Ice Hockey, the easy way?
As the little jiffy bag from EA dropped through the door,
my immediate reaction was, yes you guessed it!, this is an ice
hockey sim. To get a better feel for the game, me and a few
other members of the team here decided to head down and watch
a real ice hockey match. Manchester Storm beat Newcastle
Cobras 6 - 3 and we came back to HQ with a new sense of ice
hockey related mental fulfilment.
Whilst reading the notes that came attached with the box
from EA, I noticed the screen shots on the back. They looked
absolutely fantastic!. My reaction was, "nah.. the game can't
look that good". It did, as you will find out later.
Installation was fairly normal with only 15MB of your
precious hard drive being eaten up with a minimum
installation. If you need to install DirectX 5.0 it may take a
little longer, but the software's nice install programme
handles everything for you. After this it was a simple matter
of restarting the computer back into Win95 (otherwise known as
MACos), clicking on the NHL98 icon from the start menu and
waiting for the thing to load.
The startup screens were impressive, the Dolby surround
actually did work (more than can be said for some games). So
far so good, then the main menu came up. Crisp and clear
images together with a nicely animated point and click
interface to help you get yourself configured. It is at this
stage that a deeper understanding of Ice Hockey may be at an
advantage to you. There are team and player configuration
areas where, surprisingly, you can configure your teams and
players to any extent you want. You can create a complete
dream team for yourself or even a completely dud team to play
against.
The graphics and sound in the game are absolutely superb.
The players are realistic in animation and behaviour (although
the faces look decidedly dowdy). The pitch seems atmospheric
and realistic. The crowd and their endless rolls of camera
film do seem a little flat. 3dFX enhanced computers will
really come into their own in this game as the graphics seem
very real. The sound in the game is also excellent. The match
commentators provide realistic and informative input (although
they do get a bit repetitive after a while!). The game play is
also very good. There are many different "styles" of game to
play ranging from your basic matches, games, championships and
on to the major shoot outs against a variety of other teams.
Ice hockey fans will also be pleasantly surprised at the
overall realism of the game. The players seem true to form and
the referees are just as stingy in the game as they are in
real life.
Overall?, great game play and graphics are combined
together with a high level of realism and a fast game engine
to create a brilliant ice hockey simulation. The only gripe is
that it is quite HARD!.
Minimum System Requirements:
- CPU: IBM PC 100% Compatible
- Processor: Intel Pentium 90Mhz or higher
- Memory: 16MB
- Hard Disc Space: 15MB
- Operating System: Windows95
- Hardware: 4x Speed CD-ROM, DirectX5
compatible sound & video card (3dFX an advantage as can
a game pad type controller)
- Software: Nowt really...
ISR Roundup:
- Graphics: 92% - Absolutely fantastic!
- Sound: 90% - Brilliant!
- Playability: 85% - Superb!
- Gore: 40% - You can be violent...ish
- The 'Would you come back to it?' factor:
80% - You will come back to this game time and time again
- Pros: Great graphics, sound and game play
- Cons: Can be a little fiddly at times
- Price: £39.99
- Summary: A great ice hockey sim.
ISR Overall Rating:
Contact : EA
sports
Reviewed by The One
Who Knows
