NHL 12 - Xbox 360

As the title implies, this game certainly features many improvements over 2011. General Improvements: Looks nicer (always does year after year) Goalie is now part of the game (also a con because you will find yourself accidentally running the goalie while crashing the net online) It looks smoother...not sure why, but it does. Passing is a little more improved. Still not perfect, but I have seen less errors where I direct the stick to pass to the right and it goes behind me and left. Be a Pro Improvements: Completely different. Now you play for chunks and simulate to your next shift. Rather than sitting around watching (which you still can), you can just sim to the important part...when you're on the ice. There are goals that can improve your experience points in the game, and it still does not take forever despite seconds counting as real seconds. Some people may not like it, but I certainly approve. Online Improvements: Ability to customize EACH position. Greatest improvement for me thus-far. Want to be a play-maker while playing center and an enforcer when playing defense? Rather than switching it before every game it is just saved. You can even change what you look like for each position. You can also now play as a girl. Equipment actually means something now. Each stick and skate affects your shooting or skating which is certainly more realistic. It's not about aesthetics anymore, it is now functional. Game play seems faster...not sure if this is true, but I didn't notice those games that never seem to end. I love the NHL series and NHL 12 is certainly worth the upgrade! Can't wait for the real season! ONE NEGATIVE: Constant references to "the NHL Network" will make you want to put a developer through the glass, which is also a new feature!

NHL 12 is defintiely really fun. The winter classic is awesome and to be able to choose your own team is a boost. Being able to hit goalies and fight with them is super cool. The class breaks on hits and shots now as well as players being checked by bench can be hit over if hit correctly. The Ulitimate Team with legends is awesome. Graphics are clear and no problems. When you shoot, you control where it goes and how a=hard you shoot. shootouts and breakaways aren't as easy as they used to be and are more realistic. Overall, i feel like i am actuallly on the ice with how they skate, their balance, and the hitting.

The game plays very similar to NHL 11. The physics are a little better (hitting, goalie interaction, etc) but the passing, deking, and shooting are all pretty much the same. The online play is AMAZING this year. They finally give you a breakdown of your points that you receive after a match and keep track of your leveling....also if you consecutively lose you DROP LEVELS so you dont keep playing at a level you cant handle (Unlike '11 where once you hit level 25 you were stuck there even if you lost 20 games in a row...you continued to play level 25's give or take 5/10/20 levels if it couldnt find a similar level right away). The three biggest complaints I have about this year are: * The CONSISTENT references to THE NHL NETWORK...some games it feels like it's in every other comment that the announcer makes. * How easily the goalie is knocked out of position...when playing online the majority of the goals that are scored on me are when a player runs into my player...who then bumps into my goalie....who then falls down 2 feet outside the net leaving AN EMPTY NET. As with any new game with *NEW* features they tend to be overdone. Hopefully, as EA updates the game they will tone down the goalie interference calls and out of position goalies. * Tie ups in front of the net...Also a *NEW* feature. It seems like the entire team gets bunched up wrestling around in front of the net. Which then pushes someone into your goalie...well you get where I'm going. I only really notice this when playing computer AI. Online isn't too bad because humans change players and skate away from the action in front of the net.

My younger brother and I are big hockey fans and we loved this game! We aren't big gamers, but his game is very fun for our whole family. We have NHL 10 and 11 and this one is the best in my opinion. The graphics are really cool. The player's movements are very realistic. It's almost like a real game! Its very easy once you get the hang of it. There are so many settings and features! You can have multiple people play on one team, or against each other. This is the best video game I have ever played. Definitely worth the price! Would recommend!

Pros: Solid game-play, presentation, game modes, great online features give it good replay ability, has Stamkos on the cover This is obviously an older version of the game now and it has changed but this is the last of the game-play before the realistic skating took over. This is one of those games where once you figure out how to score you can really smoke the computer. The real challenge comes from playing online against friends or random players. That's where the game shines in terms of competitiveness.

