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This thread has been linked to the game 'NHL 10'.
The latest game of the EA Sports Hockey Franchise, NHL 10 had a lot of changes to make after the success of 09. There was a lot of expectation surrounding the release of this game as people expected new features from the previous titles. Fulfilling these expectations was the primary task for this release, and if they weren’t fulfilled, well there would have been a lot of angry and disappointed hockey fans. Thankfully, the game has achieved, and surpassed the majority of people expectations.
Graphically, this game is pretty solid. The atmosphere of each individual stadium that you play in is pretty similar, apart from the fact that the spectators will have the home teams colours on. The players themselves are pretty lifelike. As usual with most games in the sport genre, the main, well-known players have had more time spent on them, as these are the players that people will most likely have an image of. Lesser-known players can look rather clone like, so it spoils the look of the team a bit. Some identity amongst the team would be greatly received I think. I do admire the affects of the ice though, as wherever your player travels, behind will be a trail left off of his skates, and also when your player skids to a halt after running, a spray of ice is fired into the air. This is particularly noticeable on the replays as you can slow the playback speed down to get a nice look at the physics engine in a, dare I say, freeze frame.
Of course, a game is never complete without a soundtrack. Usually, I only play football games on a console, and the majority of the tracks on them are hip-hop, trance, disco and many other genres which I don’t particularly appreciate. With hockey, the music is all about Metal and Rock, which I do appreciate. I think this is to reflect the sheer brutality of Hockey, the fact that you only get a 5-minute penalty for having a full-blown fight for example. Don’t worry if you don’t enjoy this type of music though, as a custom music feature is also available. Similarly to football games, you get commentators. Comparing them, I prefer the commentary on NHL 10, as the commentary does not seem as repetitive as a football game. The game is that intense, that when a phrase does get repeated, you don’t even notice. This really helps the realism of hockey atmosphere. The crowd is very good considering the limited amount of things that can be achieved. You get your basic cheers when the home team scores. You get cheers when a home player wins a fight and boos when an away player wins a fight. A very nice touch I noticed is that if an away player injures one of the home team, any time that player receives the puck, he will get booed. The commentator will also point this out. Other sounds you will notice are when you take a shot and also when you engage a player in board play (jamming them against the board and fighting for the puck).
The actual game play can be rather monotonous. Watching a real-life hockey game and playing this game are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Real-life hockey is extremely fast, and players are in a vague position. In the game though, the puck can be a drag to move about, and players will be cemented into a position. Because of this, it can be very easy to attack the other team, as players will stay in there general area, more so than real-life, you just have to work your way around them. It’s even worse when you defend, as every attack looks pretty much the same. You can begin to predict what the computer is going to do and just take players out before they even have the puck.
There are plenty of different game modes to participate in, 9 to be exact. These are; Season, Battle for the Cup, Be a Pro, Shootout, Be a GM, Tournament, Create a Play, Practice and Playoff.
Season
In this mode, you will take part in a full hockey season in the NHL, AHL or one of the European Leagues.
Battle for the Cup
Choose 2 teams, choose the length of the series (3, 5 or 7, a knockout game or an authentic series) then select which trophy you will play for and it’s time for the puck drop.
Be a Pro
Either create your own player or play as an existing player. Then you can either take part in the entry draft, where you play a prospects game and a team will choose you afterwards depending on your performance, or just pick a team, and start in their AHL team to work your way up.
Shootout
Choose two teams, and fight it out in the most intense part of hockey; a shootout.
Be a GM
This is similar to Season mode, except that you play for up to 25 seasons, and there are far more settings, such as staff upgrades and player development.
Tournament
This is where you play the world’s best teams in an 8 or 16-team tournament to see who is crowned the king. You can also played the Montreal Canadiens Centennial Cup, where you must defeat 8 teams to play against the Montreal Canadeins Centennial Team. This is included because the Montreal Canadiens are in their centenary year this year.
Create a Play
This is not really a game mode, rather an extra feature, where you can create plays that you can execute during a game.
Practice
This is a free arena, where you can practice many situations and perfect them.
Playoff
Choose any post-season series from any hockey league and pit your wits against the fury of playoff hockey. It’s a completely different ball game, or rather, puck game.
In my opinion, this game is a fantastic edition to the hockey game series, and as I mentioned before, it has surpassed many people’s expectations. The game still has some faults, but rather than dwindling on them, I prefer to see them as a springboard for EA to make the next game even better. I look forward to see what they achieve in NHL 11, because if NHL 10 is anything to go by, it should be fantastic.
