Easily the greatest hockey game of all time, but one or two additions still keep this game from being any way realistic
I know that sounds ridiculous, but literally from age 2, i've been playing NHL. The game has changed a lot from the original NHL Hockey title that came out, but the sad part is that most of the features EA developed over the years in the 90's are JUST making their way back in to the games today.
In order to properly review this game, lets start with the new additions and analyze those separately.
Game Modes: Be a GM is the new highlight of NHL 10, and features almost a completely rebuilt engine from the previous installments "Dynasty Mode". New to the game are upgrades! You can upgrade your staff members and make your team better! But wait, didn't they have upgrade way back in 2003-2004? And weren't there actually THREE TIMES as many? Yes there certainly were. The Be a GM mode also features the new smart trading system. Yes. Smart. Where Dion Phaneuf was smartly traded to the Los Angeles Kings for Jonathan Quick. Most of the trades turn out to be incredibly ridiculous, and big name players end up with a trade value equal to that of a sack of bricks. It's supposed to be an improvement over the earlier practically non-existent trade AI we've seen in every single game since, but in reality it just spawns ridiculous trade after ridiculous trade.
Battle for the cup caught a lot of flack, but in actuality is perhaps the only game mode they did right. Although it does take away the glory of playing an entire season and sippin' gin and juice from Lord Stanley.
And finally, Be A Pro! Everybody is talking about Be a Pro mode and how amazing it is! And to be completely honest, I don't know what the hell these people are talking about. Be A Pro is with out a doubt the most boring game mode ever invented. Now hear me out all you Be A Pro fanboys. EVERY SINGLE GAME you spend going back and forth up and down the ice while your teammates make stupid play after stupid play. When you get the puck, there's actually very little you can do with it besides skating blandly up the ice otherwise you lose points in position and team play. Half the time you're sitting on the bench. Aside from goalie mode, Be A Pro is a complete snore. If they just simply allowed you to play as THE ENTIRE TEAM instead of this position lock nonsense, there would literally be NO problems.
The AI in this game is as stupid as all of it's predecessors, creativity is at the absolute minimum. The computer players go to the same spots. Make the same passes and do the same plays every time. This can be solved be creating your own plays, but when the ice gets covered in stupid green trigger-circles it ceases to feel like a hockey game and more like a five year old drew all over the screen. I play every game on the hardest difficulty possible, and I still win 7-1 every time. All my goals end up looking the same, two on one last second one timers or deking around their entire team to score. The AI NEVER tries anything new, and it's very frustrating and unrealistic.
Board Play + Tough Guy: Board play is an interesting addition as it genuinely adds a more hockey feel to the game. The problem is there is very little strategy involved in board play besides randomly hitting poke check and stick lift, which more than likely hands you a high-sticking/slashing/tripping penalty. It just needs to be tweaked better, and it feels like most of the new additions were throw in the game in the last month while EA spent the other 11 months of the year on the beach rolling around in money. The fights are awesome. Sorta. At least it's a gigantic improvement over the previous years. But every fight still ends the same with the same animation, seemingly random who ends up getting hurt. Plus there are no fight replays? Take a page out of UFC Unleashed and throw in the last devastating hit in super slow motion. Plus, where's the blood and bruises? I know kids play this game, but kids ALSO watch hockey. Where people get bloodied and bruised. What's worse for them to see? A simulator or the real thing?
The worst part about fighting in this game is actually the LIMIT of the fights. You can only have five fights a game. No matter what. Absolute maximum. Once you reach five fights, you get the pleasure of hearing that idiot Bill Clement say "LETS GET ER GOIN" or "HOW BOUT, FIVE TO GO?", or my all-time favorite "WHY I OUGHTTTA". This guy almost single handedly ruins the game.
Leg lift: Perhaps the only shining light amongst additions. The leg lift completely changes the deking scheme for the better. Although completely unrealistic, it sure looks pretty to pirouette around the ice and the defenders.
Knee shots: Pretty cool, certainly. Again, unrealistic in terms of frequency, since I only ever saw one person drift towards the net on their knees last year and it was Kovalchuk trying some crappy deke in the all-star skills comp
Injury System: The injury system is much improved however still incredibly retarded. Post Concussion Syndrome out for a week? But I broke Boyle's stupid nose and he was gone for 3 months? Huh?
