Review: Disney Epic Mickey (Wii)

Disney Epic Mickey is a game that has very lofty goals, but fails to achieve any of them. It was an ambitious project that aimed to take the Wii’s strength — family friendly cartoon games — and merge that with a bonefied quest-oriented game that appealed to more mature gamers. Unfortunately, instead of defining a new genre or carving it’s own niche, the game fails to deliver much of anything.

As the game starts, Mickey finds himself sucked through a magic mirror that transports him into a mysterious hallway. Peeking through a doorway, he watches as a man in wizard dress puts some final touches on what seems like a model town. Happy with his work, the man sets down the brush and heads to bed. Mickey then decides he is going to be a complete jerk and paint over the man’s hard work. In his fervor to vandalize this stranger’s model, Mickey accidentally knocks over the paint and thinner vials which unleashes all sorts of holy hell upon the work.

Does Mickey run to find the stranger, so he can right his wrong? Hell no! Mickey turns tail and runs back through the magic mirror. Like any good sociopath, Mickey doesn’t seem to care one iota about what he has done. However, karma is a bitch. So one night as Mickey is sleeping (and presumably dreaming about defacing the Mona Lisa) one of the dark blobby whatevers he unleashed reaches out from the mirror and pulls Mickey back  into the world he set into turmoil.

Review: Mortal Kombat (360)

If you’ve read our ‘First Impressions’ on the game, you already know that my first look at NetherRealm’s newest  Mortal Kombat was a positive one. After spending more time with the game, all I can say is that the quality and experience that I enjoyed so much from the onset has only been reinforced by repeated and prolonged play.

It’s very easy to get bored of a fighting game. I’ve mentioned many-a-time that I’m not particularly fond of the genre in general. Part of that stems from my fat, slow fingers and the fact that I’m horrible at them. The other issue I have with fighters is that they tend to be extremely repetitive. There’s very little room for variation in game play aside from a usual assortment of gimmicks and “mini games” that hardly ever feel welcome.

Even when I made up my mind to buy Mortal Kombat I knew that whatever excitement I had for the game probably wouldn’t last. I was just hopeful that the game would be fun and that it would bring back fond memories of staying up all night with a few friends as we tried to experience every fatality, babality, stage-specific death, and ‘toasty’ secret level.

Even if the new game was able to do those things, I thought that after a few dozens fights I’d get bored. I still wanted to give it a try, but I wasn’t expecting the game to become one of the favorites in my collection. What a nice surprise it’s been! I’m not ready to change direction and call myself a fighting-game fan, but Mortal Kombat has easily been one the most fun games I’ve played in the last year.

Review: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

I haven’t fired up my Wii in a long time (pause for jokes.) When I got the Xbox, it wasn’t really supposed to be a replacement for the Wii, but that’s what happened. And to be honest, I never felt like I was missing anything. I mean, it’s just the Wii, right? My mistake.

Really, what plumber *hasn't* dealt with these?

Mario Galaxy 2 marks the first time I’ve really played a Mario title since Mario 64 (though I did play that a second time on DS), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this title. One complaint I’ve had relating to the  ‘Mario’ franchise  in general — be it the titular series itself, or in the ‘sports’ and ‘party’ games — is that Nintendo seems to have a fetish for excessive dialogue boxes and forcing the user to press ‘A’. I’m sure this is done in an attempt to make the text less daunting a read for the younger players, but it’s really damn annoying to have to ‘Press A’ after every sentence in a dialogue sequence.

So I was much annoyed when the opening of Mario Galaxy 2 was brought to a screeching halt as every character forced me to go through these stupid sequences to explain the non-plot of Princess being kidnapped in Bowser’s latest bid to rule the universe. I mean, Mario games aren’t really about the story, so why should it take me a half hour to button-press through the thin opening sequence?

Fortunately, the problem doesn’t really crop up again in full until the very end of the game, when you get the conclusion of the “story.” Talking to the characters in-game can be just as annoying, but the dialogue is much shorter so it doesn’t bring things to quite the same grinding halt that the first and last sequences do.

Once the actual game began, I felt right back at home in the Mario universe. That is not to say that the game felt stale, or that Nintendo is content to just sit back and recycle the success from their past games. As I mentioned, it’s been a while since I’ve played Mario, so I’m not really qualified to speak on the series’ progression. What I can say is that Nintendo was able to keep the things that made Mario 64 successful, while continuing to bring new and clever tricks to the table.

Review: Stacking (XBLA)

It’s hard for me to imagine the production meeting that started with god knows what, and ended with “We’re going to make a game about those little Russian stacking dolls!” (Matryoshka, if you insist.)

Fortunately, the fine fine folks of Double Fine are not most people. Not only did they make a game about dolls, but they managed to make a game about dolls that I was excited about even before it hit Microsoft’s virtual shelves.

Caviar from a fish head? Sign me up!

It’s not really surprising that Double Fine, the team behind titles such as Psychonauts and Costume Quest, were able to squeeze so much cute, unique charm out of a game. Visually, I love Stacking’s style. The characters are cute and often hilarious. The environments are a masterful blend of whimsy — think candy-cane and gumdrops mixed with industrial Gothic architecture. The whole thing is presented as an old-timey silent movie, complete with old-timey piano and orchestra musical tracks.

Dragon Age 2 Review (360)

2011 seems to be a year jam packed with highly anticipated blockbuster releases. And with the explosion of the indie scene, there’s no shortage of must-have small-budget games either. Quite frankly, it’s insane. As a big fan of Bioware’s acclaimed Mass Effect series and Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 stood atop my personal list of most anticipated titles. Fortunately, it was also one of the titles slated for earlier in the year. Last week, I finally got my hands on the full game.

Those who missed out on the first installment need not fear; while Dragon Age 2 is closely related to the events of Origins, the two stories are also fairly independent of each other. The darksawn blight that finds Hawke and family fleeing from their beseiged home city of Lothering comes from the first game, but you don’t really need to know that. Some of Origins’ characters do crop up, so you’ll be missing out on those ties, but the story will still make sense.

Review: Dead Rising 2 (360)

There's no monsters in the closet hun. Oh wait, there might be.

Who doesn’t love zombies? Okay, well I’m not a huge fan of the genre. But when done well, a good old fashioned zombipacolypse can be really cool.

Dead Rising certainly has zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. But the series approaches the situation with a more . . . tongue-in-cheek? . . . tone than most. There’s a story. In fact, there’s multiple plot lines. But really, this game is just about slaughtering hordes of zombies with countless combinations of everyday items.

You play the role of Chuck Greene, a survivor from a prior zombie outbreak which left his wife dead and his young daughter infected. In order to raise money so that he can afford the expensive ‘Zombrex’ treatments that keep his daughter from mutating, Chuck enlists as a contestant in the zombie-killing reality show, Terror Is Reality.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

I don’t know what made me want to pick up this title — I’m not particularly a fan of super-heroes, though I’m learning. I’m not particularly a fan of brawlers either. And this game is, more or less, a brawler that features super heroes (and, of course, villains.)

But one day a perfect storm of conditions fell upon me — a desire for a fun game that requires little thinking, an interest in the Avengers due to a comic I had stumbled upon, a need for a new game because my current collection felt stale, and a lack of funds which made buying an older, cheaper game more appealing.

And thus, I found myself in the local game shop with a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 in my hand. And when I got home and fired up my XBox, I discovered I had found a game that lived up to my admittedly meager expectations, and more.

Reveiw: Red Dead Redemption (XBox 360)

Red Dead Redemption needs a new review like the Octomom needs another child. Rockstar’s old-West open-world epic has been receiving critical acclaim since it’s release in May of 2010.

A quick rundown, in case you somehow managed to miss this information everywhere else: Red Dead Redemption is Rockstar’s follow-up to their Red Dead Revolver title; though not a direct sequel. You play the role of John Marston, ex gang member turned cowboy bad-ass, as you seek revenge against your former partner in crime. The game itself plays just like any Rockstar open-world game (read: “Grand Theft Auto”), except there’s a lot less cars and a lot more stetsons.

Redemption is a great game. Visually, epic doesn’t even begin to describe it. Vast western vistas, mountains, canyons, rivers all dazzle in the rising, high-noon, and setting sun. Or under a dark star-filled night. Or in the rain. It’s all gorgeous. Characters are well modeled and animated. Wildlife — most of which are apparently rabid humanivoures — populate the landscape as eagles and vultures glide majestically overhead. Even after hours of game-play, I’ll find myself opting to travel the games very long distances by horseback just to take in the view.

The sound is well done. Voice acting is, for the most part, very well done. Guns sound like guns. Guns in the distance sound like guns in the distance. Animals make their brays and whinnies and howls and growls, and sound like the appropriate animals when doing so. The music is good, though it plays a very secondary role. There’s a few times where the music will unexpectedly pick up and really add weight to whatever is going on in the game.

