Get on the Ice - AbleGamers Breaks Down NHL 11

{sidebar id=1}For the most part, EA Sports does a pretty good job of making their games accessible - beyond the uncontrollable elements that come with licensed sports games, NHL 11 is pretty close to being closer to right on target.

When you start the game, it will inform you that NHL 11 is auto-save enabled. The game will save information after everything major outside of a game, if you only get two periods of a game played and suddenly have to power down your console, you will have to replay the entire game.

Although, when the game saves data, the save seems like it takes an awful long time.  Save times and load times are both fairly long. This can probably be attributed to the game not being installed to a hard drive.

Now that that’s behind us, EA is going to want you to sign up for their service, and the signup itself isn’t optional. The optional part is if players want to play online or not (there‘s more to it than that, it‘s just the least hardcore item on the list) - forget already paying for a service to play online, EA wants a bit of that cash, too.

If you want to play with a friend, locally is free, but anything outside of that will cost $10, but with each disc EA gives you a free seven-day trial.

The main menu is fairly easily read with a light grayish font on a darker animated background. The animated background does interfere slightly with the lower selections on the main menu, but not enough to ruin the overall readability of the text.

While highlighted, the text on all the menus becomes enlarged similar to the main menu, making the already comfortably sized text that much easier to read.

The Settings menu is where the game makes itself as accessible as it can possibly get due to NHL 11 being such a heavily licensed franchise. The rinks are what they are. The teams are what they are. This game is dependent upon the settings menu to make this game as accessible as it can be.

Players are able to choose one of four preset controller configurations - default, custom, classic, and the NHL ‘94 control scheme. Don’t be fooled by the use of “custom”, it is not a remap-able scheme; it is only a slight variant of the default controls.

Where the default and custom control schemes incorporate a lot of controls, the ‘94 and classic schemes simplify them a bit. The ‘94 control scheme goes so far as breaking the game down to simple offense and defense - remember, when NHL ‘94 came out, controllers only had a D-pad and a couple face buttons. Movement is still controlled by the left stick, but offense and defense are as simple as “change player”, “check”, “pass”, and “shoot”.

The classic control scheme is a bit more complex due to the addition of the shoulder buttons and right stick to the controls. The shoulder buttons are the more important additions with their being added to both offense and defense while the right stick only comes into the play during a fight.

Probably the most useless inclusion to the settings menu is the brightness and color calibration. Upon opening either of these selections, you’ll be treated to either a color scale or a gray scale that you can’t do anything with in the game. Those settings are there so if you are so inclined you can go into your TV’s menu and adjust the color and brightness.

If your TV is anything like mine, it already has its own versions of these screens with the added bonus of not having to look at EA logos while trying to make these adjustments.

The rules and gameplay settings are going to be big for making the game accessible - especially for those who aren’t familiar with the game and don’t know what icing or off-sides are. It’s not specific to hearing, mobility or visual accessibility, but it is good for uninterrupted gameplay, though penalizing a player who couldn’t see a line would just be wrong, too.

Difficulty settings are what really help the game’s accessibility. The ability to just shoot the puck versus aiming the puck manually is a big one. Pass interception aid can be turned on and off. Pass aim itself is able to be turned on and off. It’s not whether you’re able to play at an all-star or rookie level, it’s about the smaller parts that one player might be able to do while others can’t.

The game AI can be adjusted, making it possible to play with a better or worse computer opponent. Settings go both ways to, what’s good for the human component might be something that isn’t to be shared with the computer component of the game. The settings menu is a very deep place, and one that will almost make or break the game.

Other important settings are the visual ones surrounding the puck. Hockey is a pretty fast paced game, playing with a puck that can be seen and tracked is important. Players are able to make the puck larger or smaller, the puck can be given more of a shadow or less of a shadow, and finally, the puck can be made to leave a trail to be tracked more easily.

Once you’re out on the ice, the settings you chose to play with will be the most important part of your ability to play the game.

The pause menu in-game will give you access to the settings menu just in case things need to be further adjusted. This menu looks virtually identical to the settings menu elsewhere in the game, but this is the pause menu that lets you be most hands-on with the settings as it’s fairly quick and easy to move back and forth from play to pause.

Players are pretty much at the various franchise’s mercy as colors aren’t something you’ve got control over. Some teams make use of red in some fashion, others are less prevalent. Before players step foot on the ice, they do have the option to pick out their team’s sweater to be worn on the ice, so there’s that little bit of control, but that’s about it. Teams that have recently moved or expanded are really good choices as they have more options than an established team that’s been where they’ve been for years.

NHL 11 does something cool on the ice. Arrows appear on the ice to show you where you should go. Really helpful as it does get tiring when the coach tells you to watch your positioning out there. There is a downside to it; the arrows appear in what look to be purples.

Something very un-cool that NHL 11 does happens whenever you get deep into your offensive territory - the camera goes all wonky and begins following your player fairly close, and has a tendency to be disorienting, often times causing turnovers and failed passes.

There are no subtitles in the game. Not only do the announcers call the action on the ice, but they also hand out a few tips on where to aim at the goal to have a better shot of beating the goalie, locations of the hot spots on the ice, and some things that are just plain old good to know.

It wouldn’t even have to be great subtitles with letter-boxing or any of that - the simplest course of action would be to take subtitles as they appear on TV and put them in the game. Thus, keeping the whole television presentation aspect of the game as pure as it could be while adding accessibility.

While I’m on the subject of in-game fixes, why not have one of the pieces of equipment that can be put on your created player mean something. The option to put a visor on a created player’s helmet is there. Visors can be tinted in a variety of colors. This is done to increase visibility and decrease glare - same principle as the yellow tinted glasses I’m wearing right now. It would be very cool of EA to incorporate the tinted visor of a created player as a colored filter for dampening the brightness of the rink.

Getting back off the ice, there is one more thing to look at in the game, which is the new addition to the game, EA’s Hockey Ultimate League. This is a card game wherein you’re the owner of a hockey team out to win. Actually, I only played enough of this to decide it wasn’t for me.

The Ultimate League is an okay addition to the game, but really only if you’ve purchased EA’s online thing and don’t mind playing with a lackluster team for a bit. I do mean playing as skipping games isn‘t possible in this mode.