Dear EA Sports; This Looks Dumb

If you have ever played an EA Sports created video game (i.e. Madden, NCAA Football, NHL Series, etc.) then you know that all too often EA will add certain elements to a game that completely overlook and take the place of simple gameplay adjustments that desperately need to be done to create a more 'realistic' experience for sedentary nerds like me.  In the football games it's usually the tackling, passing, catching animations, in the NHL games it's typically the hitting, poking, and invisible sticks when it comes to blocking pucks (defensive aspects), and the list goes on and on.







Flash forward to this year's E3.  The new NHL game is announced, featuring some gameplay fixes and OMG GOALIE FIGHTS!!!  What a great new feature, but might I direct the reader to the many many videos that show this same thing happening in NHL's 2004-2006.  Okay, but this is a new generation of consoles, so the question became how well would it be done.  Does this mean line brawls will exist in the game?  Does this mean goalies will break their faces and hands like other fighters do in previous games?  Just how badass will this get?  Well, EA did it again, ruining something their fans really wanted to see.  Observe:

Wow, that was dumb.

As commenter Czar said on Puck Daddy:

Goalie fight looks stupid...ice clears and it jumps to some alternate world? Very weird and feels rushed.

Or as Barry Petchesky put it on Deadspin:

real goalie fights are the final escalation of a mass brawl, and are heralded by the arena losing its collective mind as the netminders skate slowly to center ice. All that's missing here.

Without the grandeur and buildup to goalies fighting this just becomes goalies fighting.  There is really nothing inherently awesome about that other than you don't typically see it.  Those familiar to the series will recognize that this the goalie fights have exactly the same animations and mechanics as regular fights...except with GOALIES!  The game doesn't necessary feel as if there should be a goalie fight, therefore, NHL fails trying to capture the most realistic gameplay to date.  But, what else should we come to expect.  This is the same company that updates grass animation before focusing on realistic catching.

By the way, I'm still waiting for that 'big' announcement that EA touted about this game.  I certainly hope it's not the Legends feature (although I know it is), because I could play as the '69 Chiefs in Madden NFL 98 for the Playstation, so that's not really NEW or COOL...just like goalie fights.