#SHIFT EXCHANGE REVIEWS PRO#
#SHIFT EXCHANGE REVIEWS PLUS#

#SHIFT EXCHANGE REVIEWS PRO#

The real meat of Be A Pro resides in the moment-to-moment progression, as you get to mold an individual from a literal nobody, into one of the biggest names in the sport. Even better yet, their post-game radio broadcast, “call-in show” style of postgame breakdown adds a dose of authenticity that plays well into a player’s overarching story, as told over the span of the season. Ray Ferraro and James Cybulski play off of each other tremendously well. Thought it isn’t necessarily a make-or-break feature by any stretch of the imagination, one of my favorite touches was the extremely amusing commentary tracks. New obstacles or performance tiers help to add more weight to what would otherwise be “more of the same.” NHL 21 Review – Finding Its Voice

#SHIFT EXCHANGE REVIEWS PLUS#

On the plus side, these can sometimes also lead to new player goals for an upcoming game. Fortunately, more dialog options can be unlocked by building out a character’s skill tree, but the core empty feeling somewhat remains. I’m sure there’s likely more going on under the hood than simple binary choices, but for the player, this is how the outcomes appear. It can be somewhat difficult to determine how someone will react to any statement, almost feeling as random as a coinflip. Speaking with AI characters tends to lead to arbitrary outcomes, at best. The net result of these dialog-centric and typically unvoiced exchanges are usually either a boost or diminishment of a player’s teammate, front office, or personal brand rating.

Throughout each campaign, there are numerous opportunities to engage with the coaching staff, teammates, and media. As you might expect, this follows the lifecycle of a career from a player being discovered, the draft, the insane spotlight of a rookie season, and then the later stages of an NHL lifespan. I genuinely can’t remember a time where one single mode has made such a significant improvement over its predecessor. If you couldn’t tell from my earlier description, Be A Pro mode is the crown jewel of NHL 21. My neglected spouse, on the other hand, is about ready hide my DualShocks and cut the power cord. The rejiggered Be A Pro mode has its hooks into me something fierce and I’m not even mad about it. Ever since the game landed on my PlayStation 4’s hard drive, my wife has been going to bed by herself, only to be rejoined by me sometime between 2 and 3 am. If keeping us indoors is practically a public service, then this year’s installment deserves a medal. While we wait for the puck to drop on the next season of real life hockey action, NHL 21 has showed up to save us from the siren call of the outdoors. Fortunately, EA Vancouver looks primed and ready to impress with their newest entry in the NHL franchise. But in case you couldn’t tell, 2020 has been anything but “normal.” Hell, the COVID-shortened 2019-2020 season just finished three weeks ago! Knowing that the start of the season will be on ice (see what I did there?) until at least the start of January 2021, this may be our only trip to the rink for the foreseeable future.

In a normal year, this would be the time when we could all look forward to our favorite players lacing up their skates for another season of NHL action.

Shift exchange reviews