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Friday, February 25, 2011
02:57 PM - February 25, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
For the past few weeks, the talk on some of the various hockey forums has been about attributes, and whether they have any effect on our beloved OTP pros. Speed and acceleration have been the most talked about attributes, but let's not forget about the numerous goalie attributes that we have no real info on.
Speed
When the first discussions about the speed attribute started, I was slightly skeptical when people would talk about how the most expensive attribute in the game was not worth upgrading. As someone who mostly plays defense for my EASHL club, I have never put much stock in speed because I play positional defense and rarely have to skate hard in any situation, but it still sounded wrong. Nevertheless, I boosted my 65 speed to see if I felt any difference.
A couple of OTP games later I was writing an email to the rest of my club to say, "remove the points you spent on speed and put them in balance and strength for a more balanced player; you won't regret it." If you only play OTP and cherry pick a lot, you might need an increase to 90 speed. But if you play as a team and move the puck by passing, you won't notice a difference.
Read More - Dump 'N Cheese: Dead Attributes in EASHL
Speed
When the first discussions about the speed attribute started, I was slightly skeptical when people would talk about how the most expensive attribute in the game was not worth upgrading. As someone who mostly plays defense for my EASHL club, I have never put much stock in speed because I play positional defense and rarely have to skate hard in any situation, but it still sounded wrong. Nevertheless, I boosted my 65 speed to see if I felt any difference.
A couple of OTP games later I was writing an email to the rest of my club to say, "remove the points you spent on speed and put them in balance and strength for a more balanced player; you won't regret it." If you only play OTP and cherry pick a lot, you might need an increase to 90 speed. But if you play as a team and move the puck by passing, you won't notice a difference.
Read More - Dump 'N Cheese: Dead Attributes in EASHL
Monday, January 10, 2011
02:02 PM - January 10, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
I love waiting for a new NHL game every year. I read every preview, blog, tweet and Facebook update. I rummage through various forums to try and find information on the upcoming game. Any piece of information will do; every detail discovered feels like another step towards the game's release.
And every year, roughly two weeks after release, I feel disappointed. Minor improvements, major bugs and paying customers being used as beta testers. And I have nothing against EA for doing this because if you have to push out a game every 12 months this is what will happen.
But imagine a band releasing an album that is not done yet. For a few weeks you would have to listen to it without vocals because they were mixed so badly that they got muted behind guitar tracks. Or imagine a badly edited movie that loses track of characters between scenes and might or might not have an ending.
Read More - The Yearly Release Cycle Needs to Be Changed Up
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
03:33 PM - December 14, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
Just like the Wii and NHL Slapshot, playing goalie using Kinect could be a fun addition to the virtual hockey legacy if you don't get too stuck thinking about realism. And come on, if you have tried Slapshot you know what I'm talking about. Realism, as much as most of us like it, does not always mean fun.
Read More - Dump 'N Cheese: Using the Kinect to be an NHL Goalie
Thursday, December 2, 2010
01:30 PM - December 2, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
A while ago my friend sent me this picture after an OT victory in EASHL.
This prompted me to write about the physical aspects of NHL 11 and how it affects the EASHL. Our club -- as well as our friend's club over on the PS3 side of things -- tries to play a game of hockey resembling hockey in real life. Both of our clubs have been talking about how NHL 11 exaggerates the physical aspect of the game now that the new physics engine has been introduced into the game.
Read More - Dump 'N Cheese -- Broad Street Bullies in NHL 11
Thursday, November 11, 2010
02:02 PM - November 11, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
Hockey Ultimate Team for NHL 11 was introduced in August before the demo was released, and it received a mixed welcome from puck heads. As gamers awaited news about potential improvements to the existing game modes, the developers announced a new one. It was a mode focusing on collecting hockey cards.A lot of people were apprehensive, but then the demo came out, and HUT seemed like a good idea after all. (Personally, I was disappointed virtual gum was not included for my avatar.) Maybe the combination of cards with a bit of fantasy, some GM duties and the new awesome gameplay made it all click in the demo. Or maybe it was just the fact that, for once, you could play more than just one period of hockey in the demo thanks to the HUT tournament.
