By Matt Bertz
Game Informer Magazine
In the NHL's current salary cap era, building a Cup contender requires more diligence than simply poaching big-ticket free agents in the offseason and drafting a blue-chip blue liner. Money is tight, so savvy general managers must make shrewd draft-day selections, toy with restricted free agency, buy out overpaid players on the tail end of their careers and know the right time to call up a young prospect. Past "NHL" games only captured the basics of the team building, but with the addition of the CHL license and a new free-agency system that accounts for unrestricted and restricted players, "NHL 11's" "Be a GM" mode comes closer to mimicking the real league than ever before.
With most of the amateur league players now in the game, "Be a GM" gives you control over the fate of all the prospects in your farm system. Though the game lacks NCAA and KHL players, most every other prospect is right where he's supposed to be. NHL teams draft players at a young age, so only the top draft picks land on NHL rosters out of the gate. But through several years of simming seasons I saw both first-round picks and late-round gems blossom into pro skaters.
'NHL 11'* Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360* Style: 1- to 6-player sports (PS3), 1- to 4-player (Xbox 360) (12-player online)* Publisher: EA SpSRB: E10+* Concept: Integrate a real-time physics engine into NHL's time-tested gameplay.* Graphics: The increased variety of animations for on-ice collisions is a welcome change.* Sound: Bill Clement and Gary Thorne are still great announcers, but the dialogue is starting to show its age, and EA needs to integrate more contextual commentary.* Playability: The checking options and quick dekes add more tools to an already versatile control scheme.* Entertainment: The on-ice action is still solid, but "Be a GM" mode suffers from poor CPU logic and "Be A Pro" mode doesn't offer much in the way of innovation.* Replay Value: High.
No sports game has innovated more on the gameplay front this generation than "NHL," and this steady progress continues with the new physics-based animation system. Checks now look different depending on whether your defender is in position for a crushing hit or only able to chip a puck carrier as he skates by. The introduction of broken sticks and a new face-off system also helps "NHL 11" improve its game, and EA Canada has tweaked the AI to cut off the back-door goal exploit and vary the angles goalies take. Scoring is loosened a bit, particularly in the slot, but most games are still low-scoring affairs on higher difficulties.
The game is also starting to show signs of aging. As with the past few NHL games, it's easy to dictate the pace of the game, keep control of the puck and limit the number of scoring chances for your opponent. That said, the games are still tight because opponents shoot an uncharacteristically high percentage.
If you're an EASHL player, the biggest improvement over past years is the option to practice with your club. Rather than risk your spot in the standings to try out a new player or implement a new strategy, you can now do it within the safety of your own rink. EA also cleaned up the interface to make it easier to interact with your club and find games.
In what's quickly become a rite of passage for EA Sports games, "NHL 11" includes the Ultimate Team card-based game mode made popular by Madden and FIFA. Rather than simply recycle the idea, the NHL devs are building another competitive level onto the game with the Ultimate Hockey League. While it still uses the familiar card pack system that allows you to purchase new player cards by playing with your team or paying for them, EA Canada has created a monthly league governed by a salary cap to keep big spenders from ruining the league balance. As you play games and earn pucks (the game's currency), you can purchase new packs to find new players for your roster, train your top prospects or extend the contracts of your nucleus. Though it's technically possible to compete in the UHL without spending money, putting your team on solid footing will be difficult, as the cheaper packs rarely award you with any solid NHL players or training cards, and contract cards don't come frequently enough to help you keep your best players on the ice.
Like a star player at the apex of his career, "NHL 11" still shines on the ice. New innovations like the real-time physics engine and UHL show EA Canada still has some room to grow, but as age creeps up on the stalwart franchise and its prior innovations feel commonplace, some of its weaknesses are starting to appear more evident.