It's kind of a command central, where everything from the available modes of play to changing lines and detail settings can be activated with a minimum of effort. Right after the killer video intro - great new title theme and compilation of clips from last season contests - you get the new interface screen. To their credit, the producers managed to give the game the feel of both playing in the various NHL rinks and watching a game on TV. And even when they were doing this, they still managed to raise the bar for all sports games when it comes to graphics and sound. They weren't lying when they bragged about all the time that was spent upgrading the pathetic AI of NHL 97. It's exciting, action-packed, graphically gorgeous, and, most-importantly, intelligent. In short, NHL 98 has single-handedly resurrected the EA Sports name for me. We know the call now, and there's no need to go upstairs, Ref. The jury will be out on Team Canada until February, but NHL 98 's been on the shelves in North America for a few weeks now, so we won't have to wait on that one. Team Canada's the early favourite to take the gold medal at the Nagano Olympics, and EA's released the supposedly 'smarter' and more 'realistic' NHL 98. Coincidence? I think not.īut now it's one year later.

At the same time, on the screen, EA Canada released NHL 97, an eye-candy showpiece that was all style, no substance, and jam-packed with just about every sort of bug known to man. On the ice last fall, Team Canada lost the inaugural World Cup (didn't the soccer people have some kind of claim on that one, Mr. Unfortunately, for both Canadian hockey fans and PC sports game fans, the homegrown product has been more than a little disappointing of late. EA Sports knows that too, and has developed the NHL series of games exclusively at EA Canada since its inception oh so many years ago.

Pundits may say that hockey is now a 'world game', but Canadians know that it's still their game at heart.

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