For those who are playing this for the first time, I’ll give some advice. When you first arrive in Mexico (following the sequence that gets you there) and you mount up, make sure your sound is up enough for you to hear it. I don’t care if you’re living in a studio apartment and your room mate has his calculus final in the morning. You do not want to miss that moment, when sound, graphics, and emotion meld into one, and you ride in solitude through the Mexican desert. Amazing.

The game controls will feel familiar to you if you’ve played a recent GTA title. I definitely prefer a PC here, as I’m much more comfortable with mouse aiming than duel-stick snap-to assisted (or worse, unassisted) aiming. There’s a crouch, sprint, and take cover mechanic that can be fairly clunky, and can be downright maddening in tight quarters (eg. inside a building or when shooting in/out of a window.)

The story is grand — too grand for me. I lost interest before I finished, though I felt I got what I wanted out of the single-player experience. There is a main story arch with associated missions, there’s side missions you can opt to take, and there’s random encounters you’ll stumble (or more likely, gallop) across during your travels.

The “random encounters” were pretty limited, meaning you’ll come across the same situations over and over. The first few times a “damsel in distress” rips you from your mount and starts to make off with your horse leave you feeling angry/stupid/vengeful, but you’ll soon learn to just shoot her in the face and keep riding. Same for the various ambush scenarios, etc.

There are various other collectible-esque tasks. My favorite was hunting. You can skin what you kill and sell whatever you scavenge in town. My only complaint is that anything much bigger than a beaver will attack you with a kamakazi sense of rabid murderous rage. I understand cougars, bobcats, wolves, etc are dangerous. But it’d be nice to see them take a varied response to your presence instead of making a bee-line straight for your throat as soon as your in their general vicinity.

This turns most of the hunting experience from a “go out and stalk” to a “oh my god please don’t kill me!” task. Last night I got swarmed by ten Grizzly bears in the span of about 2 minutes, in an area that would be the virtual equivalent of one acre. They just kept charging! And charging! And charging! Thank god I had plenty of shotgun ammo. And sure, bears are ferocious, dangerous beasts. But being attacked by ten bears after making all that noise killing the first two or three?

If flower-picking is your thing, you’re in luck too, as there are plenty of herbalist challenges. Between these, the marksmen challenges, and the handful of other tasks you can complete, Red Dead certainly gives us achievement junkies plenty to shoot for, though I didn’t find any of it particularly exciting or innovative. Which is why I never played it to completion.

Multiplayer is included as well. One of the innovations here is that when you select to go into multiplayer mode, you are transported into the very same game world that the single player game takes place in. This is called “Free Roam” mode. From here, you can join up with others and preform various tasks. The hunting and sharpshooting challenges are there for you to complete. Again. And there are various “gang hideouts” and scenarios from the single-player game that can be completed online.

The problem with free-roam is that it mostly boils down to a very watered-down single player experience, with a handful of jerks running around killing every player they come across. Sure it can be fun to saunter into a town and have a good ‘ol fashioned gunfight with one or more people. Better still when you’re grouped up in a posse and facing off against another posse. Though when you die, you’re transported to a random spot just outside of where you died, so that means as you respawn, so does the “enemy”, taking away almost any tactical element since people are spawning and running in from every direction. And there’s no real point to any of it, other than to annoy someone else.

I’ll admit, I kill just about anyone I come across who’s not in my posse. You have to, because if you don’t, the second your back is turned they’ll kill you. It’s the gritty old west, only much more petty. And once someone kills you, or you kill them, you’ll spawn more or less within shooting distance of that person, meaning once a gun fight is started, you can forget about doing whatever task you were trying to accomplish. Just saddle up and move along.

From Free-roam, you have access to various other challenges and gameplay modes. More will unlock as your character gains in level. There’s the basic “deathmatch” style shootouts, which play out a lot like free-roam gunfights. There’s team deathmatch (team modes are known as “gang” modes.) There’s a capture-the-flag variant, etc. The Liars and Cheats and Undead Nightmare DLC’s will add further options, such as poker and liar’s dice, and the zombie-infested Undead Overrun.

None of these things are particularly innovative, and because the game is set up as a third-person action style game, the multi-player just feels like something that doesn’t quite fit. It can be a fun diversion, sure. But it’s like taking a Modern Warefare or [insert your favorite multiplayer FPS here] game, and playing a less fun version of it.

