I already wrote about the new GM Mode that's sure to please all the front office managers out there, but I was also shown three other modes that hope to effectively bring different parts of the NHL season to life.
The first is called Battle for the Cup. The name sounds grandiose but the concept is very simple. Rather than forcing you to play through an entire season to reach the Stanley Cup Finals, now you'll be able to hop right in and play in a 1, 3, 5, or 7 game series for the title. There are other little tidbits being added as well. Like storytelling by the commentators and crowd that will callout things that happened in past games.
Say, for instance, you slam Sidney Crosby into the boards and break his leg. He's out for the rest of the series. Then when you play in Pittsburgh the fans will boo you when you have the puck and the commentators will talk about why Crosby isn't playing. Of course, if you're a gutsy manager, you can decide to play an injured player or sit him down for the time being and activate him later in the series.
The next two modes that were revealed during my NHL 10 demo are Season Mode and Playoff Mode. Playoff Mode is pretty much what you'd expect. You can take control of one or more of 16 teams and run through the entire Stanly Cup Playoffs. An interesting bit of info is that you can actually set standard exhibition games to have playoff atmospheres if you so desire. You'll see fans slamming on the glass – both on the side of the rink and right behind the goalie – and everyone in the crowd will be wearing jerseys and waving towels.
Season Mode is a bit more interesting. Here you and up to 29 of your closest friends can join up and play through an entire season with your assorted clubs. It's not an online season mode just yet, but if I had to guess that's where they're heading eventually. You'll have all of the same abilities as you would in a regular season mode, but now with offline multiplayer built in.
The three new modes we were shown were admittedly a bit light on content. They're nice add-ons and are good distractions from the main features of the game, but I'm not sure if fans are going to find them as substantive as EA Sports would like. We'll have more coverage on NHL 10 as its September 15 release date on PS3 and Xbox 360 draws closer.