NHL 07

By WellsNorthShore

Growing up a Kiwi sporting lad most would expect I was very much into my Cricket and Rugby and I was how could I not enjoy running around stomping on people with steel screwed into my shoes every Saturday. But one day while sitting on what must have been a very ordinary PC I embarked on a game called Face Off by Canadian developers MindSpan. I had seen the Mighty Ducks movies and thought it looked all in good fun but the moment I realized I could control people on steel blades fighting, and not only fighting but jumping onto already downed opponents and proceeding to pummel there bloody skulls into rock hard ice had me hooked as violence does to many impressionable youth.

From then on I was an avid Ice Hockey fan, I adopted the Penguins as my favourite team and proceeded to purchase the yearly EA Sports NHL titles. Despite sometimes bad reviews they never did disappoint me, the thought of flying around on skates hurting people never got boring, come the 2005 games EA really had begun to drop the ball and through 05/06 I had begun also experimenting with the SEGA 2k hockey titles. Enter EA Sports NHL 07 the first EA venture into next gen hockey and an effort which will convince many that EA does sometimes make an effort to do more than check the bank account. I will endeavor to try and make this easy for the hockey illiterate.

The good - Innovative new controls really give you a feeling of accomplishment when you score a goal, graphics are great,  game audio and commentary are awesome, rosters updated via Live often enough.

The bad – Dynasty needs more depth, through time the game becomes to easy to dominate, no pummeling bloody skulls into ice. Computer General Managers make stupid trades. Silver Live members can not obtain roster updates.

Upon loading NHL 07 you will be welcomed in with an introduction to the new “skill stick” control scheme. Gone are buttons to shoot instead your shots and dekes (spins, fakes etc) are all controlled by the right analogue stick. Think of it as the left analogue stick is your skates and the right analogue stick is your hockey stick. Although this will take some getting used to it is much more enjoyable once mastered than the old methods (and for those stubborn people who really do not like change you can fix up your control schemes to be like the old hockey titles). The introduction will take you through a shoot out where you have a chance to check (no pun intended) out the new graphics and test out your skills with the skill stick.

The skill stick is actually fairly simple to understand and the tutorial will teach you what you need to know. To perform a slapshot (basically winding back your stick and slapping the crap out of it Happy Gilmore style) you simply move the right analogue stick down and then up. To take some weight off the shot simply don’t  hold the right analogue down as long to reduce your wind up, or simply just flick the stick up to flick your puck at the goal. Dekes and spins are performed through various different actions on the skill stick.

Those of you familiar with recent EA Sports titles will pick this method of control up fairly quickly. Others may need a little time but you will get there and love it. To pass is as simple as holding your right trigger for your player to send the puck to the teammate in your direction. Poke checking (using your stick to try and take the puck of opposing players) is carried out with the bumper buttons and for those of you seeking violence when defending your right analogue stick turns into your check stick. Similar to Maddens “hit stick” simply skate towards your victim and push the analogue stick in his direction, best used when your opponent is standing next to the boards(the walls surrounding the rink) As a nice extra using your Y button will make your player slash(turn into a Butcher on meth with a rusty cleaver) the nearest opposition players. Slashing will generally lead to you getting penalized but also often injures opposition players and sometimes create a fight, plus the sound bytes of the opposition in pain never bore me. Speaking of fights this is an area that could use improving, currently it is a very simple scheme where the left stick blocks and dodges while the right stick punches or power punches, fun but could be a lot better however it is not a core part of the game experience.

The goalies are completely AI controlled so no worries there. The thing that may surprise some people is the lack of a speed boost or “turbo” button, instead how fast you are skating is decided by how many strides you have built up over a period of time and the individual players statistics in relevant categories, I for one think this is a very good way to handle this element of gameplay.

So after a few “play now” mode games when you can bust out some sick dekes, crank some fast slap shots, crunch people into large planks of wood, decapitate opposition players with your large stick and punch them in the face if they step out of line, then you’re ready to venture into the more serious game modes. You can participate in the DODGE shootout (the same as your intro/tutorial however this time you can pick your teams), international competition where you will embark on a series of pool and elimination games to determine an international champion team or the real center of the game, the dynasty mode. Here you will become General Manager, coach and player as you take on an NHL team and try to lead them to ten years of glory.

Everything you expect is here, trading, managing your rosters, renewing player contracts, drafting new players, player development and managing your email from staff members and players. This mode is definitely a good first effort for next gen NHL but will need a lot more work. The biggest issue here is that the AI controlled managers often make stupid moves for their team. For example you may see one team who has a 94 overall goaltender go out and acquire another goaltender of say 92 overall to merely play ten games of the year for the team. In the real NHL such things would not happen especially after the league lockout and the introduction of the salary cap (a restriction on how much money each team can spend for player salaries per season) also the AI controlled managers are very easy to trade with. Offering up your high rated 35 year old star player who makes four million dollars and on the verge of retiring will be able to get you a similarly rated 22 year old guy who is making one million a season. Abusing this can lead to having a very stacked team and making winning no challenge at all. However if you do not want to cheese your way through the dynasty mode making ridiculous trades then this issue resolves itself.

