Friday, April 15, 2005

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 Beta Demo

Sweet mama I haven't had something take my breath away quite like this in years. Maybe my ex-girlfriend once or twice, but that doesn't concern me anymore. Hockey fans starved of NHL action should definitely check this out. This is the second generation of Sports Interactive's NHL Eastside Hockey Manager series, officially licensed by the NHLPA and promising to be a huge step forward from the first release, which was based on an aging Championship Manager 3 engine.

A knock against the initial NHL EHM release I have is the fact that, while you're supposedly just the General Manager of the hockey club, you can micromanage the club down to the coaching level, which defeats the purpose of hiring a coaching staff. With football clubs, the manager is basically the head honcho for all aspect of the club, right down to team selection, tactics, and training. This is simply not true for the GM of a hockey club, whose duties are limited to personnel management. Let's see how SI, known for their CM (now Football Manager) series, tries to bridge the differences in NHL EHM 2005. Perhaps they ought to allow players the options of becoming a GM, a coach, or even dual-role a la Darryl Sutter.

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