NHL 10 Info & Media Thread

[Fire]

I understand your frustration about the AI, but programming the AI for hockey must be terribly difficult. It's not like Baseball or Football where the game is a lot more structured.

[Finny61]

It would be a dream come true to get Eastside Hockey Manager AI logic put into the game. Gameplay, progression, trade logic, everything. Oh well.

[Skyceman]

Originally Posted by dobbles

one thing i did notice in the demo i didn't like was the ai in the offensive zone. when i was in the box for fighting, it was all up to the ai, and there was a spurt when they were in the zone where 2 guys passed it back and forth to each other at least 20 times. this is something they would do in 09 and i hated it. its just so unrealistic that these 2 dudes would just keep passing back and forth over and over. i didn't really put too much thought into the issue, but i was really hoping the imperfect passing would effect the computer more. it seems they are still programmed to go tape to tape. which is really sad. because in 09 the computer often gets into these grooves where they make 13 passes in like 3 seconds. and thats frustrating.

Keep in mind the ultra-realistic passing is turned off in the demo. You can see it in the settings and you cant change it.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Skyceman

Keep in mind the ultra-realistic passing is turned off in the demo. You can see it in the settings and you cant change it.

Unless you play Hardcore, which I haven't stop doing.

I really don't notice a huge difference in the passing. To me, it feels like things just aren't as crisp, and you have to have an idea of where the pass is going to go a stride or two before you get there in order to have enough mustard on it. From that point of view, there will be less cross crease jams coming from yours truly that happen by accident.

one thing I have gotten pretty decent at though in battle for the cup is chipping the puck off the boards to myself coming out of my own zone. Ocassionally you get a breakaway, but if not, generally an odd-man rush. Fun stuff.

I keep getting dominated in fights though, and hitting remains illusive but rewarding.

[Flash Walken]

So i just scored 5 goals as the dangler.

2 empty netters.

The hattrick graphics were pretty neat, seeing the hats rain down after a big goal like that is pretty neat.

Being the dangler rules.

Tipping looks like it is going to be a very effective way of scoring goals. Three goals in this latest game (5-2) were tips on point shots. Zipping passes out of the corner during board play is super effective too.

Edit: pressuring the points as a forward is going to be very effective too with the little pass assist, going to be lots of people going D to D and sending it out of the zone.

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by Skyceman

Keep in mind the ultra-realistic passing is turned off in the demo. You can see it in the settings and you cant change it.

as flash noted, you can play the hard core style. which is what i was referring too. even the non hard core passing was supposed to be less realistic. in my limited playing time last night, it seemed more like human passing was harder, but the computer still could do what it wanted.

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

I really don't notice a huge difference in the passing. To me, it feels like things just aren't as crisp, and you have to have an idea of where the pass is going to go a stride or two before you get there in order to have enough mustard on it. From that point of view, there will be less cross crease jams coming from yours truly that happen by accident.

The one thing that seemed apparent to me is that in order to really get a hard pass off, you have to hold the thing for a long time. I am all for having soft and hard passes, but it seems to me that they might have set the ratio too high. last night i would hold the button for at least a second and still only get an average pass off. for a lot of those long hard passes time is of the essence. and if i have to sit there charging my pass for a couple seconds, then it really kills the chance for breakaways and odd man chances. maybe it was just bad luck and its not as bad as i think. if not, hopefully its soemthing they can tweak.

[Russic]

I got up a little early and gave it a whirl before work. First off ... has anybody noticed that game demos from the euro store install automatically while demos from the north american store require a manual install?

Loved
- I really liked the feel of hardcore mode. My first game I thought I may up the passing speed a bit, but after a few I got more used to it. I would like to see a bit more zip to the passes when you hold it down a bit. (edit: flash mentions having some speed ... I'll try this)

- I also like that the hits don't feel as magnetic and you can miss them easily

- LOVE that the crowd stands not only when the home team scores, but in the last minute when they are up as well

- Boardplay was a little awkward at first but it's easy to see how this will be key. took me a while to figure out the button combo

- I love that the cpu seems to actually get penalties this year! I almost turned off penalties in 09 because I'd always kill 10 penalties a game while getting a single PP.

