Game Overview
Sega have produced a very respectable adaptation to NHL hockey management, however confusing it might be. The game layout takes a little bit of getting used to, and that’s for the long standing championship manager fan, people that have never played Championship Manager you may need to take a couple of hours out of your hectic life to read the instruction manual getting to know all the terms and slang about the tactics and gameplay, but once you get familiar with the game layout things do become a little easier.

As with previous management games from Sports Interactive it succeeds in having stats galore, a huge accurate database of teams, players, coaches and leagues pretty much what we have come to expect from the management giants. If you don't know a great deal about Ice Hockey, once you have played Eastside Hockey Manager for a few hours you could be mistaken for someone who has followed Ice Hockey their whole life.

What we didn’t like about the game was match play; it didn’t seem to capture the true speed and excitement of a hockey game, the edge of seat dramatics or a spectator punch by punch account of a game. Its text based commentary was a bit of a let down and really could have done with the 2D match engine that we have grown to love in Football Manager and Championship Manager.

Although this is their first account of an ice hockey management sim, things are looking good, and we can comfortably say that there is certainly no other game out there to rival this which makes it a 'must buy' for all hockey fans.

Like we have mentioned already NHL Eastside Hockey Manager = Confusion, so to give us a helping hand we drafted in a fully qualified ice hockey coach to help us with the review of the game and he is still confused by some of the features, but with a little perseverance we are sure it will make sense someday!

Our Conclusions
NHL Eastside Hockey Manager does have a few short falls compared to previous management games by Sports Interactive but this is definitely a game to get excited about, and as it will take quite a bit of getting used to you have the perfect excuse to get out of doing DIY and the washing up! Result!!

Overall Score: 8/10

Big thanks to Trevor Clatworthy with his expertise in the Ice Hockey field, thanks to Alex at Sega and of course the "King of Games" Chris Swanson.