Game Rating: 8/10
Graphically, this game is pretty solid. The atmosphere of each individual stadium that you play in is pretty similar, apart from the fact that the spectators will have the home teams colours on. The players themselves are pretty lifelike. As usual with most games in the sport genre, the main, well-known players have had more time spent on them, as these are the players that people will most likely have an image of. Lesser-known players can look rather clone like, so it spoils the look of the team a bit. Some identity amongst the team would be greatly received I think. I do admire the affects of the ice though, as wherever your player travels, behind will be a trail left off of his skates, and also when your player skids to a halt after running, a spray of ice is fired into the air. This is particularly noticeable on the replays as you can slow the playback speed down to get a nice look at the physics engine in a, dare I say, freeze frame.
Of course, a game is never complete without a soundtrack. Usually, I only play football games on a console, and the majority of the tracks on them are hip-hop, trance, disco and many other genres which I don’t particularly appreciate. With hockey, the music is all about Metal and Rock, which I do appreciate. I think this is to reflect the sheer brutality of Hockey, the fact that you only get a 5-minute penalty for having a full-blown fight for example. Don’t worry if you don’t enjoy this type of music though, as a custom music feature is also available. Similarly to football games, you get commentators. Comparing them, I prefer the commentary on NHL 10, as the commentary does not seem as repetitive as a football game. The game is that intense, that when a phrase does get repeated, you don’t even notice. This really helps the realism of hockey atmosphere. The crowd is very good considering the limited amount of things that can be achieved. You get your basic cheers when the home team scores. You get cheers when a home player wins a fight and boos when an away player wins a fight. A very nice touch I noticed is that if an away player injures one of the home team, any time that player receives the puck, he will get booed. The commentator will also point this out. Other sounds you will notice are when you take a shot and also when you engage a player in board play (jamming them against the board and fighting for the puck).
The actual game play can be rather monotonous. Watching a real-life hockey game and playing this game are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Real-life hockey is extremely fast, and players are in a vague position. In the game though, the puck can be a drag to move about, and players will be cemented into a position. Because of this, it can be very easy to attack the other team, as players will stay in there general area, more so than real-life, you just have to work your way around them. It’s even worse when you defend, as every attack looks pretty much the same. You can begin to predict what the computer is going to do and just take players out before they even have the puck.
There are plenty of different game modes to participate in, 9 to be exact. These are; Season, Battle for the Cup, Be a Pro, Shootout, Be a GM, Tournament, Create a Play, Practice and Playoff.
Season
In this mode, you will take part in a full hockey season in the NHL, AHL or one of the European Leagues.
Battle for the Cup
Choose 2 teams, choose the length of the series (3, 5 or 7, a knockout game or an authentic series) then select which trophy you will play for and it’s time for the puck drop.
Be a Pro
Either create your own player or play as an existing player. Then you can either take part in the entry draft, where you play a prospects game and a team will choose you afterwards depending on your performance, or just pick a team, and start in their AHL team to work your way up.
Shootout
Choose two teams, and fight it out in the most intense part of hockey; a shootout.
Be a GM
This is similar to Season mode, except that you play for up to 25 seasons, and there are far more settings, such as staff upgrades and player development.
Tournament
This is where you play the world’s best teams in an 8 or 16-team tournament to see who is crowned the king. You can also played the Montreal Canadiens Centennial Cup, where you must defeat 8 teams to play against the Montreal Canadeins Centennial Team. This is included because the Montreal Canadiens are in their centenary year this year.
Create a Play
This is not really a game mode, rather an extra feature, where you can create plays that you can execute during a game.
Practice
This is a free arena, where you can practice many situations and perfect them.
Playoff
Choose any post-season series from any hockey league and pit your wits against the fury of playoff hockey. It’s a completely different ball game, or rather, puck game.
In my opinion, this game is a fantastic edition to the hockey game series, and as I mentioned before, it has surpassed many people’s expectations. The game still has some faults, but rather than dwindling on them, I prefer to see them as a springboard for EA to make the next game even better. I look forward to see what they achieve in NHL 11, because if NHL 10 is anything to go by, it should be fantastic.
Game Rating: 8/10
Extrememly 'noob' friendly. First of all, everyone who starts the game will be met with a tutorial that can be skipped, but it will come up automatically. This shows you all the basics (movement, passing, shooting, tackling, boarding). The lowest difficulty level isn't just easy either, it's also helpful as if the computer notices your not doing something, say tackling for example, it will remind you how to tackle whilst in game. It's very handy indeed.
