It’s September and if you are a sport game fan like myself you know what that means. NHL 17 has arrived!! I am a die-hard NHL game fan and have literally bought every single EA NHL title known to man. NHL 17 has some upgrades but to be honest it’s very similar to NHL 16, not a bad thing because I really enjoyed the direction the EA was going with that game and now we have NHL 17 which I am enjoying a lot. Is it the greatest hockey game every made? nope because we all know NHL 94 was the greatest of all time!! Gameplay in NHL 17 has changed quite a bit and I do enjoy how fluid the game has become. The controls are looser to me and you have way more control of your player and stick as well. In NHL 16 there were a ton of issues with how sluggish players felt and it really pissed me off. CPU A.I has increased and I really love how the CPU controlled players will actual reach for pucks, pick off passes, and actually get into position on the ice which is huge. My only flaw again this year is the goalies. They are still super easy to score and frankly its a real shame because they did some overhauls on goalie A.I and to me they seem worse than last years game. That toe drag glitch goal drives me fucking crazy! no way a goalie lets that in every time. The whole layout of NHL 17 is a lot better than NHL 16 and very easy to navigate on the menu screens in all modes. EA I think you should give up on soundtracks for NHL games because the music you pick is fucking horrible! Hockey Ultimate Team Let’s take a dive into some of the modes we have in this years title starting off with my favorite Hockey Ultimate Team. This is EA’s bread and butter mode and to me the deepest other than franchise mode. I am in love with the new layout and interface of HUT which is so easy to navigate and compared to last year does not freeze or glitch out so far. EA packs are back in the game of course but you now have the option of buying point packs as I like to call them. You have the option of buying the packs with coins or with these point packs. Pricing ranges from around $5-$116 for these bundles(that’s if you have EA Access’ discount).  The best pack you can buy costs you 300 points and I did spend around $25 on packs and it paid off. I PULLED A MALKIN ON MY FIRST PACK!!!!!!! BOOOOOOYA! I had to share that excitement. Like always you try to build the best possible team with players you get from packs or if you want to buy and sell of course on the market which is same as always. What I do love is when you check out your collections/set you actually have the player cards that you would need. This is great! if you don’t have the card it is grayed out and if you do you will see it highlighted. Also if you have duplicate cards you can see that as well. Great feature thanks EA for listening. Another feature added this year is that you will have the ability to trade in unwanted cards and get bonus gold packs and other collectable items as well. This is located in the “sets” area of HUT.HUT Heroes is another added sweet bonus as well. When completing a full team set you will now unlock a HUT Hero which is only unlocked by completing the team set. This is all retired players with some crazy stats aswell. SO GET COLLECTING! This year in HUT you have player synergy boosters. This is what builds your chemistry. Each player will have a set bonus synergy boost such as speed or shooting to name a few. Build your team the way you like and stack up more of the same players to unlock these chemistry boosters and you will be dominating in HUT. Another great little feature for HUT. [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTj0duKLu8I[/embedyt]   Draft Champions As a fantasy nut I loved how they added this mode into NHL 17. Does it need work or extra features of course but it is still a lot of fun drafting and competing online with your drafted team. I do wish they had mini seasons that you can play with your friends and have a really full roster draft but maybe down the road they will. For draft champions you get a set team already of random players after that is set you will go through 12 rounds of drafting players that pop up on your screen. Before drafting you will have the option of picking your draft criteria players. This varies from Stanley Cup Champions to All-Star Alumni players. I love how EA has a wide range of hockey’s legends in the game as well. Once you get going with your drafting rounds players will pop up on the screen and you will need to choose one in each round. Choose wisely and build your team accordingly to make sure you have what it takes to compete in the 4 round mini tournament. Lose a game and your done, win and you move on. Winning Draft Champions will unlock coins/points for HUT. I do enjoy this mode but it could totally be made into something amazing! [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnE4TMf-1XM[/embedyt]   EASHL This game mode is one of my favorites . You create your player, create your team and hit the ice. Each player can control a position of their chosing and like wise for your opponents. You then enter the dressing room lock in your roster and search for an opponent. You start of in division 10 and will need to work your way through mini seasons getting as many points as possible to move up. If you don’t you will stay in the same division or worse you will be sent down. Some huge creation overhauls with jerseys, arenas and player appearances getting a complete upgrade finally. Also some new celebrations are added which make it more fun when you score. The more you play the better you get and the more experience points you gain to unlock various things for your created player. Makes for a fun progression system when playing through. Overall the feel of EASHL when you hit the ice is 10x better than last years game. New player builds have been added as well. The game play is smooth but EA has still not fixed how garbage the goalies are and you will continue to get people who glitch goal game in-game out because they are a bunch of fucking LOSERS!! EA get your shit together on this and change-up the goalies PLEASE!! the real fans beg you!!!! [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P90HCaBgmm4[/embedyt] Franchise Mode Be a GM mode has now given you complete control of an entire franchise with the addition of unique team owners. You manage your favorite team and work behind the scenes to create that dynasty team and win the cup! You can make changes to ticket prices, marketing, player personnel, arena upgrades and even team relocation which is pretty cool. I played a bit of this mode and I do like it. This will be a deep dive into this mode for sure with a lot of interesting things you can do when building your team. Be a Pro When a player looks back at their career it’s filled with moments that they’ll never forget – their first goal, their first fight, stepping onto the ice surface for their first NHL game. Bring these moments to life-like never before in Be a Pro and other modes by celebrating the career-defining milestones that hockey players remember for the rest of their lives.  The paragraph above is complements of http://www.easports.com. I had to throw that in my review because it sent chills down my body when I read it! Be a Pro is a great offline mode where you create a player or use an existing player and you basically start from the minors and work your way up to the big leagues. You will get drafted and try to make a name for yourself hitting career milestones while ultimately trying to carry your team to th Stanley Cup.