NHL 11 Critic Reviews

For the third year in a row, EA Canada has crafted a hockey experience that is seemingly flawless.

If EA just introduced the new Ultimate Hockey team and washed their hands of the rest, I would say cash cow...but thankfully the team never lets me down as the introduction of this mode, along with enhanced AI, better game play, and the new physics engine that is so random I find myself catching my breath between puck drops make this an experience I've never felt before.

EA Sports' NHL 11 is not only the best hockey game ever made, it is quite simply the best and most accurate sports game ever made.

NHL 11 is not only the ultimate hockey game, it's the ultimate sports game. EA Sports gives us the authentic feel of the NHL in a game where you are the star. It's no doubt in my mind that this is the sports game of the year 2010.

In the end, this is a game that's hard not to recommend, especially in light of the fact that 2K Sports didn't offer a competitor on the 360 or PS3 this year, so EA could have just stuck with last years game. Instead, they upped their offering to the point that taking this year off could be absolutely the worst thing that 2K could have done.

EA's NHL 11 Hockey celebrates it's 20th year as a franchise by giving us a near perfect sports game. Its only downsides are minor framerate issues and the lack of a "team builder" module.

EA Canada's NHL 11 marks the 20th Anniversary of the storied NHL Franchise, and I can say without a doubt that a new high watermark has been set (NHL 94 purists be damned). This is the closest a game has ever come to recreating the feeling of playing real life hockey.

Yet again, the peerless NHL team has produced a modern classic that will surely sit at the pinnacle of the year's sports releases. This is probably the best hockey game ever -- until NHL 12 comes out, that is.

Aside from the minimal framerate drops during Be A Pro and cut-scenes, it's hard to find notable faults to NHL 11. There's a lot to do in this game, whether you play online with EAUHL or Online Team Play or offline with Season, Be A Pro and Be A GM modes. There's no reason why a hockey gamer shouldn't be picking up this bad boy.

More than in years past, NHL 11's enhancements will be noticed by a select clientele. It's a product of fan feedback and number crunching, but for that core group of fans, most of the cheese has been cut, making for a rewarding game that's greater than the sum of its updates.

EA Canada offers up another big hug of hockey love in NHL 11. Simply put, this is how you do hockey!

This is the best hockey game ever made, and is a real feather in the cap for EA Sports in a year where the company literally doesn't have any competition on the Xbox 360 or PS3.

An extraordinary hockey game. The action is hot and fast, and the intangibles and extras add quality on top of quality.

Like a star player at the apex of his career, NHL 11 still shines on the ice. New innovations like the real-time physics engine and UHL show EA Canada still has some room to grow, but as age creeps up on the stalwart franchise and its prior innovations feel commonplace, some of its weaknesses are starting to appear more evident.

NHL 11 is the best hockey game to date.

With the additions of the CHL and Ultimate Hockey League and the great Gameplay improvements this is once again the best hockey game available as well as one of the best sports games out there.

NHL 11 continues to dominate the sports landscape. It's a no-brainer must-have for any modern sports gamer, whether you can successfully discuss the nuances of the Left Wing Lock or can barely name a couple of players on your favorite team. There's enough here for everyone to have a blast.

This bugaboo aside, though, NHL 11 really is the best realization of hockey to date. Ultimately, its new physics make for better, more believable hockey that we simply can't recommend enough.

EA perfects its hockey formula and delivers both nice news and old, solid features.

The sheer amount of polish in NHL 11 is staggering.