Compounding issues have eroded a once proud series.
At the highest difficulty, the game's AI completely breaks down. It seems like they score at will whenever certain conditions are met. There are games where you seem designated to lose: out-shooting them 35-6 with quality shots and losing 3-1 on the scoreboard with soft goals against me. Why bother having me play these games? Your own players work against you. They peel off of 2 on 1 breaks. My players will screw up passes, but they aren't screw-ups but instead tape to tape passes to the opposition. My own players do not contest the opposition enough. They let them walk in on goal. I can't control everyone at once so there should be a brain in each player.
Another thing is the bounces. It seems like any time there is a rebound or a loose puck it favors the opposition. Chaotic pinball plays where the puck deflects strangely will NEVER go in on the computer's goalie but often score on your own goalie. The computer can score soft goals like wristers from the point- you can NEVER score this way.
The worst offense by far has to be the perfect passing by the opposition. Their player can be perfectly covered and yet the passes they make are always fast, perfect passes while your passing accuracy sharply drops when you are under pressure. I get scored on with a pass going through my player, a player who is even in a defensive blocking stance, while I can NEVER pass through a player even if that player is completely oblivious to the play.
And you know what? I'm winning. I'm #1 in the NHL with an inferior team. I am succeeding in this game and yet it frustrates me to no end. Part of me likes to slide one difficulty level down because it isn't so CHEAP, but then of course there is no challenge at all. It forces me to be cheap, to counteract the AI's cheapness. Seriously the fact that they could not improve AI with all the money they have been getting in inexcusable in my opinion.
Also, this online activation code thing is complete BS. We shouldn't have to put up with this nonsense and any reviewer worth his salt should knock this game a full point down for bringing it into the series. They willingly made the game worse.
Also there is no ability to sim a game you already played some of. You can sim the first period and intervene to take over, but it would be really nice to play the first period and simulate the rest. This has obvious uses like if you have to leave the game for some reason or if you are running away on the scoreboard and the third period is just going through the motions. I knock the series for not having it because it is an example that shows that they simply do not care about their series. This feature should be included.
Oh and it is obvious that EA does not know the rules of the NHL fully. I've mentioned this in previous reviews and things have not changed. Also, I don't mind that there are bad calls by refs since that is realistic but there are calls that boggle the mind.
Here's something to the series that really is inexcusable: lack of tutorials. There are great moves in the game like rushing with the puck and pulling the goalie in game but absolutely nowhere in the games horrible tutorials or in the manual does it describe how to do these moves. For online and in later difficulties I would say that these moves are required knowledge. Here's a rule of game design EA: you should describe the features of your game. Wow you suck.
Finally, what the hell is with the computer AI after the whistle? They used to be pushovers and it was fun to check them after the whistle and score on them. It didn't matter and it was a way to blow off steam. Now they are 'realistic'. When you check them or score on them after the whistle they will get up your ass and pester you. They will pester you sometimes for no reason as well. Was this necessary?? Did people criticize the after-the-whistle antics? (lol nobody did) Oh, and I would be okay with it if it was fair. Before, they were pushovers. Now, the human player is the pushover. There is no way to fight them. They just dominate you. The only thing you can do is hold the poke check button so they just circle around you like morons but you don't have to put up with the annoying rumbling from being checked by a jerk. Wow EA, of all the features you could repair, of all the annoying crap I've railed against you in this review that everyone else is aware of as well, you repair this? You turned something that people used to have fun with into something that enrages the player?? WTH