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Another NHL ’11 Trailer: Previewing new physics, faceoff engine, etc.

With the scary and sad summer sans hockey already upon us - but the free agent flood gradually downgrading to a trickle - we’ll have to entertain ourselves with debates and various other topics. That actually should be a lot of fun, but many hockey fans will get their hockey fix in polygonal form.

Electronic Arts’ NHL series is the gold standard in hockey video games, so we’ll probably devote a little extra attention to their games. (Don’t worry, though, 2K Sports. We haven’t forgotten you, even if your games are kind of incomprehensible to Wii-novices such as myself.)

That means getting way too excited about every little nugget that comes our way, especially in the form of videos. Such as this one, via Gametrailers.com.

Video Games | NHL 11 | Exclusive Gameplay Physics Featurette
XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii


I’m still in the “broken sticks are just going to lead to broken controllers” camp. Sports video games face an eternal crisis of fun vs. realism - and while I haven’t experienced it personally - the idea of one of the worst things in hockey being replicated in a game makes me queasy. I don’t want to hear bad locker room music and would prefer to avoid being yelled at by Barry Trotz, so why should we experience one of the other things hockey players would rather avoid?

(Actually, angry red Trotz face would be something I’d love to see in polygonal form.)

I just know that I’ll overreact to a breakaway goal allowed because my defenseman broke his digi-stick and whomever is with me will lose those precious little bits of respect they had left for me after I flip over a coffee table. That will be a bummer.

While I was originally on the fence about the faceoff changes (the NHL2K series really dropped the ball with their changes, in my opinion), the idea of being able to shoot from the faceoff like Mario Lemieux nearly made me wet my pants. Seriously, that is incredibly cool.

As you can guess, I was already planning on buying the game anyway, but that doesn’t mean I can’t critique (and play) the game endlessly. What do you think of the series and the changes promised in the trailer?

(H/T to Sean Leahy.)