THINGS MISSING FROM NHL 10: Sticks breaking, Helmets popping off, falling shots, cross-league trades, REAL draft prospects, HIGHLIGHTS from other games, being able to see Boxscores from other games, realism, zambonis, four refs, REAL goalie masks?, players shouting profanities at eachother, shots of Brian Burke frowning in the press box, spinoramas and other unique dekes, Trevor Daley being a BLACK GUY, nets popping off?, BROKEN GLASS, Ovie's lack of teeth, blood, realistic puck handling, turnbuckle hits, hits INTO benches, hitting refs, Why don't goalies fight or get involved in scrums??, actual facewash button/takedown button, tip the puck button?, video review, Skills competition, Off-season training?, pre-season games, etc. etc. etc.
I could literally write a list of things missing for hours, substituting out the jokes with actual things missing. Most of these features they actually HAD in earlier NHL installments but scraped for unknown reasons years ago. Don't get me wrong, this is still a fantastic game, but I can't help but feel that if I worked at EA myself it would be made hundreds of times better and hundreds of times more realistic.
Most of my issues with NHL 10 stem from the actual lack of any change from the previous year. The biggest problem of which being the Create-A-Team option, which for some reason is largely ignored every year. You can choose from the same 18 or so logos they've made you choose from for the past 3 years. Incredibly lame. Not only that, but for some reason your logo doesn't even appear on center ice? They had that feature years ago, what changed that you have to have every create a team with a huge EA SPORTS logo in the middle? In previous years, Create-A-Team was much more advanced, allowing you to customize your area right down to the seat colors, it would even show the place in which your arena was located, accompanied by Jim Hughson saying something like "HERE WE ARE, IN PORTLAND OREGON".. which brings me to my next qualm...
The commentators. The commentary is extremely terrible. I can't understand why it continues to get glowing reviews, because not only is it exactly the same as last year, the few added sentences are completely retarded. I've become convinced the Bill Clement is a child molester, since every game he seems to talk about Men against Boys, and c'mon boys, boys boys boys. Even some of the new phrases he talks about boys. Gary Thorne is incredibly bland, aside from his occasion raps and rhymes which leave me giggling, he practically puts you to sleep each game. Bring back Jim Hughson already, there's something magically about hearing GREAT SAVE LUONGO in his silky smooth voice that makes hockey just feel right
Thousands of words later here we sit. You'd think I absolutely hated this game with the amount of bad-talking i've done, but it is in fact the opposite. This remains the single greatest hockey game ever made, and i'll spend all year playing it off-and-on. I just feel like there are so many areas to address (along with glitches, players BOUNCING up from a hit like the ice was a trampoline etc.) that this game could be far more incredible, to the point of actually being entertaining. The main problem I have, aside from everything else already listed, is that there is just no randomization. Every game plays out the same with the same goals, and the CPU always scores at the hashmarks in the slot glove side top shelf. Every goal. It's just too bland, from the commentary to the actual gameplay. I really wish the 2k series wasn't so terrible and had EA's resources, because they seem to be the only one's with any actual creativity.
I'm a hockey fanatic. And after all the hype it's sad to say this game left me completely disappointed. Don't even get me started on the soundtrack which sounds like it was composed by somebody's twelve year old son, complete with Nickleback, Greenday, and Alexisonfire (notable absence of Billy Talent - Rusty from tha Rain?). Aside from Megadeth busting out "What do you mean I don't believe in God", and some strange metal song sung by some ladies, the whole soundtrack is garbage. Kids in America? Are you serious? What is that like, Patrick Kane's favorite song? They could've just used Madden's soundtrack like they do every year, throw in some Queen and it would've been grand.
Anywayyyy...
Buy it. It's awesome. But if you're a hockey fanatic and you've played as many NHL games as I have you'll be incredibly, incredibly let down. And already looking forward to next year when EA decides to throw in Ovy's stupid sunglasses and sunhat as unlockables, bolstering the already stripped down game with a bunch more useless Be a Pro additions and letting us down until NHL 2013 when none of us even get to play the game because the world ends a couple months after the release date