- A "prefer up" vision setting. THANK YOU EA.

- The leg lift look so bad-ass. Nice to see that glitch video was obviously on a low difficulty setting.

- One timing loose pucks is almost worth the upgrade alone

- Custom soundtracks (finally for ps3!) are going to be HUGE this year ... the music was already driving me bananas.

Meh
- Still not a big fan of the BAP, it's cool but not for me

- I still don't care about fighting. Ya it's neat, but I probably only do it 2 or 3 times each year

- Using L2 (or Ltrigger) for the push ahead is going to drive me nuts for a few days I'm sure. I much prefer it mapped to R1 (or Rbumper). The triggers have some give whereas the top shoulder buttons are more of an all or nothing press. I hit the L2 several times and nothing happened because I didn't hit it hard enough.

-Really don't like the amount of time after each whistle, and if somebody checks a player late it goes even longer. I hope there's a way to tweak this.

Overall I'm going to say the differences seem a lot more subtle than years past, but then again this year was all about the polish. I think that may hurt the review scores as die-hards are going to notice the differences more than the casual player. This is a game that feels like it was built for players like me and I love that.

[Igottago]

Not sure if this game is a must buy for me this year. Its good, but the improvements over NHL 09 don't seem to drastic. I like the pace of it better and there seems to be more loose pucks, which is great. But the features they were hyping up, like the fighting and the after whistle scrums really add nothing to the game. Actually I find fighting as stupid as its always been. Why does the fight always have to end in a knockout? Fighting shouldn't mimic Mike Tyson's Punchout, it should be somewhat real to hockey.

Overall feelig I get from the demo this game really does feel like NHL 9.5.

[Cactus Jack]

I liked it but I wish there was more! Haha. I like the boardplay but I can see it taking me away from defensive coverage. The goalies and AI seem to have been improved too.

The thing I noticed is it's much harder to hit. I hit someone and if I'm not knocked down I barely impact them, even if I have the bigger player. I use to hammer people in 09.

[Russic]

The North American demo is now up if you have been holding out for it.

[lanevosky]

I still can't figure out how to do board play (on defence).
How do I poke the puck out after I pinned the other player?

I'm having a bit of trouble with the new passing but I am sure I will get used to it soon.

[Staypuft]

Well, I'm gonna play the junk out of this, this weekend.

[jeremywilhelm]

Originally Posted by lanevosky

I still can't figure out how to do board play (on defence).
How do I poke the puck out after I pinned the other player?

I'm having a bit of trouble with the new passing but I am sure I will get used to it soon.

You have to take your finger off of triangle and then press R1 to poke check. You cant poke check while pinning a guy, much like real life.

[Russic]

First thing I do when i get the full game is throw on hardcore mode, go into a practice with 5 guys on nobody and just pass it around for 20 minutes. I love the way it feels but sweet jesus is it ever difficult!

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Russic

First thing I do when i get the full game is throw on hardcore mode, go into a practice with 5 guys on nobody and just pass it around for 20 minutes. I love the way it feels but sweet jesus is it ever difficult!

Same, it's gonna take time.

I don't like how the charge is implemented though. And how the CPU has an advantage on ability to make instant quick passes. The charge should have been pressure sensitive because it doesn't take a half second to make an effort for hard pass. Not like the passes go all that fast on full power anyway.

[Flash Walken]

Pressure sensitive would be ideal, but I am sure with all this feedback, we may be getting something similar, like how we got the L2 button last year.

[Otto-matic]

I don't know if Jobo or anyone can answer this but in the new BAP mode can we still select the team we want to play on?

I would hate to restart my BAP and end up being drafted by the Oilers or Leafs every time.

[flamestalker]

Crap, does anyone else find scoring harder? I played all night yesterday on BFTC and I got one goal in like 7-8 periods...

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Pressure sensitive would be ideal, but I am sure with all this feedback, we may be getting something similar, like how we got the L2 button last year.

Don't hold your breath. To change around the pass system it would require more then a patch so I've heard. If anything they could maybe up the pass speed.

[Wood]

Originally Posted by flamestalker

Crap, does anyone else find scoring harder? I played all night yesterday on BFTC and I got one goal in like 7-8 periods...

Nope, you just suck.