NHL 11 - RANT - Dazraz's Blog

Dazraz's Blog

NHL 11 - RANT

Posted on September 16, 2010 at 03:00 PM.

(7)

Received my copy of NHL 11 today. Officially released in the UK tomorrow but it came a day early. Man am I disappointed. Bearing in mind my expectations of this years game were pretty low anyway that's saying something. Nothing I had seen or heard about this title was getting me excited.

However with so many positive comments from many of the guys at Operation Sports I thought that maybe I would be surprised after all.

Surprised? No. More like horribly shocked. This is not a new �40 game. More like a patched NHL 10 that should of been downloadable for �10.

How the hell EA can justify this is beyond my belief. I thought Madden 11 delivered minor tweaks from Madden 10 but this is crazy. NHL 11 is a game released safely in the knowledge that there is no competition this year.

Okay so what have we got that's new:-

A few minor gameplay tweaks.
Broken sticks. WOW.
A few stat pages on the front page of the career system.
CHL teams.
A couple of new cut scenes.
Erm...yep. that's about it.

Everything else has been directly lifted from NHL 10. The menus, stat pages, commentary, player models, pre-game loading screen scouting reports, intermission scouting reports, Honda highlight reel, 3 star presentation & so on. Exactly the same as NHL 10. Even at the end of the period when the game shows a shot of the empty bench. Exactly as in last years.

You may argue that none of the above are essentials but to me it shows a ridiculously complacent attitude by EA to it's customers. The relatively simple task of making the game look fresh & new has been completely ignored. Laziness to say the least. You could navigate right through the menus & into the game & only the keenest gamer will be able to differentiate NHL 11 from 10.

The fact that despite all of this the game is still so highly rated by the community amazes me. To say EA pulled a fast one & totally got away with it is a total understatement.

Let's hope next year EA have some competition in the hockey genre. Even if 2K release another duff title themselves it may at least encourage EA to pull their finger out of their backsides & not release another patched game on a full price disc!

Comments

# 1 Beastly Wayz @ Sep 16

EA is becoming Sh&t, they do not care about the gamers anymore, just the LOOT....

# 2 Dazraz @ Sep 16

So true Beast0627. For a long time I have supported EA even when others have been down on them. But on this generation of consoles EA have made cutting corners their trademark. With the exception of the FIFA series all of their titles have stagnated or regressed. EA moan that there is not enough development time between annual release cycles to implement many changes to a game. Maybe the guys should pop over to the guys at 2K & check out the number of new features on this years NBA title.

# 3 PhillsPhan26 @ Sep 16

I disagree, the game is much more of a challenge to me and I been playing this series for years.

# 4 Dazraz @ Sep 16

In response to PhillsPhan26. No question that there are gameplay improvements this year. However most of these have come from EA adjusting certain parameters & thresholds within the AI logic. My point is that does this really justify a full price release as opposed to a cheaper downloadable upgrade.

# 5 Clarke_311 @ Sep 16

There are more changes than you listed. For example, the new Ultimate Team mode, which is really fun IMO, and EASHL practicing, as well as some changes to BAGM. I like NHL 11; I'm glad I got it.

# 6 H to the Oza @ Sep 20

I dont know what more you could expect out of the best video game in all of sports. Why takes massive risks altering gameplay when a successful formula has already been established. I feel like the series has worked a lot to improve over the years by small, but meaningful gameplay improvements.

Madden hasnt made the next step to realistically depict the art of football through game. Neither has NBA 2K or Elite (although I feel Elite is moving the fastest to the next generation). I suppose the only other sports game on par with NHL is The Show, and they have kept the same formula for a few years as well. You know why? Because they are the best.

If it aint broke, dont fix it