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

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by crobert0247

I am really enjoying what the Hustle feature has brought to NHL 11 so far. I mean, when you are going full tilt on the forecheck or tracking back, it feels like watching a real NHL'er out there going FULL STRIDE. You can notice the player start skating harder and moving faster in a realistic way. No more pre-NHL 11 half stride when a player is right out the gate. You can turn on the jets now. I'm becoming a big fan of Hustle.

Same here, I was weary of seeing a sort of speed boost readded to the game, but the way hustle is implimented is realistic, makes sense, and works well for what it's intended to do.

[Scottdau]

I love the hustle and being able to protect puck and go behind the net for a wrap around try with a fast skater.

[crobert0247]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

Same here, I was weary of seeing a sort of speed boost readded to the game, but the way hustle is implimented is realistic, makes sense, and works well for what it's intended to do.

Well said. I was also worried when it was announced. But thankfully(), it seems to have been implemented in just the right way.

[crobert0247]

Quote: Originally Posted by Scottdau

I love the hustle and being able to protect puck and go behind the net for a wrap around try with a fast skater.

I really like using it when Mikkel Boedker or Nick Backstrom jumps the bench to get up on the forecheck.

[Vince]

anyone notice how saves look more realistic this year too?

[Scottdau]

Yep, I notice that too. It is really done nicely too.

[sroz39]

I know I'm late to the impressions party but I wanted to get a good amount of time in before making any "best game ever" statements. But truly, after many 3rd periods of the demo, this is the best hockey game ever, IMO.

Random thoughts:

- loving the skating. Those that are saying it's heavier are spot-on. There's more weight to the players and it takes longer to start and stop, especially when completely changing directions. Dare I say, it's very 2K-like without feeling like you're skating in quicksand a la 2K10 pre-patch.

- physics are a definite step in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, not by a long shot. In fact, there are still times where the physics don't kick in quite right. But they are mostly spot-on about 90% of the time, especially on light bumps and whatnot. Hip checks? Way too easy and need a release day tuner to nerf them a bit though. Looking forward to seeing year two and three of the physics implementation but the major positive to come out of this is that this should greatly limit how many 5'7" guys you see out there in OTP/EASHL play because if that's anything like the demo, those guys will get absolutely annihilated (as it should be)

- the fleshing out of certain animations really adds alot. The dekes look and feel great and it SEEMS like top tier players have an easier time with them than 3rd and 4th liners. Remains to be seen in the retail version if this holds true. Another thing that's been mentioned is the protect puck animation that's much better than before. Love the auto animations your player will do. So many occurences, it's tough to go through them all but off the top of my head, I had a guy knock the puck up to himself when I dumped it in and it bounced off the boards as I was skating by, saw a guy try to knock the puck down on to his stick on another dump but from my defensive zone and he was at the offensive blue line and the coolest one was when I knocked a guy down and as I was skating by with the puck while he was on his back, he desperately took a flail at the puck/my feet and tripped me, getting a penalty. Speaking of penalties..

- so much more organic looking. It doesn't seem like a canned animation (though they mostly are) but I've yet to see a tripping call on a poke where the stick was nowhere near the guy's feet. Instead, they're in a much more realistic context. Same with hooking calls. Someone mentioned this earlier, but I saw a guy get hooked with the puck but continue skating with one hand on his stick. Really cool. I've yet to try hitting someone without the puck below the hash marks to see if they actually took that out. Worries me slightly for EASHL play.

- love that dangerous spots in real life are dangerous spots to score from in the demo, for the most part anyways. I'm sure as the physics get implemeted more and more heavily over the next two years and it becomes more and more difficult to get into the slot, the goalies will become even more realistic to shoot at. As it is, I'm happy with Year One.

- love the passing. I have some comments on it for online play later on but I really like the way it's done. Not even sure what's so different about the passing in the demo from "Hardcore Passing" in 10 but it's just better.

- really like how to dump it in high, they cut down how long you have to hold RB for. Playing on an EASHL team that uses the dump and chase as our main offensive strategy, it sucked last year having to pre-determine well in advance when to dump and when to not. Sometimes, when you want to carry it in cuz you see a lane but it closes up quickly, your only option was to get levelled, make a risky pass or dump it in very low with no chance of recovering it anyways. Great to see this tuned.

- playing 90% of my club games last year in net, I can tell you there's not really that much different playing net in the demo (locked on goalie for a few games). They took the auto-cover out that led to some goals last year where your player looked like he was playing Hungry Hungry Hippo trying to cover a moving puck. You now have to hit Y instead of just sitting in butterfly. Still seeing too much of the spinning around animation too.

- like the way the ice looks, especially the degradation over the course of the period.

- commentary is a bit stale, but it's still better than many games out there so I can deal.

- presentation looks like it got a slight upgrade. Would like to see more done here but I'm glad the team is focusing on gameplay, so I can take a bit of my presentation beefs. Who knows, might be more to see in the final product too.

- Ultimate Team is really cool. I'm personally not going to play this mode much (mainly club play and BAGM for me) but I could see me goofing around with this mode. Love the simplicity of the ratings and the way the potential is done. I'm sure a ton of people are going to get alot out of this mode. Good job EA.

As for some of my concerns, they are mostly related to online play. Already mentioned the hip checks, could see that being a pain in OTP/EASHL play. There's other little things. I'm not the greatest glitcher by any stretch, as it's not something I employ as part of my arsenal (and our club has a zero-tolerance "no-glitch" policy) but having watched people do different glitches in 10 and 09, I tried doing some of them in the demo and the whip shot from 10 is effective and surprisingly, the curve shot from 09 works again too. Who knows what it'll be like online and not overly concerning to me personally, as my club is a strictly 6's only club, but still sucks a bit those are back.

Other than that, it's mainly curiousity as to what EASHL play entails. Maybe Redshirt can chime in on some of these questions:

- what is the difference between Amateur/Pro/Elite? Will gamestyles be different between the divisions? I've heard Elite is stricly 6v6. Is this true?

- is EASHL passing like passing in the demo? I think it would truly seperate the average passers from the great passers. I took alot of time learning how to use the manual saucer pass last year and it was really time wasted as I found I only needed to use it once every few games. But if all passing was this way, it would truly make playmakers valuable and also nerf some of the cross-crease stuff.

- has the faceoff loop been eliminated?

- is the practice mode free-form where there's just a bunch of pucks lying around and your teammates can drop in and out at will or is it a structured thing, similar to Practice mode offline?

- very curious to see how the Hustle Button has been implemented online. It's tied into to Fatigue, which is all well and good, but how does that work in EASHL play where there's no line changes? Does it reset after every faceoff? Time elapsed?

Two more things and then that's it for me. I would love to see, in EASHL/OTP play, having the BAP camera locked in. Meaning you have to use it. It's a really cool camera but you're really putting yourself at a dis-advantage if you use it as a forward or even Dman, because you see so much more of the ice with the other cameras. But if you truly want to feel like it's you out there, BAP cam is the only way to go and if everyone was FORCED to use it, there would be no disadvatage. And this way, chemistry would play a big part in EASHL play as knowing where your teammates are off screen would be important and making those passes behind you would be more rewarding.

I have a guess as to what QB is alluding to as far as an announcement goes with BAGM. Knowing he knows what makes this community giddy, I think EA has allowed 30 team control, and allowing you to play every game on the sked as well as set the sked length. I know he can't say yay or nay but that's my guess anyways.

[Scottdau]

Wow that is a lot of impression Sroz. I agree this is a really good and fun game. I love the Ice and the skating is really smooth. Just think this is the first year of a three year plan with real physics too.