NHL 11

For the third year in a row, EA Canada has crafted a hockey experience that is seemingly flawless. As great as last year's offering was, NHL 11 marks an evolution for the series.

NHL 11 is not only the ultimate hockey game, it's the ultimate sports game. EA Sports gives us the authentic feel of the NHL in a game where you are the star. It's no doubt in my mind that this is the sports game of the year 2010.

If EA just introduced the new Ultimate Hockey team and washed their hands of the rest, I would say cash cow...but thankfully the team never lets me down as the introduction of this mode, along with enhanced AI, better game play, and the new physics engine that is so random I find myself catching my breath between puck drops make this an experience I've never felt before.

EA's NHL 11 Hockey celebrates it's 20th year as a franchise by giving us a near perfect sports game. Its only downsides are minor framerate issues and the lack of a "team builder" module.

NHL 11 is the best hockey game EA's produced at least in this generation, and possibly ever.

More than in years past, NHL 11's enhancements will be noticed by a select clientele. It's a product of fan feedback and number crunching, but for that core group of fans, most of the cheese has been cut, making for a rewarding game that's greater than the sum of its updates.

Aside from the minimal framerate drops during Be A Pro and cut-scenes, it's hard to find notable faults to NHL 11. There's a lot to do in this game, whether you play online with EAUHL or Online Team Play or offline with Season, Be A Pro and Be A GM modes. There's no reason why a hockey gamer shouldn't be picking up this bad boy.

EA Canada offers up another big hug of hockey love in NHL 11. Simply put, this is how you do hockey!

An extraordinary hockey game. The action is hot and fast, and the intangibles and extras add quality on top of quality.

Alongside FIFA 11 and MLB 10: The Show, this is one of the top three sports games on PS3. [Issue#51, p.118]

NHL 11 is easily one of the most feature-packed and entertaining ice hockey games ever created.

The sheer amount of polish in NHL 11 is staggering.

Like a star player at the apex of his career, NHL 11 still shines on the ice. New innovations like the real-time physics engine and UHL show EA Canada still has some room to grow, but as age creeps up on the stalwart franchise and its prior innovations feel commonplace, some of its weaknesses are starting to appear more evident.

NHL 11 is an absolutely fantastic game that will provide hockey fans with literally hundreds of hours worth of gameplay. If hockey is your thing then pick this up, if it's not but you want something different then I highly recommend trying it.

NHL 11 is the best hockey game to date.

EA perfects its hockey formula and delivers both nice news and old, solid features.

NHL 11 continues to dominate the sports landscape. It's a no-brainer must-have for any modern sports gamer, whether you can successfully discuss the nuances of the Left Wing Lock or can barely name a couple of players on your favorite team. There's enough here for everyone to have a blast.

Even without competition to drive them forward, EA has created an immersive and enjoyable hockey experience that any fan of the game will appreciate.

Simply put, EA Sports has perfected how they do things when it comes to hockey. They only added a few major things, made a bunch of adjustments here and there. What they have produced with NHL 11 is probably the best hockey game to date.

Sure, the hang-ups from last year could've used some improvement, and a few tweaks to the other modes (outside of Ultimate Team) would've really pushed this into perfect score territory. That said, it's still a hockey-fest you shouldn't miss.

NHL is proof that subtle refinement year on year is infinitely preferable to knee-jerk feature modification. [Issue#198, p.91]

Those who don't explore the new mode won't notice too much of a difference with past entries, but this is still a huge game, and hardcore hockey gamers will have a field day.

NHL 11 manages to conserve the feeling that's unique to hockey. It's action and battle, and if you're into that, this is your game!

NHL 11 is more of the same, because the game plays exactly like the previous parts. The game contains a lot of different modes and has a lot of small improvements which make it a little bit better than NHL 10. Visually it looks stunning, the soundtrack and audience are good to listen to and the gameplay is as always fantastic.

For the puck lovers, it's still the best simulation out there. Yet, it shows too many similarities with its predecessor.

Despite the fact that a lot of the modes have been ported over from last year and Ultimate Team has been seen before in other EA Sports games, NHL 11 still delivers a slew of gameplay improvements and a truckload of content that should please the many hockey fans out there.

If you are looking for a good ice hockey game, NHL 11 is the best game that you're going to find. However, due to lack of improvement, don't buy this game if you already own NHL 10.

With that said, NHL 11 is the best hockey game on the market to date, and every hockey fan with a penchant for gaming will likely have a blast with the mode of their choice.

In NHL 11, EA scores off a slap shot built on a strong physics system, a realistic presentation, and a deep hockey experience. Every year it seems EA makes an NHL game that will be hard to top, and this year is no different.

The game is beautiful, the commentary is among the most interactive in any sports title, the new gameplay mechanics in NHL 10 are easy to learn and tough to master, the new Ultimate Hockey Team is insanely addictive.

Scoring, match-making, and goalie quirks aside, this game literally has no competition in the marketplace other than itself.

Ultimately, if you have NHL 10 there is no real reason to get this.

There's little to nothing in NHL 11 to complain about. The quality of the presentation is fantastic and you can tell EA went to tremendous lengths to tweak the gameplay to improve the hockey experience.

Still superb, but hasn't NHL dined off its skill stick heritage for a bit too long now? [Issue#231, p.93]

With NHL 2K sitting out this season, these details combine to make NHL 11 the best--and only--videogame on ice. [Nov 2010, p.83]

That said, there is no denying that NHL 11 provides an enjoyable recreation of ice hockey, which manages to be both accessible to newcomers and packed with content to entertain more dedicated fans.