NHL 11 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[BigDisk]

Quote: Originally Posted by Poro24

No improvements in the presentation since NHL 07. The intermission reports, cut scenes etc are still the same. And in 2010, we still don't have the correct amount of playes in the bench. I know that these are small things, but they should improve this old game engine. They must have enough time to update the presentation, arenas, correct amount of referees etc. I love the gameplay, but the same old presentation with the same old cut scenes year after year is just plain boring.

I'm glad they focus on core gameplay and leave those presentation issues at rest. Just my opinion though!!

But yeah, I guess putting 1 or 2 resources on presentation wouldn't really prevent them from improving the general gameplay.

Can't wait to try the demo!


And I really hope they improved the UI and matchmaking. EA needs to take a few notes from Blizzard and how awesome Battle.net is.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

Great news Realm! Thanks for the impressions. And if there's an online BaGM then my only issue is what version to buy? Most of my friends who play this game own a PS3. But I like the 360 controller and XBL better. What to do, what to do!

I'll be on PS3 this year hint hint. What really gets me excited though is if this is year one of the physics implimentation and its better than I expected. I can't even begin to imagine how good the game is going to be over the next couple years.

[ddhex27]

+Skating feels a lot less floaty, players actually seem to have weight.
+Checking feels awesome
+More rebounds and puck scrums in front of the net
+CPU AI MUCH improved and balanced on the offensive end

-Stale presentation
-Not much work done to the goalies (animations/masks etc)

[StormJH1]

I got to play it for about 10-15 minutes before work. To me, it looks pretty similar to NHL 10, but it was still fun. I gave up on NHL 10 much earlier than I did with 08 and 09 because I got frustrated with the new dynasty mode and some of the tic-tac-toe passing in the gameplay. I felt like the A.I. was one of the worst things about NHL 10, so I'll be curious to see if that's better.

Other than that, there were a few new cutscenes and presentation elements, but also tons of things that looked the same as NHL 08-10. I love the work the NHL team does on this game, but for a game that I probably put 100-125 hours into for '08 and 75-100 for '09, nobody is going to be motivated to play NHL 11 for that long because of broken sticks.

Even though NHL 10 added board pinning, I still felt like there was a bigger jump from NHL 08 to 09 in A.I. and getting a rid of a lot of the cheeser A.I. plays. I'll need more time with the demo to see if anything significant has changed, but I'm probably a first day buyer.

[18 eighty 5]

A couple more things.

The pre game inside arena shots look sensational and there is a new cutscene of the team skating on the ice which is zoomed out so you can see the opposition at their end skating.

Boardplay is much smoother and improved. You can actually say that the game has a more organic feel with scrappy turnovers making their way into the board battles as players fight to gain control of the puck. I just had a scrap session where the puck was turned over about 4 times within a small zone just inside my attacking blue line near the left hand side boards. Felt smooth and look great. And no irritating tripping penalties from poke checks and stick lifts to break it up. Really adds to the feeling of intensity and toughness out on the ice.

I would have to say that the demo is still not massively scrappy but its the best it has been. I think though that upping the speed may make up for this and playing with difficulty and slider settings will probably help too.

The skating is smoother, its nothing major but is obviously a refined job over previous years. It feels tighter and the players seem heavier on their skates. That silly animation from last year when the play stopped and you could make your player skate off from a standing position and his legs would kick about madly like it was his first time on ice trying to get his balance has gone.

Defending seems smoother and players are not sucked out of position from what I have seen.

Interesting point to note: I just used Hossa to stick lift an oponent and it broke the opponents stick. One troubling thing though was that it happened in my offensive zone and when the stick broke the cpu forgot about the puck and skated off to get a new stick. However, the puck was loose and Hossa did not have possession. Was cool to see the player heading for the bench but strange to seem him stop defending.

Have noticed variety in goals, no two have been the same in any of my games so far and none of them really resemble the same old shots from last year.

For anyone wondering, the broadcast camera is similar to last year, not like 2k's broadcast but it does seem better than last years. The view remains nice and wide and players don't shrink in size at the far ends of the angle. Unless my eyes are lying I don't think this is the same camera angle but it is not a huge change. Plus, I heard that we can customise camera angles so that will be great if it is so.

Lastly, hitting is excellent. The best in a hockey game. Feels natural, looks great and really adds to the experience. I don't think video can do it justice. You really have to play the game to notice the changes. I for one was not really that excited by the new physics engine showing off how hits are improved. From those clips it is just too hard to get an appreciation for the changes. It just looked like another set of canned animations. But to pay the game in person and see the hits and feel them through the controller, it is a world of difference from hockey iterations past.

[StormJH1]

One thing I wish they would have looked at is the skating speed and the "auto-turbo" effect that you're starting to see in Madden and NCAA Football. While I'm aware that NHL was the first series to get arid of turbo (with the exception of the "push the puck farther ahead" left trigger button), I still feel like players don't have any sense of urgency or speed rush when they turn or corner or are in the open ice.

Guys pretty much skate one of two speeds: "on" or "off". I don't want an artificial turbo button, but I do want guys to move more quickly when they get a clear lane. And I want the more skilled skaters to get to their top speed more easily when they're in traffic than the less skilled skaters.

I think that simple change could do a lot to solve the unquestioned #1 problem with this franchise, which is the complaint that all the players feel roughly the same. If they paid more attention under the hood to how star players performed versus scrub players when you tell them to skate or shoot, they could be more realistic (and more diversified) in their ratings, rather than having to lie and say that someone like Darren Helm (of the Red Wings) has speed in the mid-80's, when he's probably one of the two or three fastest skaters in the NHL. You can't make 4th line player a 99 speed in this game, or he'd score 40 goals every year.

[MizzouRah]

Wow.. when do I get my retail copy?

It just feels like a real NHL game now, the players alone have weight to them and player skill separation is definitely there. The physics engine is great.. add broken sticks, hits that knock sticks out of hands, some new goalie animations, new faceoff engine, goal reveiws, etc.. etc..

When Chicago scored against me, they played their goal horn (which was not in 10) and had the spotlight on the goal scorer and chanted the owww waoooo song - was that in 10?

I'm VERY excited yet again this year and can't wait to skate with my Blues!

[crobert0247]

Anyone notice that the protect puck button(A) has been given some treatment? There is actual skating with this feature and not just the curl and hold arm out from previous years.