NHL 11 Demo Review Roundtable

[LuGer33]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

I think online play is the reason EA's NHL series is winning over people who never cared about hockey before. Most of the hardcore NHL fans seem to spend most of their time in the offline modes, which in EA NHL, have only been 'OK' the last couple of years; as of last year, I still thought NHL 2K still had the better franchise mode. But the appeal of being able to pickup-and-play a game of 6 vs. 6 online hockey is what seems to be bringing over new people to EA's game.

Agreed. The series definitely made the "jump," if you will, w/ 6v6 and the EASHL in NHL 09.

Hockey, more than any sport (imo) lends itself to team play. It sounds fun in FIFA but 11v11 is kind of crazy, and I'm sure all the soccer fans in the world will love it, but the casual sports gamer isn't going to enjoy playing as a defender in FIFA and having only a few touches a game. Madden's a good start w/ OTP this year as well, but NHL is light year's ahead of it w/ club based play and 6v6. It should be interesting to see how NBA Elite does OTP (5v5, yes?), but I still think hockey is much more a team sport than basketball. Every player on the ice matters, and every player can have fun. Forwards obviously work the offense, the defense can jump in as well, with the added bonus of being able to crush guys w/ the new real time physics. Goaltending is also a lot of fun (even though I suck at it in-game) and I'm hearing the controls for that are much smoother this year as well. I think ultimately, OTP will always work best w/ NHL.

You have to give credit where credit is due. I feel bad that 2K hockey appears to be finished, and let's face it - they had less resources, less marketing, and made some bad decisions w/ what they did have (party now games, broken control schemes, ignoring their core fans, etc) but EA still needed a damn good product to run them off the road entirely. Not sure that's ever happened before in sports gaming w/ one franchise literally eliminating another w/o exclusive licenses or something similar coming into play. The fact there there is no NHL 2K11 or competition on next-gen, and that NHL 11 looks like the best NHL to date (by far), as well as being a much bigger jump from 10 to 11 than 09 was to 10, I think it speaks a lot as to the quality of the product.

[ianlast]

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the demo. While the skating still feels arcadey (as Jayson mentioned), I was really impressed by all the other improvements.

-Passing feels slick and intuitive on 'manual' setting this year, and I'm incredibly happy to hear they've included a 'pass receiving difficulty' slider this year! For the ultimate sim experience, I'll be keeping that at 0.

-SS difficulty is awesome. From what I can tell, this difficulty is no longer about berserk CPU passing, but instead about upping the defensive difficulty. The CPU is active in cutting off your passing lanes and only giving you low percentage shots...you really have to thread the needle and work the puck around to get quality chances.

-Skating actually feels marginally improved in terms of agility and momentum, and the default game speed (normally it's waaay too fast) is somewhat close to being realistic

-The new physics engine is pretty impressive...at first it seemed like the only emphasis (based on the trailers) was on massive hits, but I'm glad to see they've used it for more subtle things, like glancing blows and such

-My biggest problem is that the puck still feels glued to the player's stick, and there aren't enough loose pucks in non-hitting contact situations and on sharp cuts. Hopefully sliders can fix this somewhat.

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by savoie2006

...then we could turn off annoying things like the auto skate backwards. I also noticed they have the Cpu Difficulty slider cranked for the demo, so playing on All Star feels more like Superstar, which in turn feels virtually impossible.

My fault on the auto back-skate option... we can change it in the demo as RealmK said. I said we couldn't because I forgot it was moved to controller options for 11.

CPU Difficulty is not maxed in the demo. In fact, it is set to zero by default for all difficulty levels & game styles, as stated by Redshirt here in another thread. I think the challenge offered by the CPU in the demo -- and what I experienced at the community event -- is legitimately because it plays better more aggressive hockey on both offense & defense. But, obviously time will tell how the challenge holds up as we adapt to the new style.

Quote: Originally Posted by LuGer33

Goaltending is also a lot of fun (even though I suck at it in-game) and I'm hearing the controls for that are much smoother this year as well. I think ultimately, OTP will always work best w/ NHL.

Thanks to you I was able to player lock last night, so I gave goalie a whirl. I think the controls are smoother/tighter, although I wish there were a better way to manually square up to the shooter. But this is coming from someone who hasn't played a ton of goalie, so perhaps I'm missing something.

[Scottdau]

The more I play this game the more I like it. I love the controls.

[savoie2006]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

My fault on the auto back-skate option... we can change it in the demo as RealmK said. I said we couldn't because I forgot it was moved to controller options for 11. CPU Difficulty is not maxed in the demo. In fact, it is set to zero by default for all difficulty levels & game styles, as stated by Redshirt here in another thread. I think the challenge offered by the CPU in the demo -- and what I experienced at the community event -- is legitimately because it plays better more aggressive hockey on both offense & defense. But, obviously tell will tell how the challenge holds up as we adapt to the new style. Thanks to you I was able to player lock last night, so I gave goalie a whirl. I think the controls are smoother/tighter, although I wish there were a better way to manually square up to the shooter. But this is coming from someone who hasn't played a ton of goalie, so perhaps I'm missing something.

I realied that Q after I playd again, my bad. Kudos to Realm, you made my demo experience way better.

[Keirik]

Quote: Originally Posted by cheechoo98

Jayson Young said: [i]"The offensive AI is outstanding. Not just in the offensive end, but in the neutral zone as well. The way your teammates find the open spaces on the ice by constantly repositioning themselves is something I have never seen before in a hockey game."[i] Wow. Jayson Young's leadoff comment makes me shout... Really??? I guess you've never played a 2K hockey game before! Especially 2K10. Quite the contrary.. in the demo, I found that my forwards are standing at my blueline when they should be getting open in the neutral zone, even with it set to Attack : Full Out. I popped in my copy of 2K10 after playing the NHL demo, and was shocked at how good the positioning A.I. is in 2K, compared to what is supposed to be 'improved' A.I. in NHL11 I can't argue anything anymore, i know.., because there is no 2K game this year for PS3/360, and I will be playing NHL11 to death this season... but really, folks, 2K hockey never got it's due, partly because of the EA 'goggles' people wear.

trolllllllllllllllllllll alert

[Qb]

Even if you don't agree with him, we don't need any name-calling here. Thanks.

[Keirik]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

Even if you don't agree with him, we don't need any name-calling here. Thanks.

not trying to call any names, but lets call it as it is. I'm not the one talking about EA goggles. You know as well as i do what happens when you start going down that road.