Yes this is a great game, but mostly due to the fact that I\'ve been hooked on NHL games for years. I don\'t think it deserves 5 stars though, so I disagree with square_marker\'s rating.
Some of the issues I have...
1. Editing lines ~ From what I can tell, it\'s not possible to simply dress and undress players with impunity, working out the number of dressed players by simply making cuts and adding/subtracting dressed players to come up with the correct sum. Instead, you\'re forced to "trade" a dressed player for an undressed player in the Line Editor, in effect, making a puzzle out of getting the players you want in the right position.
EXAMPLE ~ I want to add an undressed player to the RW position on score 3 line, replacing another player I have just added as LW in the score 2 line. When I try and add the undressed player to the score 3 line, I am asked if I want to replace the dressed player for the undressed player and my choice is to either accept, which replaces the dressed player with the undressed player in all the lines he\'s currently on, or simply canceling.... meaning I can\'t just dress the guy and stick him on the line for now and undress someone else later.... grrr.
Also, when you tell the game to create "Best Lines" it will place your players in postions they don\'t normally play, so you\'ll end up with a lot of centers playing wing, wingers swapped to the other side and stuff like that.
2. Game Commentary ~ The commentary for the games is more like stand up comedy than real announcing/commentary for a hockey game. Sure it makes things interesting for a while, but I\'d like to have some nice realistic play by play thrown in there too. Instead, what we have is two guys simply making wise cracks at everything that goes down on the ice.
3. Player Control ~ Sure you\'ve got good control of the players, but it doesn\'t seem at all realistic. I remember reading reviews of this game comparing it to NHL \'95. Player control was the one huge issue I had with \'95 (and this game as well) since you could spin, stop, and go in a way that reminds me more of those table top bubble hockey games with the sliders than the true to life skating characteristics of real hockey. There seems to be no momentum or inertia characteristics to player control making it feel much more arcadey than I\'d like. Some sort of option setting for this would have been great. They did it for the puck but not for the players, which seems absurd.
Now, I\'ve only had this game for three or four days, so I\'m sure there\'s a lot more to find that I won\'t like, but at the same time there\'s a lot of good stuff to be said about this game too... the best of which is that it\'s really fun. So, while it has problems, it still is a great game... just not a 5 star game.
