Customer Reviews

NHL 2005

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

 

 

Last years NHL 2004 was a major step backward for the usually good NHL series from EA sports. It included very poor control of player movement, a bad passing system, poor one-timers, difficult face-off system, lack of fully editable players in dynasty modes, bad menu flow, not enough tweakable controls to create your own experience, and worst of all was the over the top hitting/checking.
This years edition only improves on the problems with the menu flow (this years is actually quite good), however it seems the other issues have been neglected, or made even worse.

The most noticable and annoying element to game has to be the ridiculous checking and hitting. There is so much checking in this game that the rest of the gameplay should follow suite of games like NHL Hitz, but instead it mixes Hitz arcade style with simulation gameplay. This creates an extremely frustrating situation for trying to create plays with your teammates, and for getting ahead in the game (unless your playing on the easiest difficulty). There is so much hitting that the announcers are constantly cutting each other off to say "what a crushing hit" or the often "LAID OUT". The worst part about this though is that even though they provide you with 5 slider bars for adjusting checking gameplay, changing them makes little to no impact on the experience, leaving the sliders useless. The funny thing is that this games main feature is OPEN ICE gameplay, but it is negated by the extremely easy checking. Even after you have created open ice, it can be easily closed by a check from behind from a player that realistically could never have caught up to the player with the puck.

If you can stand the over the top checking aspect of the game, then you are still left with some other major problems. The feel of the control is one thing that seems similar to last year. Movement for players is very strange, there are two seperate shooting buttons (which can be confusing), passing can sometimes give strange results. It also seems like there is latency to every action you take, especially wrist shots. While those aspects all feel like they are taking control away from the player, deking and shot aiming are pretty good.

While there are some new cool little throwaway features implemented (like line chemistry), all of the neglected problems listed in the first paragraph of this review makes NHL 2005 no better if not worse than last years dissapointing game in the series. The good news though is that ESPN NHL Hockey and ESPN NHL 2K5 are both great hockey games, and are outstanding in comparison to the last two NHL games from EA. It's absolutely no contest, go save yourself $30 and pickup this years ESPN NHL 2K5 instead of NHL 2005. You will not regret it if you care at all about fun gameplay.

I'm an avid hockey fan, player, and supporter of the EA franchise, having played the games since 93. This year EA took a major step back from having a fun hockey game to having a frustrating one. (I've played 21 games into a season on normal or hard (I forgot) and am 15-4-1-1 so I'm not complaining because I can't win.)

Issues: When you switch players it often doesn't go to the guy you'd expect it to go to (i.e. the closest one to the puckcarrier). Your team AI is dumb as a box of rocks and the computer has way too much time to make moves while being a few inches from your goalie. This and weird shots always being scored makes this game frustrating. The real killer is the hitting. No NHL game ends with close to 100 hits per team. Bodies are always flying and there are no calls. This was a bit out of control. Some team information in season mode is hard to find (like who's hurt, hot or cold).

Positives: The game looks good and the skaters move good. It sounds like a real game and the music is limited, but fun. The 4 for all mode is fun for just messing around. The fighting mode (in terms of when you want to fight) is much better. Now you can try to pick one but the other player has to want to dance as well.

Overall EA took a major step back this year making a simulation game into an arcade game that trys to look like a simulation.

I am not going to hype this game or make negative aggressive remarks about it either. The problem that we have here is there are no good NHL games in the video game market at this time. I own ESPN NHL 2k5 for the PS2 and I thought it was a terrific game and even improved on last year's ESPN Sega title. That was until I got 26 games into a dynasty and the game froze up on me. Not one of those oh damn maybe I should reset the game and play it over. No, the dynasty froze up. I could not even simulate past the game that I was playing to go on with my franshise. The game played like a 20 dollar game when it happened to me again. This time during my playoff run. I received an Xbox for Christmas and purchased NHL 2005 with a gift card. The game was refreshingly fun to play, although I must say that the ESPN 2k5 game was the better game all around, the fact that the NHL 2005 game shows promise not to freeze up gives me hope that I can somewhat enjoy a hockey game for a console. The graphics are very good and the shadows on the ice and the jerseys are much more vivid and refined than last year's EA Sports title. There are times when players seem to do incredibly impossible moves that I believe are graphic glitches. The players still seem like they are running on a frozen mat and the physics of ice skating do not seem very well done. The dynasty mode is deep as usual and fun as ever. The player models are well done and are looking better and better with every year that goes by especially with the player's looking more and more like their real life selves. The main drawback there will be is that the dynastys only last 10 seasons. There really should be more seasons than that when other EA sports games have dynastys that last 30 years for Madden, 120 years for MVP baseball and 25 years for NBA Live. I recommend this game for anyone who is looking for a DECENT hockey title to play until the players come back from the lock out. Like I said earlier, the ESPN game would beat this game in overall gameplay and fun factor if they did not have those software glitches. I rather have paid the extra 20 dollars or so to have a complete game. Overall NHL 2005 receives 3.75 out of 5 stars. There are too many things that keep this game away from getting a full 4 star rating i.e too much hitting, corny commentators etc...

