NHL2006 is better

I bought NHL 2006 yesterday after reading some of the comments about the
demo here, and indeed it is better. So far I have played only in season
mode and in exhibition, but here are my first impressions about
improvements.

The problem of AI team players scoring an average of 3 points or more per
game has been fixed. Scoring level is now reasonable, both for AI games
and for my own (typically 3-6 goals per game, with rare exceptions of
course). Contrary to NHL2005, it is now possible to have your players
fight for the top of the scoring list.

The gameplay is more realistic. The program did not crash once in 5 hours
of play.

The leader board has been brought back.

You can replace teams in the roster (for example with one of your own
creation), but I don't think that it is possible to remove teams to have
fewer teams in the league.

The advantage sliders are available only for exhibition games. I don't
know why, because some players need an edge in season mode against the
computer, even on easy. maybe it was to prevent cheating online?

I play only with the keyboard, and since they have changed the controls
again, I find it more difficult with my fumbly fingers. The passing key is
now the s key and the shooting key is the d key, which means that one
should have a more agile middle finger than mine - the middle finger is
also used to press w for deking and checking (not to mention the little
finger for pressing the a key for a wrist shot - which I haven't used yet.
Of course the keys are configurable, but the x,c,and v keys are used for
something else - I still haven<t figured out what the c key (ice control)
is supposed to do...). If you thought playing Rach 2 on the piano was
difficult...

I haven't managed to be able to use the face maker for my own character. I
press the arrows and nothing happens. I must be missing something. My
character looks awful, but a bulby nose that looks like he should join
Alcoholics anonymous.

I created my own team with my own kickass character and the Avalanche
bolstered with players like Federov and called them the Quebec Nordiques.
I still manage to lose once in a while on easy in season mode, but that is
more a reflection on my abiity than on the computer's.

The game is significantly better than NHL2005, and I recommend it. If
NHL2004 was a 7 and NHL2005 was a 4, NHL2006 is a 9.

Henri

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:18:10 -0400, arseno.TakeThisOut@nospamforme.ulaval.ca
(Henri Arsenault) wrote:


>I play only with the keyboard, and since they have changed the controls
>again, I find it more difficult with my fumbly fingers. The passing key is
>now the s key and the shooting key is the d key, which means that one
>should have a more agile middle finger than mine - the middle finger is
>also used to press w for deking and checking (not to mention the little
>finger for pressing the a key for a wrist shot - which I haven't used yet.
>Of course the keys are configurable, but the x,c,and v keys are used for
>something else - I still haven<t figured out what the c key (ice control)
>is supposed to do...). If you thought playing Rach 2 on the piano was
>difficult...

Get a gamepad, they are cheap enough and it will improve your
enjoyment of the game markedly.