Customer Reviews

NHL 2006

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm a big fan of the series, starting with NHL99. Personally, I thought NHL2004 was superb (except for a tendency of your forwards not to crash the net). NHL2006 is, to me, no better: worse in all ways not associated with gameplay; slightly better in offensive gameplay.

First off, the graphics are improved very little. The in game graphics are identical to my eye, and I have all graphics on full detail on a Radeon 9800PRO. I expected to see something more than two years ago. Some graphics are worse: a hat trick is greeted by a few caps coming down in unrealistic slo-mo in the background. On the plus side, they have improved pregame and postgame movies during the playoffs.

Second, interface-usability has taken a nosedive. The game menus are cheesy looking, and it's very difficult to get around. When editing lines, for example, it's very difficult to get from the 1st line to the 3rd line. Before, you'd just click an arrow, but now you have to follow a roving "next box" button. Bizarre. You have to be something of a genius to figure out how to put in your backup goalie during a game, and good luck trying to return a goalie to a game.

Third, the music is terrible. Whatever you think of EA games, they tend to have some really inspiring music. (I wouldn't buy the albums, but the music really enhances the Need for Speed series, and all the NHL games.) The music here is unlistenably bad. It's not even catchy.

Fourth, as usual EA sports seems unable to provide rosters that are close to accurate. Yes, Forsberg is in Flyers uniform, but also playing for the Flyers are Sean Burke, Claude Lapointe, Marcus Ragnarsson, and others. Worst of all, the rookies are not there: Crosby, Carter, Richards, not there. People who buy the game every year are usually the same people who know the young stars and look forward to having them on the roster. EA again disappoints without Crosby in a late September game release? Sure, there will be roster updates, but they couldn't have one programmer put Crosby in back in June when the game was under development? [UPDATE: October Roster Update includes Crosby and rookies, though it also still incorrectly provides teams with players retired or not resigned. A bug has just been corrected which caused new players to show up as "Placeholder 19" during the game.] Also, there is a roster update on EA's website, but there no instructions on how. [UPDATE: They now have a one line instruction to put the update into the program folder, which is actually incorrect. You have to put the update in EA Sports folder created in My Documents, which I hadn't even noticed before. A recent update seems to have fixed this.] Still, there are precious few roster updates. Worse, the game still lacks a way to "retire" players. In fact, if you go to Roster Management and "drop" players from a team (say, Ziggy Palffy or Brett Hull or Mario Lemieux) it only takes dropping a few before the "Free Agent List" is "Full" and you can't drop them. And of course they're not free agents, so if you start a new season, anybody can add Ziggy Palffy or Brett Hull. EA needs to add 1) a way for the user to retire players, and 2) a way for a user to do this during a season even on teams that are controlled by the computer.

Fifth, the AI is a mixed bag. Players on your team who are not highlighted as user controlled tend to be stupid, never checking or poking or intercepting passes. This is especially frustrating with defensemen: in NHL 2004, for example, a non-highlighted defenseman on top of an opposing player would do some defending. Also, in order for a check to disrupt another player, you have to turn up the option for checking force considerably. Finally, the game suffers from similar problems with previous generations: at difficult levels, the other teams scores at will on virtually every shot. Even at default "medium" difficulty level, Martin Brodeur with every possible goalie increase, 99 rating in all categories, has never stopped a wraparound. One wonders if EA Games bothers to user test these things. On the positive side, playing at higher difficulty levels is wonderfully challenging, and you really do get rewarded for mixing up your strategies. On the downside, the challenges posed for you are not posed for the computer, so while you're now scoring once on every 10 or 11 shots, the computer is scoring on 1 out of every 2 shots -- so you can't really play on the difficulty level. Again, I think this is an unforgiveable AI goof up. It should be more difficult for the computer, too, right?

Next, considering that vibrating game controllers are now about three dollars more than plain game controllers, it would be nice if after all of these years, EA could put in a vibration effect. How about when monster checking someone or getting monster checked? Throw us a bone, please. It would take a programmer what, an hour, to program in "when checked above force 6, initiate vibration on controller"?

