As a big fan of both hockey and videogames, EA Sports annual series “NHL” has been a “must buy” every year since 2002. I also owned a few titles from the mid 90’s when they were topical, so I have had the chance to follow the series development pretty good. The newest addition “NHL 2005” falls into the well done EA Sports tradition and leaves a great impression on the player. So far I have completed four seasons in the dynasty mode and will continue playing on that file, until the launch of the next game this fall. There are however a few shortcomings that need to be dealt with, regarding this game. How important they seem is entirely up to you. I am only underlining them… First, EA Sports has never seemed to find a good balance between the different levels of difficulty. This is more apparent in “NHL 2005” than its predecessors. When you have mastered the easy level and moves on to medium, it becomes irritatingly hard to score. This is mostly a result of the high AI on the defensemen and the goalies skill. The puck must be passed quickly or you’ll end up on your ass quicker than you can say “smack”. Almost every match the opponent’s goalkeeper ends up as the first star game. This is because the shoot score often ends with numbers such as 43-11, while the game ends 3-1 or 2-1. As a total fan of statistics this becomes really annoying, whilst it proves my point. Secondly, the new system in dynasty mode, where your boss issues goals to be achieved during the season is an aspect that adds nothing to the game, but indignation. If you won five consecutive Stanley Cups for your team, you can still be fired because you weren’t the best team in power play the final season. The game is over and you’ve wasted your time playing 410 season matches and a number of playoff games. At least EA Sports should have enabled you to turn this off if you wanted to, but no! Thirdly, a point that mainly should annoy the hell out of European gamers: there is no way to transfer NHL players into the European teams. With the addition of the Swedish Elitserien league in “NHL 2004” I finally got the chance to play with my real life favourite team Sodertalje. In “NHL 2005” (just as in the 2004 edition) the rosters are disastrously updated, and with the NHL lockout and many NHL stars in the Swedish and Finish league you want to be able to place Olli Jokinen, Markus Naslund or Marian Hossa in their real life team. If you manage to overlook these minor problems “NHL 2005” is a really great hockey game, full of different modes. The value is high, as with most sports games that are well done, since they seldom repeats themselves. The movement of the players are chillingly realistic and some of the goals make your skin crawl. I must point out that I have not yet played the pretenders to the throne, when it comes to hockey games. EA Sports “NHL” titles are the only ones so far I have had the pleasure of playing.
I have been a fan of EA Sports hockey games since they first came out on the SNES. I have bought every game, every year since 1994. This year's game is the most disappointing yet. I felt ripped off that I paid $50 for th... Read Full Review
This is probably one of the worst sports games ever made. It just shows very little effort and very rushed. First of all, the graphics are just horrible. It really looks like that it should be on a playstation or a ni... Read Full Review
