1. GoTaco

   9

   Most sports game are so close to their last years game that many don't believe the newest version is relevant. Well NHL 11 stepped it up. NHL 11 will make NHL 10 obsolete in the next few weeks. I dare you to play NHL 11 then try to play NHL 10. It is a big difference. This game fine tuned everything perfectly except for one thing, which, can also be looked at as a good thing. The great players in this game are a blast to play as, but the bad players are so bad it can be irritating at their slow speeds and inability to deke on a goalie with enough speed to cause any trickery. With that being said it can also be look at as a good thing making the skill level between each league very drastic. In real life the CHL players are not as good as NHL players so I suppose it is a good thing to have that in the game too.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 4 users said Yes.
2. tbagurdrumset94

   8

   If I had reviewed this in September or October, I probably would've given it a 10, simply because I love hockey, and a new hockey video game gets me all excited. But I've been playing it for almost 10 months now, so I have an honest opinion on it. It's the best hockey game available, no question. And, for the most part, there was no disappointment. The AI goalies and players are at their best, in my opinion (I play all-star difficulty), and the graphics, passing, hitting, playoff mode, GM mode and scoring are too. I suppose my main complaints are the Be a Pro mode, and the online mode. Be a Pro is decent, but it has some serious flaws. For some reason, the AI is worse. As a forward, you will be the leading scorer on your team by a MILE. An example: on the Carolina Hurricanes (I was drafted 13th overall, didn't choose the Canes), about 20 games in, i had about 25 points. Nothing wrong with that, as scoring isn't necessarily easy, but I am the only one TRYING to score. Eric Staal, a regular 80 point guy in real life, had 4 points. 4 points in 20 games... seriously? Goalie mode is worse. You will be lucky to face 20 shots in a game, and turning up the difficulty doesn't increase the shots, it simply makes the puck impossibly hard to stop, especially with a 75 overall goalie. Online would be fantastic if it weren't for EA's now trademark connection problems. The game modes are great, but it would be so much better if it weren't so laggy (especially on Team mode, when you play with 11 other guys). Thankfully, EVERYTHING else about this game is stellar, and that earns it an 8 from me. EA just needs to fix some harsh flaws for NHL 12... which I will more than likely be buying... as always...… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
3. X-Abrupto

   6

   EA has the monopoly in most sports games and it shows. They barely improve their games over the years and not much is done to fix the obvious problems. It's the realism of hockey they have yet to capture, and NHL 11 unfortunately does nothing to change this. The animations are either too stiff or too relaxed, their movement rarely looks natural. Only the goalie is very well done. The crowd still looks like Sims in Sims 1. They need to improve this. Unfortunately the physics have not improved. Therefore instead of tripping on a fallen player, you simply "push him" on the ice. Every time you check a player, it's as if there is a cushion that alters the impact of the hit, and checking rarely is fun to do, you have the impression that you didn't deliver a strong enough hit most of the time. There's some problems with noises and sounds. The crowd will sometimes react over something insignificant while you might do something else that could be the promise of a great play, and there's no reaction from the attendance. I don't understand why they are not putting the real coaches behind the bench. Penalties ( especially when playing against the AI ) are often weird. For example, you will check a player during the whistle, and while the game is stopped, he will chase you without hitting you. Doesn't matter, you both get a penalty over this, even if there wasn't any contact after the whistle. The be a pro mode is interesting, but you quickly realize that the "coach" doesn't make his decisions based on the entire team. If you end up moving up or down a line it's only because of what you did, not what the other players did. They need to add a french announcer to Montreal and Ottawa games and they need to put the real songs that are played when a team scores instead of a random song. I know these are very small details, but these details lack in great numbers, and all of them combined remove the realism that most of us are looking for. On another note I would like to point out that EA are greedy as hell. If you buy this game in used form, you must pay to play online. Now that wouldn't be a problem if EA wouldn't shut their servers down a couple of years after the release of most of their games. It's time for EA to step their game up, hire some Canadians who actually know what hockey is and make them recreate this franchise. Right now it looks like a corpse that you keep trying to reanimate and it doesn't look good. For the positive remarks, there are many, many teams to choose from. You can play with CHL teams or european teams, the choices are extremely various. Most of the game modes are fun and well done. Being a General Manager is fun, but it lacks the depth and, especially, algorithms that made Eastside ( a computer game where you'd be a GM ) famous. The songs are all good ones, although some are merely playing in arenas, some other are already famous ( Joe Satriani's song, for example, is often used in arenas in real life ). I kinda wish they could've added some old school stuff like "We Will Rock You" and "The Good Ol' Hockey Game".… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
4. JamesSteal

   2

   NHL 11 is exactly like Madden 11. Every year it is just an updated roster and slower gameplay. The Ultimate Team game mode is also very frustrating as no one really plays it.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 4 users said Yes.

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