NHL 11 Hands-On: Be a GM Impressions

[Legionnaire]

Quote: Originally Posted by fullmetal2405

Customizable season length would be light years easier. I personally prefer the 82 game seasons... more real-to-life stats than if you played say a 41 game season. I'm fine with simming. Play the big games and all playoff games. Generally works out to probably 30 games per season (not including playoffs) but I'd prefer to see 82 games' worth of stats than 30.

I'd love, love, love to be able to play a shortened season

Just for convenience purposes. Now being an adult, it's tough to swing 82 or 162-game schedules that come with the non-football sports titles. And simming isn't much of an option because it kills my connection to my team if I'm only there for 30% of their season, or whatever, while the rest is taking place away from me while I'm simming.

But they'd really have to handle it just right so that I buy into the premise instead of feeling like I'm now playing in an unbelievable alternate reality. There'd need to be some presentation elements that help me buy that this is an actual thing happening in the real hockey world. You know what I mean?

I mean, I don't want to flick my controller a couple times in the "set up" screen before starting my franchise mode, and then find myself in a bizarro alternate universe where I've changed the rules of the game and nobody seems to notice. In order to make it real for me, the game would have to insert some material to make it seem more real.

Maybe, right off the bat once I've changed the settings and progress to the start of the franchise mode, I get to see a quick video clip pop up indicating the way things have changed. Like a "breaking news" segment of some kind. Some anchor reporting on the NHL's surprising announcement of a shorter playing schedule. Followed by brief "footage" of some NHL spokesperson at a press conference or reading a statement. And maybe a couple quick "reaction" clips of players being asked what they think about the new shortened schedule. Maybe some purist pundit gives a sound-bite saying it's a desecration of a once-great game, and some other pundit says it could make the game more akin to the popular sport of football where each game means more because each game makes up a bigger percentage of the entire season as compared to the sports with longer seasons.

Think about it. If the NHL shortened the schedule to 40 games tomorrow, imagine how big a topic this would be in the hockey world. It would have to feel that way in the video game for me, or else the benefit of shortening the schedule would be outweighed by the unreal feeling it the game didn't seem to acknowledge a huge change being made to the sport.

The audio guys would have to record material so, during games, the announcers can make mention of it. Early on, they'd probably just be reminding their viewers of the rules changes. But, as things go on, they'd stop focusing on it so much. They'd eventually only bring it up for the purposes of analyzing stats, mainly. There'd be a lot of "this numbers would roughly translate to such-and-such in the old 82-game schedule" kind of remarks. Or there'd be sort of asterisks or qualifiers when talking about guys' stats (like, "this is the most points anyone has scored in a season since the schedule was shortened back in 2012" or "this is the fewest losses by a team in NHL history, though if you translated it to an 82-game schedule it wouldn't quite break the old record".... that kind of thing).

Again, I'd love it. But they'd have to do some work to make it enjoyable and believable. Just because I don't have time for long seasons and don't have interest in simulating games just to produce real 82-game stats, it doesn't mean I wouldn't love to play some "sim" hockey in a believable version of the future where the NHL has conveniently shortened the schedule dramatically. It'd have to seem believable to suck me in, though.

[TDKing]

Quote: Originally Posted by fullmetal2405

Customizable season length would be light years easier. I personally prefer the 82 game seasons... more real-to-life stats than if you played say a 41 game season. I'm fine with simming. Play the big games and all playoff games. Generally works out to probably 30 games per season (not including playoffs) but I'd prefer to see 82 games' worth of stats than 30.

Keyword is OPTION, no one is saying eliminate the 82 games just give us an option to play less if we want too.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by Keirik

overreact much? lol

Total over reaction for sure. amazes me how some people feel that sports game devs have infinite time and resources to get everything in and working in a 10 month time frame. Stars being stuck in the AHL is a bug anyways, it'll be fixed. The sim stats aren't as bad as a few are making them out to be to begin with.

[TDKing]

Legion, I don't need all that, I'd just be happy with having the option to pick a shorter season. There will still be a beginning, middle and end of a season so you could use the same commentary that you would during an 82 game schedule. Playoffs would be the same. Lets not over complicate it. 20/42/82

[FlyingFinn]

But the logic for generating an accurate schedule for a shortened season would have to be implemented. You just can't play the first 42/20 games of your real schedule.

[RatBastard]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lubey

Me too. Guy's name was Fulton Reed. He could break the glass with his shot, but could only hit the net 1/4 times. It was really weird!

I knew a guy once... same scenario. He got so mad during a game once that he took of his skate and tried to stab a guy with it. His name.. Happy Gilmore. They made a movie about him.

I could not resist this childish post. I apologize.

[Layoneil]

Shortened Season Schedules
18 games
+8 against teams in your own division, 2 games each
+10 against teams in your own conference, 1 game each

30 games
+29 games against each team once
+1 against a team of your choosing and rotating alphabetically each year

42 games
+12 against teams in your own division, 3 games each
+15 against each team in the opposite conference, 1 game each
+10 against a division in the same conference, 2 games each
+5 against another division in the same conference, 1 game each
(the last two divisions rotate every year)

[Mjordan23]

Just a quick questions for those who have played be a GM so far: is line chemistry in this mode now (like in HUT)?