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

[Bosborne]

Quote: Originally Posted by FBeaule04

Played more games last night and have to say that overall, I like the game more than at any time in NHL 11, especially playing locked as the goalie. There's a bit of disappointment on the presentation side I have to say. What's the point of showing the the crowd after a goal if it's only to show 2-3 idiots going forward, backward, forward with their upper body? After that, you see the goalie skating up-close and then boom, back to replay. Just giving a 5 guys together congratulating each other after a goal would be just perfect, you don't need to push it up to the moon to get a celebrations that's just fine. Even Blade of Steel on the Nintendo had figure it out with one guy pumping fist in the middle with the other 4 guys tapping the ice with their stick. On a real positive note, I have to say that the AI D is finally playing almost the way it should when you play locked as the G. No more funny pinning and skating backward until getting pressure. I don't know if it's the case, but seems like Johnny Boychuk has the "pinching type" trait since he's pretty agressive on forwards leaving the zone. Chara is a monster while Kaberle was my most painful D to watch in front of the net. Also seems like the CPU is shooting more. On 5 minutes period, I had an average of 7 shots. CPU is passing the puck well in the offensive zone. Playing the Sedin as a goalie wasn't easy at all, while Burrows net presence was a pain in the a..! So far so good. I guess I will have the exact state of the game when we see online play with experts exploiting all weakness of the AI and showing us how bad the game can be when those experts are playing it.

goalie sounds fun, im going to try it tonight

[Qb]

After playing the demo for two hours last night followed by two hours of NHL11 EASHL play, I take back what I said about the skating in the demo. I still think it could be tweaked -- a little less acceleration & agility -- but it does seem improved both in form & function.

In my first 20 minutes of play yesterday morning, I noticed some of the new animations, but I also saw the awkward "hovering" moment when a player turns around from a standstill. However, after more time with the demo it seems that will be less frequent this year. Plus, I play with auto-backskate off and tend to over-use vision control, which can lead to some awkward moments due to user error more than anything else.

Overall, especially compared to NHL11, the skating looks much better and I think it feels somewhat better as well. Looking forward to playing with the speed/acceleration sliders a bit with the retail. It feels a bit fast to me when playing on the broadcast camera (my offline preference), but has a fairly nice pace using an up & down view. Or maybe I'm crazy.


One thing that's bothering me after more time are some of the rebounds. I feel some are coming off the goalie with too much force, particularly from straight-on shots. A lot of shots die when they hit a goalie IRL due to the amount of padding they wear, especially if it's above the waist. I suspect that's a hard thing to replicate without making the rebounds too dead overall.

I don't know... it's hard to describe because I see many good moments with the puck physics and live goalie improvements -- no more puck on the back, yay! -- but I think the goalie needs to absorb more of the force of the shot when he's squared up to it.

[born_bad]

I was pretty excited to play the demo. I fired it up and saw that the menus looked the exact same as last year and was thinking, OK, no big deal. It would be nice if it looked like a new game, but the menus work fine, so no big deal.Then, the game starts and all the pre-game stuff (showing of the lines, players, etc.) also looks the exact same as last year. Hmm… this is the new demo, right?

The game starts up and we’re down on the ice. That was nice there was hardly any load time. This is a pretty short intro and looks pretty much just like last year’s opening cut scene with the guys coming to the bench. This face-off looks exactly like last year’s, too. No new angles, cut scenes? That’s a little disappointing.

Then, I play 2 full periods and it felt like I was playing an improved NHL 08 – 11. The game just looks and feels the same for too many years now. The commentary, the cut scenes, the camera angles, the replays, etc. It’s all rehashed from year to year and it really has grown pretty stale to me. Yes, there are some nice improvements with gameplay. To be honest, though, because everything else is virtually unchanged, it feels to me like if a PC version of NHL 11 had been modded a bit for some improvements and tweaks.

I really wish there was something there for me to want to pay $60 for this year, but it looks like I’ll be skipping this year and sticking with my 2-year cycle for sports games. I was really looking forward to having an NHL game where the Bruins were the defending champs, but I feel like I might as well just stick with and continue playing NHL 11.

