About the NHL, the league, I wonder, have there been new rules so that it's less violent ?
Recently I've used my brain and thought "mmh, maybe there are NHL games on p2p networks", and yes there are, so I watched a few ones (recent ones).
And I expected a more brutal game than what I've seen so far. I'd say i's not much different from the recent olympics.
Of course we're used to see highlights videos with all the best goals, biggest hits, fighting, etc etc...
Not that I wish it was more violent, not at all, just wanted to know if they decided to be more drastic with penalties and players safety. I've seen some news dating back to 2005 saying there was new rules to enhance the game (like the trapezoidal surface where the goalie's allowed to touch the puck), maybe there was also new rules about rudess and brutality ?
Now about the game, ea sports' NHL 2006.
Well it sucks. I can't remember where my interest for hockey comes from (maybe the cool equipment ? all I know is that I was still playing Legos when I was already liking hockey... which doesn't mean I was still playing Lego when I was 20^^), but I played NHL 97, 99, 2001 & 2002 I think, always had a good time playing it, enough to make a whole seaon, but this one sucks.
I don't know if I was the only guy on earth scanning my ID photo to add my face in the game and beat Gretzky's records
, but this option is now gone.
The create player option now lets you create some retarded guys, you can clearly see it by the look of their face. The modelling is ugly, the morphing possibilities are quite limited, stupide and not well done (polys overlap sometimes).
I mean : http://images.ea.com/sports/games/06/nh ... x412/1.jpg
I don't know about you, but my nostrils don't go up to my eyes...
And notice this strong guy takes the time to shave his eyebrows...
And the graphisms are really not that great. For a 2k6 game, I thought it'd be better. The guys' eyes don't even move ! There's like 12 characters in the game and their faces are static like a dead man. On my side I'm adding some characters in a wargame (for a mod), and we bother doing their eyes moving... This is what give's life to a character, and this should really be in NHL...
The animations are not so great neither IMO. Always the same winning animation, with the opponent putting his head down, always the same coach animations, trying to clap his hands when you win a fight...
I hope the next gen of 3D engine (with specular and displacement mapping) will be used properly.
The interface is pure crap. While PC screens are getting bigger and bigger, the interface must be 14" wide at most. There's at least 2" of nothingness around the screen, then 2" more of useless border. So all you have are stats tables with only 4 infos at the same time on screen.
The sliders work sometimes, not always.
The overall Interactivity is poor, this clearly looks like a poor adaptation from console to PC. Sometimes you've got to use the keyboard to go through the menus. WTF ?! Is this a PC game or not ?
You can't even use all the keys when setting custom controls, some are used by whatever special tricks, and ctrl & alt and the likes are not usable, as always with EA games...
And the soundtrack ?! OMFG !
While I'm not a fan of need for speed's cheesy techno/trance music, at least you can make as if you don't hear it.
NHL 2006 soundtrack consists of extremly boring rock/numetal/whatever songs, like my bloody valentine, or bullet for my valentine or something. Those sort of songs with screamed verses and clean, ultra-cheesy, vaguely-emo, already-heard-a-1000-time chorus.
And you can't make as if you don't hear it. Ok I guess you can shut it down (I don't know, I've shut down the game before the music), but I mean, what's the point ? You don't put such musics in a game menu.
The gameplay itself, I can't say much. But from what I've read, and seen, it's not great neither. Goalies are more holed than cheese, bodychecks are uneffective, and if you just don't do anything, the CPU won't do anything, so if you score a goal, just wait doing nothing until the end of the game and you win...
I don't know what's the quantity of work from one year to the other, but this is really not worth 50$.
Recently I've used my brain and thought "mmh, maybe there are NHL games on p2p networks", and yes there are, so I watched a few ones (recent ones).
And I expected a more brutal game than what I've seen so far. I'd say i's not much different from the recent olympics.
Of course we're used to see highlights videos with all the best goals, biggest hits, fighting, etc etc...
Not that I wish it was more violent, not at all, just wanted to know if they decided to be more drastic with penalties and players safety. I've seen some news dating back to 2005 saying there was new rules to enhance the game (like the trapezoidal surface where the goalie's allowed to touch the puck), maybe there was also new rules about rudess and brutality ?
Now about the game, ea sports' NHL 2006.
Well it sucks. I can't remember where my interest for hockey comes from (maybe the cool equipment ? all I know is that I was still playing Legos when I was already liking hockey... which doesn't mean I was still playing Lego when I was 20^^), but I played NHL 97, 99, 2001 & 2002 I think, always had a good time playing it, enough to make a whole seaon, but this one sucks.
I don't know if I was the only guy on earth scanning my ID photo to add my face in the game and beat Gretzky's records
, but this option is now gone.
The create player option now lets you create some retarded guys, you can clearly see it by the look of their face. The modelling is ugly, the morphing possibilities are quite limited, stupide and not well done (polys overlap sometimes).
I mean : http://images.ea.com/sports/games/06/nh ... x412/1.jpg
I don't know about you, but my nostrils don't go up to my eyes...
And notice this strong guy takes the time to shave his eyebrows...
And the graphisms are really not that great. For a 2k6 game, I thought it'd be better. The guys' eyes don't even move ! There's like 12 characters in the game and their faces are static like a dead man. On my side I'm adding some characters in a wargame (for a mod), and we bother doing their eyes moving... This is what give's life to a character, and this should really be in NHL...
The animations are not so great neither IMO. Always the same winning animation, with the opponent putting his head down, always the same coach animations, trying to clap his hands when you win a fight...
I hope the next gen of 3D engine (with specular and displacement mapping) will be used properly.
The interface is pure crap. While PC screens are getting bigger and bigger, the interface must be 14" wide at most. There's at least 2" of nothingness around the screen, then 2" more of useless border. So all you have are stats tables with only 4 infos at the same time on screen.
The sliders work sometimes, not always.
The overall Interactivity is poor, this clearly looks like a poor adaptation from console to PC. Sometimes you've got to use the keyboard to go through the menus. WTF ?! Is this a PC game or not ?
You can't even use all the keys when setting custom controls, some are used by whatever special tricks, and ctrl & alt and the likes are not usable, as always with EA games...
And the soundtrack ?! OMFG !
While I'm not a fan of need for speed's cheesy techno/trance music, at least you can make as if you don't hear it.
NHL 2006 soundtrack consists of extremly boring rock/numetal/whatever songs, like my bloody valentine, or bullet for my valentine or something. Those sort of songs with screamed verses and clean, ultra-cheesy, vaguely-emo, already-heard-a-1000-time chorus.
And you can't make as if you don't hear it. Ok I guess you can shut it down (I don't know, I've shut down the game before the music), but I mean, what's the point ? You don't put such musics in a game menu.
The gameplay itself, I can't say much. But from what I've read, and seen, it's not great neither. Goalies are more holed than cheese, bodychecks are uneffective, and if you just don't do anything, the CPU won't do anything, so if you score a goal, just wait doing nothing until the end of the game and you win...
I don't know what's the quantity of work from one year to the other, but this is really not worth 50$.
Thoughts inspired by devil, posture inspired by angle :/
