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

[JezFranco]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gagnon39

You will notice your dekes can be different if you are gliding. And using the left analog stick (your skates) along with the right analog stick (your stick) you can do some new things. If you do a backhand to forehand deke you can curl the puck around a goalies out-stretched pads. I don't think I ever saw this in NHL 12. Also, as I've said before you can actually score five-hole (on purpose). Before, in previous NHL games you might get a lucky bounce to go five hole every once in a while, but on here you can score a legit five hole goal. Awesome!

Actually, five hole goals and curling the puck was there at the start of NHL 12... but it seems it was tuned away.

[Millennium]

Quote: Originally Posted by mkharsh33

To clarify - I have NO idea why Realm got banned. I also want to state that I sent him a personal note of apology last week, well before he was banned, so this has nothing to do with me. But to say I "taunted" him simply is not true. I had a "disagreement" with him regarding what I was seeing in this demo. I was objective, and though he felt some things weren't to his liking, he seemed to take objection to ANYONE who found fault with this demo. OS is a better place, I believe, because of people like me who have given back a lot to this community with rosters and sliders. But you're entitled to your opinion of me, and that's fine.

What part of drop it don't you get?

The next words about it result in a ban.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[lockjaw333]

Those of you who know me know that I'm primarily a 2K guy. NHL 2K8, for me, was the most realistic hockey game ever made, even despite its glaring flaws in the hitting and AI departments. And while I still think shooting should be separate from right-stick puck handling (a-la 2K8 where "X" was shoot and you could shoot while stickhandling), I think EA has finally made a hockey game that will put out that fire I've had burning for 2K8 all these years.

My initial reactions to the demo were a "more of the same" sense of disappointment. However after playing a bunch of games and really learning the nuances of what they've had, I have to say I quite like it.

Pros:

Skating: Excellent. The best of any hockey game to date. My favorite part is the emphasis on gliding. NHL players are not chugging their legs constantly, most of the time they are gliding whether on offense or defense. In general you can't do most of the intricate things players do in hockey while also skating at 100% max effort, so its nice to see that gliding is a huge part of the game now. It looks realistic, and it definitely helps with the flow of the game.

Neutral Zone play: Still not great, but a BIG improvement over '12. The CPU AI only skates in circles a little bit before eventually dumping the puck. In '12, they wouldn't even dump the puck. Also the neutral zone strategies look much better and really help in the realism department. The neutral zone is a huge part of hockey that was all but ignored by this series in the past.


CPU Offense: Wait, hold on...did I just see the CPU...cycle? I didn't think it could be true, but then they kept doing it, and pinning me in my own zone. Finally! Never felt pinned before in any NHL game. Now you have that feeling of "we need to clear the puck out of our zone". Not enough of a sampling size to see if all of the CPU offense is just predetermined paths and cycles (like in the past), but so far it seems pretty reactionary to what you give them.

Player differential: Kovalchuk feels like Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk does not feel like Jody Shelley. Finally!

Left stick dekes: Might be my favorite addition. This is how players in the NHL deke in open space. They don't hold the puck 5 feet away from their body and sling it around like a yo-yo. Unless you want to lose the puck, you keep it close to your body, and more than anything use your feet and body to change direction and make subtle moves. R-stick dekeing would only come into play on breakaways, and even then it looks pretty silly. I will probably almost exclusively use L-stick dekes. They look explosive and awesome.


Cons:

Puck physics: They feel the same, which isn't a good thing. Goalie rebounds are the worst offender. You either get 1) a rebound shot out of a rocket pod that flies into the corner, 2) a balloon ball pop-up, or 3) a rubberband rebound that flies out of the zone and down the other end. The puck just doesn't behave naturally, and its hard to put my finger on why. It needs to be more dense and weighty, if that makes sense.

Teammate AI: For the love of god, get out of my way on breakouts! Also, why do your teammates never ever go into the slot on offense trying to find open space for a pass or one-timer? They are always in the weirdest spots in the slot that give you no chance to make any sort of play.

CPU Defensive AI: Still far too passive. You can still set up a powerplay during 5 on 5. And there are still "dead zones" where if you just hold the puck, everyone on the ice completely stops and doesn't move.

Goalies: Better this year wiith limb movement, but still too Terminator like and robotic. Barely a sense of momentum and having to push off. Goals seem arbitrary or randomly decided rather than earned.

To me, this last item is the biggest negative this series has going right now. As an earlier poster mentioned, the goalies in NHL 2K8 are by far and away the best in any hockey game ever made (not in looks, but in behavior and movement). I think goalie play is an extremely undervalued part of a hockey game. To me, it really is one of the 2 or 3 aspects that larely determines whether the game feels realistic. The goalie play in 2K8 made of for so many other deficiences in that game.

The goalies just don't feel real in this game. Other parts of this game are getting there, but the goalies really haven't changed much. To me that affects so much. A large part of the unpredictable nature of hockey is that scoring is not only dependant on what the skaters do with the puck, but also the human element of the goaltender having trying to stop the puck. If that aspect is flukey, then it drags down the rest of the game in my mind. And for me, its still totally flukey.

The best way I can summarize it is, a shot on goal doesn't seem like the most dangerous thing you can do in this game. And in my opinion, it always should. Rebounds feel predetermined or artificial, so you lose that whole sense of "anything goes" once the puck is put towards the net. Theres not much of a sense of puck scrambles in front. Huge part of hockey that just isn't there.

Having said that, like I said, coming from a 2K guy I have to admit this game is quite good. Perhaps for the first time, it actually feels like hockey in most areas. Maybe this year I won't be done with it by October.

[Vikes1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gagnon39

Really? I've been playing primarily on Superstar and the thing I like the most about it so far is that I can beat the CPU to loose pucks often. That is without question my favorite thing so far. In the past, while the CPU didn't have a speed cheat it was able to initiate the hustle feature quicker and more often than the user. This is non-existent in NHL 13 and I love it.

Me never using the hustle feature is another one of my problems. In fact Gagnon...I probably use 10% of the controls available. Heck, I don't even aim my shots most times. So my problems are of my own making.

The game has gotten to the point now were I may be forced to learn how to use at least more of whats there control wise.

[bwiggy33]

Quote: Originally Posted by lockjaw333

Goalies: Better this year wiith limb movement, but still too Terminator like and robotic. Barely a sense of momentum and having to push off. Goals seem arbitrary or randomly decided rather than earned. To me, this last item is the biggest negative this series has going right now. As an earlier poster mentioned, the goalies in NHL 2K8 are by far and away the best in any hockey game ever made (not in looks, but in behavior and movement). I think goalie play is an extremely undervalued part of a hockey game. To me, it really is one of the 2 or 3 aspects that larely determines whether the game feels realistic. The goalie play in 2K8 made of for so many other deficiences in that game. The goalies just don't feel real in this game. Other parts of this game are getting there, but the goalies really haven't changed much. To me that affects so much. A large part of the unpredictable nature of hockey is that scoring is not only dependant on what the skaters do with the puck, but also the human element of the goaltender having trying to stop the puck. If that aspect is flukey, then it drags down the rest of the game in my mind. And for me, its still totally flukey. The best way I can summarize it is, a shot on goal doesn't seem like the most dangerous thing you can do in this game. And in my opinion, it always should. Rebounds feel predetermined or artificial, so you lose that whole sense of "anything goes" once the puck is put towards the net. Theres not much of a sense of puck scrambles in front. Huge part of hockey that just isn't there.

100000000%!

You nailed everything I've been trying to say for quite a while. Worst part about EA hockey. If it were changed to how we want, everyone would finally see how much of a difference it would actually make to this game.

[Gagnon39]

Quote: Originally Posted by Vikes1

Me never using the hustle feature is another one of my problems. In fact Gagnon...I probably use 10% of the controls available. Heck, I don't even aim my shots most times. So my problems are of my own making. The game has gotten to the point now were I may be forced to learn how to use at least more of whats there control wise.

I would highly suggest that. I still learn new things (especially dekes) all the time. But I feel like I have a pretty good grip on how to do most things. It makes the game so much more fun.

[jakeywakey911]

Demo was great! new skating system works awesome! sad part is, I just bought Madden and I'm already looking more forward to NHL early release then playing Madden anymore aha

[Vikes1]

Quote: Originally Posted by jakeywakey911

Demo was great! new skating system works awesome! sad part is, I just bought Madden and I'm already looking more forward to NHL early release then playing Madden anymore aha

Hopefully within a few years, Madden's physics [especially for the player movement] will be where NHL is now.

If Madden gets to that point, and adds a working Learning AI...I'd seriously think about buying it again.