NHL 2001

"It’s the worlds fastest game with EA Sports on the ice!"

EA Sports is best known for their Madden (American Football), NHL (Hockey), and FIFA (Soccer/World Football) series, which began on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. They later advanced on the Sega CD, 3D0, and then onto the Playstation, PC, Nintendo 64 (and now the Playstation 2 and soon to come X-Box and Gamecube). Taking advantage of the Buy 2, Get 1 one free deal with EA Sports PC titles (effective until 2/28/01), I bought this title and Madden 2001.

Graphics-10/10

Wow. I have to set the details to about half on my somewhat slower computer, but the game still looks jaw-droppingly amazing. The details on the players are meticulous from the facial hairs, eye expression, lip-synching and even down to the individual decals on the uniforms. The players move with what have to be hundreds of individual motion-captured animations across the ice. During the in-play cutscenes, which are numerous, the details truly stand out. On the ice, the details are less obvious, but this was most for sure done to keep the frame rate up to speed.

Play-by-Play- 10/10

Always an integral part of any sports game; the play-by-play and color commentary in this game is a two-man team. The energetic Jim Hughson provides the main play-by-play and the witty Bill Clement provides the color commentary. Triple Play fans might recognize Jim Hughson, as he also provides the play-by-play in that excellent series as well. The calls are always on time with downright precision. Besides the calls, there are numerous during-break analyses such as recap as to why one team hasn’t scored or the out-of-town scores. Also, the closing comments are concise, and many times humorous. And, the calls are varied enough to hardly ever get annoying. Plus, it’s always a bonus when they call your own name in the commentary!

Other Sound- 6/10

The PA announcer tells about goals, penalties and also makes the usual PA announcements (Be sure to…etc.) and they are usually good, but only factual and rarely humorous. The usual sound effects are here as well as player taunts. New to this are the actual players talking, mainly when fussing with the referee about penalty calls. The menu music is pretty bad, however, and is down there in the bottom with Tony Hawk’s grating music. But, to each his or her own, I always say.

Gameplay- 10/10

EA Sports normally provides three things in their sports games. Top-notch graphics; superb commentary and five-star gameplay. This game is no exception. Using the keyboard or a gamepad (or even a joystick), the game is always responsive, especially when passing and shooting. The default speed (which can be adjusted, of course) is not to fast or not too slow. On Beginner level, goals are abundant and this mode is perfect for beginners or if you want to hear the goal commentary. Later levels make the gameplay more difficult to score off such things as one-timers and breakaways.

Customization- 7/10

EA Sports is well known for their true abundance of features so that players can custom-tailor his or her own game. One can create players, teams, adjust the difficulty and penalty levels and now can adjust the individual AI and physics settings. Things like puck elasticity (how much it bounces) and the frequency of AI scores can be turned up and down at the players’ discretion. You can even import your own menu music (thank goodness), custom ditties that play during the game and your own logo. For some players, the announcers will recognize and speak your name in the game! So, why did this section get a seven? The horrible implementation of the ‘Face in the Game’ feature. Following the directions perfectly, my face suddenly had huge, bulging eyes; the incorrect skin tone; a mouth that was misformed and too big and a nose that even Pinocchio would be jealous of. Repeated attempts were not any better. But, ignoring that, the customization is excellent.

Miscellaneous-

NHL 2001 for Windows 95 and Windows 98 was developed and produced by EA Sports. The minimum system requirements are a 200 MHz Pentium (or comparable) with 32 MB of RAM and a 4 MB video card. The game takes up roughly 550MB of hard drive space when fully installed. The game is also available on the Sony Playstation and Sony Playstation 2.

Overall- 8.6/10 = 9/10

The gameplay is great, the two-man commentary team superb, and the graphics excellent. Overall, it is a great hockey game, but several major flaws such as the poor music, limited announcing from the PA announcer, and the horrid execution of the ‘Face in the Game’ feature bring the score down a point. But, as the only new hockey game on the market for Personal Computers as of January 2001, it comes highly recommended.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/01, Updated 01/08/01