This is the first new NHL game I have bought since '09. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I'm disappointed with this game. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and it's far from a bad game, it's just not where I wanted it to be. The biggest problem for me is that I can't find a happy medium between impossibly challenging and incredibly easy. I keep tweaking the settings and trying new things but it's always I win 7-0 and the opposing team takes a whopping 6 shots on goal, or I get shut out. Manual passing is a great concept, but I can't get used to it. When I had manual passing turned on, I could only complete about 20% of my passes. I found this incredibly frustrating, but some people love it. If you can get the hang of it, it gives you more control over direction and speed of the pass. The other thing that really bugs me is the injuries. Now I know that injuries happen and games want to be more and more realistic, but I didn't buy NHL '12 so I could play with an AHL team. Even with injuries turned down as far as you can without turning them off completely I'm losing 2 and 3 guys every game. The straw that broke the camel's back here was when I lost Chris Pronger for 3 weeks due to a bruised arm. A bruised arm?! Three weeks?! Even that nancy out in Pittsburgh isn't going to miss a game(let alone 3 weeks) due to a bruised arm. The graphics are fine, the player movements look good and the puck physics are pretty realistic. All in all, this is a good, fun game, but I think it could be much better.

Bought this used & it was awful. Getting ready to return it 'cause the disc won't read. Plus, I paid $45 for it and than had to pay an extra $10 for a security code to play on-line. Went and bought a "new" tape and am returning this one. Amazon was great, gave me back the $10 I put out and will give me back the $45, but trust me, I will never again buy from this seller. Can't be trusted! This was nothing but a hassle for me!!!!!!!

