NHL 08 is really about fine tuning – EA has examined what worked and what didn’t work last year, and made a whole horde of adjustments under the belt. It won’t be readily apparent to someone who didn’t play NHL 07 – but that’s not such a bad thing, as that will only make NHL 08 seem more awesome. The pacing and play style of the game has changed in a way that might only appear to be subtle to the observer, but feels quite significant to the veteran player. The speed burst mechanic of NHL 07 has been done away with – in fact, the whole skating system has been rebuilt from the ground up, and is astoundingly realistic in terms of animation, player movement and momentum. It’s really quite incredible what EA has achieved with its new skating system, and makes it quite difficult to go back and play any older hockey game.
This one is just too easy
Another big feature being touted by EA this year is its adaptive AI system. As the name suggests, the CPU opponents adjust their play style and tactics on the fly to counter the way you play. If the player approaches the game in the same way every time, the AI will do their best to recognise those tactics before they build up – it really causes one to rethink the way they approach each opportunity to advance up the ice. While normally we’d try to get the puck into the slot and fire a slapshot to the opposite top corner of the net, we found ourselves sliding the puck around between the players a lot more to get it closer to the net to fire a soft wrist shot just under the goalie’s legs. A slider is available in the game to indicate how effective the AI learning is. A coaching prompt will actually pop up at the end of each period to tell you what parts of the game you need to work on in order to win. Dedicated hockey fans may be a little disappointed that the game does not take each player’s real life tendencies into account when adapting the play-style, but it won’t be an issue for the majority of gamers.
The skill stick was something of a hockey revolution when introduced in NHL 07, and it has been refined in NHL 08, and thus feels noticeably tighter than in last year’s game. The loose puck deke has been introduced this year, so when one feels very daring, they can essentially flick the puck just past a defender and pick it back up again – it’s a risky manoeuvre, but when executed right, it’s quite deadly. A practice mode and play editor has also been added to the game for those who approach their hockey in a more tactical fashion. On defence, the poke check has been tweaked so that it’s quite a bit more useful than in previous games, where the arcade style heavy checking reigned supreme. Checking has been toned down quite a bit this year – it’s still useful, but it’s a bit more realistic in that you won’t knock the player for six with a high momentum hip and shoulder charge. Goalie controls have also made a return, and while tightened up a smidgen, it’s not really effective to use them unless you have the ability to see things before they happen.
Nikolai Khabibulin, moments before his castration by a Canadien's slapshot
Play modes in NHL 07 were a little on the thin side, but EA has addressed this by bulking up the Dynasty Mode, packing in the EA World Championship tournament, and refining the creation modes. Your Dynasty team will have an AHL team attached for relegation/promotion of your players, as well as development of rookies and so on. A player negotiation system has been added to bring the game into line with other EA Sports titles, and add a desperately needed element of realism into the squad management portion of the mode. The mode does still feel a little anaemic compared to 2K’s offering, but the basics are in place, so we expect that NHL 09 will build upon the foundation. Online play has also been expanded to offer league and tournament modes, so players can set up leagues with between 2 and 32 teams from the NHL, AHL, and Elitserien leagues, as well as the National teams. There’s still a bit of an issue with the lag in multiplayer games, but it is a steady improvement over NHL 07 in this regard. Still, with all of these modes, one can expect to spend many hours with the game. The 1,000 achievement points in the Xbox 360 version of the game are fairly evenly broken up between online and offline play modes. Those looking towards gaining offline achievements might want to get used to playing on the Superstar difficulty first, however.
NHL 07 was considered one of the best looking sports games upon its release last year, but NHL 08 really blows it away. Not only are the players more detailed, and more closely resemble their real life counterparts, but the game also runs at 60 frames per second (on the 360), which makes the difference in fluidity and play speed between the 2007 and 2008 games look like night and day. EA Canada deserves a lot of credit for the animation of their players – it’s unbelievably lifelike, largely due to excellent transition animations and moves that are silky smooth. The only real issue on the graphics front is that the frame rate takes a big hit on the cutscenes, dropping to around the 30 frames per second. The team of Gary Thorne and Bill Clement return to provide play by play and colour commentary, and once again provide an authentic sounding broadcast experience. While the dialogue is considerably less repetitive than in previous years, the commentators do not often refer to players by name, which is a little disappointing. A compilation of the usual indie/alternative rock is provided by EA Trax for use on the menus and is generally easy on the ears.
NHL 08 really provides the things we’re looking for in a sports update – genuine refinement and new features that really enhance the latest game over the previous iteration. NHL 08 has managed to avoid the recent EA tradition of cutting features and reintroducing them at a later date, and instead tried to make the game look and player better. With further refinement, and some bulking up of the Dynasty mode, EA’s NHL series will once again become king of the rink. NHL 08 is well worth a look for any hockey fan.
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