Now that I've had some time with the game, here's my "review".
Great game. They didn't have to change up much from NHL 08, and they didn't, for better or worse.
Pros:
+ Graphics are great as usual. Arenas look great.
+ Custom soundtracks/arena music. Finally. I loved this in 2K8, and it's great to have it on EA's side.
+ Controls are fun and easy to learn.
+ The puck push (tap right bumper while skating to push the puck ahead of you) is a cool alternative to turbo.
+ More leagues and teams. The more the merrier!
+ Clean main menus. The player backgrounds look very sleek and cool as well.
+ Be a Pro. There are some cons I'll get to below, but overall, it's a pretty cool experiment that EA will probably make even better in NHL 2010.
+ EAHL. I don't have XBOX Live, so I'm not going to talk too much about it. Great idea.
+ New goalie animations. Nice to have some more animations.
+ Vintage jerseys are back. Not as many as 2K usually has, but it's great to have more jersey selections.
+ One handed dekes are great and not easy to pull off, effectively killing it as a cheese goal. Works nicely as a protect the puck maneuver as well.
+ Speaking of protecting the puck, it's cool to be able to manually use the "protect the puck" animation from last year.
+ Lifting the stick is great and adds a new element to defense. It has a con however, as explained below.
+ New game intro is amazing.
+ Nothing groundbreaking, but it's great to see last season's rookie crop in the game. Carey Price, the Chicago rookie twins, Sam Gagner, etc. All great to see.
+ Hits are no longer homing missile hip checks. Nice variety as well.
+ Uploading instant replays to EA's YouTube esq network is a nice touch.
Cons:
- Lifting the stick has it's downside. It's too easy to mistime it and get a high sticking penalty.
- Ratings are hit and miss.
- Make sure you edit all of Sabrina Ladha's on the Free Agency stats to 50. As always, EA puts a make-a-wish kid into the game. Lame.
- Custom control setting, but you can't actually edit them. EA, You slay me.
- Need more cyber faces. Only 5 of the Phoenix Coyotes actually look like their real life selves.
- Create a player. Can we PLEASE get the Tiger Woods creation system in here? It kinda ruins the point of BAP and EAHL when your guy looks like everyone else.
- Equipment. C'mon, no R8s? A lot of missing goalie equipment, and you can't edit the colors on the gear to the extent that 2K allows you to. Hell, you can't even edit the colors on the player equipment. And hockey tape comes in other colors than black and white.
- No simiple black masks? Sorry Gerber.
- They screwed up RX9 pads. You can't edit the color inside the arrow or the different sides.
- Custom arena music plays so low. You can barely hear it.
- Hitting, while no longer homing missile hip checks, are still a tad on the unrealistic side. Hit players flop around more than Dominik Hasek.
- BAP: Camera is very erratic at points, and the coach will score you negative on points that would seem like positive points.
- A lot of stuff with players needs to be fixed equipment wise. Carey Price is almost 90% wrong. Giguere's trapper needed fixing. Do yourself a favor and make Turco's gold pads Anaheim's gold. It looks better and more like the real thing.
- Goalies, while equipped with some new animations are still MEH. They still feel weightless and will often slide around unrealistically. Also, everyone can do the splits, not to mention they will do the splits A LOT. 2K's goalies minus a few things are much better.
- When is a goalie going to be the coverboy?
- Not going to help me with college homework. :rolleyes:
- Boards are insanely bouncy.
- Crowd is a sausage fest.
- OH MY GOD. You managed to make fighting even worse, EA. The best part of the fight is the beginning, and it's ruined by a giant black box explaining the 3 buttons for fighting.
- I want to smash whoever's idea it was to make hooking and call for a fight the same button into a fine grain. Horrible idea, and effectively kills hooking.
- Not so much a con, but a suggestion. Steal 2K's faceoff system.
8.8/10
ing game ever. UYI13 is my ID on PS3 if anyone wants to form a league or play.
