No hockey, no problem

Speak Out!  Print  E-mail

04/08/05

By Louis Gagliardi,
Contributor

The National Hockey League (NHL) season has come and gone with a lock-out. But that does not mean that hockey is gone forever. Every year or so, EA Sports brings out new games. This year's NHL game is no different. Fast game-play, decent graphics, and enough stars to make it shine; EA Sports NHL 2005 has it all.

The game-play is familiar to NHL 2004, in that you use the left analog stick to move around. The modes are all the same in the name style: exhibition, dynasty, playoffs, season, and international play. What is different, is that a person can play as an international team from an international league. The dynasty mode is the same, but also unique in its own way. In this mode, the designers of the game added a chance for players to see how their team's city rates the team.

The player is now able to look at a newspaper and see different articles about their team or an individual player. Also, in the dynasty mode, instead of creating a general manager based on a name and a picture, there are many more to choose from in the game. The player can now choose what the GM brings to the team, such as good motivation, or good strategies. The only downside is that there is no way to make a female General Manager. Professorial hockey is usually an all-male sport, but a lack of bias towards gender would be a good thing in video games.

The rosters on the game are updated as of the middle of the 2004-2005 season. Some of these players include Mario Lemeiux and Eric Lindros. One feature that EA Sports has added to the game is the unlocking of the players. While good as a novelty, the game could have players like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr, and Gordie Howe as unlockable.

The graphics are reasonable. When you get an up-close view of a player on the ice, there is an actual detailed face instead of a simple outline with no features. Another graphic includes the statistics shown on the screen. It looks as though a person is actually watching a hockey game instead of playing a video game.

The game is relatively cheap at $29.82 on PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, and PC.

To view all articles by this writer Click here.