Customer Reviews

NHL 2005

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an average game. If graphics are your main concern, then I say go for it. I, however, wish that more time would have been spent focusing on the game rather than the details of their faces. Some detail is necessary, of course, and I commend them for their effort. But there are a lot of flaws, too many at this point for me to recommend this game to anyone. If you have the 2004 or earlier version, stick to that until they come out with a patch- a real good one. The engineers of this game seem to be concerned with trivial matters like the image of the game, spending their time promoting the image of the game rather than their time on the game. They've perhaps hired too many advertisers. I will say that this is an enjoyable game to a certain extent. Unlike previous versions, though, I am not hooked on it. Where do you begin? The menus are all messed up. If you have a big win in dynasty mode, there's a newspaper clipping that says so instead of a report on who is injured, if your goalie is tired, etc. As to injuries, often times you can't figure out how long your player is injured for, or players on other teams. You never seem to find out when they are healed, or when people come off cold streaks. Occasionally, and I'm speaking about dynasty mode for all of this, the game just decides to fix your lineup to default. There are other more subtle questions I have. Such as, why, if you beat a team 9-1, does your team then lose a few games if simulated? Wouldn't they be on a roll if that happened? I still don't understand why they took away the ability to see who scored in a game. I enjoyed that feature from 2003. Or why they don't allow you play the all-star game. As to the workings of menus, they are terrible. The music, that all-important feature, keeps sending out a little tag to tell you who's playing, because the bands are so great that we need to be reminded, and the tag blocks the buttons so you have to wait till it goes away. Moving players in your line-up is so troublesome it's almost not worth it. There are too many more problems to go in to concerning this. As to the gameplay itself, it has it's fair share of problems. The hitting is out of control, and don't be fooled, an opposing play can swiftly cover many feet to knock you over. I score more goals by tip-ins than I do one-on-one with the goalie. The hovering through midcourt is silly. And why is it that it seems, and it could be me, that I always know when the computer is about to score. Your players suddenly become retarded and skate the wrong way, or just pause for a second to scratch an itch, or you suddenly can't make a single easy pass when before you could pass through three sets of legs. There's too many additional problems for me to go in to. We need justice.

NHL2005

With the NHL shutdown for who knows how long, hockey fans have had to get their fix with college and minor league hockey. For those who need more there's NHL 2005 from EA Sports. EA, the undisputed king of sports sims, has been seriously challenged over the last few years by the ESPN/SEGA franchise with games like NHL 2K 3, 4 and 5. This franchise took a foothold in the Hockey sim market when EA's horrible NHL2002 and 2003 installments left the door wide open. These entries proved that cute bells and whistles are a poor substitute for actual game play. NHL 2004 took a step back towards its roots. The result was a fairly satisfying albeit imperfect version of the venerable franchise. As always there were a few bugs with 2004. The stats engine was seriously flawed. Leading scorers frequently topped 200 points in a single 82 game season. Game play also could be frustrating, for example the pass assist function often resulted in passes made to recipients that the game engine felt were more suitable that the intended target. All in all however, NHL 2004 put the franchise back in the lead in the hockey sim market.

So what about NHL 2005? Certainly 2005 would maintain the improvements of 2004 and work out the quirks for 2005. Well....not exactly. First the good news: EA actually managed to improve the graphics engine from last year's version. This was no small feat. NHL2004 was definitely the best looking game on the market. Somehow the designers have managed to make the players look even more realistic. The rink looks so real you can almost feel the ice shavings. The game play has also improved....in some areas. The AI is much more aggressive than last year's version. Entering the attack zone will definitely land you on your keister as the defense closes in on the puck carriers as soon as they get within striking distance. The goalies seem more acrobatic, diving across the crease to make spectacular saves. There is also more action in the goal crease than before. Scrums in front of the net are more realistic. The pretty goals and fancy moves you tried in 2004 probably won't work as much however you're chances of banging home a rebound during the battle in front of the net are much more likely. You could say they're more essential since defensemen are more difficult to maneuver around. The passing game has also improved. Cross ice passes no longer become back passes and vice versa. The puck actually goes where you intended it.

