Hip Checks Hurting NHL 12's Realism

Feature Article

Submitted on: 09/22/2011 by Jayson Young

I'm only a few days into NHL 12, and already the game's much-touted "Full Contact Physics Engine" is revealing itself to be glitchy, annoying and completely unrealistic.

The right-stick body checking isn't at blame. It's the retuned "instagib" hip check R3 button, which one-hit kills anyone who happens to graze the polyester on your player's jersey while he's -- or this year, she's -- treating opponents to a full moon.

I use the first-person-shooter term, "instagib," because players in NHL 12 act like they've been shot with a Flak Cannon at the slightest nudge from a hip check, dropping to the ice in a heap with their helmet flying off in one direction and their stick getting tossed in another.

Remember NHL 12's pre-release hype video where EA Canada told hockey fans, "Size does matter"? Sorry, EA, but size doesn't matter until NHL 12's hip check is fixed. Because whether your player is 5'7", 120 pounds or 6'9", 275 pounds, he falls like a giant redwood tree by simply brushing against hip checks. Alternatively, he can spend the entire game crouched down with his keister in the air scoring ridiculous one-hit KOs.

Even if your player is skating far away from the play and nowhere near the puck, he can be taken out with a hip check and interference won't be called. There almost seems to be a mistake in the game's penalty logic where normal body checks are being called as interference, but hip checks are completely ignored by the refs. God have mercy on all those poor centers, as the other team’s wingers can skate in and hip check the centerman off the faceoff every time without penalty.

Maybe if NHL 12 had four officials on the ice instead of one, the game would have gotten these calls correct. You know, like NHL 2K10 had way back in 2009 –- when the New Jersey Devils were still winning games and staying out of bankruptcy.

But enough talk, roll the footage:

Video Link
Is this a NHL game or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater? Looks to me like a boardslide grind into a backside ollie.

Video Link
Why bother with the new jostling system in front of the net when you can simply hunch your rump and have opposing forwards wiping out quicker than comedian Tracy Morgan in the old NHL 2K commercials?

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Ultimate Warrior, is that you with your patented Gorilla Press Slam?

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Fire in the hole! Toronto's scheming their way out of the NHL cellar by hiding hand grenades under their players' uniforms and taking out unsuspecting opponents in the dirty areas of the ice. Four men enter; one Maple Leaf blows by, unscathed.

If a patch or tuner update can't neuter the hip check's effectiveness, there's a good chance sports gamers will be putting down NHL 12 in the coming weeks with releases like NBA 2K12, FIFA 12 and Forza 4 only days away.

NHL 12 Videos

Member Comments

# 41 mazinkaiser @ 09/23/11 07:00 AM

Yeah the hipchecking abuse is bad online, but at least this game is better than ncaa 12 which is still way broken in almost every way.

# 42 FBeaule04 @ 09/23/11 08:36 AM

I've said it many times and I'll repeat myself. EA are putting things in a game and they always forgot that online is an idiot's nest.

When you play offline, how many times will you glitch goals, abuse the AI or do hipchecks? I guess not many times, since you want realism and in the end, the only person you cheat is yourself.

Online, it's a different story. Seeing people play that game online makes me thing that winning a game rewards you a million dollar and fame for the rest of your life.

A person asking for realism online is the same boat as a person asking for the Florida Panthers to fill their arena each game. Not happening now, not happening in 5 years, and not happening in 25 years!

Every people that goes online should forgot about realism, fair play and dignity. Online, especially the EASHL is the place to be showed up, exploited, make fun at and in the end, having a great time!

# 43 FBeaule04 @ 09/23/11 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stew514


	There are exploits, like always goals and ******** animations. However the hip check essentially lets you have 99 checking without wasting a single point in strength, and no amount of balance can help you regardless of how slightly they brush you. I can't imagine the EA developers are looking at these highlights and going "well yeah that's how we envisioned it!!!"

I guess that was the same when they tought about boardplay, when they thought about faceoff engine and when they tought about dangling, when they tought about new hitting engine, etc, etc, etc.

There's a slider in the game for AI Learning. Can someone at EA raise the damn sliders for the dev. team so that once for all, they don't look at exhibit A to ZZ how their ideas we're exploited.

It's not like they can say : "Hmm, we didn't expect that!" It was fine with NHL 09, that was the first EASHL year, but since then, come on, give a white wall and a marker to a 2 year old baby and turn away. When you come back, don't say you didn't expect the wall to be full of new baby's art!

