Seriously disappointed with this game overall. I jumped and bought it right away, but if I would have known more about it I would have stuck with playing '09.
To me I like playing online, it is how the game gets the most gameplay. I've never cared for single player sport games. I do like playing against friends the most (on and off line). With my friends, the ones who know how to play it's great and the rivalries grow. Playing with friends who don't know how to play is useless, because they can't score a goal at all (
It is seriously too hard for people to score in the game. I get that it is getting more realistic and thus scores aren't normally 7-6 or something, but most of the games I play are 2-1 or something. If a game is high scoring it's against my non-playing friends, or against me online with someone who keeps doing the same move over and over because it is a crazy percentage (some call glitch) goal.
With my friends who play we get into tight scoring games, and it always seems like the tie is broken well into the third by what seems to be a luck goal (person did nothing too special or out of the ordinary to get it, and the other person did nothing really wrong to deserve a goal against).
I can't really tell what differences there are between this game and '09. It is definitely harder to score goals for the average person; thus glitch goals are more predominant. Also board play needs a huge overhaul (or be ridden of altogether) I don't see how it simulates board play and not holding.
Can young kids play this game? It just seems like there are so many buttons and just overall skills involved (video games and hockey) that a 6-7 yr old probably couldn't fully grasp.
I grew up with "Ice Hockey" and "Blades of Steel" for the NES. Those were the sport games I played. Basically no skill, but loads of fun. I played a few games the the SNES and Sega as well. So essentially I've been casually playing hockey games since I was probably 4-5 or something.
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