The graphics of the game continue to improve as the game matures over time. During the live action part of the game, skaters move with grace and goalies slide from post to post with the greatest of ease. It is fun to see the ice cut up by the cold steel of the skater’s blades, and the movement of the puck is virtually flawless. The cut scenes continue to improve, with game faces looking as real as ever, and close-up replays getting closer to the real thing. The sounds of the game are still impressive, and I still can’t get over just how close the crack of puck against the wood of a stick continues to sound, as if you are in the stands. The game continues to impress with the number of different camera angles and levels of difficulty, as well as game play options. Even the announcers had a large collection of lines to say during the game play. Though all of these nuances make for great play and real-to-life action, nothing has really improved on an already good game.

Control of the game is still very simple for anyone to pick up and play. To dive deeper into the game, and give yourself more complex game play, you need to pick up the skills of some of the extra controls. The basic controls consist of the buttons used for passes, slap shots and wrist shots. The longer you hold down the buttons, the harder and less accurate the shot usually is. Basic movement of the players is still done by the joystick, and speed bursts are accomplished by pressing the triggers. What is nice about the speed burst is that if you hold the trigger buttons down too long, your player will skate too fast and begin to lose control of the puck. Another of the extra buttons to learn to use is the juke move and stick control. By using these buttons, you can fake out defenders and the goalies. By faking out the goalies, they go into a flop mode that makes them look like a fish out of water, leaving you an opportunity to find the empty part of the net. Players still tended to move much better than they do in real life; this is one aspect of the game that does not equate to the real thing.

The overall experience of NHL ‘06 is similar to the many hockey games that have preceded it. Being able to play online against other opponents always makes this a game that a gamer can play over and over again and not get the same experience. As far as the different season modes, I did not find too many things different about this game as compared with games of different companies. Gamers can still build franchises, trading and signing players to contracts as well as their coaching staffs. The gamer also has the ability to bring players through their farm system or create players. One nice advantage of the Xbox Live system is that the gamer can download updated rosters to keep the game as real as possible to the real NHL. Statistics kept on Xbox Live also were similar to games of the past, yet they’re always a nice feature to keep a game interesting and fresh. Since a couple of hockey games are available on the market, your best bet would be to rent all of them and compare which has the features you really enjoy as a gamer. This game did not jump out of its CD tray to impress me, but was nonetheless enjoyable to play.