NHL 09 Q&A: EA Sports Hockey League Revealed (Gamespot)

[savoie2006]

I would hope that the attributes you can increase are in the areas you have excelled at.That would be the correct way to determine how attributes are improved.

[Rules]

Wow, that sounds exciting. I'm definitely down with joining an online hockey team (Hopefully, we can get a team up and going here to take into the EA Hockey League Online).

[JimmyDeicide]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

If my fears about the system prove true, in time those players will have 99 rated supermen to go along with their questionable methods. I don't know, I guess I just feel like its going to be hard to find a decent game as a part of this league. Not to mention that if it follows the ranked format from 08, it will be only 5 minute periods with speedy gameplay. Anyways, I'm just saying that while I'm very excited to play 6v6, the EASHL (while a cool concept) may not be my thing...

The only way this will work for guys like us is if a team of sim minded players who know how to play hockey are able to counter all the cheese with proper hockey sense and play.

I seriously doubt that that we have enough tools to stop all the cheese especially if the league speed is above slow.
I think it might still be fun tho trying to frustrate the cheesers with a good sim team maybe play spoilers and take some of them down . Kinda turn the tides on them so to speak.

[nyisles16]

Quote: Originally Posted by JimmyDeicide

The only way this will work for guys like us is if a team of sim minded players who know how to play hockey are able to counter all the cheese with proper hockey sense and play. I seriously doubt that that we have enough tools to stop all the cheese especially if the league speed is above slow. I think it might still be fun tho trying to frustrate the cheesers with a good sim team maybe play spoilers and take some of them down . Kinda turn the tides on them so to speak.

Jimmy - look forward to shooting some pucks again with you!

[TheLetterZ]

I'm not too worried about the passing. Most videos like these are usually played on a low difficulty level like Rookie, so I'd expect the passing to be easy.

[kerosene31]

Passing is waaaayyyyy too fast. Even if there are sliders, I bet you'll have to play this league with the default settings. That passing in the 2nd video is absolutely nuts. All star teams couldn't pass like that...

Passing is such an important part of hockey. How are you supposed to play D against those laser precise passes? I thought I read somewhere that they toned it down, but that looks just as bad as 08 to me.

The first thing most people do with sliders in 08 is turn the gameplay speed down to zero. That should tell you something about the default setting.

[bukktown]

This feature kind of makes my imagination run wild!

You gotta give EA Canada a lot of credit for this.

I know some people are worried about the online nuts who will max out there attribute ratings and dominate with the cheese but I just hope that my created player doesn't go down in ratings.

I don't want to be the worst created player on the ice!

[Bahnzo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

It sounds like the more you play and the more you do, the more you can accumulate points for your player which is what has me worried. The ranked-game crowd plays insane amounts of games while scoring inordinate amounts of goals and registering exorbitant bodycheck totals. If my fears about the system prove true, in time those players will have 99 rated supermen to go along with their questionable methods. I don't know, I guess I just feel like its going to be hard to find a decent game as a part of this league. Not to mention that if it follows the ranked format from 08, it will be only 5 minute periods with speedy gameplay. Anyways, I'm just saying that while I'm very excited to play 6v6, the EASHL (while a cool concept) may not be my thing...

This was the first thing I thought of when we were discussing this earlier. An unfortunate reality of this is going to be: people with inordinate amounts of time forming teams of maxed out players using any and all methods available to win.

It's never about who plays a good game of hockey, but who figures out how best to exploit the hockey game.

It's a brilliant idea, but with the fiasco that NCAA has shown so far with it's online dynasty, I really have my doubts as to how well it will work...at least this year. I suspect it will take a year of having it out there and letting the masses find all it's holes before it will be really worthwhile. But here's hoping.....