NHL 10 PS3 Review

NHL2k10 received a 6.7 review, so obviously NHL10 is the one to get!

NHL 10 Review
www.gamespot.com
While it isn't as big of a leap forward as last year's game, NHL 10 is still one fantastic hockey sim.
The Good
Still an outstanding simulation of hockey Adds exciting first-person fighting and realistic grinding along the boards Smoother multiplayer than last year's game New tough-guy player type lets you rough it up Hockey Shop adds player customization options.
The Bad
Just an incremental advancement over NHL 09 Offensive play still needs a little work None-too-bright computer GMs and coaches. Making an arcade hockey game as superb as NHL 09 created one big problem for EA Sports: sky-high expectations. Last year's game was so good that it created an almost impossible act to follow. Good luck trying to top revolutionary improvements made to the on-ice action, controls, and modes of play. Still, NHL 10 sure tries. This is undoubtedly a better game than its predecessor, thanks to a handful of gameplay tweaks, first-person fighting, and a new Be the GM option, but in the grand scheme of things, this is more of a refinement than a full-blown sequel. Anybody who can name the Original Six without checking Google should still buy this outstanding hockey simulation, although owners of NHL 09 might not feel the need to put it at the very top of the shopping list.
You can tell right away that this is a new game on the ice, although the differences between last year's model and this one are limited to a general tightening up of the defense and goaltending, along with a little better offensive flow. As before, you need to understand how hockey works to have any hope of success. Suiting up is a lot like hitting the ice for real, especially when you lock to one position. Positional play is vital in all zones, so it's important to stick to your lanes, cover your man, and so forth. Serious work is required to put the biscuit in the basket because computer defensemen and goalies are always at the top of their game. And since this is not rock-'em-sock-'em arcade hockey, trying to line up a jaw-rattling hit is more likely to land you on your behind or spring a three-on-one going the other way. This really comes into focus when playing online with a full team of friends, because you can do just about anything here that you can do on real ice without the game getting in the way. It may be a bit of a letdown that there are no big-ticket advancements this year, but the game remains an outstanding simulation that just about perfectly blends arcade action with hockey authenticity.
All the developers really need to work on is offense. Right now, computer players are still a little slow on the uptake in the transition game. This causes you to get bottled up in your own end too frequently when you're playing locked to a forward position. Offensive creativity is great once you cross the enemy blue line, with computer players whipping the puck in and out, using the point, driving the net, setting up give-and-go scoring attempts, and so forth. It is a lot of fun just watching them play. But your computer-controlled teammates always sit back a bit when you're on the ice, waiting for you to headman the puck. This is a lot better than having them race forward and forever get caught offside, although right now forwards spend too much time hanging out around the red line. You really notice this when playing a center, because you can't fly up the ice and hit a winger with a quick outlet pass. Well, you can, but it most often turns into a lateral, because your linemate is usually directly across from you or a step or two behind. Another issue is not being able to properly cycle the puck. Right now, play down deep in the offensive zone is a bit slapdash. You can set up in the corner just fine, but you never get much help to cycle from computer players, which leaves you stuck driving the net or looking for a pass into the slot or back to the point. None of these options are great, though, as the defense is so on the ball that you either get steamrolled and stripped of the puck or have a pass picked off.