Nice review there Chris,I haven't played an Ice Hockey game in years (think the last one might have been on the Mega Drive !).Can't remember what it was called but it was really good though.Are the new NHL games 'noob friendly' for people like me who don't play these games ?.
The latest game of the EA Sports Hockey Franchise, NHL 10 had a lot of changes to make after the success of 09. There was a lot of expectation surrounding the release of this game as people expected new features from the previous titles. Fulfilling these expectations was the primary task for this release, and if they weren’t fulfilled, well there would have been a lot of angry and disappointed hockey fans. Thankfully, the game has achieved, and surpassed the majority of people expectations.
Graphically, this game is pretty solid. The atmosphere of each individual stadium that you play in is pretty similar, apart from the fact that the spectators will have the home teams colours on. The players themselves are pretty lifelike. As usual with most games in the sport genre, the main, well-known players have had more time spent on them, as these are the players that people will most likely have an image of. Lesser-known players can look rather clone like, so it spoils the look of the team a bit. Some identity amongst the team would be greatly received I think. I do admire the affects of the ice though, as wherever your player travels, behind will be a trail left off of his skates, and also when your player skids to a halt after running, a spray of ice is fired into the air. This is particularly noticeable on the replays as you can slow the playback speed down to get a nice look at the physics engine in a, dare I say, freeze frame.
Of course, a game is never complete without a soundtrack. Usually, I only play football games on a console, and the majority of the tracks on them are hip-hop, trance, disco and many other genres which I don’t particularly appreciate. With hockey, the music is all about Metal and Rock, which I do appreciate. I think this is to reflect the sheer brutality of Hockey, the fact that you only get a 5-minute penalty for having a full-blown fight for example. Don’t worry if you don’t enjoy this type of music though, as a custom music feature is also available. Similarly to football games, you get commentators. Comparing them, I prefer the commentary on NHL 10, as the commentary does not seem as repetitive as a football game. The game is that intense, that when a phrase does get repeated, you don’t even notice. This really helps the realism of hockey atmosphere. The crowd is very good considering the limited amount of things that can be achieved. You get your basic cheers when the home team scores. You get cheers when a home player wins a fight and boos when an away player wins a fight. A very nice touch I noticed is that if an away player injures one of the home team, any time that player receives the puck, he will get booed. The commentator will also point this out. Other sounds you will notice are when you take a shot and also when you engage a player in board play (jamming them against the board and fighting for the puck).
The actual game play can be rather monotonous. Watching a real-life hockey game and playing this game are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Real-life hockey is extremely fast, and players are in a vague position. In the game though, the puck can be a drag to move about, and players will be cemented into a position. Because of this, it can be very easy to attack the other team, as players will stay in there general area, more so than real-life, you just have to work your way around them. It’s even worse when you defend, as every attack looks pretty much the same. You can begin to predict what the computer is going to do and just take players out before they even have the puck.
There are plenty of different game modes to participate in, 9 to be exact. These are; Season, Battle for the Cup, Be a Pro, Shootout, Be a GM, Tournament, Create a Play, Practice and Playoff.
Season
In this mode, you will take part in a full hockey season in the NHL, AHL or one of the European Leagues.
Battle for the Cup
Choose 2 teams, choose the length of the series (3, 5 or 7, a knockout game or an authentic series) then select which trophy you will play for and it’s time for the puck drop.
Be a Pro
Either create your own player or play as an existing player. Then you can either take part in the entry draft, where you play a prospects game and a team will choose you afterwards depending on your performance, or just pick a team, and start in their AHL team to work your way up.
Shootout
Choose two teams, and fight it out in the most intense part of hockey; a shootout.
Be a GM
This is similar to Season mode, except that you play for up to 25 seasons, and there are far more settings, such as staff upgrades and player development.
Tournament
This is where you play the world’s best teams in an 8 or 16-team tournament to see who is crowned the king. You can also played the Montreal Canadiens Centennial Cup, where you must defeat 8 teams to play against the Montreal Canadeins Centennial Team. This is included because the Montreal Canadiens are in their centenary year this year.
Create a Play
This is not really a game mode, rather an extra feature, where you can create plays that you can execute during a game.
Practice
This is a free arena, where you can practice many situations and perfect them.
Playoff
Choose any post-season series from any hockey league and pit your wits against the fury of playoff hockey. It’s a completely different ball game, or rather, puck game.
