

You can relocate the team, rename them, play with different jerseys and even manage buildings and ticket sales. The other big change to the game comes in the form of team customization, where you get to be a team owner and direct many off-ice aspects of the game. The World Cup of Hockey tournament, complete with all the (player) licenses, returns to the franchise – an international tournament that gives you the opportunity to take a break from playing with regular NHL teams and compete in something akin to a mini Olympics, with all the strongest teams in the world present and available to play with and against. NHL 17’s changes are largely on the surface. Ironically, FIFA changed its engine from (NHL’s) Ignite to Frostbite this year, emphasizing a more physical kind of gameplay that would feel right at home in a hockey game. NHL 17 doesn’t change its core gameplay too much from previous titles, and uses the same engine as last year’s version.

Whichever way you choose to control the game, the experience is rock solid – passing, shooting and checking feel as smooth as they always have – although in a way that is also a point of criticism. If you’re old enough to have played NHL back in the Sega Genesis days, then you’d be happy to know that a similar control method is still available today – with simplified controls for those who prefer them or who are just to overwhelmed by the ‘full experience’. Lucky for me… the game caters to both audiences. I tend to play these games because I find the sport fun, not because I’m looking for an accurate simulation with tons of intricacies and tactical nuances. This, of course, skews my opinion and heavily impacts how I view an NHL game. I mainly know hockey because of the video games that simulate it, as I only ever saw it on television about once every four years – during the Olympics. The paragraph above also says something about me. A lot of these nuances were previously lost due to a lack of computing power, but with the advent of today’s generation of consoles we’ve seen steady improvements year after year.

A few years ago, I met with them during a session at Gamescom, and came away having learned more about the sport’s subtleties in 30 minutes than I had in the 30 years prior to that. My guess… the passion that the developers have for the game. Of course American Football doesn’t have quite the global appeal that the other sports do, but EA did manage to fight off an attempt by 2K to conquer the hockey market as well.
EA NHL 17 PS4 CONTROLS PRO
They’re in an annual battle for soccer supremacy with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer as well, but the Madden and NHL franchises have been dominant for over 20 years now. Over the past 10 years or so, EA has lost its top spot for basketball simulators, with 2K’s NBA games even forcing NBA Live out of the competition for the time being.

EA NHL 17 PS4 CONTROLS UPGRADE
NHL 17 for the PS4 reaffirms EA’s hold on the hockey genre – are the innovations worth the upgrade from last year’s version?
