It's not the same game. The skating is definitely different, and the different direction they have gone with poke checks changes the complete nature of how you play the game without the puck.
My biggest issue thus far is that, being a predominantly offline mode player (season, be a gm) the offline game experience is still all to familiar in that it sucks. Playing on allstar makes the most sense (Pro not enough of a real challenge) yet, once you get to this level of above, the CPU players are able to skate/pass in a way which is NOT at the same level of my controlled player. After a successful hit, how the loose puck behaves seems too skewed in the CPU favour. Every year i battle with the sliders, but as soon as you start tweaking those too much, the game really starts feeling off completely.
I fear with where the general gaming community is going (online, HUT, etc), I don't foresee any real investment in improving offline game play from EA, which sucks.
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