NHL 2001

The Good
IF there's one thing that sets NHL Hockey apart from the competition, it's action. The game is fast, furious, smooth and tremendously entertaining. Of course, hockey is uniquely suited to being a video game - maybe more so than any other team sport. But EA Sports seems to always deliver, at the core of all NHL games, a slam-bang hockey game like no other.

The graphics and sound are part of the reason for this; they're outstanding. While some niceties are left out - the ice surfaces are unique from arena to arena but the arenas themselves all look identical - the gameplay graphics themselves are just tremendous. Even compared to other EA Sports games, the lifelike realism of the player's movements is positively jaw-dropping. Ambient graphics are universally excellent. The game sounds are okay; announcing could be better.

Game control and feel is excellent; the game's easy to play. The itnerface and menu system isn't terrific but I guess it's alright.

The Bad
1. Some aspects of hockey are not realistically reproduced. As per previous games, players are not rewarded for well-set-up passing shots and one-times, but are rewarded for "EA Sports" type shots and rebounds. Total shots are much higher than they should be.

1. NHL Hockey lacks a real career/team management feature a la High Heat Baseball or Front Office Football.
   
   The Bottom Line
   A very, very, very good hockey game.