Fans of EA's Hockey games. - Page 3 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Bill Bumface · 05-30-2006, 09:27 AM

Shots should be able to go off a stick/leg and into the corner. There should be more loose pucks in general. Possibly some kind of fight for the puck on the boards button would be cool.

Copy and paste the Madden franchise mode and tweak it to hockey.

fredr123 · 05-30-2006, 10:00 AM

A lot of people have mentioned my beefs already. Most of my experience with the latest NHL game came on the GameCube so there were problems from the word go.

User Interface: Why does it change every year and why oh why does it vary from game to game? Some screens were too slow to scroll through. Others went faster and you weren't expecting that. All those "Are you sure?" dialogues should be consistent across the game so you don't accidently hit the wrong option. On the GC this year, the UI was absolutely horrible.

Strategy: I've never really played a high level of hockey but I've played a buttload of videogames. This year's NHL 06 was full of weird strategy and poor positioning all around. Why do defenders stand beside their men and allow shots? Why do players go for line changes while they're chasing down an opponent on a breakaway? Why does the goalie always go down on a blocked shot and can never recover in time when the deflection invariably goes back to the shooter for an easy tap in?

God Mode: Seriously annoying. If I'm good enough to be winning 5-0 in the third, there's no real reason my goalie should become an instant siv and the other team completely untouchable. Oh, and just because you are a superstar with a star icon around your character shouldn't mean that I can't knock the puck off of you. It seems even big hitters have a hard time knocking around a guy like Paul Kariya. Let's face it, that ain't true to life.

Dynasty Mode: It is way better in other EA games than it was in NHL 06. Maybe someone could shed some light on this for me. Can't EA Sports get a group of people together who are solely responsible for franchise modes across all EA games? Their job would be to create a workable, fun and deep dynasty mode framework that can be tweaked and customized for each sport with their own peculiarities like salary caps, etc. Improve on it from year to year instead of, as it seems to be the case now, starting from scratch all the time. The same could be said for the UI.

Controls: This is probably only a big deal on the GameCube. Why can't I map any control I want to any button I want? Why is that so hard? For instance, it is a much more convenient controller combination to make your player slash someone than it is to hook. Now neither hooking nor slashing are supposed to be allowed in real hockey but the computer can blatantly hook you off the puck whenever it wants without reprecussions.

Help me out: The computer is always at an advantage in that it can "see" everything going on. It knows it has a winger leaking out into the neutral zone for the breakout pass. If he's off-camera, I might not know what's going on. That's a problem wtih camera angles that ought to be addressed (I can't seem to find one that really suits my liking, could be a personal thing). If I'm making a move close to the goalie or close to the blueline, why can't the computer help me out by trying to keep the puck onside or away from the goalie? In Madden, if the player gets close to the sideline you get a cool tip-toeing animation as he tries to stay in bounds. Likewise, please protect the puck and let me make a move when I'm on a breakaway. Too often the defender magically catches up and bumps into you which completely eliminates any ability to make a play on the goalie. Doesn't work on the computer when I'm on defence though...

/Rant over

Rhettzky · 05-30-2006, 10:06 AM

Here's some new information on the game this year from IGN for those that haven't seen it yet...

http://blogs.ign.com/NHL_07

Major highlights:

Quote:

Major Changes Ahead
NHL 06 was incredibly successful. It was a fun game to work on and a fun game to play. As a matter of fact, we may have made it too fun…at the expense of authenticity. Authenticity has been the key word during the design and implementation of NHL 07 Next Gen. This applies to every area of the game, but most importantly gameplay.

There were many restraints that we faced over the last few years. Most of the code and animation system had been the same for many years. Instead of starting new, we mostly built on top of those systems. This year, we started fresh…new code and a new animation system. This has removed many of the restraints. Without giving too much away yet, let’s just say that the goalie in our game right now moves and saves EXACTLY like NHL goalie we had do the mocap.

Circa89 · 05-30-2006, 10:09 AM

I would suggest having more injuries. I had the injuries option turned up to high and played a couple of seasons. I lost no one for more than 2-3 games due to a flu. They are all these extra bodies on the roster that are just waiting to increase their potential by getting playing time.
Injuries need to be more realistic
and legend players would be cool.
It would be sweet to put together an all-time greatest Flames sqaud and match them up against all-time oilers etc.
Could you imagine the line combos

Mullen, Nieuwendyk, Iginla
Dion, McInnes
Kipper

RedMan12 · 05-30-2006, 10:14 AM

Make it so little Wayne's head bleeds. Hockey needs a little blood back. Needs to be more gritty.

I think fighting is too simple. Its just button mashing and pressing up and down.

