NHL 09 Fridays: Community Questions #3

Feature Article

Submitted on: 08/22/2008 by Chase Becotte

The folks up at EA Canada are nearing their goal as NHL 09 skates towards its September release. They are undoubtedly working very hard since they have a hard act to follow considering how well NHL 08 was received by most gamers. Also, with such high expectations, it's no surprise that the OS community has tons of questions when it comes to NHL 09. Due to this fact, we here at Operation Sports felt it was important to get the NHL developers to answer some questions from the Operation Sports community. So every Friday, until NHL 09 releases, OS will be running five-question-Q&A sessions with NHL 09 developers. This is the third Q&A session we have had thus far. Enjoy!

bad_philanthropy: Will we be able to play multiple seasons with any of the Euro leagues?

Andy Agostini: You can play multiple seasons with the Euro league by substituting the Euro teams into Dynasty mode. We are looking into doing something specific for the Euro leagues in future titles of NHL.

ChubbyBanana: I remember how the AI would adapt to the way you played in NHL 08. Any chance this has been fine tuned for this year’s installment?

Sean Ramjagsingh: We have made some refinements mainly tied to new user tendencies that we are tracking this year. Over time, the AI will identify these new tendencies (along with the old ones) and try to counter them. You will see and hear those tendencies in the end of period feedback and commentary.

NHL 09 is set to Skate onto the nearest console near you next month.

kerosene31: Have the goalie controls been refined or tweaked at all?

SR: The goalie controls themselves are similar to 08 (we tweaked the hug post control, and made the movement control less twitchy). We have also added new goalie animations and improved the overall feel.

Flyermania: There have been rumors that custom soundtracks will only be available for the 360 and not the PS3. Can you confirm or deny this rumor?

SR: For NHL 09, the Custom Soundtrack feature will be for Xbox 360 only.

gobladesgo: Have the new affiliations been changed for Dynasty and the main rosters? (see: Florida - Rochester, Anaheim - Iowa, Buffalo - Portland) And how is the Dallas situation being worked into both?

AA: All AHL affiliations are going to be correct for the upcoming 2008-09 season. So all examples listed above are in the game. Due to Dallas not having their own farm team their players reside on two teams currently, Rochester and Portland, as we don't know exactly where these players are going to be playing in the upcoming season. As this information is made public we will update the players to their proper teams in roster updates.

NHL 09 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 rellix1 @ 08/22/08 09:31 PM

Hrm, pretty lame questions asked this time around to be honest. Euro leagues? meh. AI - interesting, goalie controls.. bleh, custom soundtracks was already confirmed 360 only and affiliations? Come on, of course they would be accurate.

Eh, regardless, thanks for the continued coverage, OS & Chase.

# 2 ChaseB @ 08/22/08 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rellix1


	Hrm, pretty lame questions asked this time around to be honest. Euro leagues? meh. AI - interesting, goalie controls.. bleh, custom soundtracks was already confirmed 360 only and affiliations? Come on, of course they would be accurate. Eh, regardless, thanks for the continued coverage, OS & Chase.

Ha are you getting on me or the community for the questions? I guess we'll probably do one (maybe two) more weeks of these questions, so once again keep posting them in the thread.

# 3 Flyermania @ 08/22/08 11:02 PM

As usual, thanks for the info! It's a bummer that there won't be custom soundtracks for the PS3, but at least I have some time pre-release to get over it.

# 4 OddyOh @ 08/22/08 11:18 PM

That's a drag about PS3 custom soundtracks, but maybe they'll have some good songs this year anyway. Or maybe I'll play it so much I won't even care.

# 5 rellix1 @ 08/23/08 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaseB


	Ha are you getting on me or the community for the questions? I guess we'll probably do one (maybe two) more weeks of these questions, so once again keep posting them in the thread.

The community members. I think you're doing a fine job.

# 6 Qb @ 08/23/08 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rellix1


	The community members. I think you're doing a fine job.

Well, step up to the plate for next week...

# 7 rellix1 @ 08/23/08 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qb


	Well, step up to the plate for next week...

Heh, I didn't mean to come off as complaining - they were decent questions, just not what *I* was looking for (I'm not big on euro teams, and I never play goalie, for example). I do appreciate the work you guys are doing and the community for participating.

# 8 Qb @ 08/23/08 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rellix1


	Heh, I didn't mean to come off as complaining - they were decent questions, just not what I was looking for (I'm not big on euro teams, and I never play goalie, for example). I do appreciate the work you guys are doing and the community for participating.

Don't worry I'm just kidding you, man. By all means, if you have a question or two, post them and maybe Chase will see if he can you get an answer...

# 9 ChubbyBanana @ 08/23/08 02:29 PM

Glad to hear they have improved the AI tendencies for this year. This was one of the great additions to last year's game and I'm glad to see they put some work into it.

Sounds to me like they didn't sleep on this year's product, and kept trying to make improvements, which is great news.

Keep up the good work Chase! Thanks for these.

