Best NHL Game: Check Room for Improvement: Check
Shooting with the skill stick is one of the most rewarding experiences in sports gaming. Checking is a rewarding beauty when, say, you're tied and close to the end with a minute left in regulation, and you lay out some poor chum with a sweet open-ice body check to set your team up for a baller one-timer that dings off the piping and falls into the net.
Player animations are superb.
Graphical depth-of-field has a tendency to pop in and out, but that's a minor gripe.
The only thing really lacking is some more intelligent AI when you, the player with the puck, are counting on the rest of the team to position themselves intelligently and make some smart choices on their own. It wouldn't be a bad thing, I think, to make it next time that you can be your own person and try to position yourself in a place where a teammate can pass to you--OH WAIT! there's a mode for that in this game called Be A Pro where you make your perfect virtual hockey player come tom life for the team you want.
Other gameplay elements, passing, skating, all work effortlessly and realistically while still being a joy to play.
I suppose my other complaint is the number of gameplay and rule tweaks that are available. Maybe if the developers simply worked out a proper balance with all of those settings available to you I wouldnt find myself turning down the difficulty to just balance things out.
BUY THIS! one of the best sports game to date, and mos-def looking forward to NHL 10