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

[FBeaule04]

Quote: Originally Posted by kerosene31

So, their old games worked great and were glitch free? At least the NHL team tries to do something against this. It seems the community is just bound and determined to find cheese no matter what and exploit it regularly. The devs could do more to stop the frequent ones, but ultimately this community is going to find a way to break the game no matter what. That's just the sad state of gaming online with sports games today.

Don't put words in my mouth. Didn't say it was perfect then, but at least patches and tuner weren't an excuse in the early days. You had no crutches for a badly developped game back then.

And by the way, I didn't say that patches and tuner weren't welcome, I say they are use as a bonus while testing and working on details still the best way to avoid problems.

[gopher_guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by mkharsh33

Screw the online stuff... Fix this game for OFFLINE players, and those who absorb their time into BAGM. This is what makes me mad... You can't tweak a game for morons, so fix it for those of us who play user vs. cpu and want to play multiple BAGM. They killed last year's game with those stupid tuning updates - it was like the game would play completely different. I've been reading comments on the hands-on NBA 2K12 game, and it appears this upcoming game will be phenomenal - they listened to the community and are willing to make major changes. I wish the NHL team cared as much for their fans - not the online cheesers. And then I come to this forum and read many here giving EA a free pass, and almost pat them on the back for all the mistakes. Look, the fact that we're STILL listening to the same old stale commentary after all these years is an embarrassment... But the "well, they've only got 10 months...blah, blah, blah stuff" gets under my skin. How hard it is to lock a couple guys in a room with a microphone and come up with NEW stuff??? The appeasement I'm reading in this thread is laughable... This is the SAME game we've been playing for a few years now, with a few tuning and patched tweaks, but according to a lot of what I read here that is totally acceptable... I don't agree with that...

I don't think it's necessarily giving EA a "free pass", but we have no idea what went on in the development. Maybe Gary Thorne or Bill Clement couldn't/didn't want to come to the studio for a week or two to record new audio. The point is we don't know.

Maybe they decided puck physics was a very important game play fix. I'm guessing not a lot of us know how long it takes to make a computer puck behave like a real life puck (and, in my opinion, it DOES behave like a real life puck, and it has enhanced game play a lot for me). Who knows, maybe it took 4 months to perfect that! I know I have no idea how long that would take. So maybe my ignorance in this area is why I don't have a knife to EA's neck like some do.

I am not giving them a free pass, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

And just to avoid being labeled as a fanboy I will post a couple of my grievances:

Some things though, are testing my patience, like presentation. Presentation/commentary needs to be changed next year.

And also, how hard is it to have one of the devs appease us hardcore gamers and come on to these forums and make some posts describing why some things haven't been fixed yet? That would be refreshing to see.

[jonapaloma]

Cant someone just upload it here? Sure it can have something to do with that it is illegal but isnt it the same thing as sharing the tuner sets or rosters in the forum?

I have xbox

[DStars15]

Alright so I've probably played a total of 10 periods of hockey on the demo since I downloaded it Tuesday morning. Overall, I am impressed with the realism in the game and can judge solely on the demo that this will be a very good installment in the NHL series. Here are some notes I made.

-I'm happy with the goalies. The goalies look much more "live" than in previous years. I'm not a huge fan of the whole contact with the goalies so I'm not talking about that. The goalies can now just deflect a shot or get a little piece of the puck which I think was nearly nonexistent in previous games.

-The wrist shot, slap shot, snap shot are much more realistic now. The release points and physics of the shot are visually more pleasing to the eye. The shooting appears to be a little less accurate than in NHL 11 which IMO is a good thing.

-Sounds make a huge difference. The sounds of the crowd, the hits, players releasing shots, saves all sound 100 percent better. When I let go of a shot from the slot and it hits the post, it truly sounds like a puck just rang off the iron in real life.

-The physics seem pretty good. It's not exactly perfect but this is a process in incorporating a complete physics system. You feel the physical advantage of a player like Chara or Bieksa and you also feel the disadvantage of trying to level a bigger, stronger player when using a smaller, non physical player. Some of the bumps are a little awkward but for the most part, I'm happy with what I see.

I want to note the players' strides. Skating looks much smoother this year and once again, more realistic.

I am actually looking forward to Be A GM this year as the AI is ACTUALLY drastically better. FINALLY.

Overall, I might have overused the word realistic, however, this is the most authentic hockey I have ever played on a console. On another note, I don't fully understand how people can completely praise or bash a game based on demo. We have people on these boards completely ripping the NHL series after playing a period of hockey on a demo. Relax. This game will/can NEVER be perfect but as far as I'm concerned this is quite an improvement to NHL 11.

[MizzouRah]

I've been playing on AS and I have to say, Rammer and EA have done one hell of a job. If you can't notice all the tweaks they have made to gameplay, I'm not sure what to tell you.

The game really feels like a complete hockey game now to me. There is just so much to love about this demo. I can't believe AS is finally a real experience for me, used to be Pro was too easy and AS too hard (as far as scoring goes) - but now I'm finding new ways to get that goal - and I've seen TONS of new goals this year.

The replays are jerky.. I'm hoping that's a demo thing and it's my only gripe.

I LOVE the new gametracker, love how the announcer now sounds like a real home announcer when he announces the who scored!

The crowd seems a bit more amped up.

To me, it seems like they really tweaked and reworked many things, especially the AI. When I play with the lead, I'm holding on for dear life, when the other team has a lead they are trying to protect, especially late in the game, they do whatever is necessary to get the puck out of their zone and regroup.

Damn I'm impressed!!!

Oh.. and goals are now believeable from myself and the CPU.

[gopher_guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by MizzouRah

The replays are jerky.. I'm hoping that's a demo thing and it's my only gripe.

Yep. I noticed that too.

[Stormyhog]

I would like to see fights breakout more realistically during play like when you hit someone during play. Right now the human player can only initiate a fight with the cpu by spamming the button so if you don't initiate the fight none will happen. I like in 2k's hockey where if you hit the cpu enforcer a fight could happen if you agreed to it or he could come and hit you and try to start it. I know fighting is a lesser part of the game now but the way it's done is just not realistic. Plus the post whistle hitting and shoving has become really old and looks silly and I usually just avoid it as it just wastes time in my opinion.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by FBeaule04

Don't put words in my mouth. Didn't say it was perfect then, but at least patches and tuner weren't an excuse in the early days. You had no crutches for a badly developped game back then. And by the way, I didn't say that patches and tuner weren't welcome, I say they are use as a bonus while testing and working on details still the best way to avoid problems.

Maybe they should just ship the game and not support it at all. There really is no pleasing some of you guys.