-Chubby

# 10 hoodlum10 @ 08/23/08 02:57 PM

i cant wait for this game, imma roll with my blackhawks all the way.

# 11 rellix1 @ 08/23/08 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoodlum10


	i cant wait for this game, imma roll with my blackhawks all the way.

enjoy the whole .. Huet.. thing

# 12 hawkeyekid @ 08/24/08 03:35 PM

Wow. Is there any reason that there is no custom soundtracks for the ps3?

I really liked NHL 08 but I can't buy a game that leaves out features on 1 system and not the other.

# 13 rellix1 @ 08/24/08 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawkeyekid


	Wow. Is there any reason that there is no custom soundtracks for the ps3? I really liked NHL 08 but I can't buy a game that leaves out features on 1 system and not the other.

Welcome to the world of gaming.

My guess is (and this seems to be pretty much the common answer): PS3 is terribly difficult to program for vs. 360.

# 14 OddyOh @ 08/25/08 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rellix1


	Welcome to the world of gaming. My guess is (and this seems to be pretty much the common answer): PS3 is terribly difficult to program for vs. 360.

That's the common excuse anyway, I wouldn't accept that as an answer. But I can't blame EA for this glaring omission...I'd suspect Sony didn't get Custom Soundtracks support into the SDK until it was too late for NHL 09. I think Sony didn't enable it until the Spring, iirc.

That said, there's no reason that EA can't patch it later on...this is now very common across several PS3 titles.

Also some PS3 games are starting to feature built-in uploading of video to YouTube...I hope EA makes that happen too, for NHL 2010. Dunno if the 360 has the horsepower for that. Maybe they can miss out on that feature next year. Fair is fair.

# 15 ChaseB @ 08/25/08 10:25 PM

Custom soundtracks have been done on both consoles so it's not a harder to develop thing at this point. Especially since the Burnout guys have done it and that's EA now.

# 16 rellix1 @ 08/25/08 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OddyOh


	That's the common excuse anyway, I wouldn't accept that as an answer. But I can't blame EA for this glaring omission...I'd suspect Sony didn't get Custom Soundtracks support into the SDK until it was too late for NHL 09. I think Sony didn't enable it until the Spring, iirc.

Well, it's a fact that MS went to lengths to make sure their console was developer friendly, much more than Sony did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OddyOh


	That said, there's no reason that EA can't patch it later on...this is now very common across several PS3 titles.

Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OddyOh


	Also some PS3 games are starting to feature built-in uploading of video to YouTube...I hope EA makes that happen too, for NHL 2010. Dunno if the 360 has the horsepower for that. Maybe they can miss out on that feature next year. Fair is fair.

Can't you upload to EASportsworld or whatever it's called in Madden already? on 360 no less.

# 17 rellix1 @ 08/25/08 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaseB


	Custom soundtracks have been done on both consoles so it's not a harder to develop thing at this point. Especially since the Burnout guys have done it and that's EA now.

Could you elaborate a little bit on Burnout's custom soundtrack system? I haven't played any version of that game in ages, so I can't really make any fair comparisons. I will however suggest that if in Burnout, you can simply exchange the background songs with your own, then that seems quite little compared to what the NHL 09 crew is trying to attack. Also let's not forget that while EA may be one large company, EA Canada does not (correct me if I'm wrong) make Burnout, and while they may share their secrets, they, much like other companies spread into different development crews, are basically little companies just functioning under the same name (see R*).

# 18 ChaseB @ 08/26/08 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rellix1


	Could you elaborate a little bit on Burnout's custom soundtrack system? I haven't played any version of that game in ages, so I can't really make any fair comparisons. I will however suggest that if in Burnout, you can simply exchange the background songs with your own, then that seems quite little compared to what the NHL 09 crew is trying to attack. Also let's not forget that while EA may be one large company, EA Canada does not (correct me if I'm wrong) make Burnout, and while they may share their secrets, they, much like other companies spread into different development crews, are basically little companies just functioning under the same name (see R*).

I don't think the Burnout guys keep it hidden. And yes I'm well aware of the differences, but nonetheless -- it's not like it's impossible.

Burnout it's for the background tracks as you race -- just like it has always been.

# 19 rellix1 @ 08/26/08 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaseB


	I don't think the Burnout guys keep it hidden. And yes I'm well aware of the differences, but nonetheless -- it's not like it's impossible. Burnout it's for the background tracks as you race -- just like it has always been.

Well - replacing background music I imagine is very easy, as you literally just specifying the location of the MP3/whatever you're going to play.

Organizing this for different portions of a game, while it may be similar in specifying the file, it also has to deal with a vast number of files (assuming do you different sounds for every arena). This is not a 1 for 1 switch, but rather a 30 for 1.

I'm not going to defend their decision, I'm not part of EA and I don't know what's *really* going on back there, but what I can say is that there are numerous issues developers must deal with for the PS3 that are virtually nonexistent on the 360, and custom soundtracks were probably placed on the backburner.

# 20 ChaseB @ 08/26/08 02:26 PM

This is an argument that was valid more than a year ago. It's not anymore.

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