# 44 LanzeraND @ 09/23/11 10:01 AM

Having ran into two sets of hip checkers playing in club games is quite aggravating! They also found a way to check you in the netural zone while trying to run down a dump without using the hip check. Please fix this! The game is better then last year IMHO, but this "GLITCH" needs patched.

I also am throwing into the "GLITCH" basket the wonderful Goalie Interference calls that occur when you get checked into the goalie and the shot animations that spin that causes you to bump a goalie that is out of their crease and you get rung up for two minutes.

# 45 stew514 @ 09/23/11 10:34 AM

Lanzera as annoying as goalie interference is it has to be called even when accidental, the game can't determine intent. Also I've screwed myself over by checking players into my own goalie and interference wasn't called.

# 46 tabulaRasa @ 09/23/11 11:58 AM

The problem with the HipChk is that it works every time! How did QA miss this? Next time take 4 guys from the top 20 (mainly cheesy exploiters) and let them play the game for a few weeks as QA testers, they will surely find the glitches in no time. Hip checks in NHL12 are utter crap.

# 47 tabulaRasa @ 09/23/11 12:02 PM

2K should make a hockey game with Natural motion, focus on phyiscs that rock and good on ice gameplay.

# 48 jared52 @ 09/23/11 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tabulaRasa


	The problem with the HipChk is that it works every time! How did QA miss this? Next time take 4 guys from the top 20 (mainly cheesy exploiters) and let them play the game for a few weeks as QA testers, they will surely find the glitches in no time. Hip checks in NHL12 are utter crap.

And offer $1000 to the one with the best record so they are more likely to try to cheat to win that way.

# 49 SGMRock @ 09/23/11 01:04 PM

I hate how on the 360 I always accidently push in the right stick when trying to do a normal check. Last year this used to make me really mad because I would miss checks. This year I still miss some but other times I get this hip check cheese. I agree this isn't really a problem offline because you can choose not to use it unless by accident like me you push in the right stick.

Online though like many have said this is the current cheese. I love playing online in this game when both teams play the game like mostly real NHL but that doesn't happen to often so I don't play a lot online if I can help it.

Also I heard from some people playing drop in games and stuff that EA said they were already planning to address this in the first tuner. Not sure if that is true or not.

Quote:


	The problem with the HipChk is that it works every time! How did QA miss this? Next time take 4 guys from the top 20 (mainly cheesy exploiters) and let them play the game for a few weeks as QA testers, they will surely find the glitches in no time. Hip checks in NHL12 are utter crap.

I think QA misses cheese like this because their QA testers don't try and find exploits as much as they should. They probably test the game as they intended it to be played so they miss stupid cheese like this that people find online.

# 50 MartindalexC @ 09/23/11 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMChrisS


	I'm only a few days into NHL 12, and already the game's much-touted "Full Contact Physics Engine" is revealing itself to be glitchy, annoying and completely unrealistic. The right-stick body checking isn't at blame. It's the retuned "instagib" hip check R3 button, which one-hit kills anyone who happens to graze the polyester on your player's jersey while he's -- or this year, she's -- treating opponents to a full moon. Read More - Hip Checks Hurting NHL 12's Realism

I actually did that hit, I'm quite suprised that someone found, but that was sooooooo stupid and funny.

# 51 Qb @ 09/23/11 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGMRock


	Also I heard from some people playing drop in games and stuff that EA said they were already planning to address this in the first tuner. Not sure if that is true or not.

I know they are monitoring feedback here and working on fixes for a patch (and I'm sure tuning as well). And before anyone asks, this is all I know... no details.

# 52 mkharsh33 @ 09/24/11 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceteris Paribus


	And some people wonder why devs don't spend more time here.

sometimes it takes a hard critique to get a point across... they should read this stuff. they've got a GREAT selling game - if they've got a spine they'll read this stuff and see that it can get better. one of the stated goals of my co-workers is "in all things excellence." that means we can be tough on ourselves, and take it like big boys and big girls. EA's no exception to this...

# 53 Elite49 @ 09/24/11 02:28 AM

Yes because this is game breaking. Really if you don't like it shuuush, they'll fix it and what do you expect? Almost every EA Sports game is broken at launch... no all of them are.

