NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360 & PS3)

[Qb]

Realm, I never stated he was wrong in saying that the game is different. Or that Scott was wrong for saying the presentation & graphics are largely unchanged. Or that FF was wrong in saying he doesn't see a big difference between 09 and 10. As a matter of fact, I feel no need to tell anyone they're wrong, or maybe more importantly, that I'm right.

I'm simply asking that we don't debate the idea of someone's right to express their opinion, call each other trolls, point fingers, etc, etc, etc in the thread dedicated to giving demo impressions.

[Scottdau]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

While we all know the only thing you care about is graphics and presentation, not the actual important thing, you know gameplay? To say with the multitude of additions and tweaks that the game is totally EXACTLY the same as 09 is bs. Opinion flag or not. No offense QB but OBG is on the money with this one.

In game play it has changed. In presentation and graphics no change! That is great that game play is all you care about; it is stil opinion. Some think those things matter more some think my things matter more. In the end it all comes down to opinions. Game play is no more improtant that graphics or presention and for you to say that game play is all that matters well that is wrong. In your eyes it is not, but in mine it is!

[Scottdau]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

Realm, I never stated he was wrong in saying that the game is different. Or that Scott was wrong for saying the presentation & graphics are largely unchanged. Or that FF was wrong in saying he doesn't see a big difference between 09 and 10. As a matter of fact, I feel no need to tell anyone they're wrong, or maybe more importantly, that I'm right. I'm simply asking that we don't debate the idea of someone's right to express their opinion, call each other trolls, point fingers, etc, etc, etc in the thread dedicated to giving demo impressions.

This is a great post. But some will feel to the need to defend. I think it is up to you mods to control that if it gets out of hand. But for the most part it is just people chatting.

[CarryTheWeight]

Scott, Hardcore mode definitely changes this game for me. You and I have talked about how the new passing and slowed pace in the mode changes the experience. As for the presentation and graphics, yes, I am disappointed that EA didn't update the repeated cutscenes or post-game "replay reel" to feature TV-styled graphics and analysis, but the in-game presentation has definitely been augmented. I was amazed to see the towel-waving fans in real time, and that's an improvement over 09 if I ever saw one.

If the TV-styled stuff and arena improvements come next year, then I'm going to be happy. It's a slight disappointment but not a gamebreaker that they didn't make it into 10. Overall, though, I appreciate what EA did this year with the game. If they ironed out some of the demo's bugs (which they should have done), then it'll be an amazing game.

[AngryMikeGrrr]

Hey I'm on the PS3 and I finally got around to writing my impressions. I'm in the field of software engineering and I am a GM of the 2nd place team on the PS3 EASHL. Anyway....

AI
The AI is actually quite good. On All Star, I think they're near impossible to beat. Of course, this could be just because I only played the demo for a little bit so I'm still fresh to the game. The AI in 09 always dumped the puck as soon as you gave them a little bit of pressure. It appears that the AI this year moves the puck much more quickly and isn't so quick to dump it when faced with a little pressure. They have no problem cycling it back to their D and trying to gain the zone on the other side. They almost play like one of the better EASHL teams. This is good, but it's also bad because this means that there will likely be more 2 man teams around (because the all CPU team on All Star is likely better than 90% of human teams).

Goalies
I don't play goalie so I can't say too much about the controls. I did notice that holding L2 and trying to skate around (i.e. pull myself from the net) resulted in my goalie just sliding around on his pads. I can't tell but this may be a nice little control to help slide to take away a one timer (previously you had to press down and then either right or left on the right stick and it usually resulted in your goalie flailing and missing the puck anyway). I noticed the CPU goalie did do a fairly good job of taking away the one timer. I think the new play will either to make 2 passes or just hesitate instead of shooting a one timer. The new animations look pretty sweet and I did notice that the goalie did an excellent job of poking away pucks that went through the crease. I had to set my guys up a bit higher for one timers (and this is the way it should be). The one HUGE problem with the CPU goalie was that it was waaaay to easy to make him flail and do a desperation save. Some of the moves that worked in 09 before the 1st patch work on the CPU goalie in the demo. However, I wasn't able to do the "cheese wraps" that people always did after the 2nd patch. I have heard reports otherwise, however.

