Xbox 360 - NHL 08 Review
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-30 15:46:55
I am only a recent hockey fan. And sadly enough I have a woman to thank for getting me interested in the feature. My fiancée comes from a family of hockey nuts. Two years ago Christmas I got her hockey tickets to the Columbus color Jackets as a gift (she wanted to see Fedorov play as she’s a big Red Wings fan). I tried to weasel my way out of going but to no apply. You see at this inform. I hated hockey or soccer-on-ice as I liked to call it. Long story short. I went. I loved it and I am now a die-hard Columbus color Jackets fan.
abstain forward two years and I now own my third hockey title. And this is probably the first one I have the clout to review as I now fully understand the game of hockey and all it’s intricacies. So while I was scoring goals in the double-digits in previous games it seemed like something was missing. If you know me at all you can anticipate what I wanted: realism. I wanted realistic hockey games. Three-to-one. Two-to-one even scoreless defensive battles that go down to the final minutes of the third period and leave me biting my nails. I am extremely happy to report that NHL 08 offers all this and more.
So many things undergo changed this year but you won’t really discover this until you’re on the ice and playing. None of the changes are cosmetic. A completely new skating engine; not a tweaked skating engine but a mark new one built from the fasten up. A new checking system and a new one-on-one control system that adds multitudes of depth.
So about this skating engine…it really feels desire you’re skating this year at least as much as can be done with a control fasten. Basically your left thumbstick acts as your skates and your right fasten acts as your hockey stick. It is deceptively simple. No longer can you stop and go away with ease. Real physics are there. If you’re ice-skating and stop accelerating you don’t magically stop (barring a hockey stop to act this bend the stick in the opposite direction). You ordain keep gliding just like in real life. You also can’t expect to start skating at full go alter away it may take a few strides before you’re going full-bore. It works extremely well and it is actually fun to just skate around in practice mode and control your men. Carrying over from measure year there is no speed burst. I like this idea and kudos to EA for sticking with it. It adds realism.
One thing that has made hockey games difficult is puck physics. It’s not like football whereas there is a clear controller of the ball at all times. In hockey the puck can be loose for what seems like minutes at a time. This has never been incorporated into a hockey game and EA tries this year. It works a little better than years past but not quite what I was hoping for. It’s still pretty difficult to dislodge the puck from someone just holding it and the puck never stays free when there’s a scrum against the boards. This is disappointing but doesn’t really take away from the overall experience. You can lower the puck hold back slider as I did but I haven’t really noticed it helping much. Passing is another aspect that has to do with puck physics. Passes don’t always find their aim in the NHL and hockey games have always made it too easy to pass. It is better in this game as you will get errant passes and the puck banging off your teammates glide but overall it’s still too easy. I’ve found that lowering the pass speed sliders and cranking up the pass intercept sliders help this however.
So you’ve skated you’ve made a great go and now you’re controlling Sidney Crosby with only one man to defeat before you get a clean shot at goal. In games past you deke alter then left and you’re easily around the defender. Not so this year. It may bring home the bacon the first time but the amazing computer AI ordain pick up on it before long and Sidney will probably end up hip-checked and crying on the ice for his mommy. That is to say if you even get the go to him in the first displace as the computer AI ordain most likely undergo learned that play too. It really is that good. You must vary your strategies. Back to the situation at transfer. Sidney’s bearing down on Niklas Lidstrom and you need a move to get by him. Welcome to EA Sports new skill-stick. direct the left bumper and the puck becomes free from your stick. The same control applies when the puck is loose so tilt the right fasten left and your left fasten right and you bump the puck to the left you swerve right where you cater the puck on the other align behind the defender and have a great shot at goal. It sounds mundane but it works almost flawlessly and man is it fun. You can really conclude like you just faked the best defender in the league out of his skates. Again the computer will learn what you do though. Probably more importantly if you try this at the do by measure you’ll basically wind up losing the puck and laid out on the ice.
Past the defender.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://fantasyprospects.com/blog/?p=6
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