Hockey is back, the lockout is over... I can finally play a hockey game and not be disgusted at it because of it's real-life counterpart. Funny story : I was at Future Shop (similar to Circuit City, for you Yankees out there) on the friday that NHL 06 came out in stores. 2K6 and 06 were parked one right next to the other. I had both games in my hands... The dilemma began. Finally, I decided to go with EA, since I'd always played their NHL games in the past on the PC, and decided to take it for a console this time, hence the XBox... Was this a good decision on my part ? I'm not even sure yet. Keep in mind here that I didn't play NHL 2005 last year because the whole hockey strike thing had me down and depressed, so this is a new beginning for me. NHL 2004 had redefined the EA hockey series and had put back some punch in a fading franchise. NHL 06 takes some of the good things from that... but not all of it. First off, and most importantly in my eyes, the rosters are pretty up to date. My Montreal Canadiens even have Thomas Plekanec in their lineup, which made me very happy. The gameplay is pretty solid and accurate to a real hockey game on normal and hard difficulty, but yes, I have to admit, it is a bit faster than a real hockey game. The on-the-fly changes for the strategies of a team are very cool. The graphics are pretty awesome, the animations after the goals and the replays are fantastic, but the pre-game presentation lacks and is repetitive. The actual sounds of the hockey game itself are good, but the music provided by EA Traxx gets on my nerves and the bad thing about all this is that you can't customize your soundtrack in this game, which, basically, sucks. The replay value of the game is good, of course, because of the Dynasty mode. The little touches that I like about this game are the e-mails that are sent to you by different departments in the League. They make the Dynasty mode more personnal and enjoyable. I also like the chemistry factor in the game, it makes you think twice about matching one player with others. Ok, now, the bad things : I always have to reconfigure my controller each time I resume my Dynasty and this gets really annoying (I don't use the default settings). The menus are a bit tedious and annoying, because they are not placed in easy-to-reach fashion. Also, the calendar remains exactly the same from season to season... how stupid is that ? 10 consecutive seasons with the same calendar ? Come on EA ! I know this isn't Madden, but geez, put a little effort into it ! NHL 06 is a good game, not a great game of hockey. EA, I beg you, I implore you... Do a better effort with NHL 07 or I'm changing to 2K starting next season.
I love NHL 05...i mean 06. so little has changed since last year that i thought i was playing 05 alot of the time, which to me is not a bad thing. Though its gameplay is not as good as 2k6s is, it is still enjoyable. Th... Read Full Review
Gameplay: 7 Why: NHL games have been around for a long time. Having said that, you'd think by now companies could come out with a game that is true to hockey, in realism and design. Unfortunately, since the gaming compa... Read Full Review
