NHL 10 Blog: EASHL Championships - Purple Cobraz vs The Regulators w/ Lots of Videos

[TheLetterZ]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

On a side note, The Purple Cobraz spanked us the only time we played them. We hung with them for a while, but one of our D-men got disconnected and they eventually worked us over to the tune of something like 8-1. We had an AI goalie (not sure if they did or not, but they had human skaters), so once we were forced to one human D-man, they picked us apart with the cross-crease. I remember a lot frustration on the mics that game, as we couldn't adapt to having that damn AI guy fowling up our D-zone coverage. At that point (shortly after 2nd patch I believe), we had five guys who played together all the time and were playing quite well for about a month stretch post-patch. C'est la vie... (or something, I never took French)

I think I remember that game. We lost a defenseman - I think it was Millennium - near the end of the first period when we were already down by a goal, and after that they just destroyed us with the cross-crease pass.

[kerosene31]

Quote: Originally Posted by Redshirt_EA

I think all of the goals were scored from the hash marks in

That, and also almost always from a wide position. The realistic scoring area would of course be the slot, but in the EASHL it was all from the side of the net. Cross crease or picking a corner from an impossible angle.

When playing D in the EASHL, you actually wanted to do the exact opposite of real hockey. You wanted to push the guy towards the middle, because there he wouldn't score.

Once the early cheese goals were patched out, the slot became a dead zone for scoring. People who get the puck in what should be prime scoring areas are passing or circling back.

So many teams just never, ever tried to score from there. Sure, it was possible, but the teams that tried to play real hockey got spanked by teams like this most of the time.

In NHL10 with the D and goalies preventing the cross crease, this should get better, but hopefully all of the side net "weirdness" is gone as well.

[steveeee]

lol

my gosh.. some peopoe in this thread talking about glitch goals with these 2 teams in the finals do not have any clue of what they are talking about

there is no such thing as a glitch goal when you play 6 vs 6..

I play goalie in the EASHL and there is no such thing as me giving up a glitch goal..

both of these teams play excellent overall team defense from what I have seen.. and to even try to put down either team for glitching is just stupid and probably jealously of some sort...

btw.. I'm in the EASHL FL league and we play 6 vs 6 games every game in our league on PS3... it's not very hard to do.. if someone drops at the beginning we just disconnect and rematch

nothing beats the 6 v 6 NHL experience in any sports game... it's so enjoyable and intense... best gaming experience I have ever had honestly.. even going back to my NHL 94 genesis days. NHL 09 is one of the first sports games is a long time I played year round until the next one releases. the major reason for this is the EASHL.. EA deserves a lot of credit for this imo. It's the best thing going in any sports game and nothing comes close

[Redshirt_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by kerosene31

That, and also almost always from a wide position. The realistic scoring area would of course be the slot, but in the EASHL it was all from the side of the net. Cross crease or picking a corner from an impossible angle. When playing D in the EASHL, you actually wanted to do the exact opposite of real hockey. You wanted to push the guy towards the middle, because there he wouldn't score. Once the early cheese goals were patched out, the slot became a dead zone for scoring. People who get the puck in what should be prime scoring areas are passing or circling back. So many teams just never, ever tried to score from there. Sure, it was possible, but the teams that tried to play real hockey got spanked by teams like this most of the time. In NHL10 with the D and goalies preventing the cross crease, this should get better, but hopefully all of the side net "weirdness" is gone as well.

Re-watching the recap video, I don't think that they were mostly from out wide. And I should take back the "no point shots" comment, the goal at about 2:00 was from a rebound off a point shot. All in all I'm pretty happy with the style of hockey the two champion teams played.

[bcgudely]

I have to agree with the camp that's impressed with how realistic the EASHL championship games looked. Perfect simulations of real hockey? Of course not. However, if you've seen any sports games played at a high level, you'd know that none of them ever represent the real sport. It always degenerates into something completely boring that's all based around some glitch or money play.

I thought that this looked really good for being EA's first try at something as innovative as the EASHL. I'm very surprised at how well it held up at the highest level of play.

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by Redshirt_EA

I wanted to up the minimum number of humans for EASHL too, but didn't win that argument. Maybe we need a poll to see what people want. I suspect the majority of responses will agree the number should be higher, the problem is that the stats show that the majority of man-games are played on two man teams. My interpretation of this is that it is just easier to coordinate to play with just two and a lot of people either don't want to play with strangers or can't be bothered to go out and find more players. Either way I think it'd be better if they were forced to do so, the game is just so much more fun with all human players.

You are 100% correct with your interpretation.

Too bad you lost the argument.

The more human players in the game, the more fun it is overall and the less chances there are for cheesing/glitching.

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by steveeee

there is no such thing as a glitch goal when you play 6 vs 6.. I play goalie in the EASHL and there is no such thing as me giving up a glitch goal..

For the most part, I agree. I've also been playing in 6v6 only league over the past month or so, and while there are a few quirks in the game -- goalies sticking to post, RB slapper/deflection, crazy backhand goalline passes, etc -- that can be taken advantage of even with all human players, the elimination of AI players/goalies greatly reduces any opportunity for "glitching". On top of that, some of the things that still can be frustrating appear to be remedied in NHL10 -- better goalie controls/animations, less pass assist, better puck physics.

When it comes down to it, playing 6v6 hockey has got to be the best virtual sports experience out there. Can't wait to see what it will be like with the improvements...

[kerosene31]

Hopefully just the better puck physics and more rebounds around the net in 10 will give us a lot more variety in goal scoring.

If players get rewarded for plays like that more, they will actually start using them. Those worked great in 09, but were still too low percentage.

For me, the frustration in 09 was that most other goal scoring opportunities were just too low percentage. My EASHL team was nothing great, but we were ok. We'd generate lots of scoring chances on teams, but get few goals. I imagine this is why so many teams went towards the glitches.