In my opinion, this game is a fantastic edition to the hockey game series, and as I mentioned before, it has surpassed many people’s expectations. The game still has some faults, but rather than dwindling on them, I prefer to see them as a springboard for EA to make the next game even better. I look forward to see what they achieve in NHL 11, because if NHL 10 is anything to go by, it should be fantastic.
Game Rating: 8/10
Graphically, this game is pretty solid. The atmosphere of each individual stadium that you play in is pretty similar, apart from the fact that the spectators will have the home teams colours on. The players themselves are pretty lifelike. As usual with most games in the sport genre, the main, well-known players have had more time spent on them, as these are the players that people will most likely have an image of. Lesser-known players can look rather clone like, so it spoils the look of the team a bit. Some identity amongst the team would be greatly received I think. I do admire the affects of the ice though, as wherever your player travels, behind will be a trail left off of his skates, and also when your player skids to a halt after running, a spray of ice is fired into the air. This is particularly noticeable on the replays as you can slow the playback speed down to get a nice look at the physics engine in a, dare I say, freeze frame.
Of course, a game is never complete without a soundtrack. Usually, I only play football games on a console, and the majority of the tracks on them are hip-hop, trance, disco and many other genres which I don’t particularly appreciate. With hockey, the music is all about Metal and Rock, which I do appreciate. I think this is to reflect the sheer brutality of Hockey, the fact that you only get a 5-minute penalty for having a full-blown fight for example. Don’t worry if you don’t enjoy this type of music though, as a custom music feature is also available. Similarly to football games, you get commentators. Comparing them, I prefer the commentary on NHL 10, as the commentary does not seem as repetitive as a football game. The game is that intense, that when a phrase does get repeated, you don’t even notice. This really helps the realism of hockey atmosphere. The crowd is very good considering the limited amount of things that can be achieved. You get your basic cheers when the home team scores. You get cheers when a home player wins a fight and boos when an away player wins a fight. A very nice touch I noticed is that if an away player injures one of the home team, any time that player receives the puck, he will get booed. The commentator will also point this out. Other sounds you will notice are when you take a shot and also when you engage a player in board play (jamming them against the board and fighting for the puck).
The actual game play can be rather monotonous. Watching a real-life hockey game and playing this game are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Real-life hockey is extremely fast, and players are in a vague position. In the game though, the puck can be a drag to move about, and players will be cemented into a position. Because of this, it can be very easy to attack the other team, as players will stay in there general area, more so than real-life, you just have to work your way around them. It’s even worse when you defend, as every attack looks pretty much the same. You can begin to predict what the computer is going to do and just take players out before they even have the puck.
There are plenty of different game modes to participate in, 9 to be exact. These are; Season, Battle for the Cup, Be a Pro, Shootout, Be a GM, Tournament, Create a Play, Practice and Playoff.
Season
In this mode, you will take part in a full hockey season in the NHL, AHL or one of the European Leagues.
Battle for the Cup
Choose 2 teams, choose the length of the series (3, 5 or 7, a knockout game or an authentic series) then select which trophy you will play for and it’s time for the puck drop.
Be a Pro
Either create your own player or play as an existing player. Then you can either take part in the entry draft, where you play a prospects game and a team will choose you afterwards depending on your performance, or just pick a team, and start in their AHL team to work your way up.
Shootout
Choose two teams, and fight it out in the most intense part of hockey; a shootout.
Be a GM
This is similar to Season mode, except that you play for up to 25 seasons, and there are far more settings, such as staff upgrades and player development.
Tournament
This is where you play the world’s best teams in an 8 or 16-team tournament to see who is crowned the king. You can also played the Montreal Canadiens Centennial Cup, where you must defeat 8 teams to play against the Montreal Canadeins Centennial Team. This is included because the Montreal Canadiens are in their centenary year this year.
Create a Play
This is not really a game mode, rather an extra feature, where you can create plays that you can execute during a game.
Practice
This is a free arena, where you can practice many situations and perfect them.
Playoff
Choose any post-season series from any hockey league and pit your wits against the fury of playoff hockey. It’s a completely different ball game, or rather, puck game.
In my opinion, this game is a fantastic edition to the hockey game series, and as I mentioned before, it has surpassed many people’s expectations. The game still has some faults, but rather than dwindling on them, I prefer to see them as a springboard for EA to make the next game even better. I look forward to see what they achieve in NHL 11, because if NHL 10 is anything to go by, it should be fantastic.
Game Rating: 8/10