NHL 10

The Skinny: Are you ready for some—uhhh—hockey? While the nascent football season is the talk of the sports town, it's hockeypalooza on consoles everywhere. EA's got big plans for their title this year, including first-person fighting and some sleek new on-ice maneuvers. But, does all of that make this a must-buy?

The Good: Having perfected how the game actually plays in previous versions, developers focused on getting the look and feel of the game down cold. This includes, first and foremost, a new fighting engine that allows you to take on opponents from a first-person perspective. (Think Halo but with fists, minus aliens.) As its first foray into bringing the pain into the game, it delivers.

Other welcome additions include the ability to dump the puck outside of the zone, better fan reactions to big plays like goals and bone-crushing hits, and post-whistle beatdowns, allowing you to take out opposing players after the ref calls for time.



The meat and potatoes Be a Pro mode gets a few nifty add-ons, including "boosters" which give your created player better stats upon completing certain in-game objectives and a Be A Tough Guy subset allowing you earn experience points by protecting your stars and pummeling the other team. Overall, it's essentially the same addictive game mode fans have come to love—we just wish we could import our player from last year's game so we wouldn't have to retrace some of our steps again.

Lastly, the new Be a GM Mode tasks you to manage your team to greatness, pulling off trades, drafting effectively, and appeasing locker room personalities. It's a bit on the boring side for casual fans, but fanatics should have a grand ol' time trying to translate, let alone meet, all of Ovie's outrageous demands.

The Bad: Most people needn't rush out to buy this game—you probably already have NHL 09 spinning around in your console. It's essentially the same thing, minus the beefy new additions we mentioned above.

The biggest change from last year that may frustrate veterans is the precision passing feature, which tasks you to accurately point your directional stick toward your target in order to pass instead of just pointing in their general direction. It makes for a more realistic game environment, but we found it to be the culprit of a bunch of botched breakaways.



Dime D-Bag: EA had the unfortunate position of promoting NHL 10 even after their cover athlete Patrick Kane beat up a Buffalo cabbie over 20 cents on his fare. By the way, he made $3.725 million last year.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel: Like last year's title, NHL 10 is a spectacular hockey game that both fans of the sport and casual spectators can appreciate and have fun playing. If you skipped out on 09, this is a must-buy.