NHL 12 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[Jattbreed]

So just got down playing NHL 11 2.0

I hope the full version is VERY different.

[Gagnon39]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

I might actually try all star to see the difference with the hitting, though I fear it'll be way to easy for me.

This is what I'm thinking. All Star was way to easy for me on 11. I would dominate time of possession every game and outshoot my opponent by 15-20 shots. Superstar was the only way I was challenged and lost.

I hope that sliders fix some of the issues I'm seeing on the NHL 12 demo.

[sroz39]

Ok, 3 Play Now games and 1 BAP game later, here's my take:

Things I REALLY liked:

- puck physics are night and day from last year. Many have gone into this topic, with specific examples. No need for me to repeat them. Just awesome.

- skating is definitely and noticeably improved.

- deking has been toned down. Nice.

- locked on goalie for a game (I play net in the EASHL) and it was noticeably better feeling. I saw they added some more options, like an auto cover on/off, which is gonna be a god-send in the retail copy (locked in the demo). It was also alot of fun to play against the A.I. as the goalie because...

-...the A.I. is MUCH better this year. No more passing from Dman to winger, winger back to Dman so on and so forth. They take sharp angle shots, setup one-timers for their Dmen and players that should shoot off the rush, do.

Things I kinda liked:

- the replays/presentation. There's aspects of this that I really hate, which I'll get into later, but there's no denying it's better than last year.

- the goalie being live. I will reserve full judgement until retail, but if done right, this is a good thing.

- alot more "small" collisions when you try to check with the wrong guy. Also if you almost beat a Dman but he still gets a piece of you, it can be enough to nudge you off the puck.

- the Action Tracker. Cool. Not a game-changer for me but a nice addition nonetheless.

- intrigued by the "Fixed" camera option for BAP. Couldn't tell a HUGE difference but didn't play that much either.


Things that sort of bugged me:

- some of the goalie play by the A.I. It's also been mentioned by others on here with specific examples, and I understand it's probably one of the toughest things to program of any sports game. But the goalies still leave a bit to be desired.

- the stick lift. Still not great and the A.I., even on All-Star is godly with it.

- wasn't a huge fan of the "hold it down longer for power" passing to begin with and it's largely untouched. I feel it should be how far down you push the trigger instead. Miss a ton of opportunities for breakout passes because of this mechanic.


Things that REALLY bug me:

- the presentation is still so far behind other games. When you're getting passed by Madden of all games, you know you're near the bottom of this list. Needs a fresh take altogether, IMO.

- year two of the Real-Time Physics engine is very under-whelming. I understand why there's a hit stick but it doesn't mean that every collision needs to be triggered by an input of any kind. Example, I was chasing one of the Sedins with Chara in my end. He went behind the net, I took a shortcut and cut in front of Timmy. I met Sedin head on but I had a bit of a brain fart and didn't actually hit anything on my controller. No poke check, no hit stick, nothing. The result was a very awkward "bounce" between the two players, like nothing happened. Sedin kept the puck in the slot, I got morphed back a couple of feet and he scored. It looked awful. Maybe I'm hoping for too much and it'll be in year three of the RTP implementation, but SOME sort of incidental contact would have been perfect there.

- finally, this is the first time since I played 06 on the Xbox where this series has made me go "meh". It's not that it's a bad game. Far from it. It's still outstanding and I will be there day one to get it. But it seems alot of the improvements are going to take awhile to notice and admire and after playing this game as much as I have since 09, I was also hoping for something to be done to spruce up EASHL play. Maybe all these "little" gameplay improvements will add up to a vastly different online experience, but after 3 games, my excitement level went down from an 11 to a 9.

[tofubrain2]

played a couple more games, and some pros and cons...

Pros - loving the way the CPU teammates move to open spaces on the ice...
BOUNCES rule and suck

Cons - Hey EA! do away with that " Scouting Report " screen already

Did you notice in the EA promo vid for this demo, after Lucic scores on Luongo and chara is hoisting the cup he has a finals patch on his jersey? then its not... I just wish we would get those

[SinisterAlex]

Finally broke the glass... or should I say my A.I team mates did, I watched the replay, my guy literally tapped him and the glass shattered lol.

Also, as someone else mentioned a few pages ago, I like the way the puck hits the mesh on the net and the way it falls down after hitting the mesh.

I have yet to touch Be a Pro but I managed to capture all 4 games of the HUT Tournament on my computer so I'll be uploading the full four games to my Youtube channel in the next few days.

[SubZero1539]

First game I played, I experienced a glitch. I got scored on to make it 1-0 and was watching the replay. As soon as I saw the puck go in the net I hit X to skip to the faceoff. Except the scoreboard now read 2-0! NOT happy about that. Anyone else have that happen to them?

I'm looking at the end game screen right now. I can't find any info on the second goal, yet the scoreboard at the top still says 2-0.

EDIT #2: OK, WTF? I started a new game and it had ME up 2-0 to begin the game!

[LuGer33]

Quote: Originally Posted by SubZero1539

First game I played, I experienced a glitch. I got scored on to make it 1-0 and was watching the replay. As soon as I saw the puck go in the net I hit X to skip to the faceoff. Except the scoreboard now read 2-0! NOT happy about that. Anyone else have that happen to them? I'm looking at the end game screen right now. I can't find any info on the second goal, yet the scoreboard at the top still says 2-0. EDIT #2: OK, WTF? I started a new game and it had ME up 2-0 to begin the game!

You're starting in the third period, sir. The score can be anything. I started a game up 7-0 as Vancouver, lol.

[SubZero1539]

Well I feel stupid now. I think you should get some sort of a warning that the score will be anything. Regardless, I'd prefer if each game started 0-0.

Random thought: The players look cartoony.