Quote:
Originally Posted by dobbles
russ, the reason i think it is moving away is that the game continues to rely on highlight reel checks, lots of figure skating, and overpowered goalies that cover up terrible defensive AI.
they were showing last years playoffs on NHL network this summer and when watching, it reminded me just how sloppy and physical nhl hockey is. the nhl is about grinding for every inch on the ice and being patient.
conversely the nhl series has always been about finding some way to glitch the goalie, skating circles around everyone, using datsyukian dekes, hitting like scott stevens, etc.
i just feel that each year they continue to emphasize the arcade side of hockey. and while that wasn't such a big deal when they were busy adding game modes and let the gameplay sit a bit, but this year they made a big deal about how much better the AI and gameplay was. in my opinion, it didn't improve at all.
like i said, i know i am in the minority, but i just find the fan boi attitude that so many here have to be disgusting. why does everyone have to imply that because i dislike the game that i either dont watch dont, never played hockey, am terrible at the game, or that i try to play the same way as nhl 12? can't i just dislike the changes because i feel they weren't in the best interest of the series???
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Oddly enough that's pretty much exactly how I would describe a lot of the gameplay changes to this years NHL.
I couldn't score and couldn't prevent scoring chances for a few days due to the habits of previous iterations, mainly the idea that you could just crush anyone at the blueline or pull the same move over and over again on offense. As soon as I started playing the game with patience defensively (controlling gaps, bumping the puck back etc.) and grinding out cycles to get scoring chances (both high and low cycles, as well as pulling up on the rush to find the trailer) I had much more success. The effectiveness of the poke check is another shot of realism, the puck is spending way more time bouncing around then ever before, just like it does in the real game. There are still issues for sure, the systems don't always work and the AI gets mixed up sometimes, but overall this is way more like a simulation than it is an arcade version of hockey.