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

[SinisterAlex]

I'm playing on All-Star Normal and I think the A.I is just fine. It's aggressive when it needs to be and sits back when it needs too.

I'm also loving the variety from the A.I in terms of passing. They don't just skate and never pass, if they're about to lose room in the neutral zone, they'll pass it off a few times before eventually gaining the blue line or dumping it.

Also don't get me started on their shots... purely amazing. I've never seen the CPU take the amount of shots that they are in this demo. Most of their shots aren't just shots, they're legitimate good scoring chances.

The puck physics are superb and the way the goalies react and control rebounds is astonishing. Seeing Luongo and Thomas deflect rebounds to the corners and make these nice pad saves is a nice thing to see.

Gosh... I'm in love.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by AtomicLegend

I'm playing on All-Star Normal and I think the A.I is just fine. It's aggressive when it needs to be and sits back when it needs too. I'm also loving the variety from the A.I in terms of passing. They don't just skate and never pass, if they're about to lose room in the neutral zone, they'll pass it off a few times before eventually gaining the blue line or dumping it. Also don't get me started on their shots... purely amazing. I've never seen the CPU take the amount of shots that they are in this demo. Most of their shots aren't just shots, they're legitimate good scoring chances. The puck physics are superb and the way the goalies react and control rebounds is astonishing. Seeing Luongo and Thomas deflect rebounds to the corners and make these nice pad saves is a nice thing to see. Gosh... I'm in love.

Noticing the same thing on SS, AI doesn't just let you set up all day long anymore and Aggression slider isn't even maxxed out. The rebounds look great as well, passing doesn't seem as tape to tape and the CPU isn't afraid to shoot. I remember I thought last years demo was organic, man was I wrong. Impressed with the gameplay, wish you could turn off the beep on line changes though.

[gopher_guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

BTW is the action tracker disabled in the demo?

If you play BAP, you can see it in action as you sim to your next shift.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by gopher_guy

If you play BAP, you can see it in action as you sim to your next shift.

oh cool, I'll have to give BAP a try, thanks for that.

[SinisterAlex]

Just saw something cool while playing. It seems they have added highlight package for certain players. They first showed a cut scene of Luongo in his net, Bill then talks about Luongo and says "watch these replays" an graphic comes up with "Roberto Luongo" on it and they then show some of his saves that he had made that period.

Now that's pretty cool.

[mazinkaiser]

I like it better than nhl 11. Still need to tone down the puck sticking to the stick like a magnet with sliders. It looks like nhl 12 and bf3 are the two ea games I'll be buying this year. I really wanted to get madden, but I really hate the demo and I don't feel like playing the eagles every other game online.

[RealmK]

Holy hell, during a stopage they just broke down a few replays, saying how good Luongo has been in net. Nice!!!

[Vikes1]

Negatives:

Seems to still be way too easy to enter the offensive zone. And still can go coast to coast, with nearly anyone. On All-Star [hardcore] with the aggression sliders at 5 [provided their functioning] I was going end to end nearly uncontested. I then tried Superstar [normal] and it was a bit better. But imo...was still just too easy to skate through the zones. I'm hoping this is a "demo thing". Thinking that many people giving the demo a try...would get frustrated if the gameplay was too, "gritty". Hopefully the retail version will be more realistic with slider work.

Positives:

Lots to like here....

I like the look and feel of the skating.

Really like the congestion of players down deep in front of the net. [big plus] Several more blocked shots, and many more dirty goals.

Puck physic seem very good. Taking a slapshot now, really seems like it.

Seen some nice examples of the full physic engine, with the checking. Still a bit overboard though, imo. Again...maybe a demo thing. There's other positives, but I'll stop here.

I believe NHL '12' with some slider adjustments that I prefer, this will be a good year for my GM mode. And as always...a blast to spend time with my son playing. Can't beat that!