NHL 11 Review

A new year and EA sports churns out the latest edition of this multi award winning franchise, So what’s new this year? first and probably most important is the updated physics system, this basically makes player movement particularly during hits look and feel much more realistic than those in previous titles. The other most notable new features are the broken sticks and ultimate team mode. The broken sticks are a nice addition though probably happens to often, though it is quite funny to see a skater frantically trying to kick a puck having just seen his stick snap.

Ultimate team is a massive in depth card game mode that sees you have to build a team from scratch, initially you are given a starter pack that will include at least one player in each position and enough players to cover all 4 lines, it is then up to you to play games with this team to earn more in game currency (Coins) by participating in matches and tournaments online and offline. With these coins you can then choose to purchase new card packs that come at varying prices or you can bid for other players cards online using the in game auction house facility. Players also have to being kept in contract and can be improved by using certain cards. Overall the
ultimate team is a massive edition that will keep many players entertained for hours.

Other than ultimate team the game still features all the modes you come to expect with season play, GM and be a pro still very much in tack with the latter being slightly improved and streamlined at the same time. On the negative side much of the content has been seen before and some modes such as be a GM have seen very little in the way of additions. Also from time to time the commentary can get a little confused and slightly over the top but these are minor niggles that do not impair the quality of the overall product by a large amount

Online play has also been bolstered with an improved clubs system that to date seems to work very well, also now enabling teams to specify if they wish to be matched with other teams using a human goalie, an important feature if you enjoy playing goalie. In game lag has been minimal with the full 12 players in game, also apparently quitters are being punished much more severely in this years game that in the past and although people do still quit sometimes it does seem to happen far less than in NHL10. Overall for online team play I still think your hard pushed to find a better game in any genre.