NHL '12

[ronnychencharik 0]

I don't know about you guys.. but the name of NHL '10 just sounds bad. haha Just say it a couple times out loud..

Hey guys lets go play some NHL 10..

Weirdddd.

We've already decided it's going to be called NHL X.

[jbyun04 7]

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=62565

Press release on some new features:

New board physics engine - kick the puck away and use your body to shield the puck

Scoring - one time loose pucks (impossible to do in 09), score from your knees, knock pucks out of the air and leg kicks to fake shots

New passing engine - control speed and direction of passes so you can bank the puck off the boards

[RecLeagueHero 0]

Point 4 was interesting, I think it would be cool if hitting in the game had the same impact as checking does playing in real life. That said, the other 4 points were basically about nothing but fighting. Fighting has a place in pro hockey, but seriously, this is absurd. Why not spend the time improving goalie AI, which in both the NHL series and the 2K series, sucks. If you want a realistic fighting game then buy a boxing sim like Fight Night.

[Jarick 5]

I doubt that we're going to see the entire game completely devoted to checking and fighting. I think they're just saying it's something that's been lacking (have you ever seen a hockey game with a good fighting engine?). And honestly, how many people pick grinder for BAP right now?

Last year they focused on defense, the year before offense and skating mechanics, but they didn't kill the game or skew it too much, they just made it better. I think a big thing the game could use now would be better crowd interaction with the on-ice activity (i.e. cheering, booing, getting loud, getting quiet, selling out when the team is hot, empty seats when the team is on a losing streak, louder during the playoffs, standing up on big plays or at the end of a close game, etc). Another would be the team energy level as a whole, where you aren't just 100% all the time, but if you're getting lit up people start getting frustrated and taking bad penalties, or if you score a goal your energy starts coming back, etc.

And I know one of the EA designers said that he was tweaking a lot of the attributes and sliders so you wouldn't take as many bad penalties, etc.

[JR97 2]

" or even fight you after the whistle. We've never had that before, and it's just an extension of what makes hockey so great."

That's not entirely correct. The very first version of EA Sports NHL for Sega Genesis had fighting after whistles. It could cost you an instigator as well. I loved/hated that feature. You could go after "66" or "99" and goad them into a fight between whistles. So of course when playing your buddies it was standard operating procedure to go start fights after whistles to get the best players off of the ice. Beer was on the line.

[Jarick 5]

The scrum after the whistle thing could be really cool if it isn't overdone. It's pretty lame watching you almost bury a goal and standing on top of the goalie with their guys just standing around.

[jbyun04 7]

Point 4 was interesting, I think it would be cool if hitting in the game had the same impact as checking does playing in real life. That said, the other 4 points were basically about nothing but fighting. Fighting has a place in pro hockey, but seriously, this is absurd. Why not spend the time improving goalie AI, which in both the NHL series and the 2K series, sucks. If you want a realistic fighting game then buy a boxing sim like Fight Night.

watch the video blog which just about everyone is complaining about

they had someone working on goalies all year with an animator to improve ai and made new animations to block exploits

[RecLeagueHero 0]

Point 4 was interesting, I think it would be cool if hitting in the game had the same impact as checking does playing in real life. That said, the other 4 points were basically about nothing but fighting. Fighting has a place in pro hockey, but seriously, this is absurd. Why not spend the time improving goalie AI, which in both the NHL series and the 2K series, sucks. If you want a realistic fighting game then buy a boxing sim like Fight Night.

watch the video blog which just about everyone is complaining about

they had someone working on goalies all year with an animator to improve ai and made new animations to block exploits

So they have one guy working to fix an actual game play issue and how many do you think they had working on this new fighting engine? I'm going to wager it was more than one.

[jbyun04 7]

Point 4 was interesting, I think it would be cool if hitting in the game had the same impact as checking does playing in real life. That said, the other 4 points were basically about nothing but fighting. Fighting has a place in pro hockey, but seriously, this is absurd. Why not spend the time improving goalie AI, which in both the NHL series and the 2K series, sucks. If you want a realistic fighting game then buy a boxing sim like Fight Night.

watch the video blog which just about everyone is complaining about

they had someone working on goalies all year with an animator to improve ai and made new animations to block exploits

So they have one guy working to fix an actual game play issue and how many do you think they had working on this new fighting engine? I'm going to wager it was more than one.

So would I. Engine and Animations are 2 different categories.

For engines you need animators and lots of programmers to make everything look seamless. To fix bugs and add in new animations for goalies takes one skilled animator and one goalie nut. What makes you think it would be efficient to chuck a bunch of guys in the goalie department when they probably don't need to do any programming? One dedicated animator (as they claim) can pretty much handle anything that goalie guy can throw at him especially if they're working on all year. There might be the rare time he needs a little bit of help from another animator.

[pantherfan 0]

Maybe it's not right to bash them on how we think they managed their team/time this year before we even play the game.

I'd like to echo the comments on the fighting, it's a very small part of the game which I think they've just added to for the non-hockey market.

Need for improvement in my eyes:

Faceoffs.

Fighting.

Passing.

BAP - Trade/FA + Camera Angles.

Interferance/hooking/elbow calls.

