looks pretty meh. happy to see some emphasis on hitting. EA never seems to have equal amounts of offensive tools vs defensive tools to make the game fun/rewarding in all 3 zones. I have another bad feeling that they'll tone down poke checks, and we'll see more and more puck going thru sticks again.
My main beef with EAs nhl games is that the puck is basically glued to the player's stick. If it were an entity in itself, that the puck would be loose, and easier to lose as a players bumped, or by other sticks, etc. Similar to Fifa, where the ball is loose, and side by side player's jostling are both fighting for possession. i don't think they get there until the next generation console unfortunately.
I have a bad feeling this will be an extremely small delta release, with much of the dev cycles pushing the next gen. version. I would be ok with that, as long as the next gen game is head and shoulders above what we have now.
NHL® Collision Physics – Developed from the same core technology that powers EA SPORTS FIFA’s critically-acclaimed Player Impact Engine, NHL® Collision Physics introduces bigger, more thrilling hits, and truer-to-life collisions. A new left-stick control scheme makes delivering a game-changing hit simpler and more rewarding than ever.
Enforcer Engine – There is a code in hockey, when it's broken you have to respond. A first for the NHL franchise, Fight Night technology delivers a new 3rd person experience, physics-based punch targeting and player size differentiation to every fight, creating the most authentic and electrifying experience yet.
One-Touch Dekes – Experience what it feels like to be a superstar through a new, more responsive deking system controlled only with the left stick and one-button. From beginner to advanced gamers, the system allows for quicker reactive dekes and intuitive combination dekes, creating more moves than ever before.
True Performance Skating – Built on the breakthrough innovation that introduced physics-based skating and over 1,000 new skating animations to the EA SPORTS NHL franchise. The second year of the True Performance Skating features improved acceleration, explosive first-strides, quicker pivots and enhanced lateral skating, resulting in greater player responsiveness and unprecedented control.
Live the Life – The new incarnation of the Be a Pro Career Mode, now you can truly Live the Life of an NHL player. On or off the ice, every decision you make shapes your legacy as an athlete. Interact with teammates outside of the rink. Take part in media interviews. Each choice you make will affect your relationship with fans, teammates and management, influencing your skills and progression.
EA SPORTS NHL Online Seasons – NHL 14 adds the best-in-class promotion and relegation system in the sports category to the Hockey Ultimate Team & EA SPORTS Hockey League modes. Win games and advance to the next division to face tougher competition, fall short and see your team bumped down. Teams will be able to track their progress across multiple seasons.
I'm not sure how I feel about this one touch deke thing. An update to the be a pro mode sounds good, it's long overdue.
Last edited by Hockeyguy15; 04-15-2013 at 09:08 AM.
I have played over 800 games online and I think poke check is fine, not overpowered in the slightest. The whole point of hockey is to skate to open ice and to pass to open players. Too many people got spoiled by the puck control in 11 & 12 and try to figure skate or skate through players this year and when unsuccessful they claim poke check is overpowered.
End to ends happen once every 3-4 games. Expecting them to happen 3-4 times a period is rediculous. Goalies need better consistency, I like that the simple one timer is much harder now and that games are not 9-7.
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Exactly. Generally I find when people complain about either the poke check or the skating, it's because they aren't adapting their play. They don't deke the puck away from the defender, they pass into extremely busy lanes, or they skate at 100% speed at all times and get burned constantly and can't recover.
The trailer looks pretty much as expected. With still 5 months to go it's probably a pretty rough product at the moment. The changes announced so far are not interesting to me, but then again they never announce everything right off the bat.
The physics are the most interesting thing to me. Anybody have any FIFA experience that can speak on the engine they're using?
Every few years they re-do fighting and its never been good. I agree this will be a pretty weak current gen version and the focus will move to the next gen systems. NHL 14 may be one to skip over. I barely ever play 13.
