Longtime developer of Electronic Arts’ NHL series of hockey games — and the country’s biggest studio — Vancouver’s EA Canada recently released the latest entry in the annual franchise: NHL 10. In this feature we analyze how the game fared with critics via its Metacritic ranking.

The PS3 version of the game currently holds an overall score of 87%, which puts it in the same realm as the last two releases: NHL 09 received an overall score of 88%, while NHL 08 reached 86%. The majority of critics seemed to agree that the latest game in the series is a step up in many ways compared to its predecessors.

1up‘s Mike Nelson put it succinctly saying “if you thought NHL 09 was great, you’ll love ’10.” Destructoid‘s Samit Sarkar, meanwhile, lauded the 2010 edition as the best in the series. “NHL 10 is EA Sports’ best hockey title yet,” Sarkar explained, “offering considerably improved gameplay and another hour-eating mode in Be A GM.”

But while the majority of reviews featured near-universal praise, IGN‘s Nate Ahearn believed that not enough was done to differentiate the game from the version released last year. “NHL 10 is a great hockey game, don’t get me wrong,” Ahearn wrote. “The biggest problem that fans of the series will have is that it just isn’t all that different from NHL 09…Nothing is a bad or poor choice that even comes close to ruining the experience, but there could have been more done to expand the core gameplay and offering of modes.”

That being said, he did bestow upon the game a fairly high rating of 87/100.

Industry site Gamasutra has a new post up examining game development in several different cities in North America. And Canada is well-represented, with sections dedicated to both the Toronto and Vancouver development scenes.

The Toronto section focuses on the city’s little known indie games scene, including commentary from both Capybara Games‘ Nathan Vella and Metanet Software‘s Raigan Burns. While discussing Vancouver, meanwhile, the piece looks at the history of the country’s biggest games hub, with a special focus on the impact of Electronic Arts.

The entire article — which also includes looks at Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, and Raleigh — can be found at Gamasutra.

Today Electronic Arts announced that its Vancouver-based Black Box studio is currently developing the third entry in the Skate series.

Skate 3 will feature an increased focus on the social and multiplayer elements of the game, with an all new “skate crew” element.

“The social and community aspects of the Skate franchise are something we’ve always embraced, but we’ve never done anything to the scale you’re going to see in Skate 3,” senior producer Jason DeLong said. “We’re giving gamers a very unique experience by providing them with the tools they need to build their ultimate team or to create a team comprised entirely of their online friends. From there, it’s all about proving yourself — teaming up, and throwing down.”

EA Black Box developed both of the previous entries in the well-received series, as well as the Wii-exclusive Skate It and several entries in the Need For Speed series. Skate 3 is expected to be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in May 2010.

Toronto-based indie developer Metanet Software — the team behind the very successful N — has announced its next game, which will be called Office Yeti.

The game has been in development for several months, and is described as “a single-player action/puzzle/simulation game in which players assume control of a yeti who works in an office.” It’s still very early in development, so details are slim, but the game will be released at some point after the studio’s current focus — Robotology, the follow-up to N — is eventually released.