NHL 12 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[FBeaule04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

another pro i just noticed.. when you deke out to left or right, it seems as if you loose speed and dont coast full speed anymore.. if so, thats great.. will make some moves tougher to pull off unlike last year.. but with that said, its just with the NHL guys, who knows how the boosted players etc will act in those situations..

If that's the case, it's going to be a blessing for D-Man that we're unable to follow as soon they made a move reacting to a forward making a deke. There's no way a D pokecheking a guy trying to make a deke should been thrown out immediately off the play and the guy making a crazy deke still full speed!

[FBeaule04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

yeeeeeeeeeeeeees!! they brought back being able to use any camera while being locked on the goalie.. woo!! i was so heated last year when you had to use either low or high. for those that dont know, prior to playing a play now game, hit edit lineups, use the X button to position lock..

Much needed, and quite honestly, I never understood whey they got rid of it in NHL 11.

Looks like my BaP goalie can make a return with the classic cam on. Yes!

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by adayinthelife

Yep. It's a good thing because it means that there's a 99% chance you can make the retail game play better, but a bad thing because we'll have to wait to see if the sliders are effective in the least bit.

They weren't locked last year, which gave a good idea for how the game would play on SS with realistic sliders. It makes zero sense to me that they would lock them this year. Hiding something EA? /sigh

[bad_philanthropy]

The changes I've noticed so far are subtle, but I like them. As others have mentioned, puck physics are improved and skating feels a bit better. Manual passing seems a touch quicker, but I didn't have a problem with how it was before.

One thing though, of all the demos released for NHL this gen, I've had the least difficulty adjusting to this one. I was able to put it on SS HC mode and felt completely comfortable. In fact, my overall feel was that I couldn't really tell if I was playing NHL 11 or a new game.

I like the game, and I like the under the hood improvements, and I'll definitely buy.

Last point. It hurts to say this, but in an age when NCAA, Madden, FIFA, and even Side's Rugby Challenge are implementing all sorts of new lighting mechanisms and visual polish, I feel like the look of EA's NHL series is a bit dated. Presentation upgrades are nice, and I know hockey is different that an outdoor sport, but I just feel like it might be time for a bit of a visual overhaul for the series -- this is the fifth edition since going to 60fps, and the look has differed little over that span.

[stew514]

Quote: Originally Posted by mondoguitar

Hopefully the hitting is something they tweak with sliders, they did it last year. I think if more "slot goals" are scored legit, then people might feel the need to glitch less. If the only way you can score on the goalie is with a glitch move, guess what, people will do that. It was the goaltending that needed fixing the most. When you have a 5ft shot in the slot, it should go in half the time, not 1% of the time.

This is exactly how I feel, if they made the slot a dangerous area to score that's where teams would attack. Teams are going to do whatever is the easiest way to score and it's up to the developers to try and balance that.

[FBeaule04]

Quote: Originally Posted by MiNiDiTkA

Another vid. I'll have some videos of HUT and BAP later on.

The more I see, the more I like it. There was one odd thing in the video, Chara going to the corner while Thomas was holding the puck after a save. Never seen that in real life, but it's not that problematic.

I was laughing out loud when I saw you bump Thomas with Burrows 10 times in a row after a whistle without Chara and Boychuk not even coming to rip your head off!

On the PP goal you had, it was a nice tribute to net battle as Boychuk takes Burrows out of the front of the net, and Thomas moving forward to take the shot. Bieksa blast it through, but that's happening in the game too, so it's fine.

What I would like to see is if the slightest breakaway moves are working like crazy. Seems like in NHL 11, the only sure way to score is the simple move or the glitch wrister. Would be curious to see if the CPU goalies are bitting like NHL 11.

After 2-3 footage, didn't see any pinning or backing off from the D as well as a winger going to the corner on a 2 on 1. That's pleasing me a lot.

So far, good job EA. Can't wait to dowload it and play a few games at home tonight!

[Mikey88]

I like the demo so far. I couldn't say the same thing for last years.

First things first - I change difficulty to All-Star. Some random notes follow
-The first BIG thing i noticed was CPU AI. WAY BETTER IMO. Daniel Sedin is skating down the wing crossing the blue line, i try to line him up with Chara, he dekes me out lol so i completely miss the hit.

-CPU passes are better.

-CPU shoots a LOT MORE.

-I skated over to make a hit with Kaberle, but only got a piece of Torres, the physics of the collision looked really believable. Kaberle bounced off Torres and stumbed but kept going, Torres stumbled a bit too.

-Skating down the wing, I had Horton cross the blue line and fire a slap shot, only to have it blocked by a defender who dove in front of it!

-I just ran into Luongo accidentally while trying to get at a rebound, bumped into him and got 2 for interference. It looked cool too, as i bumped Lou when he was down, he slid to the side a bit.

-Haven't had 1 shot hit a post yet... kinda nice not to hear - "OH HE HIT HEAVY METAL" every 2 seconds lol

-CPU dumps the puck in when theres nowhere to go in the neutral zone

-1 really cool thing i noticed: i had a tired line out, got stuck in my end but finally I was able to get the puck over my blue line, but I was alone.. trying to get to center to dump and change with 2 defenders in front of me - 1 of em charges at me before i get to the line, knocks me off the puck lol awesome

....more to come

[adayinthelife]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

They weren't locked last year, which gave a good idea for how the game would play on SS with realistic sliders. It makes zero sense to me that they would lock them this year. Hiding something EA? /sigh

Who knows. There's a lot about this game that comes off as half-assed this year, so just add this to the list I suppose.

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

The changes I've noticed so far are subtle, but I like them. As others have mentioned, puck physics are improved and skating feels a bit better. Manual passing seems a touch quicker, but I didn't have a problem with how it was before. One thing though, of all the demos released for NHL this gen, I've had the least difficulty adjusting to this one. I was able to put it on SS HC mode and felt completely comfortable. In fact, my overall feel was that I couldn't really tell if I was playing NHL 11 or a new game. I like the game, and I like the under the hood improvements, and I'll definitely buy. Last point. It hurts to say this, but in an age when NCAA, Madden, FIFA, and even Side's Rugby Challenge are implementing all sorts of new lighting mechanisms and visual polish, I feel like the look of EA's NHL series is a bit dated. Presentation upgrades are nice, and I know hockey is different that an outdoor sport, but I just feel like it might be time for a bit of a visual overhaul for the series -- this is the fifth edition since going to 60fps, and the look has differed little over that span.

This is exactly what I was trying to explain. I play the hell out of this series every year, so when it's demo time I'm usually floored by just how different certain aspects of the game are. I just haven't had that feeling with it thus far.

The worst part is I'm still going to buy the game. It just feels like EA knows that already this year.