Today is the day. Everything I could not talk about before concerning NHL 08 will now be discussed. Dynasty, Creation Mode, and Online play will be discussed to the best of my ability. I do want to stress one point before I begin. I will reveal a lot about this game but in case I don't talk about something, it’s because I did not get the chance to ask the question or it was not brought up in full detail at the event. So before any one gets upset that I didn't talk about something, there's the reason. There is just way too much going on at this event guys and so much discussion about every topic under the sun, that some stuff is bound to get put on the back burner so bear with me. With that said, let's go to work.
Dynasty Mode
Okay, the constantly evolving monster that is Dynasty Mode returns with a vengeance this year. Everything that was in Dynasty Mode last year returns, but with some amazing new additions that add tons of dimension and realism to it. First off, season stats will be displayed when your player scores a point. In other words, if Daniel Briere has 40 goals on the season and he just scored, 41 goals will appear in the stat overlay as he celebrates with his teammates. As expected, assists and total points on the season will also be displayed. This, of course, is something that players have been wanting for, for a long time. I have at least. Keeping track of every player’s stats used to be a pain because I’d have to go through the menu system and check for each stat. Now when a player gets a point, its displayed right away for you so you know who’s got how many goals and so on.
Another very cool feature in Dynasty mode is the addition of the brand new American Hockey League (AHL). Yes you read that right; you now have full access to all AHL teams and their players. You can call players up from your system when that player is playing amazing or send a player down when that player is just taking up space on the ice. This also helps when one of your players goes down with an injury. You can now call up a replacement just like in real life. And of course every player’s stats are recorded and kept track of whether he’s in the AHL or NHL. This allows you to gauge who to bring up and when and how to do it. EA SPORTS once again finds ways to add more realism to the game this year and it definitely put a smile on all of our faces that were at the event.
Creation Mode
A lot of people, myself included, wanted a deeper customization mode this year. Sure you were able to change a few features of your players last year and make a decent player in create-a-player mode, but it wasn’t deep enough. To me, that was one of the very few drawbacks of 07, which was surprising since 07 set the bar for hockey gaming. Now we’re in NHL 08 which, I’m proud to say, has answered all of my desires for customization, and then some. There’s only one phrase that comes to mind when I think of this mode now: Customize everything.
In NHL 08, you’ll get a deeper create-a-player mode with an unbelievable amount of detail put into every aspect you could think of. You can do anything this year, from altering every facial feature to altering the blade on your stick. Customizing equipment has been drastically improved upon this year. Not only can you alter the blade on your stick to best suit your player, you can now test it before you keep it. This means when you alter a blade or alter a skate you can test them on the ice right away with the push of a button. This feature is amazing to say the least since now you can customize absolutely everything on your player. Now, you can also alter the colors of everything using EA SPORTS’ new “Color Palette” feature. This is mostly used in the create-a-team part of creation mode. Yes you can now create a full team and customize everything as well. Let’s put it this way, if you can think of something you want to edit or customize on your player or team, you can do it in NHL 08.
This new mode is a dream come true for me since I always wanted a completely customizable player and team and do whatever I want to them. One of the best things about this feature is that everything can be transferred to Dynasty mode flawlessly. Take your created team to meet Lord Stanley, or give Simon Gagne a different colored visor for the season.
As mentioned in an earlier article, create-a-play has also been implemented, which can also be used in Dynasty mode. For the best information on this, read my previous article and watch producer Dean Richards go in depth in the video.
Whatever you want to do, you can do it in NHL 08. I really can’t stress that enough! You have to see it to believe it but trust me, those as insane as I am, will be amazed.
XBOX LIVE
I’m not wasting anytime with this. In NHL 08 there now will be Online Leagues. Yes, you read that right. EA SPORTS has successfully implemented Online Leagues which many games attempted before, but failed, whether it was from too much lag or some other error in design. And from what I understand every stat will be recorded and be tracked by LIVE. Words can’t describe how huge this feature is. My eyes almost exploded when I saw producer David Littman bring it up in the game demo. In fact, I heard gasps throughout the whole room! David also mentioned the failures the EA team has seen in the past, regarding games trying to do this or that with Online Leagues and listening to him, you could definitely tell the team has attacked every angle and every possible problem before releasing this feature. Again, words don’t do justice for this new mode and you have to see it to believe it.
David also mentioned how the online play as a whole has been improved in terms of speed and what you can do. The best example of this was when David spoke of playing someone across the world in a pick-me-up game of hockey. This would be implemented flawlessly without any type of unusual slowdown. I also want to say that adding players or setting up a tournament would also be ridiculously easy and quick. This feature is a dream come true for LIVE players and its definitely going to get me to play online a lot more.
Conclusion
I’ll put this as blunt as possible; NHL 08 is a brand new game and EA SPORTS has outdone themselves again. I have never seen a team pay this much attention to detail on every aspect of hockey. The three features discussed above shatter every thought about this game being a continuation from last year. Sure there are basic similarities, but incorporating the big three above set this game far apart from its predecessor. I can’t stress how amazed you guys will be when you play this game. The look and feel of this game is something that has to be seen (or played) to believe. My congratulations go out to the EA SPORTS team who worked on this game. You guys did an amazing job with this game and I can’t wait to play it again as soon as possible!