Modes of play are very similar to last year's. All of the main game options are back, but they have been joined by Battle for the Cup, where you play a one-shot series for Lord Stanley's mug, and Be the GM, which turns everything into a management sim. Only the latter is interesting, and yet it isn't everything that it could be, given the issues that a mostly text-based management simulation faces when dealing with a gamepad. Games like this just work better on the PC, largely due to the ability to sift through data with a keyboard and mouse. Simply lining up a trade takes a lot of futzing around with the D pad and various buttons. Also, too many weird things happen for Be the GM to be totally satisfying for the serious hockey nuts who would be interested in playing this way. Computer trades, for instance, can be incredibly goofy. Teams have a weird tendency to dump franchise players at the start of the season. We've seen Anaheim ship future Hart Trophy candidate Ryan Getzlaf to Detroit for picks and Minnesota practically give away Martin Havlat just a couple of weeks after signing him. Depth signings are also strange. Teams will spend big bucks on players they don't need. Montreal, for instance, sure doesn't need another goalie in Martin Biron, yet they seem to ink him every summer regardless. Minor moves, however, are realistic. A lot of second-tier players rumored to be on the move in the real NHL tend to get traded. It was kind of nifty to see a rumor-mill staple like Drew Stafford sent from Buffalo to Vancouver, for instance.
Other modes of play have just been tweaked. The outstanding Be a Pro game where you create a budding superstar and guide him into the big leagues has been altered only slightly. Perhaps the most noteworthy addition is the Hockey Shop, a one-stop-shopping experience where you can alter your player (for use in both Be a Pro and online play) with the purchase of brand-name skates, sticks, helmets, and gloves, along with skill booster packs. There's kind of a role-playing vibe here. You first buy some cool piece of hardware like an old-school Titan stick that has a boost slot or three and then load these up with purchased booster packs. If your stick has three open slots, for example, you can add three booster packs that increase stick skills like slapshot shooting power or wristshot accuracy. All of this gear is unlocked through gameplay achievements or bought with actual money, which takes the shine off those magic CCM skates you've been eyeing.
As appealing as it is to be able to custom-fit your player, it's a little disconcerting to see such a core part of the game so thoroughly integrated with pay-to-play downloadable content. Some of the goals needed to unlock the better booster packs are crazy, too. It's a lot easier to just buy them than play 40 games a season for three straight years and win the Selke Trophy along the way, for instance. And it's also a tad annoying that EA saw fit to add this feature while ignoring issues with player ratings and skill types that lead to some bizarre line combos. Too often, players are classified wrongly, so you'll see the likes of a shot-in-the-dark reclamation project like Rickard Wallin bizarrely rated as a sniper and slotted into the first-line-center role in Toronto. This can be frustrating in Be a Pro, because you can easily wind up playing with incompatible linemates.
At least you don't have to pay extra to create a hulking tough-guy type of player for use in Be a Pro and online. You can now unleash your inner Derek Boogard and play a guy who gets paid big bucks for pounding on people for three or four minutes of ice time a night. Fleshing this role out is a new first-person fighting feature where you pull sweaters and launch haymakers from a camera angle so close to the opposition that you can count his missing teeth. Being tossed into the trenches like this and throwing punches with the right stick has a real visceral impact, especially in games where you're controlling an entire team. It feels right to be able to pummel some visor-wearing pest annoying one of your star players, too. But this feature sounds like more fun than it is in practice. Although it's great to beat people up when you're playing an entire team, when you're locked to a position you pay for your 15 seconds of fisticuffs with at least five minutes of game time in the sin bin. At least this isn't the only way you can play physical. You can now get tough without dropping the gloves by working the boards. An all-new board physics system lets you throw the puck carrier up against the glass and hold him there to create a scrum. From there, you can maneuver up and down the boards and maybe even kick the puck to a teammate. This is very realistic, and it's more challenging than it seems since it can be very hard to angle those agile NHL players into the boards. About the only negative here might be the presence of scrums at all, since it does slow play down a bit, and this rugby-style battling has been deemed verboten by the NHL in the post-lockout era.
Multiplayer has been spruced up, too. All of the modes remain pretty much the same as they were last year, with Versus one-on-one play, team play with up to six players per side going head-to-head, a shootout, and EASHL leagues back for more. But the online performance is considerably improved over last year, when frequent lag was a problem. NHL 10 is as smooth as glass even in six-on-six online play with full squads of human players.
Lastly, the interface has been redone in a more user-friendly fashion. About the only thing that keeps you guessing is where to edit an existing player, because going into the new Hockey Shop isn't the first place you look when thinking about changing your power forward's hairstyle. In-game graphics seem to be mostly held over and are virtually identical on both the 360 and PS3. Player art might be a touch better than in last year's game, especially when it comes to facial detail, although you have to look awfully close to see any real improvement. Animations are definitely smoother, though, and there are no more slowdowns during after-whistle replays. Audio quality holds the line. The EA Sports Trax soundtrack once again consists of a mix of old and new rock-pig anthems ranging from the Scorpions' classic "Rock You Like a Hurricane" to a fresh new Nickelback atrocity. And commentators Gary Thorne and Bill Clement still seem to be in dire need of espresso. Both practically snooze their way through games. This is probably better than overcaffeinated screaming, although it would be nice if Thorne could raise his voice an octave or two when somebody rings a shot off the post, or at least come up with a more exciting catchphrase than "Scoring opportunity!" and say it only when someone actually has an opportunity to score. Thorne also mispronounces player names. And not just some of the crazier Finnish and Russian ones, either. Toronto's Matt Stajan, for instance, is frequently called "Stay-on."
The bottom line with NHL 10 is that if you have NHL 09, you don't absolutely, positively need it. But there are enough new features and little adjustments and fixes both online and off that any self-respecting hockey fan should probably still go for it. EA Sports has once again done an absolutely tremendous job of simulating shinny.

