NHL 13 Season Ticket Impressions

[Broncos86]

I've discovered that board play matters more behind the net. As a defender, you need to pin the forwards or else you will get burned.

[Kamasutra]

Quote: Originally Posted by Broncos86

I've discovered that board play matters more behind the net. As a defender, you need to pin the forwards or else you will get burned.

I play almost exclusively as a defender online and I agree, you need to mark your man and poke check the heck out of the puck, now more than ever. Pretty good all in all.

@money99 for my part I don't play offline, but always online, so I don't really care about how the default ai plays since I prefer to face human controlled players.

Likes:

- The weightedness of the players: you feel that constantly and momentum plays a key role this year. You feel much heavier and that translates into everything from player movement & skating to puck handling to passing. Everything has more weight thus enhances the realism. Seems to me the early release has that fine-tuned and a bit more pronounced than the demo

- Larger rink?: To me immediately apparent coming from NHL12, the size of the rink is superb. There's soooo much space to skate into and frees up the play. It makes it a big more difficult for a defenseman to cover all that ground but it's great for the offense. By contrast, if I go back to playing nhl12, the rink feels tiny and constricted.

-Graphics: To me a big improvement, crisp, sharper player models and the added animations are superb. Much better in-game transitions and for once I don't mind watching the cutscenes. NHL12's anim/presentation looks cartoonish by comparison.

- The pace of the game: slower, better. Whereas before you can rush up and down the ice in a matter of a couple seconds, now in an online game it takes a bit more skill and patient buildup to do so. There's plenty of mid-ice battles for the puck and you have to work your way back to the offensive zone. Big improvement and closer a good dose of realism.

- Menus: sharper, better layout, and fluid transitions. The layout of the menus has slightly changed but for the better.


Dislikes so far:

- The lobby (waiting for a game to start) now has a 3 minute waiting time instead of the usual 1m30. (minor dislike)

- The fatigue factor is exagerated and needs to be toned down. By the middle of the 1st period players were struggling to get up and down the ice, by the 3rd period, every single player was on life support. Of course ppl need to adjust to the new skating system and stop abusing the boost, but even with that in mind, the rate at which fatigue accrues is simply overdone.

- Lighting/shadows: not a big fan of the lighting but I'm getting used to it. In the end this will probably be a much better fit than NHL12's extra bright lighting and colors and overdone reflections. Seems things have been toned-down but that's not a terrible thing.

Overall: Big difference from the demo obviously since I couldn't play online, I wasn't at all convinced by the demo and left lukwarm by the experience.
But the 6v6 online games have completely changed my outlook and I'm now eager for the next game and the next... just like I was in nhl12.


As for the servers, no complaints here. As good as they were in nhl12, no freeze no lag (so far).

[Gagnon39]

Just played a couple more games. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here but I'm definitely going to be playing on Superstar. I've I just lit up the Avalanche 6-3 on Superstar with 14 minute periods. I still feel like the game's a tad bit fast and there's not enough loose pucks. I'm probably going to bump up the poke check effectiveness slider and the pass interception slider. Ideally, I'd like to be able to play 20 minute periods with realistic stats but that's never going to happen until we have FAR more board play and a less accurate CPU in regards to passing.

[thedudedominick]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but an OTL in the EASHL is only counting as a regulation loss.

[mkharsh33]

Won't restate a lot that's been said here, but LOVED seeing the goalies play the puck wisely behind the net. Finally...

Lack of penalties is disheartening... but overall a GREAT game. Will need some slider tweaks, but that's expected.

[Broncos86]

CPU teammates are WORTHLESS in the defensive zone. Utterly, completely, without question WORTHLESS.

Edit: I just watched the CPU skate AWAY from a loose puck because it was a forward who was out of position. It valued being in position over getting the puck.

[infinityBCRT]

Be a Pro seems to be a little screwy

- Its not always asking me to sim to my next shift (especially when I come off the ice while the play is still going on)
- I'm never seeing a sim end up in me jumping into the play on the fly. Its always me coming on at a faceoff. Maybe its a coincidence though I'm only in my first game right now.
- Sometimes trying to sim to next shift makes it just say "Sim Pending" and nothing happens till the play ends

edit: I see that you can press Y to bring up the menu if its not coming up. And I finally saw an on the fly change after a sim to shift which was nice. Still feels like it doesn't happen often enough?

[SlyBelle]

I am so disappointed with the game and it is sad because only has to do with penalties. Just finished an overtime game and had "1" total penalty called the entire game, even with maxed out sliders.....that is absolute crazy. I am not sure how others can enjoy the game with one of the most important aspects of hockey so completely off base. I just can't figure out why they can't correct this since same as last year. I also saw again where the CPU did not pull their goalie down by 1.

I hate to say this but this might be the first time I cancel my pre-order.....the rest of the game plays nice, but I can't sell myself on any plausible reasons we can't get realistic penalties in the range of 6-7 per game...such a shame.