Dynasty Musings: NHL 11's Be a GM Completely Misses the Mark

[ramenite]

Totally agree about those sim stats.

I had a season, where Ovie wasn't even top 10 in scoring. That's with 82 games played. The who's who of the NHL struggles to even make the top 10, it's guys like Gionta who are leading the league.

Some of the problem is WHOs getting the goals. If you watch the super-sim, it's just random people getting assigned points. Key PP guys for a team aren't getting PP goals. They don't respect your lines in the simulation. I've seen goals that were Max Talbot, assisted by Crosby and Kennedy. All three guys are on three different lines.

There's really only three things to have in a great franchise mode. A realistic sim engine, standings that make sense(I'm not even going to open THAT bag of worms), and trade logic. The point is to build a team, and see how you do against the rest of the league. If all the above is broken, what's really the point? All the stuff like having the CHL, restricted free agents, doesn't even matter. There's no reason to go though the mode.

[onlybygrace]

...which is why I'm playing Season Mode and just enjoying the game.

I get to play as the Pens, Caps, and Blues along with the real schedule. When I have the time, of course. I'm gettin' old.

[Vikes1]

Yeah it's a shame that a game like NHL, that has imo, such solid game play, has so many issues with it's franchise mode.[BEAGM]

Of course it's great that patches are now possible. But it sure at least seems like waiting for weeks/months for patches is now commonplace in today's gaming. For the games to be what they were advertise to be at release.

[[Icy]]

Sadly this is the norm with all franchise modes in sport games, see the great NBA2k11 having similar issues, FIFA11, etc. Online gaming probably killed offline gaming and the programming of good offline AI.

[Klykan]

I agree, and it's a shame.

I hope EA will adress these problems in the upcoming patch, otherwise it's $60 right down the drain for me. I only play Be A GM-mode.

[slickdtc]

Why did they half-*** some of these features? Maybe adding in that new physics engine was a bigger task then most of us think, because this series has only touched up and polished off its gameplay the last 2 years. You think, since the core gameplay engine has been in place, that they'd have more time to devote to polishing up BAGM and other modes. Or maybe it's like Madden 10's sim stats... you get either extremely overdone stats, or extremely underdone stats. The coding just won't allow for the actual realistic numbers no matter what they tweak.

My big question is, if they release a patch that fixes these issues (or at least some of them), will we need to restart our BAGM's? And if we don't, will that create more unforeseen issues? It's sticky! I can play through my VAN BAGM for now, but I'm holding off on starting my PHI BAGM until the rosters and patch is out. I can be patient as long as they're trying their best, I have no problems with that. Don't put out a half-*** patch, though. Don't string us along

[clarkerots]

I've been updating NHL09 for the longest time now and I thought this was finally the year to move forward. Unfortunately it seems impossible for EA to ever upgrade gameplay and franchise at the same time. It's a shame too because now I can try to go back to 09 for a decent Franchise but the gameplay improvements between 09 and 11 will leave me with that empty feeling.

[HeroWorship]

Oh god, what a nightmare.

And here I am, getting really excited to finish my first season in BeAGM, and I begin to hear about all this. I knew of the prospects, but the XP glitch and development makes this a bummer. Well, I can hope they patch it, so I don't have to worry. Because the game is excellent, much better than NHL 10 in terms of gameplay and features.

This almost compares to the lefty glitch in MVP Baseball 2004. That game literally got me re interested in baseball again. But seeing how I never could hit homeruns with left-handed hitters made me disappointed. (Thank god for MVP Baseball 2005. I still believe that is the best baseball game ever made. Sorry The Show fans.)

I pray for a patch. I still love the game, but damnit.