Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

Feature Article

Submitted on: 12/06/2010 by Stephen Holley

This holiday season I'm interested in what kind of experience the community has had with NHL 11 to this point -- a community roundtable, if you will. Now that the game has been out for 90 days or so, I think we have had ample time to see what NHL 11 is all about. And since this is my column, I suppose I'm both privileged and obligated to go first.

Well, in my case, NHL 11 has been an interesting story this year. Before the release of the game, I was as excited as I had ever been for an NHL release. However, once the game dropped and my first gameplay binge came to an end, I found myself rarely playing the game. I worried that I had lost my love for hockey gaming. Was this what old-timers meant when they told me my interests would evolve as I traveled the path of life? I really hoped that was not the case.

I just could not shake the feeling that something was missing. Then the patch dropped. To highlight my apathetic attitude towards NHL 11, it took me three days to download the patch. In years past, I would have been all over the patch the day it was released.

That being said, it can't be understated how much the patch has changed the game for me. Whatever it was that seemed off about the game was no longer there. Now I am having a good time and look forward to finishing out the year with NHL 11.

In my current Be a GM with the Blues in which I play every game, I duplicated the Blues 9-2-1 start and am now 12-3-2. That's the bonus of gaming, I don't have to deal with injuries to Oshie and Perron.

So tell me your story. How has your experience with NHL 11 gone so far?

NHL 11 Videos

Member Comments

# 21 NHLandPESFan @ 12/07/10 05:21 PM

I forgot to add my complaint about controls. Line changes should be possible from classic controls and the user should be able to customize the buttons to do what they want.

# 22 savoie2006 @ 12/07/10 06:05 PM

I like what NHL 11 has to offer feature and depth wise, but the gameplay has grown stale for me. There is no difference between teams and how they play. The AI strategy is the same no matter what game it is. The only difference is how the human teammates play. This and the slew of little bugs that have plagued the game have made me lose interest for the time being. Currently updating my 2K10 rosters so I can play it instead. The AI doesn't feel nearly as scripted.

# 23 onlybygrace @ 12/08/10 09:14 PM

Wow...that was a LOT of negative feedback...way more lopsided than I was expecting.

# 24 uclabruins87 @ 12/09/10 03:28 AM

NHL games are awesome.

# 25 tabulaRasa @ 12/09/10 04:37 AM

I am totally into HUT, although the there need to be
Search options in HUT for nhl12: Like Overall, potential, Forwards as a single search term, etc
Also needs to be an option to have more than one lineup. A single roster bracket not a my collection pile like now. Overall they should make it more GM/Franchise like and less Upperdeck-ish.

ANyhow, gameplay wise, I think they should have the hardcore momentun in as default, to many use the pathetic start stop and turn to skate around players. Afterall the players are on skates, they dont run with nikes on tarmac.

But still, the game is really good overall, although one-times cross crease are insanely effective, and being the goalies is cheap and easy on shootouts.

# 26 Matt_350z @ 12/09/10 02:32 PM

On the surface, there is a lot to like about NHL11.

(my personal observations)
-The game looks great.

-Overall the audio is pretty decent.

-The controls are responsive, and intuitive.

-There are a decent amount of modes, options, and sliders.

-For geeks like me- being able to change goalie equipment, altar color patterns, and
swap equipment out is very cool.

-Online play/modes are all there, and run very smoothly.

-I feel the team at EA supports the game very well. The tuner updates are great.
Last year the couple EASHL updates fixed a lot of the glitches that were killing it and making online no fun.

Its when you really get into the game, some of these things don't feel so great.

(random observations about NHL11)
-BAP has gotten extremely stale and boring. Nothing new at all to see here. Yay, you get to play in the Junior Championship finals to solidify your draft position. Awesome. Then its the same BAP mode that hs been in the last two NHL games.

-BaGM is obviously just another name for "franchise mode". Not a problem, its just not very involving. Basically, the big draw is you juggle a couple of phones? There really is nothing seperating this mode from a basic franchise mode. By basic, I mean watered down, even when compared to other sports games on the market.

