If there's one thing that makes the end of the summer palatable, it's the taste of another imminent year of hockey. However, this year EA Sports has a bit more to celebrate with its 20th year as a brand, and the release of the 21st iteration of its NHL franchise, NHL 12, is just around the corner. One can certainly appreciate a continual focus on gameplay improvements over the lack of fanfare around those arbitrary numbers, but even more pleasing is that some of the more gimmicky-sounding additions announced over the summer aren't taking point either.

Many preview articles, forum threads and blog posts about the game seemed focussed on these gimmicks (I'm referring to the playoff beards, the ability to knock players' helmets off, and the addition of hockey legends, to name a few), as though they were to be the key features. Thankfully, it wasn't so. The majority of the key improvements are subtle and affect the core gameplay and menu navigation, rather than provide cheap thrills.

Don't get me wrong; I'm the first to applaud anything that increases the realism of the game. Playoff beards are as much a part of the sport as anything, but if push came to shove, we could have done without. What I love about NHL 12 is that, while the community's focus was disproportionately aimed at a few specific visual changes, there's a whole slew of them that come together to make the whole scene feel more alive. Yes, you can knock off helmets with big hits, but you can also make the boards shake back and forth; dislodge the net from its moorings; nudge the goalie off balance (or plow into him, whatever your fancy); toe-drag across the blue line to prevent an offside call; look around on the bench and see live players looking around (albeit a bit jumpily) and move when lines change. I'm sure there's lots more minor things I haven't explicitly noticed, but the gist is that playing NHL 11 now feels like moving cardboard cutouts around the screen in comparison. And I used to think NHL 11 was pretty damn good visually.

Key to the feeling of realism is what EA Sports is calling the "full contact physics engine". Fans will recall that NHL 11 touted something similar, where body checks would use something akin to "rag doll" physics that produced different reactions from the recipient of a hit every time. Looking at it now, the limitations are obvious. Colliding with another player without checking often resulted in an awkward pass-by, as if both characters were encased in invisible cylinders. This was even more apparent when skating around the robotic goalie and the cemented net. In NHL 12, all collisions appear to affect both objects involved. Glancing blows will often push players off balance, the net is no longer immovable, checks over the bench causes players to bend over the other side (with seated players reacting accordingly), and hard checks often cause the checker to fall over (sometimes flying over) his opponent.

Because this obviously blurs the line of what is computationally considered "player contact", the calling of interference calls has been greatly relaxed. My one biggest gripe in NHL 11 is that I couldn't so much as poke a player without earning a penalty. It was incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to command a nudge or a shove versus a full-on hit. In addition, you couldn't check a player that hadn't actually touched the puck, even if it was between his skates. Playing defense in Be A Pro was infuriating! In NHL 12, the puck no longer seems to be "owned" by a player, instead often drifting away from the player's control if their stick is priming a slap shot for too long, of they're being too fancy with the deking. Whether because of referee AI tuning or better hitting assist, both of NHL 11's issues appear to have largely gone away, greatly improving the realism of defensive play.