EA's NHL 2005 Strategy Videos

[Diablo25]

Just dowloaded the strategy videos (not tutorial videos) from EA's site and they are pretty impressive. Canucks coach Marc Crawford explains several (12) different hockey strategies with gameplay footage mixed in. Yes, this series has disappointed the past few years but supposedly they have moved in a positive direction. I have NHL2K5 and love it but I will give EA's game a chance. The original is what got me interested in hockey and hockey video games. If gameplay is tightened and the AI sliders allow you to get some things tweaked I'll be happy. We will see on 9/20. Any thoughts?

http://www.easports.com/games/nhl2005/downloads.jsp

[Parker]

One thing that NHL did better than ESPN last year (and this year) was the realistic way the cpu set up their offense on power plays. Although the stats you get are more realistic with ESPN, it doesn't look as authentic.

[Gman33]

I noticed that those videos were for the PC version. Does anybody know if these strategies will be implemented in the same way for the Xbox version? If I remember correctly from the past, the PC version of NHL has always been a little more in depth than the console versions.

[dbdynsty25]

Yes, this series has disappointed the past few years but supposedly they have moved in a positive direction.

Well last year it was probably the biggest surprise game. No one gave it any shot and it turned out to be a damn good game. If they fixed the choppiness (an EA trademark nowdays) and the huge rebounds off of the goalies, I think it will surpass ESPN in my library. I know a lot of people would disagree with that, especially because of the price. But I loved last years and I have a feeling this years will be the same.

[blueduke]

Well last year it was probably the biggest surprise game. No one gave it any shot and it turned out to be a damn good game. If they fixed the choppiness (an EA trademark nowdays) and the huge rebounds off of the goalies, I think it will surpass ESPN in my library. I know a lot of people would disagree with that, especially because of the price. But I loved last years and I have a feeling this years will be the same.

I agree. A bigger surprise to me than even MVP 2003. The choppiness in EA's games are a mystery to me however. With all their resources it's looks like they could eliminate this. As for the actual gameplay I think EA played a more realistic game of hockey (after you lowered the aggressiveness slider) than their competitor. Sure some goals appeared to be scripted but you didn't have to worry about stonewall goalies either. I'm having alot of fun with ESPN but I'm definately going to give EA's game run.

[GROGtheNailer]

I thought that EA's game last year was a good step in the right direction but it still had a lot of warts, if they get rid of these warts this year and tighten up a few things it could be a very good game.

[LAking]

I thought that EA's game last year was a good step in the right direction but it still had a lot of warts, if they get rid of these warts this year and tighten up a few things it could be a very good game.

That's pretty much what i felt about the game. The fact that they were trying to make it more realistic was a big plus. However I still felt like it was still just a broken engine tweaked like crazy to try and make it realistic. The chopiness was the same as it's always been. The graphics were actually pretty terrible for an EA game (unless you downloaded that hi res texture mod some guy made). And to me some of shot were just too fast. The plays seemed a little to band, bang, goal at times. Hopefully this year all those things are improved. It looks promising.