This game is unacceptably bad. I'm a very big fan of EA's NHL series. I have religious played each game released in the series since NHL 08, and I've seen the series come a long way in that time. The forward progress of the series, and, indeed, the quality of the experience as a whole, has come to a crashing halt with this year's rendition. This game has barely more content than its predecessor, and, worse, it plays in highly unrealistic fashion and is riddled with bugs. The major addition touted by the EA NHL team for this year's rendition--indeed, it was the main feature in the game's Internet and television advertisements--was Legend Mode, which allows one to play as a legendary player (i.e. Patrick Roy, Jeremy Roenick, etc.). This is far less fun than it sounds. This mode is essentially Be a Pro--a mode present since NHL 09--played with a highly-rated player. In other words, literally the only difference between this mode and standard Be a Pro is that your player will start out with excellent attributes, something which makes the experience immensely easy. This game mode no doubt took almost no work by the developers, the necessary changes being limited to simply creating these players within the game and making them selectable. As for the legends themselves, you initially only have access to Jeremy Roenick; the other legends are unlockable only by playing the Be a Pro or Be a Legend modes and achieving certain milestones, something that can take a long while. Indeed, it takes such a long time to unlock such players as Lemieux and Gretzky that you'll likely have become tired of the game mode by the time you have access to them. All told, this mode is not anything special; it's ridiculous that it was the main addition in this year's rendition. On that subject, the changes to Be a Pro do not work properly. This year's rendition gives you a more real-time experience, with your shifts being played in real time rather than time passing at an accelerated rate. Your time off the ice can either be simulated or watched from the bench; in the latter case, it likewise occurs in real time. This leads to some significant issues. For one, it's not out of the question for you to sit on the bench for five or six minutes at a time, regardless of if you're the team's top scorer. Too, you'll run into maddening situations in which instead of being put on the ice with the empty net so as to help your team score a goal--as before, this occurs even if you're the top scorer on your team, or even in the league--you're dumped onto the ice with one second left in the game. This happens on a regular basis. Further asinine quirks in Be a Pro include being traded for peanuts to another team even if you've scored 200 points in a season, and not being played on the power play--regardless of your stats and abilities--unless you've put sufficient points into offensive awareness, a statistic that is of extremely marginal value and not at all a good use of your hard-earned experience points. I'd call this year's Be a Pro substantially less enjoyable than it was in NHL 11. Be a GM, too, suffers from substantial issues, issues even greater than those found in prior renditions of the game. First, the AI makes a horrendous GM, often failing to re-sign effective players who are not asking for much money; worse, it's not uncommon to see the AI inexplicably waive a player who is leading the league in scoring. Too, the players make asinine choices during negotiations; many of them ask for ludicrously long contracts at ridiculous price, leading the UFA list to often feature numerous top-tier players whom neither the AI GM nor the player GM are willing to take at the players` asking prices. Like Be a Pro mode, Be a GM mode has taken a step backward from last year's version. The general experience on the ice has, too, taken a step backwards. Player AI--both for your opponent and for your unselected players--is horrid. Players often make nonsensical decisions, for example failing to keep proper position on a 2-on-1 or hanging around in ridiculous spots in the offensive and defensive zones. The degree to which players can maintain control of the puck is ludicrous, as is the agility possessed by every player; players can routinely make turns that would, in real life, result in spectacular wipe-outs. Also excessive is passing accuracy; an average fourth-liner can be expected to have the pass accuracy of a real-life superstar. The main addition to on-ice play in NHL 12, goaltender collision, is a disaster. It is very common to see goaltender interference penalties called when no contact was made, and it is very possible for a human goaltender to initiate contact with a player outside the crease and draw a penalty. Worse, flagrant goaltender interference is often not called. It is not uncommon to see a goaltender deliberately crushed without a penalty being called, a play which almost invariably results in the team with the puck scoring into the empty net. Another, more minor addition to the game is tie-ups by defenders. Essentially, defenders may tie up forwards in front of the net to prevent them from making deflections or banging in loose pucks--at least, this was the intent of the developers, because the function actually does not at all function properly. It is, instead, almost utterly useless; offensive players can disengage from a tie-up with ridiculous ease, and taking oneself out of the play in this manner as a defenseman almost invariably decreases one's ability to protect the net. Just about the only practical use of this feature lies in a defender's ability to tie up with a forward and drag him into a goalie; this will result in a goaltender interference penalty. Also of issue are such matters as deflections being utterly useless, shots being overly accurate, and checking being often pitifully useless. The new player animations are more lifelike and well-tuned than those found in earlier games of the series, but this is about all that NHL 12 has going for it over previous renditions. As with the two previous categories, general on-ice play has, in sum, taken a step backward. EASHL--online team play--one of the biggest draws of the series, is a disaster. Every forward is capable of feats unmatched by real NHL players. Each forward with a legend card is a mix of the best qualities of the league's best-ever players: the passing ability of Gretzky, the balance of Lemieux, the speed of Bure, the shot of Hull, and the stickhandling and agility of Datsyuk. Meanwhile, defenders have roughly the ability level of second-line defenseman in today's NHL. This results in infuriatingly-imbalanced gameplay that bears little similarity to that found in the NHL. Instead of being rewarded for cycling the puck in the offensive zone, forwards will find the most success in hogging the puck low in the zone and repeatedly attempting a cross-crease pass until such inevitably succeeds. There are, as well, certain moves on the AI goalies that have a ridiculously high percentage of success. Too, defenders often will have an immensely difficult time of impeding the forwards at all; forwards can stop, twirl or turn on a dime and maintain the puck through numerous pokechecks--there is no stick-on-stick collision, and the defender's stick will also often sweep directly through the puck without dislodging it from the forward's stick--sticklifting will nearly always result in the forward maintaining possession of the puck, and hits will often simply encounter an almost literal force field in existence around the forward; the forward will, indeed, often be completely unfazed. This results in defenders generally being at the mercy of the forwards. The issues with this game mode could be described at much greater length, but there's no use; it works just as well to note that this it is horrendously imbalanced and neither fun nor realistic... unless, that is, you like playing as a puck-hogging forward in arcade style. It also bears mention that the EA NHL team has shown little or no interest in solving these issues. Their level of communication with the community is horrendous, and little work has been put into improving the game's myriad issues. In sum, it feels as if this game was rushed and was released in incomplete state, yet with no plans of supporting it such that the issues inherent to the release version would be eventually fixed. Indeed, no premium whatsoever was, either, put on making the game exceptional in any way. I advise against purchasing this game. If you have NHL 11, stick with that. NHL 12 is likely to provide you with more frustration than fun, and it does not justify its price tag.

Great game

Excelente juego, llega sin carátula, solamente llega el disco en una caja lo cuál en lo personal no me importa ya que el disco viene en excelentes condiciones sin ningúna rayadura. Me encantó! Lo recomiendo.

The game arrived early than expected. It was in fabulous condition and playing the game has been amazing! The visuals are great and lots of playing options.

good game

Son loved it. Good price for the game. Works great