However, now the mode has been around for two months and I'm not quite sure what to think of HUT. I am more into EASHL and OTP because of the human element in those modes, but I used to play a lot of versus games as well. Regardless, apart from those craving for the fan aspect (playing with your favorite team), I think HUT has replaced versus mode in quite a few hockey homes this year.
Read More - Dump 'N Cheese - Ultimate Team Talk
Thursday, October 21, 2010
11:50 AM - October 21, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
Hockey as a sport is perfect for online gaming. Two teams filled with human players does not strain the online servers too much, and the game's fast tempo and short overall duration appeal to the gamers of today.
Fortunately, EA realized this as well, and for the third year running we have the EASHL as an outlet for our hockey fix. For those who are not familiar with the EASHL, it is a virtual league of created teams where each gamer controls one player on the ice at a time. Having a player-lock feature makes the EASHL a team effort. You win and lose games as a team, so teams that develop good chemistry tend to rule the rankings, instead of just gamers with impressive individual skills.
Just like clans in first-person shooter games, EASHL teams tend to develop personal relationships between team members, and friendly rivalries form between EASHL teams. The popularity of the EASHL is evident on the Internet. There are plenty of forums devoted to the EASHL, and a lot of talk about how the EASHL could be improved in future EA Sports NHL releases. At one point EA mentioned in a developer blog that there are over 500,000 EASHL players out there.
Read More - Dump 'N Cheese - Organizing the EASHL into Something More
Monday, October 11, 2010
To start things off, let me tell you a little bit about my virtual racing experience so you know where I'm coming from. I have mostly been a Forza driver recently, but years ago my friends and I played a lot of Geoff Crammond's racing games on PC, starting with Stunt Car Racer and moving along to F1GP and Grand Prix 2. Since that point in my racing life, I have mostly been playing more arcade-style games on various consoles, and for the last year I have clocked a lot of hours with Forza Motorsport 3, which in my opinion was a pretty solid effort -- a perfect hybrid of arcade and simulation.
But since I follow the F1 circus and enjoy a virtual racing session every now and then, I have been waiting for a proper F1 game for a long, long time. However, when I heard Codemasters was the company with the rights for F1, I was a bit apprehensive. Although Codemasters had done great racing games in the past (TOCA, Colin McRae), the later games like Dirt and Grid were a bit too light for my taste.
Thankfully, those fears have been squelched. After just a few days of racing in F1 2010, I had already forgotten about my pessimism and was enthusiastically driving full practice sessions, trying to find the perfect setups for different tracks, and throwing the car around in a way that is only possible when you have huge amounts of downforce available. And that last element is the one thing that F1 2010 does best. The feeling of driving a car that weighs just over 600 kg and has over 700 bhp is just amazing. You can throw the car into corners with speeds that make your head go dizzy. It takes a while to get used to the performance these cars have, but once you start to have confidence in the ridiculous amount of grip and power F1 cars have it's a blast!
Read More - F1 2010 Review
Thursday, September 30, 2010
12:31 PM - September 30, 2010. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Juha Leskinen
After a few weeks of playing in the EASHL, I must say that I am very happy with EA.
It seems like most of the cheesy goals from NHL 09 and NHL 10 have been fixed. No more is my team being pummeled by wraparounds and curve shots. Now, poor souls that go for toe drags are ending up on their butts. The loop glitch that was rampant in the spring months has not been noticeable in NHL 11. Self boarding while carrying the puck into the offensive zone (my personal cause of annoyance in NHL 10) is not beneficial anymore since checking someone who is boarding himself results in the check being changed into a boarding animation.
The only cheese that has been reported by the ever vigilant EASHL players is the difficulty in dealing with excessive dangling. A player equipped with nimble thumbs can easily deke and dangle his way from his own end to the slot and score -- checks and poke checks are generally rendered useless with a quick use of protect puck feature.
Read More - Dump N' Cheese: Pass the Cheese (or Not)
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