NHL 07 arguably begins a new era for EA's vaunted hockey video game franchise, and not only because it's on a next-gen platform.

In years past, the vision behind EA's NHL titles seemed to point to a style-over-substance mindset, where big lights and big players were complementary to big bodychecks and big shots.

Now the substance has taken on a leading role, with more simulation-based elements added to create a more credible NHL experience. Gone are the relentless booming open-ice checks and the outrageous one-timers, replaced by free-flowing skating, skilled stick-handling and shooting.

The key to all this lies in a new system that runs through the right stick, something EA has coined the "Skill Stick." You can do all manner of puck handling with it: protect the puck, deke, and shoot the puck with varying degrees of power, light flicks, wristshot, slappers, etc. Compared to using mere buttons in the days of old, it's a system that will take more than a few games to really get used to, but the concept is a solid and a better emulation of the act of shooting.

Pulling back on the stick and pushing it forward will take a slap shot, while just pushing it forward will shoot a wrister. Using the left stick to move your player and aim your shot, you can literally go from one end of the ice to the other and take a shot on goal without touching anything on the control pad but the two thumbsticks... it's all in the thumbs...

That facet is all the better scince the goaltenders in NHL 07 are now playing a style that matches their real life counterparts. Roberto Luongo, for instance, will play the butterfly style perfectly, while Dominik Hasek will flop around a lot in the perplexing way of his, sometimes referred to as "style." Regardless, if/when you get skilled with the Skill Stick, you can take advantage of each goalie's flailing butterfly shortcomings.

Puck physics are also considerably different this time around; the black biscuit will behave more realistically now, though the ever-lamentable magnetic-puck-on-a rubberband-tetherball thing continues to rear its annual head. And there's still fluke goals that verge on the impossible, ones that bounce off the goalie's back or flutter in after hitting a couple of players in the crease. It's fairly realistic once in a while, sure, but it also happens a little too often to ring true.

Updates, additions and crazy-new Skill Stick notwithstanding, most of this year's EA NHL (07) hasn't changed too drastically from last year's NHL (06), which wasn't exactly broken, so that's (mostly) a good thing.