-The new HUT mode. Great idea. Terrible in execution. I love it at its core. It just takes way too long to build your team up. I don't mind a little hard work, and having to tough it out for a bit. However, this mode is a grind. The problem I have with that is, it seems EA designed it this way so people would be more prone to use actually money to buy some packs(see my next note before you jump on me). This mode could be extremely fun.
Why not flesh out an offline HUT mode/franchise mode hybrid? Why not give us other ways to earn pucks and player cards? Like doing in game achievements, or certain goals with players. Such as scoring a hat trick in an exhibition game on superstar mode or higher nets you 600 EA pucks. Or, scoring a total of 25 goals with Stamkos nets you his card. Why not incorporate your User Profile into it, and when you net a total of 100 goals across all modes, you get a EA pucks. 2k kinda had something like this, where you would unlock baseball cards in MLB2k, through in game and player achievments. It was the only reason why I would actually put down MLB-The Show, to play 2k. It was a lot of fun. I would love to see this in a hockey game.

-The EA "post purchase" cash grab. First of, Let me say, I totally understand and get the business model behind it. It obviously totally works, people are buying stuff, and nets EA even more money. However, it leaves me with a totally sour taste in my mouth. This goes beyond simply paying for DLC. Basically your shelling out 60.00(or whatever you have to pay) for a new game. You hop online to play EASHL on the first night, and people are already just a little bit better than you because they bought boosts.
More power to them. I understand nobody is holding a gun to my head to buy, or not buy attribute boosts, or jumbo HUT packs. However, MOST of the goals that are needed to unlock these the right way are absurd. There is zero chance a majority of the people are completing these goals to unlock said boost. Which stinks. I'm not saying make it a cake walk to unlock a +3 speed boost. However, don't make it an absurd way to unlock it either. I remember reading what unlocks most boosts, and it was utterly ridiculous. Which brings me back to my previous HUT rant. Obviously EA is doing this on purpose, so people just shell out 3.00 here, 3.00 there to buy an attribute boost. How many people have time to play 2 full season in BAP as a goalie, and keep there save percentage above 92%(just an example).

-The gameplay itself is a mixed bag. At this point in time, I except it for what it is. Its overall pretty fun. However, it just doesn't resemble real life hockey. I'm not saying I expect it to mimic the NHL to a tee. The game just feels so stiff, and lifeless. Even with some of the great goalie save animations, and over the top checking animations. ALL the teams play the same style game, not too mention there is no diversity from a top line forward to a 4th line one.

-EASHL is an extremely fun mode. I think EA was trying to get a solid mix of arcade hockey, with some sim aspects. Which I am fine with. Its just the games don't flow very well. There is almost zero way of setting up consistantly in the other teams zone. Too many big hits. I'm sick of constantly getting leveled trying to lug the puck up. They need to open up the game a bit. I'm not saying make it a focus on offense only. Its just the game needs more flow in EASHL. Its like your playing robot/ping pong hockey.

-the passing. I feel I have gotten very good with the somewhat updated passing system. I just don't think its very good. Too many passes going way off mark. I'm sorry, I know passes get intercepted and missed in the real NHL. Its just not at the frequency it happens in the game. They need to bring back more tape to tape passing. I can't count the times I have aimed, and executed a pass only to have it go sailing away from where I wanted it. I don't know. I just don't think this passing system benefits gameplay at all in NHL 11.

Overall, I like NHL 11. Its just I feel there are too many little things that could be fixed, and make the game amazing.

# 27 Tieboomer @ 12/09/10 10:14 PM

Downright awful, I can't stand it. The CPU players in EASHL are awful no matter what position. My team plays legit hockey and you can't score goals playing legit hockey. Game is so frustrating it isn't even funny. Same game as last year, same cheesy goals, same horrible computers. Can't stand it, but love hockey to much to get rid of it.

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