# 54 TheMatrix31 @ 09/24/11 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rogie Vachon


	If they`re going to add stuff....like this physics,.....maybe they need to actually play test,..understanding physics might help too,....because the effort put into testing a lot of things looks like it was terribly lacking......as it was terribly lacking in other areas too. I can`t even list all the issues because I`d have to spend a few hours making a compendium of bugs,glitches,and other issues,.....and lots of them are things that would have been found within 2 minutes of testing certain things,like every BaP position,...including GOALIE! A game tester should be torturing every millimeter of a game,......that`s why it`s called testing. That`s also why there is this bitter backlash coming at them at times.....because there are things that should have been found within a minute or two of testing a certain mode/position/other options....and when these make it to the retail version of the game,.......what do you think the consumer,....EA`s mealticket,...thinks? What should they think? Rosters,.....there`s another one,....put some effort into it please,....we know there`s turnover,......so till you know who`s in who`s out,...you get the rest of the rosters correct and attributes adjusted half decent,......then you get them all right as soon as you can do it,.......if what we get till the additions are made had effort put into it,..face attributes,correct goalie equipment...EA`s own forum had a goalie equipment thread,...it basically had every goalie in the game almost,...had all their expected gear,....that could have been used to get the goalie pads and stuff bang on,or damn close,......and what you got from them was not great. Hey,it was better than last year`s sad effort......but they didn`t have quite the data base of up to date gear pics. It was tee`d up for them,....an idiot could have done the job in about 3 hours ,...tops.......a brain damaged monkey 2.5 hrs.....and they had months to get it done to a point where we all would have said ,...great stuff,....we can wait a little longer if it means better quality stuff coming out way. I`m just sayin.

I understand your and everyone's frustrations, but try not to be so hostile. Also, using a bunch of ellipses "...."s makes your post very difficult to read.

# 55 Kenny Halt @ 09/25/11 03:43 AM

Yeah the physics bother me but at the same time I don't dwell on them. Right when I started the game and it had me play the winter classic, one of my first hits was launching Alex Ovechkin into the bench with Zbynek Michalek hich in real life would be shocking but by EA standards I wasn't surprised. Also in the same game I went for a hip check with Paul Martin and the other player seemed to get stuck on his back to which Martin Stood up for the player to drop from Martin's shoulders down to the ice in the same pose the whole way down and for a few seconds on the ice.

# 56 Qb @ 09/26/11 11:45 AM

To piggyback on what Matrix said and address a few of the other comments, please continue to offer constructive criticism, as that is not an issue. But please avoid the "idiot" and "brain-dead monkey" type of comments that do nothing to advance to discussion.

# 57 bigbob @ 09/27/11 09:55 PM

It's not just hurting, it's killing the NHL 12 realism. It happens 5+ times a game where you can be PAST somebody and they throw a hip chick, then all of a sudden you flopping around like a fish out of water even though you weren't actually touched. If someone is standing still and someone comes flying out of no where with a hip check, the player standing there shouldn't get knocked to the ground.

Getting off-topic a little, another thing that's hurting the game play is I've seen offensive "playmakers" with 40-40 Aggressive/Body Checking take out huge defensive players (I'm talking like 5'10" taking out 6'6") whenever in the "demos" and "gameplay videos" it was shown that if that happens. the 5'10" player just dropped to the ground. I have a 5'10" right winger who lays people out like I'm 99-99-99-99 (AGG, BC, STR, BAL) whenever all of that is below 50 and I have a 90-90-85-85 who can't lay anyone out.

I feel like this is something the EA got backwards, kind of like how some of the Madden sliders seem to be "backwards".

# 58 Eddie1967 @ 09/27/11 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceteris Paribus


	First, it was written in a demeaning manner. Second, most of it had nothing to do with the topic of the thread. Third, he's just repeating the same thing the devs have heard over and over and over. If they can get it fixed, they will. We know a patch will come. Whiny posts like his only serve to alienate the devs from the people here. .

So no one should be allowed to discuss issues in video games in a VIDEO GAME FORUM? SMDH and it seems to me that you are whining about a "whiny post" go figure.

# 59 Fiddy @ 09/28/11 12:22 AM

seems like the hip checks still work along the boards if done correct.. at times they work else where, but had them work along the boards. maybe has to do with height and weight of the other player, not sure. it wasnt as bad as before though..

# 60 Moses Doughty @ 09/28/11 03:40 AM

I havent seen any crazy hipcheck like that yet...

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