Another year, another instalment in the NHL franchise. EA’s hockey series has been reliable in upping its game over the years, and this year is no exception. With the game’s transition to the new generation of consoles, graphics have been bumped up, a new physics engine has been brought in, gameplay has been tweaked and, in general, the game looks and feels a lot better. Collisions are more realistic, with players reacting physically to clashes in ways they didn’t before – injuries now pop up on players throughout the game. It’s not just players though; crowds react to on-ice play; the puck reacts more like the real thing. But that appears to have come at a price, with NHL15 leaving out some of the game modes that you’ve come to expect from the series. Updates will bring some of these back, and you get NHL Moments from NHL13, but it’s a little disappointing not to get the full experience out of the box. It’s a bit of a misstep in an otherwise great game.

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