''NHL 14'' is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and ...

and published by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

. It is the 23rd installment of the ''NHL'' series and was released in September 2013. However, the game was released on September 7, 2013 for subscribers of the

Season Ticket service. Like the '' NHL 13'' cover, anybody could vote on the player(s) they wished to see on the cover of ''NHL 14''. The vote started on April 22, 2013 with 60 NHL players (2 players per team) in a

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

voting with two players in each match-up, and was closed on June 2, 2013. Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur and Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky qualified for the final, and Martin Brodeur was announced as the winner on June 28, 2013. ''NHL 14'' marked the first time since ''

NHL 97 ''NHL 97'' is an ice hockey video game by EA Sports. It was released on October 31, 1996 and was the successor to ''NHL 96''. It is the sixth installment of the NHL series and the first to be released on both PlayStation and Saturn. A Panasoni ...

'' that a goaltender was featured on the official cover ( John Vanbiesbrouck was on the cover that year), as well as the first goaltender on any official ice hockey video game cover since

Marty Turco Marty Vincent Turco (born August 13, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played 11 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played nine seasons with the Dallas Stars and one season each with the Chicago Blackha ...

2K Sports 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same ...

' ''

NHL 2K6 ''NHL 2K6'' is an ice hockey simulation made by 2K Sports, and published on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Xbox 360 consoles. It features goaltender Marty Turco on the cover of games sold in the United States, and forward Mats Sundin on the cover o ...

''.

Jonas Hiller Jonas Hiller (born 12 February 1982) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender. Hiller played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames and the Anaheim Ducks, the latter with which he began his NHL career with in 2007 ...

was featured on the cover of ''

NHL 12 ''NHL 12'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. The game was featured in the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Steven Stamkos was announced as the game's cover athlete on June 22, 2011, at the NHL ...

'', but only in PAL regions.

Features

''NHL 14'' has overhauls to two game engines, based on other sports titles developed by EA Canada. The

collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great fo ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

are now powered by the same core technology behind the '' FIFA'' Player Impact Engine. For more realistic fights, the game employs the new Enforcer Engine based on the '' Fight Night'' series, resulting in the fighting view being changed back to third-person view. In addition, the True Performance Skating engine got some more improvements, and the game has a new deking system. The game's Be a Pro career mode now has off-the-ice interactions to dictate the player's overall legacy. ''NHL 14 ''also features a modernized version of '' NHL '94'', called ''NHL '94 Anniversary'' mode, featuring current rosters and updated graphics to commemorate the game's 20th anniversary. This game also includes five Swiss NLA-league arenas.

Modes

*Live the Life Mode – This is an expanded version of the Be A Pro mode in previous versions of the ''NHL'' franchise. Off-ice decisions now affect player development. This can be compared to similar singleplayer modes in other sports games such as ''

NBA 2K ''NBA 2K'' is a series of basketball sports simulation video games developed by Visual Concepts and released annually since 1999. The premise of the series is to emulate the sport of basketball, and more specifically, the National Basketball ...

''. *HUT & EASHL Online Seasons – ''NHL 14'' adds a

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

system to Hockey Ultimate Team & EA SPORTS Hockey League modes. *NHL 94 Anniversary Mode – In this mode, the game can be played using the controller layout and presentation style of '' NHL '94''. *Winter Classic – Players have the option of playing the 2011 Winter Classic or the 2012 Winter Classic. *NBC Matchup – In mid-March 2014, EA teamed up with NBC Sports to add their NHL ''Game of the Week'' between Thursdays and Sundays, and their ''Wednesday Night Rivalry'' game between Mondays and Wednesdays, for the remainder of the 2013–14 NHL season.

Reception

''NHL 14'' received "favorable" reviews on both platforms according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Overall it was regarded as an improvement in the ''NHL'' game franchise. The game was awarded "Best Sports Game" in the Game Critics Awards Best of

E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Nokia Theater, ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nhl 14 EA Sports games 2013 video games NHL (video game series) PlayStation 3 games Xbox 360 games Sports video games with career mode Video games developed in Canada Video games set in Canada Video games set in Finland Video games set in Sweden Video games set in Switzerland Video games set in the Czech Republic Video games set in the United States Video games set in 2013 Video games set in 2014 Multiplayer and single-player video games