Now for the bad news: As usual the leap in difficulty between easy and medium levels is astronomical. Most Hockey sims increase the level of difficulty by simple means: the AI speeds up while your guys slow down. It's no different in 2005. Breakaways are virtually non-existent. You can be 20 yards ahead of the opposing defender when suddenly a miraculous burst of speed enables him to catch you and knock you off the puck. The controls have become more difficult to use particularly for pc users using a Sidewinder or Logitech game pad. Unlike previous versions, configuration of the game pad is much more limited. This becomes particularly troublesome with line changes. Sidewinder/Rumblepad users are required to hold down the left trigger while working the directional pad. At the same time you are trying to control player movement so as not to get scored on. If you are like most players who use one hand to control player movement and the other to pass shoot and check you will find yourself using the automatic line-change feature exclusively. This is a serious drawback for players who rely on situational substitution (scoring lines in the offensive zones and checking lines in the defensive zones). The play-calling system is also a clumsy ordeal utilizing the directional pad.

As far as features are concerned NHL 2005 is a step backwards. Gone is the ability to put yourself in the action by creating your own player. The new menus are, again for lack of a better word, "clumsy". The stats engine is a major disappointment. Players still score at an alarming high rate. The only difference is that you can no longer track them since there are no league leader stats (what the hell were they thinking?). As usual there is no legends roster so forget about putting Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux together on a dream line. The only explanation I can fathom is NHLPA restrictions. Either that or the development team is comprised of people who are very new to the game.

All in all NHL 2005 is a bit of a disappointment but at least it looks good while it's letting us down.

NHL 2005 is anouther classic example of companies wanting to cash in on their reputation, not by putting out quality games.

Lets look at the possitives of the game first,

the graphics are a major improvement over the other games. The players, im most cases, look like the real person. Also the realizum has increased. No longer does a goalie stop a puck that is at the other side of the net, the goalies accually make the stops. Also bodychecking is better, in 2004 when you pushed the bodycheck button your player would put his arms out as if he was frankenstine, and if there was a player around him he would jump in to that player. In 2005 the players accually check into the boards and the biggest thing is IT LOOKS REAL!

Now lets go with the cons of this game.

Well the first negitive is when you open the instruction manual.
Like most people I read the instruction manuals to games while the game is installing, first off its a massive 16pages long. Also it is written as if you were putting together a peice of funiture! Button1 does this, but you gotta look up what button 1 is and it gets very confusing since there is 10 buttons just for player actions and they do different things depending on if you have the puck or if you dont. Lets move to player control now. I dont know about the rest of the world, but I would like to know what button to push to gain control of my defence men when the other team is attacking! I have read the joke of an instruction manual 10 times and it doesnt tell you what button to push. In nhl04 you push a button and you gain control of the player closest to the puck. Now because of open ice control you push the button to switch players and you get a forward thats on the other side of the ice! Also the button for slap shot (with the puck) is the same button for your player to lay down on the ice (with out the puck) no wonder the other team gets so many break aways, my players are all playing dead on the ice! Menu selection. this is anouther wonderful area. Whoever desined this menu should be FIRED! If you are selecting somthing from the menu before playing a game, there is a Trax Jukebox that tells you what song is playing in the back ground. When it opens up to tell you what the song is, it covers up the buttons that are used to select your option (ok, cancel, that kinda thing) its very annoying. Also, in the game to switch goalies, you cant quickly do it any more, you gotta go to "change lines", then cycle through all your lines to your goalies, then switch them. it takes about 2-3 minutes!!! Someone really needs to tell EA sports to list the proper requirments to play the game on the box. THIS REALLY UPSET ME!!! On the box, for NHL 2005 SYSTEM REQUIREMNTS under Input it says "Keyboard, mouse or gamepad" to me that means you should be able to play fully with either a Keyboard and mouse or with ANY gamepad. in the instruction manual it reads (and I quote) "Many of the controls for NHL 2005 can only be used with a gamepad featurning a ten-button, dual analog contoller".

The reason why this upset me so much is because I DONT HAVE A TEN BUTTON DUAL ANALOG CONTROLLER and if the box told me I needed one to properly play the game, I wouldnt of bought the game


Like anouther reviewer stated, I cant even change my lines with out a dual controller.

NHL 2005 is also missing one of the best parts of NHL2004, the create your own player option. It was really fun to see myself scoring the winning goal in the stanley cup finals. But alas that is no longer possible.

I personally agree with anouther person who wrote a review when he asked if anyone bata-tested this game, because it really seems like they didnt.

I personally think that EA sports is putting profit above quality and that this game is better left on the shelf in the store gathering dust.

With great anticipation I waited for the latest installment of the EA Sports hockey series. NHL 2004 surprised us with a new style of play, but also frustrated us with strange bugs and unrealistic gameplay.

