was not enough to kill this title the five stars! good job EA!