I thought I was about to play the most realistic game in the NHL series but found out I had been better off with '98.
-Same old cutscenes used, didn't provide depth or NHL realism
-Don't get me started on the goalies, online mode is a laggy festival of one-timers and cheap gift goals.
-When switching goalies, there is no cutscene to show it. I believe NHL 2003 had the best goalie switching cutscene, it actually showed the backup coming off the bench and his name was displayed. Incredibly, for some reason online shows goalie switching cutscenes
-No cutscene when calling a timeout, 2005 and 2004 showed the coaches talking to the players.
-Very dull and unenthusiastic commentary from Hughson, unrealistic towards real NHL commentary and gets more boring each year as his lines are the same old lines he's been saying for years. Craig Simpson is a bit more than a whisper in the breeze, you hardly hear him say anything interesting.
-Crowds very unrealistic, sometimes in the middle of action the arena just goes dead silent for no reason whatsoever. Crowds barely make any noise or even stand up when the home team scores. I know next-gen has this fixed.
-Too easy to score cheap goals whether it be one-timers in the slot or crossovers, the skill stick made it even easier. AI scores the cheapest and luckiest goals that a player would never have the luck to do...or stop for that matter.
-Unrealistic player and goalie attributes in many parts, Finns are the most talented and fastest players around but you wouldn't see it in this game.
-During the second or third period, replays from goals, hits, and penalties would start disappearing. The useless patches did nothing to fix gameplay and bugs.
-I thought 06 would bring out the "new rules of the NHL" yet the AI hooks like there is no tomorrow and never gets penalized. On AI powerplays, they will constantly hook you enough to get frustrated and turn off the game once and for all.
-AI NEVER, EVER makes a big hit. What's up with that? 2005 was terrible due to the constant hitting but there is absolutely no hitting in 06 unless I do it, and even then the hits are unrealistic. Sometimes in violent collisions in the NHL, both players hit the ice but in this game, the hitter is always a god.
-The game engine is scripted to give AI the advantage throughout the game. I was leading San Jose 2-0 with 2 minutes left in the 3rd and I thought it was the most realistic game I had played in '06. In the last minute, Joe Thornton magically scored 3 goals in a row. I tied it with Teemu Selanne and took it in overtime but that's beside the point. The engine heavily favours the AI and there is no realism or fun in scripted plays. The puck magically bounces to the AI's stick, my goalie magically turns into a minor leaguer, and it is impossible to hit, poke, or move the opponents while they are in the "magic goal zone".
-It's impossible to dump the puck over the boards in your own zone. I would also like to see a penalty from this in 07.
-Speaking of penalties, the AI always gets away with everything. Once I was so frustrated that I slashed and injured every player on the AI team and restarted the game
-Online favours luck, not skill. And there's lag. Lots of it.
-No practice modes to try some drills, strategies, and lines in season or career modes. The free-for-all is a joke for PC and I never play it.
-When you score a goal, it doesn't show how many you have in a season or career. I mean come on!
-The goal songs and arena ditties were so horrible and unrealistic that I used a stream editor to remove all of them and put in my own ditties and goal celebration songs and increased the entertainment and replayability value of the game. Not to mention the realism. That being said, if anyone wants realistic ditties, I can send that 400MB streams.dat
-The goal horns...oh gosh. I found some realistic goal horns for all the teams but the goal horns weren't even available through the stream editor. Basically there are no goal horns in the streams.dat, they're stored somewhere else and I couldn't get my hands on them. They're unrealistic. The Phoenix goal horn sounds like an 1830's cannon firing off 3 shots. It's supposed to be a howling Coyote, garrhhh!!!
-EA's lack of support for their NHL games is appalling. 3 useless patches. And not to mention the playoff rosters still have players that retired before the season began! GARHH!!!
It has some nice improvements such as goalies having cyberfaces that actually look realistic and dekes sometimes fooling AI nicely. Apart from little quirks, this game is a disaster. Incredibly I still play it.