• Small Talk – Daniel Radcliffe (2 of 2)

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  • #freshpresslive – feb 10/12

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  • #freshpresslive – Feb 8/12

    Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!

  • #freshpresslive – Feb 7/12

    Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.

  • Small Talk – The Kooks (2 of 2)

    When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.

  • Small Talk – The Kooks (1 of 2)

    The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.

  • #freshpresslive – Feb 2/12

    Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.

  • #freshpresslive – Feb 1/12

    Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.

  • #freshpresslive – Jan 31/12

    Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.

  • #freshpresslive – Jan 30/12

    David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.

  • Small Talk – Daniel Radcliffe (1 of 2)

    Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.

  • Small Talk – Graffiti6 (2 of 3)

    Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”

  • Small Talk – Graffiti6 (1 of 3)

    Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.

  • Small Talk – Nick Carter (3 of 3)

    Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.

  • Small Talk – Nick Carter (2 of 3)

    During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.

  • Small Talk – Nick Carter (1 of 3)

    There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.

  • Small Talk – Hedley (2 of 2)

    When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.

  • Small Talk – Hedley (1 of 2)

    It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.

  • Small Talk – Marina and The Diamonds (2 of 2)

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  • Small Talk – Neverest

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Gaming Column: NHL 06 Delivers

Posted by andPOP Staff on September 13th, 2005

If you’ve read enough of my reviews then perhaps you have come to notice that I am more so the actionadventure gaming buff and that I seldom review sports games; in other words, I’m a nerd. But that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize a fun game with fantastic features when I see it: enter NHL 06 for PS2, Xbox and Gamecube.

Last month I purchased a PSP bundle that came with Gretzky and the very next day I had to buy a new game because the great one just didn?t cut it. I understand fully that comparing games on consoles to games on portables is like comparing apples to oranges but I feel that in this case I have to do it simply because NHL 06 triumphs in the area in which Gretzky fails ? a crucial one in this case ? gameplay.

With Gretzky handling the puck is just plain annoying – half the time when you try to recover it, you find yourself skating right around it. This makes it nearly impossible to set up some nice one-timers or crucial rebound shots. Puck handling with NHL 06 is smooth and even better, you can pick up the controller, watch for the button guide on the load up screen and you?re good to go.

In a few matches I found myself quickly moving beyond the basics and onto some of the more complicated areas, such as switching up your defensiveoffensive strategies. Toggling the strategies is done with the D-pad while player movement is controlled by the left analog. The right analog is used to activate a star player?s special shots. It sounds complicated having to worry about two analogs and a D-pad but it becomes quite fluid after a short while.

What impressed me most about this game was that it was more than just firing the puck at the net, it was also about being able to quickly switch up your defensive or offensive strategy on the fly – it becomes almost an art. For example, moving past the third line and changing your offensive strategy, so that you have two men move down with you allowing you to initiate beautiful set-ups and pass-backs would leave the goalie nice and schooled. This also works in reverse, for when your opponent begins to move into your zone you can make the quick switch to your defensive strategy so that if needed, the whole team comes to the rescue.

In general, the game is still no cakewalk. It?s almost an insult to the goalie if you bother to shoot the puck from the third blue line for instance. You really have to get the hang of the targeting system when shooting the puck as well. When you hold the button down for either a slap or wrist shot, targets appear behind the goalie. Aiming at an illogical target won?t give you the goal but deeking to the left and then aiming for the right will improve your chances.

The game has a variety of modes including full season and exhibition, as well as NHL 94! I don?t know if EA was aiming to show how far hockey games have come along but this is certainly what comes to mind when playing the more-than-a-decade-old version. I also loved being able to create a player and model his facial features to look like anyone I wanted. I chose to model a player after myself. And on top of this, when I used my doppelganger in the game the commentator referred to him by the name I entered, which was my own, ?Johnny.? How spectacular is it when charging down rink with the puck to then hear the commentator say, ?Johnny fires the shot and scores!?

So there you have it, NHL 06 is in many ways proof that we shouldn?t get too excited about the next generation of consoles just yet because there are still solid titles on the systems we have right now. Definitely pick up a copy of this one, especially if you?re looking to get an early fix of hockey now that we know we’ll soon be able to get back into the race for the cup.


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Categories: Gaming