Eastside Hockey Manager Reviews

I can leave some reviews (well as much as I'm allowed) if anybody likes. @Paul4587 since you play this game a lot more than EHM, how.

Being an intern here at IGN is actually a lot of fun. You get laughed at. You get poked.

You get prodded (only on Fridays, thank goodness). And sometimes, if you're real lucky, they put their trust in you to cover new game. In this case, the new game was a hockey simulator called that was probably just going to be all stats. Now I consider myself to be a huge sports fan, but mainly with football and baseball. Never hockey. So when I was approached about helping out with this, my first preview, my gut reaction was, 'A hockey sim.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Day of infamy servers. Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

But when I walked out of Sega's offices, my final reaction was more along the lines of, 'That hockey sim was great!' Let it be said before we go any further. This game is not for hockey fans looking for bone-crushing cross checks or perfectly coordinated one-timers. It's also not for hockey fans looking for great arcade action with a group of their buddies. Is for the hockey enthusiast who defends the sport with the motto, 'If you don't like hockey, you don't understand hockey'.

Well, the boys at Sports Interactive understand hockey and it clearly shows. They understand that in order to have a great hockey game, you have to include the greats. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager features over 18 different leagues including the NHL, the Canadian League, the Canadian Jrs., the Swedish League, the Slovakian League, and many others. Each one consists of its own individual teams so if you want a change of pace from the NHL you can get down and dirty with Avangard from the Russian League. Or you can try and introduce the San Jose Sharks to the Stanley Cup Finals. In all, there are 200 teams with over 15,000 players to choose from. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager puts you in the role of General Manager and Head Coach.

Taking the job of GM, you'll be faced with the duties of managing contracts, scouting other leagues for that diamond in the rough, as well as any other tasks associated with working in the front office. But the fun part is being the Head Coach.

Every aspect of running the team is available whether you want to go in depth or not. Want to set up your players to crash the net causing havoc near the goaltender? You can do it. Want to have your defenseman bring out the puck on a 5 on 4 powerplay? Just one click does it. Maybe one of your players is being harassed by the media and they're questioning you about his recent lackluster performance. If you decide to defend your player telling them to back off, you will more than likely be rewarded with better numbers, if not loyalty.

Should you decide to expose your player for the fraud you think him to be, well, you just might have created some dissention within the clubhouse. Before each game you are allowed to send scouts to check up on the next opponent. When the scouts come back, they'll report on the areas you need to work on the most to help ensure a victory. If you take that knowledge and work your boys to the bone, you just might see a different team on the ice come game time. Or maybe they're tired and need a day off. You, being the Head Coach, have that authority.

My main concern going in was the presentation. So you have all these stats. How does it look? Will it remind me of typing in commands while trying to navigate through the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? How good could it possibly look?

Pretty freakin' good, actually. All of the menus are pleasant to look at and easy to navigate. Depending on which team you choose to control, your menus will be team-dedicated so that the logo will appear at the top while action shots of specific players are matted underneath. It really is nice to look at. Every screen you look at has more than just the regular popup information.

Click on a certain button and you can see how well your team does in certain situations. In the Standings screen you are able to view your record while leading after the 1st period, trailing after the 1st period, and even how you do when you score first. If you find that you're losing most of your games after scoring first you might consider altering your training regimen to focus on stamina. One of the coolest features in the game is the breakdown of Shots on Goal and Shots Taken. While looking at the schedule, you are able to see a list of games played as well as upcoming games. If you enter one of the previously played games you are given a recap of the events that transpired from the opening second to the final minute in Overtime.

But it goes deeper than that. In the Game Recap screen, it shows you that your opponent took 22 shots.

Clicking on that button brings up a blimp-view of the rink with 22 different red and green circles. The red circles are for missed shots, green circles for goals. This shows you where the shots were taken from on the ice giving you a better understanding of how your defense is playing. If you have four green circles far away from the net, maybe you tweak your defense to play better man-on-man coverage. Clicking on Shots on Goal provides you with a different view. Instead of looking at a view of the rink, you are now looking at a front view of the net, again with red (missed) and green (goals) circles.

If you see that the majority of the goals are in the upper corners of the net, well, now you know how to practice with your goalie before the next game. Okay, so we've seen the defensive side of things, but Patrick Marleau ended up scoring twice.

That's nice, but how about showing me how he did it? What's that you say, Sports Interactive?

I can check it out? By clicking on Patrick Marleau's name in his Game Log, you're given his performance for that particular game.

Select the bar that shows where he scored and you're presented with a blimp-view of the rink showing you where everybody was on the ice as the goal took place. You are able to watch the game (kind of) take place with an overhead view of the rink and a text based play-by-play feature that does a good job of keeping your interest. A light blue vertical bar moves across the rink simulating the movement of the puck. The game speed can be altered if you find you're not able to keep up with the text. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager includes over 30,000 lines of description so even in your 300th season (the longest running Franchise has gone to the year 2300) there's a good chance you'll read a line that you hadn't read before. Okay, so they do a good job of simulating a hockey game, but what about the fights? Every hockey game has to have them.

And this one does. Only it's with words.

Let's say you're the Carolina Hurricanes and you notice that Jesse Boulerice had five penalty minutes. Enter the Game Recap's play-by-play and there will be the description for you. Ours read like this: Boulerice and Buchberger dropped the gloves Boulerice landed a haymaker.

Boulerice landed another punch. Boulerice connected with a jab. Boulerice got Buchberger's jersey pulled over his head. And that's when the refs stopped the fight. If you know that your player is a hot head and enjoys the occasional brawl you can tell him to watch his temper, but depending on his hot headedness, he might not listen and end up cutting knuckles anyway. Now what sports game these days would be complete without online play? The answer is none.

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager features online play so that 30 friends can take part in a season and find out who has the best skills to win the ultimate prize: Lord Stanley's Cup (or whatever trophy it is in the other leagues). The developers have also created a message board so that owners can post game recaps or talk trash to their divisional rivals. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager is available for PC and Mac and is currently slated for a September release. With the pending NHL lockout, this might be the only NHL season you see this year. But hey, at least it'll be a good one.

About This GameEastside Hockey Manager (EHM) has emerged from Steam's Early Access programme and is now available for full release.EHM offers fans the most realistic, in-depth and immersive simulation of hockey management available, giving them the chance to manage either club or country in any of the world’s top hockey-playing nations.EHM allows you to take full control of your roster – you decide who to sign, who to trade and who to draft. You assemble the perfect coaching team and then, with everything in place, you can choose to either employ a head coach to guide your team from behind the bench, or take control of the coaching duties yourself. Whichever you choose, you can follow the action ‘live’ or watch the game highlights afterwards through the realistic ‘top down’ 2D game engine.To mark its move from Early Access to full availability, EHM now offers a number of new and updated features, including: a greater number of playable domestic leagues and cup competitions; Steam Workshop integration; additional screen resolutions and a multiplayer option which allows up to 30 players to compete against one another and many more improvements inspired by user feedback. Eastside Hockey Manager – Key FeaturesDynamic 2D Game EngineFollow the action in either your own games or those of your rivals through the advanced ‘top-down’, 2D game engine, which incorporates state-of-the-art physics modelling (including realistic deflections and shot-blocking) and convincing player AI.