The left-stick is the trick when scoring on breakaways. A spinning deke and a canned left-to-right deke have been mapped to the face buttons, but these are more effective on CPU defenders than the goalie. On breakaways, it's not uncommon to rattle your stick back and forth while trying to fake out the goalie. By tapping left or right on the left stick, you do a simple deke without changing direction, ala NHL 94. Puck control is simple and intuitive, thanks a lot to the left-analog deking.
In short, shooting is a real strength of NHL 07. Skating backward away from goal, however, a backhand has no chance of going in and little chance of being on target. In the slot, square to the goal, a forehand wrist shot has a great shot of hitting the target on goal. On the flip side of that coin, you have to have your player in the proper shooting position for maximum effectiveness. I prefer to remove the bulls eye indicators since I know what direction I'm aiming in, but the system is very responsive and you truly feel as if you are placing the puck where you want it. By aiming in nine different directions with the left stick, you can put the puck in nine different areas of the goal. The excellent shot-aiming from NHL 06 returns, complete with the magic bulls eyes that appear in each corner of the goal. The puck ricocheted into the air and my player darted forward, hitting the puck in the air into the goal. In one sequence, I shot a puck and the goalie made a nice stick save. The puck physics are very good in NHL 07, resulting in plenty of interesting rebounds and deflections. By tweaking the one-timer, then, EA took another little shortcut in making it a little easier to score in other ways. The 360 version of NHL 07 also removed the one-timer as the dominant play, so let's hope this is a trend in all hockey games in the future.
As one-timers are a rarity in the NHL anyway, this is a nice improvement in hockey gameplay. A back-handed one-timer will look downright ridiculous. Unless a player receives a perfect pass and is in perfect position, the one-timer will be ineffective. As in real hockey, the accuracy of a one-timed shot is generally poor. A big adjustment has been made with the one-timer and it's nowhere near as powerful as before. Since graphics, sound and engine are largely the same, the team at least spent considerable time making some gameplay tweaks. You'll light the lamp plenty with the excellent shot-aiming system. Still, this new passing system feels like a simple change, like moving shooting from one button to another. If you flick the stick in another direction, like toward the offensive zone, you'll dump the puck, allowing your speedier wingers to race down the ice, similar to the new style of play in the NHL with the new rink dimensions and rule changes. By flicking the right stick in the direction of a teammate, you'll flick a pass in his direction. In short, passing has been mapped to the right analog stick, and with good results. Ditch the keyboard for a duel analog USB gamepad or go play the console version. The big addition to the gameplay is what EA has termed the "skill stick revolution." If you opt for the keyboard, then you are missing out on the revolution, obviously. That's not to say that the development team at EA didn't do a good job, most likely with limited resources.
NHL 22 FLIP DEKE PC
But the sad fact is that as we near the end of the lifespan of the Xbox and PS2 and as PC titles are increasingly being labeled "next-gen," the newest batch of sports titles are devolving into budget games, like Madden 2004 for the original PlayStation. That's fair, since most gamers have their eyes focused in the exact same place. It's pretty clear that with the possible exception of Madden NFL 07, publishers like EA and 2K Sports have their eyes focused squarely on next-generation titles. The graphics, audio and game engine feel exactly the same as 06.
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