NHL 10 Blog: So You Think You're Hardcore?

[bad_philanthropy]

I almost feel like this is a dream. Just think for a second what EA hockey games were just four years ago.

Now they're giving us a game that sees the primary focus of its development towards simulation hockey that comes with a huge learning curve (as far as videogames go). To have the kind of audacity to release a product like that in the era of mass-appeal marketing is a wonderful thing to see.

I understand that the degree of simulation in the game is tiered, but in the previous era, the emphasis would have been on expanding upon the game's appeal to the opposite end of the user base with gimmicky crap like bullet-time camera effects.

For a lot of us here, this is the type of sports game in general that we've been waiting for.

[onlybygrace]

My biggest concern about hardcore passing is that it seems like one-timer passing seems like it is going to be difficult if the strength of a pass is determined by how long you hold down the R-trigger.

Also...how accurate to you need to be with the R-stick to get a pass directly to a guy??? Seems like a lot of room for error....which is realistic.

Oh...and with the obvious amount of human error on hardcore mode passing, is the CPU just as likely to make errors???

Maybe Flyermania, Redshirt or Chase can say something about this???

[akula]

two favourite things:

1) the shot block ratings affecting how fast guys go down and get back up when blocking shots

2) when you do the pass block, if the puck carrier is in front of you your stick will be held horizontally to block the puck. brilliant!

[bcgudely]

There are so many fixes for NHL 10 that's it's mindblowing to me. Will it be perfect? Of course not. However, it's incredible how much EA Canada has listened to the community and tried to address every issue they could within the 1 year development cycle. I'm very excited.

[onlybygrace]

I read and watched the Hardcore Mode Blog and Videos and while the whole idea is absolutely amazing and I am so stoked to try it out, I have just one reservation.

With the manual passing, there are bound to be more errors for human players when passing to teammates. My question or concern is whether or not the CPU will also have more innaccurate passes? It would be frustrating as all 'get out' to have a tough time learning the passing while the CPU is still lazering passes all over the ice...leading to inevitable defeat.

The good thing is that you have included so many sliders that this may be offset by either playing Hardcore on a lesser difficulty or with sliders weakening the CPU's passing abilities first, or others if necessary to 'even the field' or ice in this case.

Outta curiousity...if one were to not like the manual passing, is it optional to be turned 'off' while still playing Hardcore so that you don't lose the other benefits like enhanced player differentiation, etc?

Any answers would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[jyoung]

Not much else to say here aside from the fact that the game looks awesome and the amount of improvements from 09 seems huge.

[Anzi23]

Pretty much the same questions came up in my mind while reading the blog.

[The Visualizer]

Just wanted to chime in and agree with everyone else. No one can ever say Littman's team mails it in. I thought it sounded silly when he started calling NHL 10 "The Orange Box of Sports" but now I see his point. Those guys are doing stuff in a 1 year dev cycle that is unheard of.

Bravo!