A documented bug which has not been fixed occurs in Dynasty mode. If you like Dynasty mode, you know from previous versions that (again) you are rewarded as much for profitability as you are for winning the Stanley Cup, but strangely, if you Sim home games, you are told in your monthly statement that you had lousy attendance and poor profitability, even if you have set prices and promotions to produce easily sold out games. So even though NHL2006 has a much improved Sim feature, you are very much penalized for using it, simply because EA hasn't bothered to fix a programming bug. [If you play the home game instead of Sim-ing it, you sell out.]

Finally, over time the AI issues of injured players really got to me. If your star center is injured, the AI sticks in (before you have a chance to do anything) one of your lame benched players and sticks them in as that star center, on all the power play and hero lines. So you have to through and manually stick that guy on your 4th line, and then manually change every other place the bench guy got put on, and then stick your second line center on your 1st line. As soon as your injured star center is healthy, the game automatically benches that second line center you put on the 1st line (not the lousy 4th liner), and you have to do manual substitutions all over again. Considering injuries are commonplace in hockey, this is a crazy time waste and unforgiveable AI goof up. You always have the option of clicking the "Best Lines" button, but here again the AI disappoints by actually NOT always producing the best lines, which, oddly, the game itself tells you [since it rates each line automatically]!

Are there any good points to the game? YES. New rule changes can be enforced, and now you can use the right controller stick to do a fancy move and this is a definite improvement. Also, your forwards finally, after all these years, go to the net looking for rebounds. And it's easier to manually aim the puck when shooting since a target appears in the net. Another good thing: rosters build in line combinations, though, as said above,if a player missed a game with the flu, you have to manually stick him back into ALL of the lines he was taken out of, or his replacement will be there forever. (One drawback of line combos is that a player can flip back and forth between "Offensive Defenseman" and "Checking Defenseman" depending on their stats, which can really mess up your line pairings now that these things count.) BEST OF ALL, the "sim" feature is significantly improved. You can now sim part of game. You can stop the sim after any period, and before the final five minutes. I often sim a game for the first two periods and jump right in for the 3rd, or I sim for the whole game except for the last 5 minutes. That was a great idea.

Overall, a strange entry for the franchise: initially very disappointing because of its lousy game interface, but ultimately some new features do improve enjoyment.

NHL 2006 is a solid hockey game. The graphics are top-notch. I still long for the gameplay from NHL 94, easily the most fun of all of EA's NHL offerings. However, 2006 has some marked improvements over the last couple of years.

You can now perform some really cool signature moves by star players with the All-New EA Sports Skill Stick. The replay system adds a great touch and the game will play highlights from the game during the end of each period. It looks like you are watching plays of the day on SportsCenter.

Also added is the EA Sports R.P.M. Physics - Realistic Puck Movement. The puck can now inflict damage to players and the rink (knock the water bottle off the net, freak the goalie out, smash the glass behind the net).

Skating and deking is improved too. But as in most of the new EA Sports titles, you will need a 2 stick gamepad (like the PS2). Tap the left analog stick to perform dekes to get around defensement and make the goalie look silly. Speaking of the goalies, they now perform desperation moves like flailing a leg in the air while they are on their back or blindly sticking a pad out while looking the other way. Looks great on the replays. Makes it harder to score too.

I am not going to get into the player creation system as I was never a fan of that part of game. There are enough players in the NHL to use.

The graphics are improved and it will feel like you are watching a game on TV at times. The ice looks fantastic and will show skate marks and become more dull as the period drags on. Attention to detail is what it is all about. One pet peeve I have had with the EA Sports titles (NHL, Baseball, etc) is the crowd is so 2D while the rest of the game is mostly 3D. They have improved how the crowd looks in this title, but it still needs work. Too often they look like paper cutouts.

All in all this is a solid game. If you are a hockey fan and have been impatiently waiting for a season of hockey - go get this title now and get the 05-06 season underway.