You will take your team through ten seasons (each of eighty two games excluding the playoffs) and watch as your young talent develop into the stars of the league, your old veterans decline and retire. Big headed players demand extra money or trades and so on. This is where the key replay value is for this title. The dynast mode takes a long time to complete, is never the same as your players are constantly changing and the quest to win the championship aswell as the several individual player trophies will keep you coming back if you really enjoy the game. What I want to see is a deeper experience, more individual player and staff emotions, when looking into young players to draft I want to be able to do more than just look at a few grades on the screen, other games feature modes where you can scout future players by playing as them in mini/try out games. Something like the Madden series where you took individual players through pre season programs to elevate stats would also be a great feature.

It is customary to expect xbox Live features for sports games now and NHL 07 delivers with the usual lobbies, ranked and unranked games that you expect from sporting titles aswell as roster updates to reflect trades made in the real NHL. My only problem here is that something like a roster update I feel should be able to be accessed by silver members. To obtain roster updates you need to go through the EA sports servers via the NHL 07 game as opposed to just downloading a game update or patch via xbox Live. A small issue in my opinion but something I thought worth mentioning. You can always update your rosters manually via trade and the expected create a player function. Games on live seemed to be relatively trouble free for me connection wise. Occasionally there was lag in the odd game but it is to be expected when playing somebody with a bad or slow connection not to mention that most of the people you play will be based in the US or Canada however it really was not that bad for me. The main problem with the gaming on Live which I am sure every Live gamer can sympathize with is the ever present young squeaky voices on the microphone and the noobs who quit when it gets tough. Fortunately EA sports monitor this with the player’s record and how often they quit the games they are in. Do not play against the little cretins with the poor leave game percentage and you should be fine. Also do not become one of said little cretins if you plan on spending a lot of time playing NHL 07 the higher your leaving percentage grows the more likely it is that people will reject you when wanting to play a game because lets be honest almost everyone has experienced these scumbags and nobody wants to waste time playing five minutes with them and then having them leave.

Graphics are great, sure we are not talking Gears of War quality here but seriously what game is? What you get here is good quality graphics to go with a good quality game. Close ups on star players make them more than recognizable, the wear and tear on the ice surface is very nice, there are plenty of player animations and the obvious size differences between players is also very good. One big thing they improved on in this department was the animations of the goalies, now you will see many more different saves from the goalies and although it is frustrating there are times when you pull out some sweet moves with the skill stick only to see some amazing save animation and think to yourself how the *** did he do that. Audio is great, the commentators like most sports games eventually get a tad repetitive with the general comments, you will mainly find this through your dynasty mode as you will have the same guys on your team so they will give you info on those guys regularly. When they start to discuss opposition players it is very nice to hear little stories about particular guys and gives you a bit more of feeling that you are actually watching a lime game which is exactly what I am after. Aside from the commentary the sounds of the players skating, pucks getting shot around, people in pain, people getting hit into the boards etc are great. The crowd really gets into it, when playing home games it is great to hear them screaming for you after each goal and chanting your teams name, even better is playing away games, listening to the crowd chanting for your opponents only to score on them and hear a chorus of boos echo through the arena.

If you have scrolled through this lengthy rant this is probably the main piece of information you are looking for rent, buy or neither. My suggestion rent first if you are not a hockey fan or have never played hockey games before, if you’re a regular hockey gamer YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE PLAYING THIS GAME. I say rent first because while this game is great, a lot of fun, a lot of replay value it is not for everybody if you do not like sports games do not expect this to be the title that wins you over. If you like sports games, like hockey then this will be a good game for you but give it a rent first and see what you think. The demo over live is not a fair representation of the game because it is only the shootout the same as the tutorial/intro and you really need to experience a full team game because that is what you will be mainly doing. If you are a hockey game fan this game is for you, I have been playing hockey games for over a decade now and this is the best one out there, this is the be all and end all of hockey games right now in my opinion, easily the most fun I have ever had with a hockey game and it is still spending plenty of time in my console.

EA sports NHL 07 is an at times revolutionary title, it is without question to me the only option for next gen hockey and arguably the best sporting title on the 360 (NBA 2K7 and Fight Night could maybe argue about it) EA are finally on track to develop what hockey fans have been craving for so long, for now this is an outstanding title, with areas to work on but still well worth the price tag.