NHL 2005

Added August 12th, 2004 by Derby

This just in: Electronic Arts may be in danger of losing their hold on console sports gaming! If you haven't realized that then you haven't played any of ESPN's recent sports titles and you've been ignoring the gaming media around you. Can EA battle back with its newest installment of the famous NHL hockey series?

I'm sure you're all familiar with the Electronic Art's hockey series. Personally I've been playing it since the original NHL Hockey for the Sega Genesis in '92 and I've loved it. I've seen some spotty years, like 2003 which was horrifying, and I've seen some great years like 2004. Will 2005 be one of those great years? Let's take a look at the changes they've made.

Apparently a few people have called for the ability to switch between players with or without the puck. I assume this means while you're skating with the puck you can take control of another player to get him in a good one-timer position. I don't know about you but I don't think I’m fast, or coordinated, enough to pull that off in the five or less seconds it takes me to get up ice. But I don't run the box, I run the fast attack offence. EA has a list of stuff they're calling new but I'm positive I've seen them before, such as the face-off playbook, which lets you choose offensive and defensive strategies. Before you had to call them during play but now they're letting you do it before the face-off and they're calling it new. Player awareness has been improved which should cut down on offsides a bit, stop you from throwing saucer passes into the goalie when you're on the two on one which would be great. They're boasting The World Cup of Hockey which probably means we'll be able to play the tournament, whereas before you could play as international teams just for fun. I think this will be one of the best editions to the games, too bad Canada didn't pick a better roster…

The AI has been turned up a notch, fast skaters will try and blow past you on the outside, defencemen will work for the room to crush you, it sounds like the computer may actually be decent to play against instead of being a pushover even on the highest difficulty. A few changes have been made as well, they've added a wraparound feature. I've been waiting for this since the original NHL Hockey when the programming was so bad you could stuff it in the bottom corner without shooting. I love watching wraparounds in real hockey and I'm going to love doing it to Belfour in NHL 2005. I wonder if you'll be able to perform the one that Michigan player and Sidney Crosby used, where you flip the puck on your stick and wraparound top shelf? They've also added some new functionality to the wrist shot, allowing you to hold the wrist shot button down as long as you need to get the floaters or laser shots. A tap deke button was added as well that will have the player your controlling perform a deke that is suited to your player's individual style of play. So if you're using Modano he'll probably slide the puck through the guy's legs and dance around him, and if you're using Domi he'll probably cheap shot him in the head.

The graphics have been updated and they look fairly sweet, gameplay has some enhanced graphics but I think the most amount of detail went to the faces of the individual players. They definitely look more recognizable in this incarnation of NHL Hockey than in the past few years.

The most eagerly anticipated edition to this game, and any EA game this year, has got to be Xbox Live support. That's right EA has caved and you'll be able to play this game online and humiliate your friends the world over! One on one matches, tournaments, online rankings and buddy lists are all included.

I think EA may have a shot with this one, it looks better than the last few NHL Hockey's so it's all going to come down to whether it plays as well as it looks and sounds. I think it will, and that's going to make my house divided in the current battle between ESPN and EA.