Wonders:
Where 2004 was wrong, 2005 is right. The gameplay is way more realistic than any other year, and the open ice control is a nice way to play as more than just the puck carrier - find the open ice, wait for a pass, hit it home.

The checking is phenomenal, realistic hits into boards, over hips, straightforward topples, and more. The fact that you can even check a player's stick out of his hand is a very nice addition.

The graphics are amazing. Almost every single player bears an exact likeness to the real thing and are by far way better than any other hockey rendering I've seen prior to this year. It's a large install, but worth every second. Aside from the fact that the requirements are pretty intensive, it's worth investing some better gear to enjoy the full detail of NHL 2005.

A slightly reformed controller configuration has made things a little easier to use, however to dive you hit the "shoot" button twice without the puck. And if you're like me and jam on that button when near the net, your player will end up diving and it gets a little annoying.

Blunders:
When the NHL games do things right, they never get carried over to new versions. This is a problem. In NHL 2004, I was pleased at the Create a Player function as it was versatile and in-depth, but for some reason they decided to remove this feature altogether from 2005.

I have also been completely unable to figure out how to change my goalies in the middle of a game. The "pull goalie/return goalie" option is clear and present, but to change the current netminder seems to be a chore of unearthly proportions.

Conclusion:
By far, the good things outweight the bad, in my opinion. It's tough to make a perfect game because different people admire different things from gaming, especially simulated sports gaming.

However, EA Sports has to carry over their well-liked standard features instead of removing them for something unnecessary, like the entire music section of the game.

Having been a great fan of the difficulty of 2004, i was eager to play 2005. Once i installed it and played a quick game just to check things out i was quite impressed. The new and improved face-offs, graphics, and last but not least the incredible puck physics. Those things aside I think the game play is sub-par to 2004. Every time down the ice there is an umbelievable amount of huge bone crushing hits that happen. As we all know that doesnt happen in the real deal. It happens so much that after a period of play you are hoping that you dont see another big hit the rest of the game(hey Ea mix in some tie ups). Now there are tie ups that happen in the game, but they are so few and far between its rediculous. The other gay part is how EA decides to make their hockey game harder by making your goalie suck while the opposing goalie is just a flat out wall. They have done this in some previous versions as well(not 2004). I just got done playing a game in dynasty mode in the hard setting and i outshot my opponet 42 to 8, and of course i can only muster 1 goal on that many shots, with some really nice one timers i might add. Meanwhile my opponet scores 2 goals on a couple of shots a quadriplegic could save. I would rather a game look like crap and be allot more realistic like the 2004 version, then have really cool features and no good game play at all. I dont know, maybe i expect to much after playing 2004, it was hard on medium for months for me, and it was tough to outshoot opponents, plus it was tough to line up an opponent for a huge hit(there was accually some tie ups). I get the feeling they kind of hurried this one out the door, there is an awfull lot of bugs as well as the sub-par gameplay.

As an avid NHL fan, I would usually decry the lack of realism as my main complain of any NHL series game. However, these complaints have often not been big ones in the past as the games have actually been fun. However, there is so much to say about NHL 2005 and what it did wrong that I am inclined to actually write a letter to EA this time, as my ten year run with the franchise may end with this version. So here it goes, why no one in the their right mind should by NLH 2005:

1) No create-a-player. Granted this is more of a novelty, but how much effort does it take to just throw it in? Are we that lazy?

2) Worst menu system ever. Who designed this piece of crap. SOmetimes only the gamepad controlls it, sometimes the mouse, sometimes the keyboard. Never interchangably? What the heck is going on? When I edit lines I can't look at a list of my players until after I decide to substitute someone? I can't compare players stats versus the league's players, only my team's??!! I have to hit the backspace button on my keyboard to go back? If I pause the game I can only use the in-game menu with my keyboard, no mouse? At the end I can only use the in-game menu with my gamepad, not my keyboard OR mouse?

3) The controller options are horrendous. No way to manually change lines unless you have a gamepad with TWO analog sticks. How can you claim compatability with so many controllers if you can't CHANGE LINES with most of them. No I don't want Matthew Barnaby in with less than a minute to go and down by one. Let me change my own freakin' lines.

4) Defensemen are like magnets to your players. I drive in 2-1. Suddenly The defenseman, who is two strides away, is magically sucked into my player and knocks him down. The it happens again, and again, and again.

5) If I win the cup with the penguins in Dynasty mode, I might get fired for not getting the number one draft pick, as per the owner's requirement. What? Are you crazy. I won the cup! And I'm fired?!

