Fall is my favorite time of year. It is a soothing season filled with autumn colors, comfort food, cooler weather, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and best of all the start of the hockey season! I don't actually play hockey myself, but I am a big fan of the sport and my home team Washington Capitals. I have been faithfully following the Caps for the last eight years, which any hockey aficionado would know is a team that has had plenty of hype and disappointment recently, especially in the playoffs. Fans of the sport also know we all have a mini coach inside of us thinking we know what's best for the team and their success. There are many reasons why we fans are merely spectators and not coaches or players, but at least we have the next best thing, and that is NHL 16.

 

First off, the visuals have continued to improve in NHL 16. A host of new presentation options were introduced last year, and they have only been further enhanced this go around. Player models look better than ever, and that beautiful white glow of the ice continues to shine and get scraped up as every minute passes by. Animation is key in hockey, and every hit, poke check, and deke still looks excellent. Hilariously, EA Sports has even implemented “playoff beards.” There is a superstition among many that you must stop shaving when you make the playoffs. That can now be seen on certain players, as they get deeper into the playoffs, their beards will thicken. The future is finally here, folks. Unfortunately the grading scale seems arbitrary, no matter how the player performs. I've gone entire matches listening to coach feedback, only to end with a B- after scoring a goal and assisting two others. 

 

Outside of regular matches, NHL 16 touts plenty of options for players. One of the main draws is the revamped Be a Pro mode, in which players create a noteworthy prospect and attempt to rise through the ranks of NHL stardom. There's a certain satisfaction to playing smaller games in an effort to raise your NHL draft stock, and then it's time to prove your worth in the preseason before making it to the squad. Players take control of the prospect in these games and attempt to listen to coach feedback to get a better grade throughout the match. If the coach says you need to pass the puck more often, then, well, pass the puck more often. In addition, there's not much to the Be a Pro mode off the ice. Players can choose training sessions in between matches, but that's about it. As much fun as it is to control the prospect on the ice and see his growth, the rest of the Be a Pro mode feels largely hollow.

 

One of the big features of last year’s game was the addition of an NBC presentation package, and it’s back again in NHL 16. Doc & Eddie feature in the game’s opening cutscenes, and although they’re sometimes relevant and add to the story, they make too many vague ramblings which don’t have any relevance to the current situation. I love the idea, but its potential hasn’t quite been realized yet. The new NBC overlays make the game feel like an actual TV broadcast, including the new NBC Wednesday Night Rivalry package, which is excellent. On the whole, I still feel as though there’s a lot more potential from a presentation standpoint, and although what’s there is impressive, the overall experience rarely feels different from game to game.

 

I won my first four games in single-player HUT by a combined score of 97-6. No, that’s not a typo; I averaged well over 20 goals a game on Rookie. After that, I had no desire to play the mode ever again. Either HUT single-player needs to be balanced better so that Rookie offers a challenge, or the difficulty unlocks need to be done away with. After all, it’s a single-player mode in a sports game. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to decide how much of a challenge you want from the start. Speaking of single-player modes, NHL 16 hasn’t forgotten about its offline suite of gameplay options when it comes to getting the game back up to speed. First off, all the solo modes you expect are there. NHL Moments Live remains exactly the same as last year, allowing you to again replay the previous season’s most impressive moments and either replicate or change history depending on the stipulation, and will feature new content as epic games happen over the course of the new season.

 

These changes add up to a package that I have much easier time recommending this time around. After the disaster that was NHL 15, hockey fans will understandably be feeling a little burned, but it's worth putting aside your misgivings and giving NHL 16 a shot. It's not quite the massive upgrade I was hoping for when the series made the jump to the current-generation consoles, but in the end, it's does what it needs to do to recover from last year's debacle and continue moving forward.