GameSpot Score
8.5


NHL 10 Review
www.ign.com
When making a sports game, or any game for that matter, developers are trying to build the best experience possible. And while winning prestigious game of the year awards is all anyone can hope for their creation, the bar is then set almost impossibly high for the next iteration in the series.
Such is the case with NHL 10, a title that must live up to the twelve sports game of the year awards that NHL 09 garnered. While I won't say that NHL 10 is a step in the wrong direction for the series, it doesn't bring as much innovation as last year's hockey offering from EA Sports and will likely be met with malice from naysayers because of that fact. That withstanding, NHL 10 is still a worthy successor and one that makes slight changes and additions to the established formula.
The core gameplay and game modes have remained largely unchanged, which is a good thing as anyone who played last year's game knows. When you first step onto the ice in an exhibition game you'll swear you're playing NHL 09, but that will quickly change as you spend more time with it. For starters, you have the new ability of board play (i.e. sandwiching another player into the board and grappling for the puck) that helps bring the look of the on-screen action closer to reality. There were times when I felt as though my player was being sucked into the board play and it wasn't happening all that naturally, while other instances made total sense and flowed well with the rest of the game. As I got better at the game I was able to steer clear of unnecessary board play by angling my skating away from the outer edges of the rink, so that helped lessen the feeling of being sucked in by the mechanic.
Fighting has also been revamped into a first-person melee with another skater. Since I first saw this mechanic back at E3 I haven't been much of a fan. Fighting from a first-person vantage point in a hockey game simply feels unnatural and the experience, though improved from what I originally saw, is still too forced. Punches don't have much of an impact and the fact that there's no bruising and bloodying (knocking helmets off is as close as you'll come) because of NHL restrictions is a real bummer.
Other changes on the ice are more finite but not all are for the betterment of the gameplay. This year players have the ability to hit pucks out of the air for highlight-reel goals. They're tough to score, but when you do it'll be a video you'll want to save and upload to EA Sports World. Post-whistle play allows for players to jaw and check each other for a few seconds after the whistle blows (this is how most of your fights will start). The AI (artificial intelligence) does a good job of sticking up for their teammates, but if you skate around and ruffle feathers for just a few seconds everything on the screen degrades to a free-for-all. What you get isn't so much aggressive hockey as it is a street brawl on ice. Occasionally there will be roughing penalties handed out, but more often than not the refs turn a blind eye to your shenanigans.
Probably the biggest change to the gameplay is the addition of preset game styles. While it's true that the new styles don't inherently change the way you play NHL, they do change the type of hockey that you'll be playing in order to suit your tastes. There's casual, default, normal and hardcore styles. They change the hits you'll see, they change the speed of the game significantly, they change passing accuracy and how often penalties will be called. You can go beyond the preset styles and create your own through the use of sliders, but what's already on the disc provides for a good starting point to craft your own brand of hockey.
Problems from last year's game also infect NHL 10 when on the ice. The first and most notable is the issue of artificial intelligence. I had several instances of opponents making passes back and forth when the two players are three feet apart on the ice. I'd just sit back and watch as the puck was traded back and forth three or four times while the players are an arm's reach from one another. Defensive play could also use more tuning. I once had a defenseman make a pass across the face of my goal, but wound up hitting the goalie in the skate. All I could do was watch as the puck went sliding into my own net. Goalies will also make ill-advised trips out of the goal area even when the other team is looming. My first goal with my created player was an intercepted pass from the goalie and a quick wrister straight into the wide open net.
I don't mean to harp on the negatives with NHL 10 because the fact remains that this is still the best hockey you're going to see on any system, but the lingering issues are tough to take. Most of the time what you'll see closely resembles real life pros, but there are instances of inaccuracies that really should've been corrected.
In the way of new game modes, there really aren't many to talk about. Rather there are less substantive additions that have been tacked on to pre-existing modes. Battle For The Cup is a prime example. Essentially it lets you jump ahead to the Stanley Cup Finals with any two teams you like. This is in addition to the standard Playoff Mode and the "new" Season Mode – the latter of which now allows you to play with up to 30 total players. All of these "new" modes aren't really new at all, instead they present elements that should've been included in past NHL efforts but weren't.
Thankfully there are a few new trinkets to modes that were in last year's game that are worthy of discussion. Be A GM and Be A Pro – probably the meatiest modes in NHL – have both seen some nice revisions and improvements. Be A Pro now has Be A Tough Guy which allows you to take the reins as one of your team's toughest players. It doesn't change the core Be A Pro dynamic in any substantial way – you're still playing as one player on the ice and trying to complete goals to advance your attributes – but now you'll have added incentive to lay the hurt on key opponents and defend your superstars.
Be A Pro also has the all-new hockey shop where you'll be able to either purchase new and enhanced pieces of equipment or earn them through on-ice achievements. I'm glad that these boosters weren't pay-only as we've seen from other EA Sports games. The ability to set goals like scoring three times in a period and then earn attribute boosts through fancy new equipment is definitely a welcome change.
GM Mode – now called Be A GM Mode – has some new managerial elements that pan out well as you progress in your career. There's new trade logic and a reputation system that is designed to stop you from trying to screw over teams with shoddy trade offers. Even if you sneak one by the AI your reputation with that team will falter if the traded player doesn't meet expectations. The reputation system and GM Tracker work well with the mode, but you'll occasionally be forced into a bad trade so you don't lose reputation points.
The Tracker supplies goals for you to complete throughout your career and you'll earn new hockey cards and milestones as you progress. Elsewhere in Be A GM you'll hire staff, put players on the trading block, and scout upcoming stars. Every AHL team is in the game and you'll have total control over that club as well, including the option to play their games. Be A GM is well-rounded and includes small additions that help push things forward nicely.
One aspect of Be A GM Mode that disappointed me was the storylines that were supposed to work their way into gameplay. My team once went through three straight games that all ended in shootouts and yet none were called out by the announcers. Granted you will get quips from the duo in the booth if you injure an opposing player in the playoffs, but the depth of storylines could've been better in order to up the ante in terms of presentation authenticity.
EA Sports Hockey League is making its triumphant return in NHL 10 and it performs just as well as it did last year. You can join up and play with five of your friends just as easily as last year and the on-ice performance is identical. Sadly that means that you'll also get moments of slowdown when the puck works its way into the corner and on pretty much any instant replay. Thankfully lag was never an issue and your coach's insight to your play made sense for the most part and should help keep nomadic players in line. Other online options include the ability to play standard twelve-player games along with regular one-on-one contests.
The presentation and graphics elements have also remained largely unchanged from last year. You will see nice additions such as towel-waving fans during playoff time and more rambunctious crowds that help up the intensity, but not much has changed in terms of user interface or broadcast-style presentation changes.
Visually the game looks fantastic with awesome player model details and animations. There has clearly been several new moves added, namely in the way of goalkeeper leaps and swats. You'll now see keepers spinning around, flopping around on the ground, slapping at pucks in the air and attempts at making other stylish saves. My biggest complaint with the graphics is that the framerate is still subpar. In Be A Pro you'll notice significant drops whenever the puck is dealt to the corner and instant replays have a tendency to resemble slideshows.
On the audio side you'll find the same solid commentary from Gary Thorne and Bill Clement as have been in past years. They occasionally fall behind when trying to keep up with the action, but for the most part the two handle things admirably. On-ice effects are solid as well with checks delivering an adequate amount of crunch and crowds that sound nicely authentic. My one complaint with the sound effects is that hard slapshots don't echo through the arena like they should. The soundtrack is standard EA Sports fare, but the fact that you can add your own custom music to different scenarios in the game is an awesome bonus.


