NHL 10 (Playstation 3)

Its been a long time since I've given a 5 star review on Amazon but NHL 10 takes the cake. As a "used-to-be-huge" hockey fan, I know enough about the sport to understand that hockey is more about defence than offence. Up until NHL 10, it has been very difficult for either EA Sports or 2kSports to get that right, with most matches turning into a shooting, hat-trick frenzy. Goalies would have abysmal save percentages and post puck play usually turned into a blood bath of checking. Those days are gone, atleast with the correct slider settings.

NHL 10 allows you to fully customize your on ice experience and while it may take you a few games to get the sliders just right, when you get there it is 100% worth it! Never have I had such a realistic hockey experience, with shots on goal and faceoffs resembling the real thing. Charging the net is exhilarating because the defence will actually use proper techniques to "bump" the puck or lift the stick instead of just following you in like mindless drones or falling down on the ice in a desperate attempt to block shots (although the latter does still exist, in true hockey form). Likewise, playing defence is very interesting and getting pushed back into your zone, especially on PKs can become a desperate battle to keep the puck out of the net.

Most aspects of NHL 10 are pretty much right on. Your team will have a nice intro into each game with Gary and Bill giving entertaining commentary throughout (this is actually some of the best commentary I've ever heard in any sports game). Good players get good attention, as they should, with interesting audio factoids throughout games in typical EA fashion. The only thing that is missing are milestone announcements in season games, which is a strange omission because almost every other thing was covered. Visuals are quite stunning and while they are not photo realistic, you can still pick out "Sid the Kids" baby face from a mile away. One thing that floored me was the attention to atmosphere, something that EA's Madden team has completely given up on. Tired of seeing 2D cardboard cutouts for fans and sideline players? So am I, and your not going to in NHL 10. The fans look just as good as the players. They move and act in surprisingly realistic fashion, even banging on the glass during board play or a big hit.

Speaking of which board play is a great new feature to the series, essentially locking players up against the boards with the puck getting kicked around. Although there are some strange quirks to how this works, overall it adds an interesting aspect to playing the puck, one thats never been seen in hockey games of the past.

The sound is very good. Pucks wrapping around the boards have that "plexiglass rattle" to them, big hits can be heard in the boards, and the stadiums all have signature goal horns. You can hear players on the bench yelling line changes and other suttle atmosphereic sound.

Your first few games will be a pause-fest to check the game manual as the learning curve for player control is a bit steep - but it is worth it, and once you get the hang of the controls you will feel very capable on the ice (you can also switch the controls to a simplified NHL 94 setting, but this eliminates alot of the necessary controls.

In "Be a GM" mode you will control everything from your AHL minor team to player training and progress. Team reports show how other teams stack up against you and player scouting will give you an advantage is the next years draft picks. There are many other aspects which you will have to discover on your own (yes, multiplayer is amazing).

Overall I am entirely happy with this purchase. EA Sports really did it right with NHL 10 and I hope they can continue this amazing trend with future titles.

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Great graphics, realistic game play. Great to play with the kids. I'm definitely an amateur gamer, and we just got PS3. This was our first game. I would definitely recommend this for hockey fans and to those trying to introduce their kids to hockey. It has definitely increased my kids interest in the game a lot. The feature to instigate fights is pretty cool.

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NHL10 has a lot of strong points, but its flaws keep it from being a truly enjoyable game. Just like last year, my review will focus mostly on the game play. I haven't given the EA Sports Hockey League a shot yet. But I feel that the responsiveness of the controls and realism of the game play are the foundation of the game. If they suck, the rest of the game will suck because eventually it all comes down to playing some hockey.

Before getting into an online versus/shootout match, you must navigate through the menu. My only gripe here is that I seem to be the home team about 10% of the time. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, but it's just another inexplicable frustration this game presents.

In the game, there are some changes for the better from NHL 09. Slapshots aren't completely pointless. Deflections are rare and won't be part of your attack repertoire. But rebounds from slapshots are a good way to score. The other basic scoring technique is the cross-ice one-timer. Bust down the wing, center it to another forward on the other side, and slam it into the net. Other than that, good luck finding a "high percentage" strategy. Wrist/snap shots from the slot are WAY less effective than they should be. In the NHL, that is prime scoring territory. In NHL10, you just won't be scoring with wrist shots from in tight in the slot and very rarely with snap shots. In my opinion, that's unforgivable. Instead of working for a good chance from the slot, you'll see people try to cheese with wrap-arounds over and over, or the endless cross-ice one timers.

Poke checking and stick lifting is still in the game. Unfortunately, the game seems to randomly choose when your defensive maneuver produces a penalty. As a defender, you can be in perfect position facing the shooter and in between the puck and the goalie. If you then poke check, there is a decent chance you will chop the feet out from under the attacking player. What's worse, is that your computer teammates will whack away at the opposition team and take *stupid* penalties. This is very frustrating.

After every whistle, there is 10-20 seconds of pointless slashing and cross-checking. It doesn't add to the intensity of the game because your guys just absorb the endless hits like bobble-head dolls. You can pound away on on the other team right in front of a ref and there will rarely be a penalty. More than anything, it's just annoying to have to wait between whistles while the computer players beat on each other.

Board play adds more realism to the game. However, there is an *extremely* annoying exploit that people can use. If you beat a defender wide, and you are near the boards, he can hit triangle and "suck in" your player into the boards even though you were past the defender. It's very cheap and makes you wonder what the EA developers were thinking. It's very unnatural looking to see a forward with the puck and a clear path to the net get pulled into the board by some magnetic force from behind. It looks like they're caught in a tractor beam. Of course, there's no penalty for it either.

Another source of frustration is the way your computer teammates behave when you have the puck. Say you're carrying through the neutral zone, approaching the other team's blue line. Very often, your teammates will start skating into you! They'll block you entirely, preventing you from crossing into the offensive zone. This happens also when you're waiting for your cpu teammates to clear the zone so you can go back in. They'll create a giant cluster right in front of you, leaving you no way of simply skating into the zone.

Another carryover from last year is the way you will accidentally cross check the other team's players when you're trying to one-time or swat at a loose puck. Unfortunately, the game thinks you would rather push someone down from behind rather than try to score just because the puck isn't right in front of you. I don't know why EA can't make the players a little bit smarter in this respect.

A minor complaint is how dumb you computer teammates can be on special teams. If you are on the power play, but lose the face off, the shorthanded team can play keep away. If you pursue the puck carrier, your teammates will follow you in the same direction, giving the defender plenty of room to skate away. Of course this is not realistic, the PK team never controls play for very long against the PP.

This game is striving for realism. There's no turbo burst. Hitting is difficult, and leveling an opposing player is damn near impossible if the other player is any good. But the above mentioned flaws in the game leave me frustrated more than anything else. In my opinion, this game isn't really an improvement over NHL09 that's worth $60.

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