Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

[GlennN]

Let me first say I only play offline franchise (BeAGM), so HUT, online, etc, not my thing. I'm disappointed with 11, but only because I loved 10 so much.

I have buyers' regret on 11, especially because I bought on day one, at full price. The changes in 11 are, for the most part, meaningless to me. The few shortcomings in 10 (sometimes wonky stat sim engine, goalies who play 82 games, hard to view rosters, non-existent display of stats, awards and records) are all still present in 11. Plus, I liked the pushing and shoving after the whistle that is gone in 11, the scouting (with juniors in now) is too spread out, there are no impact rookies, and I detest autosave. I keep switching back and forth between 10 and 11, because I really want to like 11 better (but, I seem to always gravitate back to 10).

I just hope I have the self control to wait before buying 12 next year, to make sure there is actually some improvement being made. Again, I feel bad ripping on 11, because it remains a fantastic hockey game; unfortunately, it is only almost as good as 10.

[TDKing]

BORED!! Don't like playing randoms, BAGM and Be a Pro seasons are too long, having to play 82 games kills those modes for me. (I don't like to sim, we already had those discussions).

[GrandMaster B]

The difference between All-Star and Superstar. (offline with no sliders) I can destroy the CPU on All-Star with 8 goals and then can't score on Superstar.

I also don't like how the CPU magically gets to pucks with super human speed and how their D-men can keep most pucks in their own zone in front of the blue line when you try to chip it out.

The Legend card online has been mentioned. Really hard to get. I think there is an issue with the team play rating.

Never got into HUT because you can't change any of the settings and the speed is just too slow offline.

[Juiceman612]

I am a HUGE fan of the series and I haven't touched NHL 11 for months now. I have been at 51 games played in EASHL for months.

Here is why I quit playing: Boosts and poor matching (arguably non-existent game matching).

The grind to get XP points is a chore and bore. Your guy is going to suck until you get to at least 30-60 games played. What if you don't want to buy your boosts? Well, if you don't play hours on end from the second the game is released, then you'll go up against giant opponents who have more skill from playing more AND much more powerful player attributes than you. So plan to get worked while you grind to 60 or 100 games and up. But they keep getting better too as you play - so unless you are going to poopsock, might as well count yourself in for some serious frustration in a good 50% of the games you play - more if you're not very skilled at NHL. The team matching system is horrid. I don't even know if it exists. It's frustrating when I have 60 goals and 70 assists and my opponent has 500 goals and 1100 assists. Those numbers are not exaggerations. I should never be matched against an opponent of that level.

I've said for years now that in order for EASHL to be fun there needs to be a division for teams who purchase boosts and a division for teams who earn boosts PLUS there needs to be a good team matching system. Without those two things EASHL is becoming a losing grind most of the time and ultimately led to me rarely playing the game. Not having popped the game in for two months is a record for me. It's too bad because I think the gameplay is great and it's a fun game overall. But I like playing human opponents and EASHL is a broken league due to boosts and lack of reliable team matching.

[NHLandPESFan]

I only play online versus, although I would like to play Be a GM if EA would ever add multiplayer to it.

My complaints are:
1. Online league support for versus play is terrible and has been for years. League admins still cannot reset games if there is a connection issue and it is quite obvious EA wants everyone to ditch online leagues for the money grubbing EASHL. This year they got their wish as a league I have been in since NHL 2k6 on PS2 finally gave up the ghost to a combination of people defecting to the EASHL and the abysmal league support took its toll.

2. Franchise mode needs multiplayer, another complaint that goes back years! 2k8 had this for crying out loud!

3. Yet another long standing complaint against the EA NHL series is that all the teams are ranked pretty closely together and that there is not a lot of player separation in ability, similar to FIFA.

4. Manual passing needs to be re-implemented or ditched altogether. It is extremely frustrating in situations where you need to make a quick hard pass that you cannot do it. Basically the pass strength needs to load up a lot quicker than it currently does. I don't know why a 2mph pass is even possible as you would never do one.

5. AI players stand still a lot. Coaches would be yelling at them a lot for all the standing still that I see in the offensive zone. At least defensemen stay within the blue line for the most part, which to be fair is something that drove me crazy about 2k8.

Even with all of these complaints, I still have a good time with the game and I think the goal variety is better than NHL 10 and I have decent matches online. I worry for the future of this series however as apparently the only modes and changes EA wants to make are ways to get more money out of people. Considering that $60 every year is something of a ripoff already, I consider this a poor business strategy and unless some of the above mentioned complaints (especially the ones that go back years) are fixed, I will break my string of buying 1-2 hockey games per year which I have maintained since NHL 94 on the Sega Genesis and avoid NHL 12.

[NHLandPESFan]

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.

[savoie2006]

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.

[onlybygrace]

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