What I've already read here rings true: this game was obviously Not A Priority to EA Sports. The tired commentary is pretty much the same as the last version, the navigation still sucks, the rosters are absurdly out of date, the injured-player routine is inane, the animated crowd is still comprised of Dawn-of-the-Dead robotic freaks, the game outcome always feels scripted, the music is annoying (and the music details suddenly scroll out at the bottom left of the screen -- the EA Jukebox obscures information you're trying to use.) Navigation is bizarre, leaving you wondering "do I use my mouse here, or hit gamepad 2, or gamepad 4..."

I had tried playing NHL 2005 before and figured that it only sucked because I wasn't familiar with it, never having seen the documentation. I liked the potential of the game and figured I'd buy 2006 -- hey, the new version would be way better and I would have the manual to solve all its sucky problems. However, it turns out EA Sports doesn't believe in documentation. I'm all for saving a few trees, but EA Sports puts about one Kleenex of paper into their manual. Examplis gratis: they prefer to boast "We have Bruise Control (tm)!" rather than tell you what it is and how to use it.

Oh, and check out your video card before purchasing. I had to buy a new card and spend another $100 for this garbage, although NHL 2005 worked just fine and 06 has no improvements.

Reviewing my review, I'm worried that I sound a bit harsh. I've never played any of the alternatives for hockey games, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is as good as it gets. But it's still pretty bad. Really bad. Waaaaay bad. I've still had some fun with it, but no more than with NHL 2005, which you can probably get free with the purchase of a Slurpee now.

I write this to address some comments I've read :

- Defense? Well, checking is harder to achieve than before. However, with some practice, you can knock everyone quite hard (I've broken glass with some of my checking).

The ability to slide on the ice to intercept pass is also a nice addition to the possible move.

- Offense? In my opinion, the offensive move are quite good even if they lack some realism.

- Goalie? BAD. They just keep themselve on the ground. You just need to put it "top net" and you score. However, I do use house rule (I'm always inventing house rule).

- online gaming? BAD. Not much possibilities (customization) there sadly but it's quite fun. In fact I only play vs. my brother over the internet. Much funnier than playing vs. the AI.

all in all, a very fun game with lots of actions as you can expect from a hockey game. However, it's not a simulation.

EA sports' latest offering in the NHL series is somewhat a mixed bag.

On one hand, the graphics are by far the best yet, extremely realistic. The playability is pretty good, on medium level; but as with every edition of this game, highly flawed.

A number of issues will come to your attention.

1. The scores get run up very high, and are very unrealistic; even by the standards of the new NHL. Scoring 10 goals in a game (or having 10 goals scored against you) is not a rare occurrence; and wild scorelines such as 8-6; or 10-7; are the norm rather than the exception. Goaltending is very poor; especialy since it is difficult to control odd-man rushes and breakaways.

2. EA sports have gotten rid of markers such as "big hitters" and "big shooters". This is manifest in the fact that, although they have been very miserly with regards to shot power stats (now broken down into wrist shot AND slap shot power/accuracy; it seems that every player on the team has the capability of blasting off a 120mph slap shot; whether they are rated in the 60s or the 90s for shot power; on the default shot power level (about 40%). This is great for goal-scoring potential, but is very unrealistic.

3. It is apparently impossible to edit lines during a period; or switch goalies; as there is no way of getting out of these menus during the period, you have to wait until intermission.

4. As mentioned earlier, defence is still limited. Hits can be lined up with relative ease, and it is possible to poke-check; even blocking is possible; although I haven't bothered with this yet, as it is 2 MORE buttons to have to control during a game.
NEvertheless, it is difficult to defend against breakaways and odd man rushes; and the goaltending is exceptionally poor, one the opposition's forwards have moved in towards the slot. Goalies are easily fooled by dekes, and special moves.

5. The function of the skill stick varies depending on ice position. At center ice, you can spin around 360 degrees and keep the puck; but as you move into the offensive zone, all you can do is to play the puck backwards through your player's legs (which leads to giving up posession).

However, despite these flaws, it is still a very playable game, if you don't mind unrealistically high scorelines. It now includes taegets that appear to help you aim your shot. A good feature introduced is the highlight reel at the end of each period, highlighting all the goals, along with the best saves and hits of each period.