I wish the devs had the time and resources to actually make this look and feel like a new game year to year, but apparently they don’t.

[cardswin2006]

Played one game last night. I only played NHL 11 a couple times at my brother-in-law's place, but I own NHL 10. Overall I like the how the defense seems tighter and doesn't give up easy access to the goal anymore.

One thing that did concern me tough: The only goal of the game (in OT) happened when one of the Sedin sisters pushed my goalie out from his crease while there was a slapshot from the point, destroying the angle and leaving the net basically wide open. It certainly wasn't done on purpose (and without replay it's tough to go back and break down exactly what transpired), but this really concerns me as it could be really exploited in online or even human vs CPU games (for those with little self-control).

It is definitely a nice leap from NHL 10 and I'll give it some more tries over the next few days to decide if it's worth $60 to me or not.

[tmac55]

At first glance, I was like "really.. this feels like games gone by"; however, after spending more time with the demo last night, I can honestly say that this demo is impressive. The two things that stand out for me is skating physics and AI defense. The AI is so smart this season and to me it adds a whole level of enjoyment to the game.

We shall see after playing some more games, but for now I am pretty happy with the demo. Nothing new to see; however, it feels like they improved on past faults.

[Section_25]

Quote: Originally Posted by born_bad

I was pretty excited to play the demo. I fired it up and saw that the menus looked the exact same as last year and was thinking, OK, no big deal. It would be nice if it looked like a new game, but the menus work fine, so no big deal.Then, the game starts and all the pre-game stuff (showing of the lines, players, etc.) also looks the exact same as last year. Hmm… this is the new demo, right? The game starts up and we’re down on the ice. That was nice there was hardly any load time. This is a pretty short intro and looks pretty much just like last year’s opening cut scene with the guys coming to the bench. This face-off looks exactly like last year’s, too. No new angles, cut scenes? That’s a little disappointing. Then, I play 2 full periods and it felt like I was playing an improved NHL 08 – 11. The game just looks and feels the same for too many years now. The commentary, the cut scenes, the camera angles, the replays, etc. It’s all rehashed from year to year and it really has grown pretty stale to me. Yes, there are some nice improvements with gameplay. To be honest, though, because everything else is virtually unchanged, it feels to me like if a PC version of NHL 11 had been modded a bit for some improvements and tweaks. I really wish there was something there for me to want to pay $60 for this year, but it looks like I’ll be skipping this year and sticking with my 2-year cycle for sports games. I was really looking forward to having an NHL game where the Bruins were the defending champs, but I feel like I might as well just stick with and continue playing NHL 11. I wish the devs had the time and resources to actually make this look and feel like a new game year to year, but apparently they don’t.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about it also. I do like some of the gameplay tweeks this year but I'm hoping the retail version has a little more to offer as far as presentation.

I do plan on buying it eventually, but I will be looking for it on sale somewhere. I just can't see paying full purchase price for it.

I sure wish I would have taken advantage of that $20 off Amazon pre-order deal when I had the chance.

[chrisg19]

Was playing a BAP game, and simmed to my next shift. So live play comes back on, and Krejci who I am replacing, skates to the bench, and just stands there. He won't get off the ice, and I can't get on. I guess he was pissed I took his first line spot or something, but play went on for over a minute, before a whistle let me out.

Really liking the game so far. The by product of not releasing many game play videos is that my expectations were low for this years game, and now I am pretty psyched with what I have seen. Kind of like "anti-hyping" a game.

[blinkfan77]

Loving the demo, but hating the hitting. It's just too much. Way too much. Wayyyyy too much. I'm playing on All-Star too. I hate the fact that a good % of collisions result in both players going down to the ice, often times when the guy delivering the hit shouldn't be in a situation where he falls with the other guy.

I hope to god a slider will fix this.

Still, I'm LOVING the new enhanced skating. I like how you see players with a "jump" to their beginning strides. There are all kinds of subtle animations and tweaks that create a lot more real looking game.

Edit- just seeing now that the Hitting Power slider is only at about 75%. OUCH!