Closing Comments
NHL 10 is a great hockey game, don’t get me wrong. The action is as good and as authentic as I’ve ever seen from a hockey outing and fans of the sport who didn’t pick up last year’s game have no reason to miss out this time. This package is as complete and all-encompassing as any sports game out there with great multiplayer and single-player modes. The biggest problem that fans of the series will have is that it just isn’t all that different from NHL 09. There are “new” modes that are tacked on pieces from things that we’ve seen in the past and the gameplay refinements are a mixed bag that feel as though they could have been tuned just a bit better before launch. Nothing is a bad or poor choice that even comes close to ruining the experience, but there could have been more done to expand the core gameplay and offering of modes.

IGN Ratings for NHL 10 (PS3)Rating Description
out of 10 click here for ratings guide
8.5 Presentation
Easily negotiable menus throughout every mode help manage the influx of information. On-ice things are identical to last year less the new crowd reactions to playoff hockey.
8.0 Graphics
The framerate problems are starting to get a little ridiculous. Player details look awesome and animations are varied and nicely detailed.
8.5 Sound
The soundtrack is serviceable but custom music is cool. Effects are solid; namely the thunderous checks. Slappers could be better. Duo in the booth is entertaining and informative.
9.0 Gameplay
Everything from skating to checking to blocking shots feels great. It’d be nice if things were more different from NHL 09, but if it ain’t broke then it clearly doesn’t need fixing.
8.5 Lasting Appeal
There’s really no headlining mode to lead the troop into battle and the package suffers because of it. There’s still a ton of great gameplay to be found for sixty bucks even if most of it is old hat.
8.7
Great OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)