I haven't tried playing on the difficult level, but if past editions are anything to go by, this will be almost impossible, with the opposition scoring at will, and the opposition goalie being inpenetrable. Medium setting should be playable for most; but it is hard to see anyone acheiving sucess on the hard level of an EA sports NHL game.

It's close to the very end of cyberhockey for PCs.
If you're a cyber-ice-hockey-fan you've probably bought the game already. Otherwise don't waste your money as NHL06 is bad. Too bad. Online games result in the keyboard/controller lag so if you're playing as a home team you'll most probably loose. Like 1-15 or something like this.
By the way all scores are as it's a basketball game.
If you play with CPU you can easily score 3 or 5 goals and then you'll get penalties and quickly allow scores of goals in your own net. Usually you can win over CPU but only in the last minutes of the game. The scenario is always ALWAYS the same so it's not just annoying it's disgusting.

Like the title says, I have upgraded from NHL 2003. This game is much better than it. However, many other customers seem to see many problems with NHL 2006. And there are a few: The score gets rediculously high in most games, but if you look at the scores in the NHL right now (on opening night more than half of the scores had one team scoring at least five goals)then it's really not too bad. The goalies are quite good, but they are not "on crack." You can score from any angle sometimes...one-timers do tend to work very well on certain goalies, but on others it's all about open ice shooting or the wrap arounds. I like that you can actually wrap the puck around the net and aim for the opposite corners. One thing to look out for, however, is if you create your own goalie. No matter how good you make him, he will not be as good as most of the mediocre goalies in the league...but he will improve with time. The Dynasty Mode is very cool...and it keeps you the player from stacking the deck too badly. Also, the best part is that the players actually move in formations...you can perform the basic "breakout" for instance. The players actually do what the strategy is set to. also, they crash the net so there are a lot more garbage shots that are put in. All in all it makes you think of the whole team's positioning on both offense and defense...once you figure out to slow it down a bit and learn to play with the formations, the game becomes quite challenging and yet beatable..I highly recomend it for people that want to feel like they are playing with a whole team rather than one single star player.

I've been a big fan of previous versions of EA Sports' NHL series. Like most fans, I started with NHL 94 and have been through the ups and downs of this title over the last several years. Last year's NHL 2005 had nearly turned me off of the title for good. Based on a few good reviews and the lower price this year, I decided to give NHL 06 a try and I'm glad I did.
The 06 offering doesn't provide anything spectacularly new, except a return to good hockey fun. Out of the box, the game is very learnable and playable with default settings, even for beginners. Once I played through a season and won the Stanley Cup on Medium difficulty, I started a Dynasty on Difficult. At first, this was a very frustrating experience, however once you really dive into what NHL 06 has to offer and tweak some of the settings (...), the game's depth really opens up. I've gotten it to a point where I win some, lose some but regardless, it's a whole lot of fun.
NHL 06 picks up where they left off a few years ago; Great graphics, player animations and terrific gameplay.
Highly recommended.

Functionality has increased since my last NHL 2003. The only issue is that the wireless controllers i specifically bought for this item do not work as specified in the game. Since i do not know if this is the controllers fault or the games fault, it is difficult to comment on.
Overall I like the game and new layout. I rated 4 stars do to compatibility issues.

For seasoned EA NHL veterans, the default difficult is a breeze and you should easily beat the computer (although you'll need twice a many shots to do so). I always end up with 50+ shots compared to the computer's measly 20. If you try the difficult level, the computer goalie plays at superhuman levels stopping everything even when he is down and out, flopping around in the crease. When you do finally manage to score a goal or two, the computer will win the next faceoff, blow past all your defenders, make 5 or 6 tape to tape passes and blast a shot past your inept goaltender. Changing your defensive strategy doesn't appear to have any effect on your defensemen's ability to cover the open players. The only way I've gotten around this is to tweak the goalie advantage level by a couple of notches and hope that my goalie can actually make a save when the AI decides that it needs to get a goal. I'm all for a challenge but for the computer to score at will whenever it is on the wrong side of the scoreboard is ridiculous.

The game is just too frustrating to play unless you are playing against another person.