EA Sports NHL 08 Preview: Doing some online body checking (just not the porn style)
I always dreamed of layering on the padding and lacing up the skates before walking down the long corridor that would lead me to the ice. The deafening sounds of the crowd as I made my way to the ice. The pride of wearing the red, white and blue of my hometown Montreal Canadiens. It is the same dream that thousands upon thousands of children have every year as the join a little league hockey teams across Canada and Europe(and is some few and far between US cities too). We all grow up wanting to be the next Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky or Patrick Roy. The sad reality is that few of us attain that very lofty dream.
For those who have failed in reaching the adulation of milions, there is always garage leagues or street hockey. Or then again, you know, videogames. Welcome to EA Sports NHL 08 where you can reach your couch bound fulfillment without risk of losing any teeth.
You can don the shirt and pads of your favorite hockey net minder like Luongo or Brodeur and test your skills against the likes of Crosby and Ovechkin with NHL 08. The game will finally let you take full control of the goalies with a the help of a third person camera. Make a glove save or drop down butterfly style and become your own megastar between the pipes.
The AI has been totally revamped. No more doing the same goal scoring play over and over. The AI will adapt and change to block and stop you from scoring on them in the same humiliating way every time.
The game will feature online leagues for both Xbox360 and PS3 so you can challenge your buddies in full out ice bound warfare. Slam him to the boards and rush into a breakaway to make him weep those dreadful tears of shame. The game will also be available for the PC and PS2, but sorry Wii owners, you will be left holding the stick in the penalty box as the game will not make it’s way there.
Slated to hit shelves on September 11 (I thought that date was banned from calendars altogether but then again, this EA Sports is in Canadia), the game promises to deliver hard hitting action, dazzling one-timer shots and massive dekes to score the winning goals.
View the trailer here: