NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by gopher_guy

Some of you guys must be EXCELLENT passers (the ones who say pass accuracy needs to be lowered), because playing on hardcore, there are times when I can barely complete a damn pass, LOL. The difficulty level of the goalies is kind of refreshing, I must say. They are very, very good. And I will probably slider them down so they're not as good. But I was playing LA against Phoenix, Mike Smith was making some brilliant saves one me, and I was peppering him pretty good for a while there. I scored the game winner late in 3OT, and I threw my hands up in the air and shouted "YES!" Pretty rare for me to react that way to a video game, but it was very satisfying to score that game winner after so many close calls, haha.

Agreed, just scored one with King with about 28 seconds left of a 0-0 game, his initial shot hit a skate and Brodeur had already gone down. Managed to grab the rebound and bank it in off a sprawling diving goal tender. I think the goalies are great this year. I really love how they don't get locked into animations and can still react after an initial save attempt.

Totally fist pumped after that one. Finally a game that bumps off NHL2k3 from the top of my list. It only took a decade. And a couple console generations.

[gopher_guy]

Just did HUT in the demo. I got Stamkos and Byfuglien in my pack, the difference between those two on the ice is very striking.

Stamkos can FLY, one or two strides and he is seemingly at full speed. On the other hand, Byfuglien is the exact opposite, he is harder to control. Can't turn as well, and it takes more time to get to his top speed. He's strong on the puck, just not as good of a skater as Stamkos.

I love that you can tell the difference between players now.

edit: LOL, in my second HUT team game, there's like literally 8 people in the stands. Looks like an 8th grade girls hockey game crowd, except some of the parents forgot to show up.

[Nomah5]

I am enjoying this demo. I find myself playing the Moments live as I live in PHX so seeing jobing.com is fun. I played a 5 OT game today finally winning. Loved it. Some of the saves that the goalies make are epic. Well done EA.

[mkharsh33]

Just got called for a double minor (high sticking) and then got a stupid penalty to be down 5 on 3. Almost held the fort but gave up a goal with 3 seconds left on the PK.

Crowding the net this year works much better...seems like guys are more willing to fight, and even heard the commentators note it.

A small presentation thing, but liked seeing some of the flash bulbs where people are taking pictures.

Got robbed by Quick who made a crazy save where he was moving to his right, I shot glove side high left and he snagged it out of mid-air. Pretty cool.

[milin]

I'm loving this game at the moment. I'm been using the true broadcast camera and it feels great!

I only have one grief that can be fixed easily. When using the true broadcast cam, the controls set to always up, aiming the shot with the left stick is still camera relative and it feels weird that way. You can try this in free skate and setting the control and camera to what I said.

[peter21]

Quote: Originally Posted by milin

I'm loving this game at the moment. I'm been using the true broadcast camera and it feels great! I only have one grief that can be fixed easily. When using the true broadcast cam, the controls set to always up, aiming the shot with the left stick is still camera relative and it feels weird that way. You can try this in free skate and setting the control and camera to what I said.

Yeah, I was struggling with broadcast mode a lot with shooting, faceoffs, etc. I'm just so used to overhead, this might be a tough transition for me. As another poster said, I may just use broadcast mode for coaching in one of the GM leagues.

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

Not sure, but from a preview I read on another site, I think it's just things like how each line will play and things like that. Each of the 30 teams is set up differently.

If you click the right stick on the pregame edit lines screen, it will bring up your strategies. You can play with all the new settings, including the bias settings for individual lines. It reminds me of the setup in old 2k games, which is exactly what I used as an example when discussing the topic with them when I was there. Unfortunately we can't save them in the demo, even from one HUT game to the next. But that won't be an issue with the full game.

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

Basically what I'm trying to say, is that the sliders have been adjusted to really display the changes made to the game. So once we get the full game, we can adjust sliders and make them how we're used to playing at, and game will be great.

If you change the game style the sliders will change. It sounds like you were looking at default; normal puts almost every slider in the middle, while hardcore moves a few by a click or two and puts pass assist to zero (by far the biggest difference).

Quote: Originally Posted by peter21

Yeah, I was struggling with broadcast mode a lot with shooting, faceoffs, etc. I'm just so used to overhead, this might be a tough transition for me. As another poster said, I may just use broadcast mode for coaching in one of the GM leagues.

I've been playing on side-scrolling cameras with relative controls for years and I'm still having trouble with it on true broadcast. It also has some "blindspots" when moving the puck up ice, just as a real broadcast does. But it looks so damn good I want to stick with it.

[MizzouRah]

Wow.. this is sports game of the year territory.:P

Ok.. a bit premature. But.. the new skating engine is all of that and then some. The game really feels like a hockey game. Put it on AS and I've seen a little bit of everything, loose pucks, dump and chase, penalties, scrums, offsides, teams being pinned in without being able to give up the puck, breakaways, etc..

What an excellent job they have done this year - especially where it matters most, gameplay and AI. My teammates finally have a hockey sense! Can't wait to see the full product!

Added: Player differential is much improved as well as the lighting!