Full of holes, glitches and bad goalies.
There's so many things that are just plain wrong:
What's Wrong????
- Not being able to release player in Dynasty mode??? this is the dumbest thing I've come across since I just finished my first full year in this game... not being able to release your players means once you max out your roster you can't free up space for any new players after the entry draft.
- Players don't play positions. if I skate to the corner with a player, there's always another guy following me into the same corner. This puts everyone out of position. Now, there's two of your guys on the puck..... The AI doesn't take into account that I'm doing something, the AI will play their position no matter where you take a user controlled player... this gets very frustrating when your trying to cycle around on the power play and you have a 50-50 chance of someone covering the spot your leaving open.
- Goalies are horrible (sometimes).. either you have a great 3-2 game or it ends up being 9-8... inconsistent beyond anything I've seen... you'll play a nice tight game and all of the sudden the flood gates open where every shot you take gets juggled by the goalie leading to him kicking into his own net, passing it into his own net. if you dump a puck in and the puck is barely moving toward the goalie, he'll just make a save and leave it sitting there... a real goalie would come out and get the puck, now it's sitting there in the slot.
- No fantasy draft? I would love to be able to start a dynasty career with a fantasy draft.. that way with every player in the league going into a draft you come out with a whole new league to take through a 20 year career.
- glitches during play like missed offside calls, facing off in the wrong zone after an icing call, and getting called for tripping and nothing else is annoying.
So What's Good?
- The graphics are great
- The new control method is really nice once you get used to it.
But really? for me to buy NHL08, they have to tighten up the goaltending will have to get tightened up in a major way letting the goalies stop pucks, come out and get pucks and play them properly. People complain about how there's not much crowd animations, or pre-game cut scenes. WHO CARES!!! I just want to be able to play a game that feels normal, sure it looks nice.
Focus on making the game work before worrying about the presentation.