Option to turn "tips" off in standard games (Pressing B repeatidly throughout games is tedious at best)

Remove the Forsberg move, its awful.

Accurate shooting for EN when in neutral zone instead of dump in.

More/better "loose puck" dekes

[Chadd 916]

" or even fight you after the whistle. We've never had that before, and it's just an extension of what makes hockey so great."

That's not entirely correct. The very first version of EA Sports NHL for Sega Genesis had fighting after whistles. It could cost you an instigator as well. I loved/hated that feature. You could go after "66" or "99" and goad them into a fight between whistles. So of course when playing your buddies it was standard operating procedure to go start fights after whistles to get the best players off of the ice. Beer was on the line.

All you had to do was check the same guy three times in rapid succession and he would drop the gloves, even if it was Wayne or Mario. We used to pull the goalies just to see how many PIMS we could run up. The best part was that they would let guys out of the box so you didn't run out of players. It wasn't hockey, it was professional wrestling on ice.

[Race4LastPlace 31]

i would love to be able to play in different rink styles (outdoor, classic, etc). But realistically i'd like to not play against pittsburgh in versus mode every other game. Its getting boring facing them every time now it seems, ive resorted to position locking at goalie to make things fun again...

[bar_down_21 0]

Passing would be too hard if you had to control speed and direction.

[interpathway 9]

Passing would be too hard if you had to control speed and direction.

People were saying that about the shooting in NHL07 though, and they got that spot on.

[K9 Unit 1]

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=62565

Press release on some new features:

New board physics engine - kick the puck away and use your body to shield the puck

Scoring - one time loose pucks (impossible to do in 09), score from your knees, knock pucks out of the air and leg kicks to fake shots

New passing engine - control speed and direction of passes so you can bank the puck off the boards

alas some board play....hopefully OUR AI can loose one timers...in 09 that pissed me off too

and yay...no more magnetic passing lol

edit:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/982/982910p2.html

check the philly/devils pic...they added the bauer 4rolls in the gloves

[jbyun04 7]

i'll edit the first post anytime there is something new so keep checking that one

[HattrickSwayze 3]

Some more info here, along with some new screens too. Regarding the physical play this year:

"One key to this feature is that you don't need to play this way. If you have a skilled team you can just try and score goals while the opposing team is running around trying to hit and fight you. It is simply one way to play."

Sounds like maybe you can negate the other teams momentum from hitting by scoring goals and such. They also added "tough guy" as a new player type. This should be good for dynasty, because tough players will actually have a use this year. You can build your team to be skilled like the Wings, or a tough team like the Ducks.

http://www.gamespot.com/sports/blogs/sport...t-physical.html

Also a write-up on IGN here too.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/982/982921p1.html

[K9 Unit 1]

i was just about to post gamespot beat me to it =(

there's a small sentence that caught my attention at the bottom of it, the dude mentioned he made sure they did basically all of the things fans want this year...trying to get rid of the EA stereotype =P

[jbyun04 7]

Some more info here, along with some new screens too. Regarding the physical play this year:

"One key to this feature is that you don't need to play this way. If you have a skilled team you can just try and score goals while the opposing team is running around trying to hit and fight you. It is simply one way to play."

Sounds like maybe you can negate the other teams momentum from hitting by scoring goals and such. They also added "tough guy" as a new player type. This should be good for dynasty, because tough players will actually have a use this year. You can build your team to be skilled like the Wings, or a tough team like the Ducks.

http://www.gamespot.com/sports/blogs/sport...t-physical.html

Also a write-up on IGN here too.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/982/982921p1.html

already put those up ;)

[jbyun04 7]

Patrick Kane is cover boy

[adam14 182]

so, just to clarify that article.

the five new things introduced is:

-fighting is more realistic.

- fighting is more realistic

- fighting is more realistic

- fighting is more realistic

-fighting is more realistic

great article. looking forward to the game, the new controls for stick handling, vision and shooting look amazing.

[Jimbo 0]

I don't know about you guys.. but the name of NHL '10 just sounds bad. haha Just say it a couple times out loud..

Hey guys lets go play some NHL 10..

Weirdddd.

I think NHL 2010 would sound better... like NHL Twenty-Ten? Idk, thats just my opinion.

Anyone have News on 2K10? I know 2K games are nothing like EA Games but... it'd be interesting to hear who the coverboy would be and stuff like that..

[jbyun04 7]

I don't know about you guys.. but the name of NHL '10 just sounds bad. haha Just say it a couple times out loud..

Hey guys lets go play some NHL 10..

Weirdddd.

I think NHL 2010 would sound better... like NHL Twenty-Ten? Idk, thats just my opinion.

Anyone have News on 2K10? I know 2K games are nothing like EA Games but... it'd be interesting to hear who the coverboy would be and stuff like that..

I remember thinking NHL 2000 sounded funny, same with NHL 06.

Screenshot of the new leg kick

[interpathway 9]

You mean screen shot of the U+ CL. :lol:

[TBLfan 25]

Those are not Ovechkin's gloves or his pattern, no yellow laces, no "dirty flop" and head waaay the crap down with no stick flex. I hate this game already.

P.S. What is fluery doing with his catcher?

I'm not being serious. but I knew people would bring it up.