More special moves and deking.

More Plays and Playbook. Like Madden you should be able to pick a play depending on the situation like a power play or penalty kill. Be able to pick more precise offense and defense plays.

Better goalie A.i.

classic teams.

more to come...

rubecube · 05-30-2006, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Circa89

Mullen, Nieuwendyk, Iginla
Dion, McInnes
Kipper

Who's McInnes?

V · 05-30-2006, 10:23 AM

I'd like to see a 'pull down' option for the stats pages so that you don't have to keep hitting the arrow to cycle through the different teams. Same thing for the trade screen and anywhere that you can look at each individual team. I'm not sure why they changed that.

bluejays · 05-30-2006, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calgary Flames

I'm going out there again next month to testplay NHL 07 and provide input. Is there anything you'd like them to improve specifically? Things they could add to the game?

I'll try to get some of CP's input in there aswell. I don't know if our input will affect NHL 07 or 08 seeing that NHL 07 is probably in it's final stages of development.

...yeah...have a Grade A simulation GM mode. Somewhat like those Baseball simulation programs. That would be really cool, and put all those other simulations to shame when you have a simulation GM mode, in addition to gameplay. Aside from that, not much to really say at the moment.

edit: more realistic fights...blood, guts...spare nothing.

fredr123 · 05-30-2006, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

At least they got rid of that mysterious goalie grvoty pul where the goalie would suck the puck off your stick if you were anywhere near him, sometimes sucking the puck off your stick when you are behind the net.

That was super annoying too. Remember the one year where you could run pellmell into the boards and go crashing to the ice? Kind of funny between whistles. Not so funny when you were flying up the wing on a break and got too close to the boards. It was like you ran into an invisible wall...

fredr123 · 05-30-2006, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fleury

...yeah...have a Grade A simulation GM mode. Somewhat like those Baseball simulation programs. That would be really cool, and put all those other simulations to shame when you have a simulation GM mode, in addition to gameplay. Aside from that, not much to really say at the moment.

Buy out one of those team manager companies. Roll them into the EA family and release a game that features the gameplay of the traditional EA games with the depth of full-fledged manager game. Could you imagine working out a three way deal involving picks and cash, spending hours pouring over the development of your minor league prospects... and then jumping into classic EA-ish game on the ice?

Circa89 · 05-30-2006, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubecube

Who's McInnes?

Dang I can spell Nieuwendyk and Iginla no problem but when it comes to a simple scottish name I screw it up.

MacInnis, Alan

bluejays · 05-30-2006, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredr123

Buy out one of those team manager companies. Roll them into the EA family and release a game that features the gameplay of the traditional EA games with the depth of full-fledged manager game. Could you imagine working out a three way deal involving picks and cash, spending hours pouring over the development of your minor league prospects... and then jumping into classic EA-ish game on the ice?

...that's exactly what I'm talking about. It would totally ruin the ESPN franchise too IMO.

Sidney Crosby's Hat · 05-30-2006, 11:02 AM

Four things...

(1) For PCs, re-enable right-clicking in the menus - particularly on the roster pages.
(2) Bring back unique organ music such as NHL 94 and 95
(3) Out of town scores/highlights like they had in NHL 94 and 95
(4) Get the AHL license, the ability to call up and send down players and even the ability to play as your AHL team such as in Gretzky 06.

Sidney Crosby's Hat · 05-30-2006, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rejean31

Get them to come up with a CFL football game.

I heard they're working on that.

rubecube · 05-30-2006, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I heard they're working on that.

A game where it's easy to rack up 100 points in 60 minutes? I think they already have that one...

http://www.easports.com/nbalive06/index.jsp

Inferno · 05-30-2006, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

Make sure Phaneuf is in there. We have been playing with a Phony Phaneuf for 3 years now and of course we made him too good, it just is not the same.

He'll be in there now since since he's played a season. EA wont put guys in unless they've played an NHL regular season game.

Inferno · 05-30-2006, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StoneCole

- goalie injuries (but why would they add that? Goalies never actually get injured in hockey).

I remember them saying they took it out because of that whole "non-violent NHL" thing which is why they got rid of things like blood and running the goalie.

Azure · 05-30-2006, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inferno

He'll be in there now since since he's played a season. EA wont put guys in unless they've played an NHL regular season game.

He was there on the roster upgrades, after the Olympic break.

Inferno · 05-30-2006, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

He was there on the roster upgrades, after the Olympic break.

Yeah, but he should be in the game at launch now. With a cyberface.

Bill Bumface · 05-30-2006, 12:03 PM

Was it '06 where you couldn't look at the league scoring leaders? Absolutely brutal that wasn't available.