A lot has already been covered in previous reviews. My biggest gripe is a lack of head to head play in season mode! If you are playing another person you have to play on the same team unless you are in quick game mode. In season mode you can no longer have you and your friend pick 2 fav teams and play the season out. You now have to select all 30 teams and sim all the other games which seem to arise out of order and you and up doing a sim game on the one you wished to play.

Secondly, the manual for this game is about 4 pages long. If you are not already familiar with previous NHL gameplay, you will be a bit lost.

Rent this game even though it's under $30......

This current installation of the NHL franchise is, for the most part a solid game, with familiar controls and management options. My one beef is the AI: I had fun playing the game on every setting up to, but not including difficult. Playing on this setting sapped all the fun out of the game! You could be playing as one of the best teams in the league against, say, the Florida panthers or Columbus bluejackets, outshoot them 10 to 1, and still be losing 2-0! While it seems their goalie is the lord reborn on skates, your goalie is acting like he's rookie who's never seen the game played before. While he will be, in truth, better than half-decent, it doesn't stack up against the computer's seemingly flawless goaltending. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Overall, though, a really fun game, especially playing free-for-all modes with friends.

First off, allow me to say that with NHL 2005, you have to be ready for arcade style hockey. Having played this series since it's inception in 1992 on Genesis, I knew what I was getting into, especially considering that the series has been pretty much unchanged in 4 years. I'm a pretty hard core hockey fan, and I'm more into simulation based games. Having said that, I am having a lot of fun with NHL 2005. As everyone is quick to point out, the game's graphics are amazing. Unfortunately, graphics and gameplay are different things!

First, the good. I HATED last year's edition of this series. I found the gameplay to be horrible, and I ended up selling it shortly after buying it. I decided to go ahead and pick up NHL 2005 because of the addition of the World Cup, complete with official IIHF jerseys (for the first time in a game) and venues. Another cool touch to the World Cup mode is that in addition to having the correct venues, the PA announcer speaks the language of the country you're playing in! Since I'm team Finland, the announcer in Finland speaks Finnish and the croud chants "SUOMI! SUOMI!" (Finland in Finnish).

Controls were a little difficult at first because I am used to ESPN's NHL series, and it has a different feel. I immediately noticed that skating and button response were vastly improved over last year's outing. One timers still feel unnatural because the shooter delays for a second or two before getting the shot off rather than blasting it off of the pass. This makes it kinda hard to fool the goalie, and it gets frustrating pretty quickly. Other than that, I am happy with the way this game controls.

The menus are nice looking, and they are pretty fluid throughout the game. EA earns an A+ overall for the front end of this game. Also, the presentation has been completely revamped this year. Teams that use special props, such as the Oil derrick in Edmonton or the Sharks head in San Jose will be a part of the pre-game presentation! It's cool to see the Oilers skate out of the derrick and onto the ice! They also brought back the national anthems, which in my opinion is a great touch.

Unlike previous versions of EA's series, it hasnt been to terribly easy for me to score a lot of goals. I'm glad this was addressed, because I was tired of winning games by 8 goals in previous versions. This may belong in the presentation category, but when your team scores a key goal late in the game, the crowd goes CRAZY. The atmosphere is a lot like an NHL game.

It's been mentioned a lot before on message boards, but this year's game is also without Create-a-player, which was a huge dissapointment. I dont understand why they couldnt leave this option in the game...it's been in since NHL 95. This makes the Dynasty mode less fun, and that brings up another shortcoming. In Dynasty mode, each team has goals that are similar to their actual NHL counterparts. Each team has specific goals that you must achieve. Some teams like Colorado and Detroit just want to win, no matter the cost. Other teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh just want to make money. In fact, your objective with Chicago is to obtain the first overall draft pick, which means that you have to finish dead last...or trade for it. This is a shame, because I'm a die hard Hawks fan...and I cant spend any money to improve the team, and essentially I'm supposed to lose as many games as possible. Not much fun.

I have two other gripes with this game. First, the gameplay is extremely too fast. Even with the gameplay speed set to minimum, the game is extremely fast. Game speed makes it almost impossible to cycle the puck. The other is the completely unrealistic hitting. It's pretty impossible to get further than your opponents hash marks without getting NAILED by a defenseman. It wouldnt be bad, but it happens EVERY TIME you try to enter the zone.

All in all, NHL 2005 is a solid game as long as you know what to expect. I'd say rent before buying, but if you're a fan of this series already, go ahead and get it. Even with the deletion of create a player, it's better than last year's game. 3.5 out of 5.

I have given both games a significant amount of my time, and my preference is based on my impressions during that time. I was really looking forward to see how ESPN would match up to EA's heavyweight franchise, especially after it dropped the $19.99 bomb on us again. With ESPN, you are going to get what you pay for. The mini-games may be fun, and the unlockables certainly add to the replay value, but this game does not do the one job it should set out to do: simulate the game of NHL hockey. The physics are nowhere near as accurate as in NHL 2005. From skating, right down to puck physics. I will admit that EA's hitting can sometimes be over the top. With some tweaking though, you will get an incredibly enjoyable experience. The AI isn't as impossible to beat, making for some very believable game scores. EA's dynasty mode, the inclusion of World Cup hockey, and everything else, makes NHL 2005 this season's clear winner.

just not up to par...limited game modes...awkward game play...no ea sports bio or rewards...ESPN 2K5 is much, much better at under $20