I think most of the other reviewers have touched on the main points so I'll try to be specific. As there was no season to watch, it was nice to have some sort of hockey to watch, even if it was entirely artificial. That being said, things broke down after the initial amusement wore off.

I haven't played a sports video game since I owned the EA sports hockey for the Sega Genesis(!), so I was expecting a steep learning curve. That wasn't the case. I know enough about hockey to set up plays and learned to get the basics of passing and slap and wrist shots down on my Rumblepad controller. However, the main problem lies in the way the controller responds to your decisions. It would be intuitive to have the 'next player' button go to a guy near the puck. Not so. It seemed to select the guy who was the least likely to have any capability of helping the play. This was my biggest complaint overall as I was swearing at the programmers of this game almost everytime I played.

The longevity of this game is weakened by the fact that once you learn the basics and play a season on 'easy' mode, you want there to be some incremental increase in difficulty. As mentioned, I hadn't played a video game version of hockey in a decade but I went 80-1-0-1 with my team on easy mode. Thinking things would become more challenging on 'medium' I set out to play. I don't know what kind of game nerds they have programming this crap but it has no bearing in reality whatsover once you make this change. You go to hip-check someone and your hynder literally passes through the opposing player like he was Casper the ghost. You can set up pretty NHL looking plays and get 50+ shots on net and lose by 4 goals.

Even in easy mode there is not even a modest nod at setting up a real power play as you are knocked down immediately upon any opposing player coming anywhere withing 10 feet of you and the other team doesn't dump it down the ice but carries it unhindered. And even on easy mode, forget completely about dumping the puck in and tying up players to wrestle a shot away as there is no way in hell you will win a puck behind the opponent's net. And finally, forget about passing to a man in front of the net, as the programmers have this impression that EVERY pass that ever goes in front of the net is immediately captured and controlled by the goalie.

There are other things but the list is rather long and I can seriously nitpick all week over what I would consider errors in the way hockey is played and the way the computer version plays. As another reviewer pointed out, what you ultimately end up with is a boring game of back and forth with ridiculously slow line changes. But, at least when they show the replay you can tell just by looking at the players who they're supposed to be. Wow.

How about focusing on some reality and a sensibly tiered difficulty level next time. I say give this one a miss and try out the other hockey video games available. They couldn't do much worse.

PS: For the guy who was complaining about lack of time to choose line changes, your best bet is to go behind your own net, they give you about 5-10 seconds before coming after you.

Admittedly, my time on this game was limited, but I did form some impressions.

1. The game looks fantastic, period. The skating looks better, the buildings look better, the players look better.

2. I think its more playable and realistic than others give credit for. OK, so the opposing defence is aggressive... they're supposed to be! Earlier versions of this game were long sessions of 'roar up the wing, cut in on goal, and score', which virtually never happens in the NHL. Even on easy setting that was rare.

3. Worst. Menus. Ever. It took me 45 minutes to figure out *how to start playing a game*. Seriously. And I've played many earlier EA NHL versions. Others have commented on the 'now you use the keyboard, now you can only use the mouse, now you have to use the controller' feature. WTF? Totally illogical... it looks like they gave the menu job to their pimply brand new 20 year old programmer who'd never designed a user interface before, and told him he had to have it done in one night.

4. I resent the presense of the music, which is *obviously* some kind of marketing tie-in. It's like being forced to watch commercials at the movie.

Have not been able to play this game one time. some reason its not compatable with windows xp or my computer. it just collects dust.

I vote a boycott on EA's NHL. They obviously don't care enough about hockey fans to bother much with the game, which is an insult. The game as a whole is too full of problems. They've taken out so much that was good from the old versions, but added little in return. The new play-calling system- who actually uses it? Getting fired in Dynasty Mode for not winning the Stanley Cup when you did win it the previous two years, even though you made it to the finals. Is this realistic? The menus are obnoxious. Who cares that their faces look almost lifelike? Who actually sits there and examines them? Where is create-a-player mode? Why are goalies stats always so terrible? This is the most frustrating hockey game I've ever played. And they don't seem to care at all about giving us patches, at least as I can tell. And why? Because they have no respect for hockey fans. I may be exaggerating on this some, I'm sure they put a lot of work into this game, but it makes me so darn angry to play it. Now that I'm calmed down, I will say they are making some progress as far as actual gameplay. But they need to figure out better what works and what doesn't, and stick to what works, in the overall scheme of things.