NHL 2001

THE BAD:
The manager/franchise aspect needs to be more realistic.

SUMMARY:
NHL2001 is the best NHL video game since NHL 98. The Graphics are super real, the gameplay's rough edges have been smoothed from its NHL99-2000 versions and the presentation is TV like.

The Graphics are so detailed that the helmets appear to be shiny plastic, the individual pieces of the player's equipment come to life, and the ice.... (well) actually looks like ice!

The passing engine of NHL2001 is much better than its last two year installments. Never had I experienced such crisp passing since the days of NHL98. And to top it off, the passing is adjustable. Users can tweak it so that the computer accurately pin points the target or so that the user pin points the target (the latter mode incurrs more of a probability of missed passes of course).

The AI is also tweakable. The friction of the puck to the speed of the game to the multi-facetted difficulty levels, NHL2001 now suits all types of players. By tweaking the AI, the game can appear to be more arcade-like or more of a simulation. My favourite is being able to tweak the amount of time a player stays on the ice after being hit!

NHL2001, however, has its limits. And it lies in the franchise mode, where sallary (standard on NBA Live2000) is missing. When someone mentions the word "franchise", money automatically pops into mind, so why exclude the aspect of sallaries? I like the fact that NHL2001 allows for the trade of 1st and 2nd round draft picks and the fact that teams are more smart in making trades. Teams now, make trades only to full-fill it's weakness. This, however, neglects the fact that teams also trade based on a player's marketability and/or the team's sallary cap situation that pertains to a team's long term or short term goals. For example, a team may want to dump their star players as well as their huge sallary in order to stock pile draft picks and to open opurtunities to sign other more affordable stars.

NHL2001 is a great game, any hockey would enjoy it. But it does have room for an improvement.


TEST SYSTEM:

PIII933MHz (ATA100 mobo)
256MB SDRAM 133MHz
32MBGeForce256 DDR
20GB HD 7200rpm ATA100
64V Creative Sound Blaster

The maximum resolution that I'd use on the test system would be 1024 x 768 with most of the detail level turned to/or near to its maximum.

At resolutions of 800 x 600 or less, when the detail level is at its maximum, the framerates areconsistantly (and noticeably) higher than ot 1024 x 768 or higher resolutions.

For those wanting max detail at resolutions HIGHER than 1024 x 768, I'd recommend a GeForce2 Pro or a GeForce2 Ultra, along with a cpu of 800MHz or more (T-Bird or PIII).