NHL 16 has been available via EA Access for just under five days, and it officially released in stores on Tuesday. That's been more than enough time to get a good handle on the EA Sports Hockey League. The feature returned to the franchise in this year's version, and the mode was the theme of the beta demo that released in July.For those who may not be totally familiar with the mode, here's a brief overview.You create a player and pick his class: sniper, power forward, playmaker, grinder, enforcer, two-way forward, two-way defenseman, offensive defenseman, defensive defenseman, butterfly goalie, stand-up goalie or hybrid goalie.Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses. You can read about them all at EASports.com. Once you've chosen the player style, you have the choice of teaming up with friends on a club to battle other user-controlled teams online for advancement and rewards.If you don't have a squad, you can drop in on a team of random players. Based on your offensive, defensive and teammate grades, you will receive skill points to level your player up.Before you take the ice, there's a fairly deep set of details to customize. You can pick your player's name, physical stature, attributes (to a degree) and equipment.In my time with the mode, the best games have come when I've played with people I know against strangers. The worst times were the drop-ins. The games with friends have the appropriate level of accountability between the players.Translation: You'll actually have someone pass you the puck. If they don't, you can yell at them. You're free to throw on your headset and mic and yell at the stranger(s) on your team who refuse to give up the puck, but you'll probably get more accomplished by taking your buddies to task.It's possible you'll get lucky and find a great group to team up with, but if that's not the hand you're dealt, you'll quickly find out hockey is one of the most miserable sports to play in a video game when you're being frozen out.In a basketball game, you could grab a rebound and take the ball the length of the court if you had to. Those types of desperate measures don't work as well in hockey. This dynamic isn't a knock on the game or mode; it's just the reality of online co-op play and team-up concepts in hockey.You may not have a hard time finding a crew. On release day, the game's executive producer, Sean Ramjagsingh, was actively recruiting:Even if you have a team that plays as a unit, server issues could derail things. After a rocky start, it seems things have stabilized a bit. In this day and age, it's just not practical to evaluate a game's long-term connectivity in the first 48 hours of release. Sometimes it takes a week to see what you'll be working with.If you're not a big online gamer, you should at least try the mode once. It's worth giving a chance. If you were one of the fans pining for its return, then you'll be pleased once the connectivity is stabilized.Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter
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