In my experience with nhl video games this is by far the hardest/worst nhl game. I do not have internet on my console therefore I play mostly franchise and be a pro mode. When playing against AI in franchise mode I can not find a balance in the difficulty and quite frankly it's rediculous. It's very frustrating when pro is too easy and all star is too hard. This is also after tweaking the gameplay sliders. Be a pro mode they obviously don't care about because I play as goalie and the AI tend to have same patterns and shots but yet sometimes my goalie will stop them and other times he will not, and I understand attribute ratings have to do with it but it feels like I have no control over wheny goalie will save it or not. I've been playing the nhl series since nhl 93 and by far this is the worst nhl game I've ever played and its obvious that ea did not put forth the effort to make this a great nhl game.