As you progress through multiplayer, different achievements will unlock different titles, characters, weapons, and mounts. Most of the unlocks come from simply leveling up, but the best titles come from various in-game deeds.

I sort of hate the character unlocks for multiplayer. No, I really hate them. For starters, it makes you feel generic. There are a ton of character models to chose from, but you’ll see the same ones over and over. I hate that. Also, when you play any sort of team (gang) mode, you are assigned to a team such as the ‘Lawmen’, the ‘American Army’, ‘Dutch’s Gang’, etc., and assigned a character from that group of in-game characters. Meaning you’re no longer even playing as yourself anyway.

Multiplayer tags you with a giant floating colorized nametag and icon so that everyone can A) see you from 10 miles away, and B) tell immediately who’s side you’re on. If you’re going to stick them with such obvious markers, why do you have to make teams all be of a certain gang from the game?

As awesome of a character as John Marston is (he is very well designed and very much fits the role his character plays) if you’re going to include multiplayer, I’d prefer to have my character be customized so that I’m whoever I want to be, and have that represent me online. Mass Effect proved you can customize a main character and still have the story work.

I should mention that the ‘High-Noon’ duels that start many of the multiplayer mode’s rounds are really cool, even though I’m completely awful at it.

The menu system in Redemption can be very annoying. You have to pause the game and bring up the menu, then select ‘map’ just to get a glance at the map. You can argue that this is realistic — a real cowboy would have to pull out and unfurl a paper map, since the Olde West didn’t have any GPS — but as a game mechanic, it’s annoying.

And it becomes much more of a problem in multiplayer. Pressing the menu button will bring out a side-panel (allowing you to still sort of see what’s going on in game) which lets you chose to jump into or out of the various multiplayer modes.You can also hit the bumper button (xbox) to switch the panel over to a list of players currently in session. It’s from here that you can send or accept posse invites, and do various other player-to-player related tasks.

Which is my first gripe; I think the player panel should be the default one that pulls up. I’m much more likely to use that panel often, and only use the game-type panel when selecting, well, a game type.

My biggest complaint is that doing anything in the menu takes time. And since the game-world is still going on around you, that means you can be killed while sifting through the menu screens.

So what? No I don’t really care about being killed while menu surfing. That happens in most games (how annoying would it be for the game world to pause for all the others players if one person was in a menu?)  The problem isn’t the cheap deaths, it’s that if you die, it not only forces a respawn, but takes you back out of the menu screen. And since you often respawn right in the thick of battle, trying to pull the menu screen back up and get back to your selection means you’re likely going to get killed again. Rinse/repeat.

You may say, “Well, idiot, take cover before going into a menu screen.” To which I’d probably reply, “Get off my blog, jerk.” Then I’d follow up with the fact that most multiplayer maps are rather small, so even if you find cover, there’s a good chance that someone will hunt you down regardless. And in free roam, there’s oft not a lot of cover to be taken.

Add to it that whenever you chose a selection, a second “Are you sure you want to leave this session?” confirmation screen pops up which just adds another second or two to the “Please before I die! or the round ends! or anything else takes me out of the menu!” urgency. Annoying.

So while I appreciate and do participate in Red Dead’s multiplayer functionality, if you are strictly looking for a multiplayer game, I’d suggest you look elsewhere. As an addition to an already epic and extremely well done single-player game, it’s nice to have as a fun little ‘extra’.

It’s easy to see why Red Dead Redemption has received such favorable reviews. It truly is a great game (at least, singleplayer.) And though I’ve said it a few times already, ‘Epic’ is really the only word I can think of to describe it. There’s no character customization or level-building, which is something I’d love to see Rockstar get more into, but at least to this point, that’s really not been their thing. I love the old West setting (it’s a nice break from WWII or Space Commando), and am hopeful that we’ll get a third installment in this series.

Until then, I’ll be keeping my copy of Redemption around so that I can saddle up anytime I get the urge. Yee-haw! (It had to be said.)

Review: Dragon Age: Origins (PS3)

Dragon Age: Origins (Playstation 3)
by Nicholas Wagner

 I was originally going to wait until I played through the game a couple of times before writing this up, but I figured, what the hell? Since this is the first review I have ever written, I figured I would break it down into different gameplay elements I think people would look for. Of course by people, I mean me.

STORY –  I loved the story to this game. Plain as that. There are all sorts of nuances that make seeing all the content difficult, however. You would have to play through the game multiple times (You would have to play though 6 times just to see all the openings) to see all the content. Now I know I said that the story was good, but I have a hard time playing through a game that many times. Its starts to get slightly monotonous . I will still play through it a couple of more times before I finally put it down.

