NHL 2001 first impressions
By Author

Producer: EA SPORTS
Genre: Sports
Release date:Sept. 29, 2000
Summary: Game engine is much improved, but gameplay may have suffered.

So after a few false starts, I was finally able to download a working copy of the NHL 2001 demo. Apparently, the Dailyradar copy has a corrupt cabinet file on it, but the ZDNet version seems to work fine. Installation was pretty straightforward as installations go; it will reside in your existing EASPORTS folder (you DO have an EASPORTS folder already, right?) and has its own uninstall utility.

Upon starting the game, you are greeted by the familiar "E-A-Sports...It's in the game" guy, and the new menu song cranks up (which, incidentally, isn't as annoying as the last one, at least at first). Most of the options on the demo are locked out, and the only two teams you can play are the Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils, this year's Stanley Cup competitors. You can mess with the sound options and the graphics options, but be forewarned that you will probably have to turn the resolution or some settings down to play at the same speed you did with NHL2K.

All screenshot thumbs in this article are clickable.

Choke options

Though they are greyed out, you'll notice that in addition to the normal game options, there is an entirely new set of options called AI Options, which let you control various aspects of player behavior, such as fall recovery time, speed burst length and agression, as well as physics options, such as puck elasticity and ice friction.

We'll get right into the thick of the preview here. Comparisons made are between NHL 2000 and 2001, unless otherwise noted.