Hockey Season Has Arrived!
I always know hockey season has arrived when EA Sports releases their new NHL game. If you're reading this blog and have a Playstation 3 or XBOX 360; you owe it to yourself to go pick up NHL 11 first thing tomorrow morning. I've been a loyal supporter of the NHL series since NHL 94 on the Sega Genesis. I strayed a few years to the NHL 2K series during my Dreamcast days but have been loyal to EA for quite a while now.
EA's motto has always been: "If it's in the game, it's in the game." And this year is no different. Tons of new gameplay tweaks, broken sticks, new revamped faceoff machine. No longer is it the same game with updated rosters. With the PS3's Blu-Ray Disc; developers can load up an endless amount of content into each game.
For NHL 11, EA got the licensing to the CHL. Which means all the OHL, QMJHL, and WHL players, jerseys, logos, etc. are in the game. If you want to play as Brayden Schenn on the Brandon Wheat Kings, you can. If you want to play with Brandon Kozun and Martin Jones on the Calgary Hitmen, you can. If you jump into GM Mode; all the junior players will be affiliated with the NHL team that drafted them! Say you want to revamp the Edmonton Oilers; you can bring Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson over from his Swedish Elite League team.
Unfortunately, the KHL refuses to be in the game because they want nothing to do with the NHL. Pretty stupid that they're the only major hockey league not featured in the world's #1 selling hockey hockey. But who knows...maybe there's some Russian game developers developing KHL 12.
EA's Hockey Ultimate Team has to be the most addicting mode I've ever played on a sports game. It's awesome. You take the reigns of a team. Are given a salary cap and EA Pucks currency to shape your team with trading cards of every player in the game. You can play offline or online with your team to earn more cash to spend on new cards. It's awesome.
Anyways, I could go on for pages. If you're on a Playstation 3; my PSN is cikiri. Friend me & let's play if you dare. Beware! I'm pretty good!...haha...Just kidding....or am I...
Ha Ha, Great review. Don't worry about the KHL, because if they did add them to the game, it would probably blow donkeys. EA should stick to hockey that matters.
ReplyDeleteI haven't played the new game yet so tell me, is there still player profiles that have no picture of the player to look at like previous games, and when you win the cup, do you actually get to do something with it?
It sucks to go thru a whole season and the playoffs, win it all, and not be able to lift the cup, or hand it to a player or coach that you want to hand it too.
Myabe this is a feature that only I would enjoy, since I've never heard anyone else ever ask (or complain) about that.
I agree but it'd still be nice to be able to pring some of those Russian prospects into the game...
ReplyDeleteI would say 99% of the players in the game have headshots even the junior players. Although, one player who doesn't have a headshot is Kings prospect Robbie Czarnik of the Plymouth Whalers. I went searching for him earlier today.
If you have a PS3 or XBOX 360; I suggest downloading the demo because you'll get a sneak peak at what winning the Stanley Cup in the game would be like. I'll say this: It's come a long ways since the Playstation and PS2 days.