GRAPHICS  –  It’s a Playstation 3. That says a lot about the graphics. I did notice a couple of graphic tears when I was playing; and there were a couple of times where something would happen in game, and in the next “take” the graphic that changed before is right back to the way it was. Also, while I don’t have a problem with blood in a game, this game was gratuitous. Almost every cut scene involved your character splattered with loads of it. Of course I can overlook all of that because of the gorgeous scenery in the game.

SOUND  –  I have to say that the music was great. It really set the mood in the game, it wasn’t over the top to me, and just felt perfect to what was either happening on screen or was about the happen on screen. I did have some problems with the audio syncing to the lip movement on screen, or sometimes the audio just didn’t play when it was supposed to. Of course this was all the actor’s speech and never the music.

GAMEPLAY  –  This was a big issue for me. While the camera motion wasn’t bad, but trying to target the enemy you needed to focus on became a bother. I would go to attack a melee enemy right in front of me, and the next thing I know I would be heading for the archer on the mountaintop. After a certain amount of play time I started to expect this behavior and I was at least stop it from happening or adjust so that it wouldn’t happen, but it would have been better if it didn’t happen at all.

CONCLUSION  –  I had a lot of fun playing it. I got about 35 hours in on my first play through. I wasn’t taking my time but I wasn’t hurrying, either.  I picked this game up on the cheap, and it was defiantly worth every penny. Sure, there were problems, but show me a perfect game.  If you are into fantasy RPG’s pick this up. If you are into KOTOR, or Fallout 3, pick this up. A lot of the design elements are the same, and it plays a lot like them (more KOTOR then Fallout).  Happy Hunting!

Fazor’s 2-Cents: I’m happy this was our first guest review, as this is a game I wanted to review, but it’s been a while since I’ve played it. I generally agree with Nicholas’ take. I loved the story, but it’s no accident that the first games I’ve actually completed in years were Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect 2. Bioware knows how to tell a story. I did have issues with the targeting, but after a while, I was able to adapt as well. And for what it’s worth, I played the XBox 360 version. Thanks Nick!

Review: NHL 11 (XBox 360)

Roughly three weeks after purchasing NHL11 and two weeks after writing my ‘First Impressions’, I’m ready to write my review of EA Sports’ latest hockey title.

I’m still churning through my first ‘Be a Pro’ season, and it’s fun to hit the ice as my virtual me. Starting out as a young right-winger in the CHL, I managed only good enough to be taken high in the second round of the draft.

Growing up, my favorite team was the Pittsburgh Penguins. I remember begging my mom for a Penguins jersey (“I’m not spending $80 on a shirt!” “But moooooooom!”) Mario Lemieux was the big name in hockey. And the ‘Jackets weren’t around yet, so we Ohioans had no home team to call our own (though anyone who actually knew anything about hockey tended to be a Redwings fan.)

. . . Then I moved to Pittsburgh, and was in walking distance of the arena (technically, I didn’t own a car so everything was walking distance), but I never attended a game. Partly because I was a poor college student, largely because I didn’t care about hockey, and largerly’er because I found this new stuff called “beer”, which consumed a big portion of my free time. Now I’m back in Ohio and the little part of me that likes hockey is a Columbus fan. But I never forgot my Penguins, in fact, I’m wearing a Penguins shirt as I’m typing that (Take that, Mom! I can spend *MY* money however I want!)

My point? It just made it that much cooler when virtual me got drafted in the second round by . . . that’s right . . . the Pittsburgh Penguins! Woo! And even though I was taken in the second round, I was assigned to the first line.

But nobody really cares about any of that but me. So on to the game itself. Most of what I said in the “first impressions” still holds true. Now I said I’d like better stick control on defense, but it’s really not bad. I just needed some time to get the controls down.

As for the controls, I think they feel a bit sluggish. I understand that on the ice, they want to convey a sense of momentum, but often I feel like it’s less momentum and more slow response. Part of it is likely due to the fact that my pro is still a young player with relatively low speed, balance, and agility.

Body checking can be annoying. If you are creating your pro, I highly suggest making him a bigger guy. I am not a big guy, and so I made my virtual pro relatively accurate to my body type. In 20 games I think I’ve knocked someone over once. And the controls to check aren’t very good either. EA has a “how to check” tutorial video on You Tube, which tells me I’m not the only one who has trouble with the timing of this. To make it worse, the ‘body check’ control sometimes seems unresponsive or lagged, and it can be difficult to guide your player into the opposing player in the first place.

