Its one of the best NHLs in years and Ive been playing since NHL 98. The best NHL physics EA has made ever and the gameplay is alot better than past few years. I dont know if it was changes in the dev team or what but it seems lime they are actually trying to improve it. I took a star off because CPU teammates are still very irritating at times, they lack IQ in positioning and sometimes make questionable plays... playing versus CPU is like grinding your nails on the chalk board.. it nearly impossible to get a realistic game going stat wise, goalies give up way too many goals even when I turn the goalie sliders up or shot accuracy down, i can still deke the goalie out and at that point I cant get any snipe goals. I just wish I can get some realistic games going in franchise mode. Also from someone who plays alot of GM mode, i dont like how they put no effort in making franchise mode deeper, they need to take notes from the nba 2k series because there fans out here who play the game just for that. Presentations should be more detailed in GM mode as well... The graphics are better and the few more animations theyve added here and there a plus as well. They did a neat job but really hope they dont stop improving from here on out, the loyal fans deserve more after how NHL 23 turned out to be.