__________________
A few weeks after crashing head-first into the boards (denting his helmet and being unable to move for a little while) following a hit from behind by Bob Errey, the Calgary Flames player explains:
"I was like Christ, lying on my back, with my arms outstretched, crucified"
-- Frank Musil - Early January 1994
NHL® Collision Physics – Developed from the same core technology that powers EA SPORTS FIFA’s critically-acclaimed Player Impact Engine, NHL® Collision Physics introduces bigger, more thrilling hits, and truer-to-life collisions. A new left-stick control scheme makes delivering a game-changing hit simpler and more rewarding than ever
Ya EA, what you should be focusing on is bigger hits. How about fix the AI.
ok let me rephrase.....poke checking alot = profit. stick lifting = loss. hitting usually leads to loss against good teams.
by spamming i don't mean hitting it over and over again, but more like oh this guy is passing let me hit poke. oh this guy is in range of my blade let me poke. oh i think there might be a cross crease pass right now, let me poke. usually ends up in the puck being poked away from the intended receiver
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ok let me rephrase.....poke checking alot = profit. stick lifting = loss. hitting usually leads to loss against good teams.
by spamming i don't mean hitting it over and over again, but more like oh this guy is passing let me hit poke. oh this guy is in range of my blade let me poke. oh i think there might be a cross crease pass right now, let me poke. usually ends up in the puck being poked away from the intended receiver
That is because interceptions are completely broken in this game. I don't even try to intercept anymore, I just poke when an opposing pass is coming to me. Nothing pisses me off more than being unable to intercept a player calling for a stretch pass from a CPU. The puck always goes right through me/my stick and right to his tape.
I didn't know where else to put this but does anyone know where I can find Max Reinhart in NHL 13 after one of the latest updates? He isn't on Calgary or Abbotsford.
All I hope is it doesnt take 2 hours to simulate a season. The loading times are ridiculously bad in this game. I know that most of the complaints are for game play but I loved playing be a gm mode but when it takes a whole night to make it to a season thats crazy. I would also like it if the top prospects in the draft had a higher rather average of 70. I remember a few years ago they used to throw in a franchise draftee every 4 years or so with a rating of 90, which was actually pretty cool. In the end the draft doesn't even matter because I lose interest in the game because it takes so long to simulate to it.
Exactly. Generally I find when people complain about either the poke check or the skating, it's because they aren't adapting their play. They don't deke the puck away from the defender, they pass into extremely busy lanes, or they skate at 100% speed at all times and get burned constantly and can't recover.
i disagree 100%. as someone that loves to play simple authentic hockey when playing, i find that each year it gets increasingly harder to do so without spending 6 months playing with sliders and wanting to throw my tv through the window as i try and make a ####ty game playable.
the fact that after years you still cant legitimately play defense is pathetic. an idea i believe i first heard from you several years ago was the desire to have 2 commands for checking. one for a less physical but less dangerous contact that defensemen could use to help tie up forwards and then the traditional mega super highlight reel check that you see 85 times a period in an ea game. or they could actually institute a better system for tieing up players in front of the net. or they could learn to program a better way to break up passes when you are in position.
on offense its still a game that promotes selfish dangler play. i can honestly say i have never seen the computer try to cycle the puck down low. its also hard as a human to cycle in offline mode as the teammate ai is terrible. its still a game that rewards glitch goals because honest goals are way too hard to come by. not to mention, i can spend 2 and a half periods controlling the puck and getting legit chances by working the puck to the point and trying to get traffic, only to see the computer come down the ice and score on an unscreened wrister from the blue line.
i would love to play online where the ai logic is minimized, but even that has never been worth it. it took them years to get a working mic system that didnt cut out at the end of each game. thats a necessity if you want to truly use strategy. after years they still have a totally laggy matchup system that is so broken many teams would only play if they got to host. online play was still also plagued by goalies. there were always too few human players that could actually play, so you got stuck with ai goalies that were just as unpredictable as offline. year after year EA was unable to wean players off the cross crease dependency.
sure, this can devolve into how terrible i am at the game and how i play it wrong, but thats really the point. they should be able to put out a game that works for most people. i dont think they do that. many of you guys played with me for years on the fatas. i am definitely not a cheeser glitcher type. i couldnt tell you the first thing about that because i scored like once a decade. but i like to play a realistic legit style of hockey, and EA makes that as hard as humanly possible each year.
the game has regressed several years in a row now. i could go on forever with more complaints but i already have a tl;dr post as it stands.
edit: also, have you EVER seen the cpu make a bad pass? every year i turn their passing accurracy all the way down, and yet every pass they make is tape to tape. and often at lightning fast speed.
Last edited by dobbles; 04-16-2013 at 09:11 PM.
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I didn't know where else to put this but does anyone know where I can find Max Reinhart in NHL 13 after one of the latest updates? He isn't on Calgary or Abbotsford.