The AI seems consistent with FIFA 10’s, in that while it is largely pretty good, there are also many times where players will do things that make absolutely no sense. Defensemen will skate the puck up to your blue line, often aiming for the same spot of the ice you are occupying, only to run into you, then pass it to your skates. Even if you’re lucky enough to receive the pass, you’re already getting hit since the opposing defense is already in the area. It’s kinda the equivalent of the option toss in football, when the QB keeps the ball until it’s time to get hit, then tosses it to some poor back or receiver to let him take the hit instead.

Worse is the Goalie AI. Goal-tending is pretty standard for video games. They do an okay job. It’s when they come out of goal or take a puck on the stick that things get . . . well, stupid. For instance, if they go behind goal to retrieve a loose puck, to kick it back out to his team. Well, every pass is going to end up hitting the back of the net and deflecting to some odd angle, because apparently the AI can’t calculate an accurate path. Sometimes they’ll even flip the puck up over the goal, landing it in front of the now-empty net. I’ve even seen them pass it straight to an opposing player with no teammates in the area. It’s ugly.

The only other gameplay complaint I have is that players seem to drop their sticks too often. Maybe it’s a realistic amount; I don’t watch enough hockey to pay attention to how often a stick breaks or is dropped. It just seems to happen a lot in NHL11.

The ‘Be a Pro’ mode in NHL11 is as engaging as the Virtual Pro mode is in the Fifa series. The premise and execution is largely the same. It can be a little annoying that the ‘milestones’ or objectives are so formulaic; I started out as a winger on the 1st line. I only had a goal or two, and maybe three assists in the first 5 games. Then in the sixth game, I churned out a 5-assist, 1 goal, +6 game. I was excited! My coach was bound to have good words for me after, right?

As I returned to the menu screen, a note popped up. “Your coach wants to talk to you.” “Yes!” I thought. I wonder what kind of praise I’ll get? Maybe even a stat boost? Assistant captain?

“Your performance hasn’t been what we expect for a first-liner. We’re moving you to the second line until you can get your stats up.”

*Blink*

“What? What do you want from me?!!” . . . now, my stats over the first handful of games weren’t that good. But 5 assists and a goal with a +/- of 6 in the last game, and now is when you chose to demote me? Come on! What coach would do that? “Well, you’d been slow but we see you caught fire in the last game. So we’re going to punish you, and hopefully that’ll be positive reinforcement for your great performance. Congrats, jerk!”

And I find as a winger that my assists go largely unappreciated. It’s all about the goals. I lead the league in assists and I’m languishing on the second line, with meager XP after each game. If I hogged the puck and fired a shot every time I got the puck, my personal goal numbers might increase, but our team’s performance would suffer. Oh well. I’m a martyr.

I had to tear myself away from ‘Be a Pro’ mode in order to check out some of the other features NHL11 has to offer. The ‘Ultimate Team’ mode was one that had initially sold me on the thought of buying the game — EA’s card-system appealed to my collecting/character (team) development side — but in practice, I found it to be too involved for me. It’s probably great for those who are really into hockey, or stats, or management, but that’s not me.

Then I stumbled on to the EASHL mode. This mode is not new to NHL11, but I’d never played it before. I avoided it for a while because I don’t belong to a ‘team’, but I thought I’d try out a ‘Drop In’ game. Now I think I’m hooked.

The EASHL mode allows two teams of six players to square off online. This means that you’ll have your assigned position and stick to that throughout the game like you do in ‘Be a Pro’ mode. This is something I prefer (as opposed to switching control between players.)

These games have their share of annoyances — mostly caused by people who want to be annoying. It’s no secret that about half the players online on XBox have the video-game maturity level of my niece. The youngest one. And by the end of the game, my team of six people is usually down to two or three, as players drop out. I’d imagine in rated games with an actual team of friends or online buddies, a lot of these problems wouldn’t be so prominent. But either way it’s fun.

 So two-to-three weeks in, and I’m really enjoying NHL11. I’m even improving! Slowly . . .

I can certainly see why this year’s offering got such high praise from sports-game fans, and I’d be quick to recommend it to anyone who enjoys hockey games. Or anyone looking to get into hockey games. Though I probably wouldn’t recommend it to people looking for a first person shooter, because it’s not one of those.