Looks great, but plays terribly
First off, there is one glitch that somehow escaped the EA developers eyes for a 2nd year in a row...and that is the shot counter. Folks, for those of you who know nothing about hockey (kinda like the EA Sports team), lets make this clear. A shot on goal is only counted when it is either a goal, or a goalie makes a save....it does NOT count when it is shot wide, blocked by a D-man, or rings off the post/crossbar. How EA didn't notice this problem again is beyond me.
Next up is the poke checking. The CPU will never ever miss a single poke check, while 9 times out of 10, the CPU will skate right by you even if you poke check. The CPU will give your player a love tap and the puck goes flying, but you can just level a CPU player and he will still hold the puck like nothing ever happened. pretty wierd dont ya think?
Now is the skating. It looks attrotious. The movements are jerky and unfluid. Even with game speed turned down to its lowest, players still zip around the ice. taking away the speed burst button was a dumb idea, because now all players skate around at top speed ALL THE TIME. players skate side to side as fast as they do forward, and when u let go of the movement stick, players glide sideways, like they have hover skates or something! seriously EA, have any of you guys really even set foot onto a rink like some of you have claimed? And while using vision control (when players face the oppositions net at all times) when you skate backwards, they accelerate to amazing speeds in not time at all. never in my life have i never seen an NHL player accelerate and skate that fast backwards.
Ah, now for the goaltending. EA promised that this years game would do goalies justice. well, sorry to burst your bubble, but think again. They may have some nice animations, but are still as dumb as ever. All the CPU does is shoot 5 hole, and whenever they decide to shoot high, its always a garunteed goal. Ive seen more shots from 60 feet out that go in off the crossbar and into the net than goals that require effort to score...so where is all these amazing goals EA? cause i havent seen any yet. infact the first goal i scored in the game i said to myself "wow that was really lame"
Fighting is the worst its ever been...i really dont need to elaborate any more on that.
AI overall is terrible. You can have every single player at one time chasing the puck like a dog chasing a tennis ball. Really, is that how NHL hockey is nowaday? Passing is terrible as well. I aim to who i wanna pass to and it will go the opposite direction or to whatever person is closest, which totally screws up whatever set up you would like to execute. NHL 2004 was the last game to have good passing where YOU THE PLAYER controlled everything...the speed, the direction, and whether or not it was a saucer pass...about where the puck went
So overall, this game is downright awful. As said before, it has pretty visuals and audio, but that is pretty much it. If it werent for the way out of date rosters, I would probably STILL be playing NHL 2004.