NHL 06 (PlayStation 2)

AI

It should be mentioned right here and now that while there are several difficulty settings in the game, the AI has been souped up considerably and the goalies especially are reluctant to let any kind of shot in, let alone cheap ones. You’re going to need your entire button and stick skills to get the puck past them at the higher difficulty levels, while defending your own goal from the ruthless assault of the CPU players, who will use every trick in the book to nail your goal at every opportunity.

All in all: aggressive and ruthless AI offering a challenge at all difficulty levels.

The physics of Control

There are two camps in sports games, those that like the feel of realistic bouncing physics for the poor puck or ball, and those that prefer the object to be glued or stuck to the stick or foot. I don’t mind which to be honest as long as the game plays well or is good fun. I can say though for NHL 06’ if you’re in the glue camp, then you probably won’t like the fact it features:

R.P.M Physics: I love it when game developers put in acronyms like this, they make my day. Real Puck Momentum physics conjures up all sorts of ideas, most of them to do with Shakespeare in my case. The puck takes on a physical force of its own and can stun goalies if it strikes their face mask or knock water bottles off the top of the net if you slam a good shot in. It’s a fancy word for giving the object a set of laws to adhere to and works really well, making it feel far more realistic.

The game also has Momentum based skating, to add to the realism, which will throw a lot of players off that prefer the puck to be glued to their stick. It takes some getting used to and provides a nice element of difficulty to master in the control of the player; once you get used to it you’ll be gliding around the ice like a professional skater without all the fancy twirls and tutus.

You’ll also notice that the puck slides ahead of you as well; this is all part of the new additional physics and I happen to like bells and whistles of this kind. So the more and more that I play it, the more and more I am drawn towards the realism side of the fence.

It has to be noted that the only drawback is that it won’t feel as dynamic as other games of the genre and players can feel laggy to control, inertial playing an integral part now in the control system and game.

Graphics

NHL 06’ is a nice looking game and shows that there’s life in the Playstation 2 yet. It isn’t quite as impressive as the Xbox version however but still features improved player models and textures, with more polygons and visual features over the previous game.

The ice deforms as the game progresses and it sprays off the side of the blades as the players move about, tracks becoming almost Mandelbrot-like in their complexity as the seconds tick off the clock.

Animations

EA have never stinted on the animations in any game and NHL 06’ is no exception, there are scowls and various facial motions galore and it lends an incredible personality to the game models. The ambient animations are also very nice, the water bottle slamming upwards as a powerful shot strikes home and the whole smooth motion of the players as they perform moves, checking, deking and so on is a solid and competent job.

Its things like this that have me watching replays, especially the slow-motion ones so I can see the wealth of animations on offer, and in this department the game delivers in spades and truckloads.