Sliders
I really don't mess with the sliders much, but I took a look at them. Of course, they're disabled in the demo but I could at least see what sliders were included. I think EA did a great job of deciding what attributes were important and incorporating them into sliders (aesthetics and minimal design). I didn't feel overwhelmed by the choices. I do have some issues though. First, the CPU AID slider is poorly explained. I presume there are 4 possible values but only 2 of them are explained. Also, the values are also the same as the GAME STYLE and I don't know if that makes sense (misuse of consistency). Also, I really don't like the lack of distinction between "Pass Assist" and "Manual Passing". They both sound the same, but from what I can surmise, Pass Assist affects the aim of your pass (or lack thereof) and Manual Passing affects the speed of your pass. If this is true, then that's a good thing (flexibility). The name Pass Assist is okay (it makes sense), but Manual Passing does not (lack of consistency). If Manual Passing only refers to speed, then the term is being misused and it's confusing. I understand that there is a slider called "Pass Speed", but it almost makes sense to have Manual Passing renamed to "Pass Speed" and have the values be "Automatic" and "Manual". Maybe the slider that's currently called "Pass Speed" could be renamed to "Max Pass Speed" and remain a slider and the Manual Passing control can be renamed to Pass Speed. Either way, there needs to be a better distinction between Pass Assist and Manual Passing. Lastly, I noticed a slider called "Hitting Difficulty" (where the larger the bar, the more difficult it was to hit someone). However, this breaks consistency with the passing sliders. This slider really, really, really should be renamed "Hitting Assist" and have it's function inverted (a lower bar implies that it's more difficult to hit, rather than a higher bar).

Hardcore Mode
Overall, I honestly believe that the EASHL is capable of handling hardcore mode. I mean I was really bad at it when I first started, but I quickly learned how to aim my passes effectively. I'm not a fan of Manual Passing (charging my passes). If the EASHL could have no pass assist and no charging of the pass speed, then I would be happy. Charging up your pass speed makes sense when you control all of your guys because you know what you want to do. However, when you're playing with 5 other people, it's difficult to know what the puck carrier is thinking (unless he tells you) so frequently you are surprised to receive the puck. Having charged pass speed would greatly slow down club play (much more so than in VS play). However, I am a HUGE fan of the no pass assist. It will force people to play within their limitations. Not everyone should be able to make a perfect long stretch pass. You need to aim that baby. I truly believe that turning off pass assist would allow for teams to be more competitive. In 09, you only needed a small skill set to be a great player. If you turn off passing assist, then you're broadening the skill set required to be an elite player. This opens up opportunities for more people to play on great teams. For example, as a highly ranked team, I may value a center who is really good at making those manual passes off the boards and can set people up even though he may be bad at scoring. In 09, anyone who could press R2 and not be a total moron about when they passed could be a great passer.

I did notice a setting that appeared to allow the user to load a preset settings for the sliders. If EA was smart, they would somehow use this to make an EASHL slider setting that all teams would use in club play. This would be great because then we wouldn't have to argue about whether club play should be set to Normal or Hardcore mode. EA could just mix the two together and tweak it at the start of a new "season" (or "month" as most people call it).

[Qb]

Thanks for your well-stated and detailed impressions, Mike.

You mentioned controlling the goalie; was this just during normal gameplay by manually switching to him? Or did you find a way to position lock on him? I was able to lock on goalie when choosing sides in the 09 demo and although you couldn't use the goalie cameras, it was still serviceable. But I wasn't able to do that with this demo...

Quote: Originally Posted by AngryMikeGrrr

If EA was smart, they would somehow use this to make an EASHL slider setting that all teams would use in club play.

As for your last paragraph, if you're referring to the "tuning set", you're on the right track. The tuning set will allow the team to tune gameplay values server-side without a title update. From what Redshirt told me, I think they have an eye towards curbing gameplay imbalances and responding to community feedback post-release with this feature as much as possible.

Redshirt has said before that they're open to community feedback when it comes to EASHL settings after we put it through the ringer. But they felt that normal is the best fit for now, given the volume of assists that were present in 09.

[Redshirt_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by AngryMikeGrrr

Some of the moves that worked in 09 before the 1st patch work on the CPU goalie in the demo.

I'd be curious to know which ones. The main fix for goalies on the first 09 patch was to reduce the effectiveness of the curve shot / against the grain shot, which should not be very effective at all in the 10 demo. The second patch reduced the effectiveness of the short-side high shot from in close, and that should not be there either.

[BlueNGold]

Hey Redshirt, do you think you could tell us the new controls for 10?

I noticed in the demo the push puck speed burst thing is on the L trigger now and someone else in another thread said the 1 handed dekes are on L trigger now as well.