Company: EA Sports
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre:
Rating:
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What better way to entertain yourself while the real NHL players are locked out? NHL 2005 is a great substitute for your hockey needs and gamers will have fun checking and fighting your way to victory.

2004 EA Sports. All Rights Reserved
In it’s own 13th season, EA Sports is proud to present this year’s NHL 2005. While I did not play last year’s version, NHL 2005 is the best EA Sports NHL game out there. As technology progresses, so does the gameplay and it’s more exciting as well. Play one of the many teams in the NHL as well as European Elite leagues, and test your skills in the World Cup of Hockey. That’s just not it., there is more! Now with NHL 2005, you can have open ice control and command give and go’s, call for support on the puck, and double team incoming forwards. Also check out Dynasty Mode for the more advanced gamer. It deals with GM/Owner relationships as well as building and creating teams, then putting those teams to the test. Other aspects added into NHL 2005 is Face-off playbooks, so that you can challenge the opponent to a more tougher time at the face off circle. You may want a more aggressive face-off at certain times of the game so the new playbook will come in handy. You may want a more normal or conservative approach, it all depends on the situation, but at least you have the opportunity to change your strategy. As in the NHL, face offs are just as important as the rest of the game.

Try out other new features like Free4All, which allows one net, one goalie and every man for himself as you battle for the puck in a mini game of sorts. Also available with online competition. New features also include a new skating engine and pick up and play action which enables you better skating engine for accelerating and gliding, which is what hockey is all about, speed. Pick up and play is what hockey is all about. Seasoned vets have been through it but with that comes injuries and health problems which allows the younger rookies to come in and join in on the game. Don’t forget to try the game out online and battle it out with friends.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing NHL 2005. The game has developed into something very technologically advanced and has added another element of entertainment with the online world. I wasn’t able to try out the online capabilities though since I don’t have the add-on to the system. I bet it is lots of fun though. I also enjoyed creating my own team alongside with picking jerseys, a city to play in, a new name, sirens when you score and picking your all star line up so you can whoop ass on the other teams. The only difficulty I really had was trying to stand up. I must have been always hitting the wrong buttons but it seemed my guys were falling down. I think I just need to reconfigure the controller but that’s one thing that I found annoying. Other than that, enjoy it since there is no other hockey on the tube.

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Favorite Aspects: Creating teams, full season play, fighting
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