Game speed at 1 is too slow, I'll prove it.

[Gagnon39]

Please take some time to look at the following and give me a little feed back on what you guys think. I'v been playing NHL 10 the past couple of days (got it one day early) and I'm really having a hard time getting a good feeling on what the speed sliders should be.

I want the game to play as realistically as possible. With that being said, I know many people on Operation Sports play with game speed set to 1 or even 0. I've always felt that at this speed the game is as unrealistic as it is with it set to 6. I think the key is in the acceleration attribute.

I figured the best way to test this would be to literally time skaters and compare them to their real-life counterparts. I looked up the NHL skills competition on youtube and the first skater that registered a time was the New Jersey Devils' Zach Parise. He finished his first round with a speed of 14.59 seconds. Not too shabby.

I went into practice mode to see if I could simulate the same results. Here is what I found...

*I used a 1-on-1 team practice and skated without the puck, just like in the NHL skills competition. I had my wife (this is when I know its going to far, ha), skate as the player with the puck so I could see where I was going. I eventually did some more of these using both controllers. Its really not that difficult to do since all you have to use it the analog sticks. Here are the times I got on the game.

Times

Real time in the 2009 Skills competition... 14.59

Zack Parise
Game Speed 1, acceleration 1.
1. 17.120
2. 17.382
3. 16.982
4. 17.152
5. 17.166

Game speed 6, acceleration 6.

1. 15.199
2. 15.189
3. 15.960
4. 14.962
5. 15.315

Game speed 2, acceleration 1.

1. 16.781
2. 16.836
3. 16.236
4. 16.619
5. 16.658

Game speed 6, acceleration 1.
1. 15.883
2. 15.782
3. 15.475
4. 15.546
5. 14.933

Clearly the most "realistic" times are the ones with everything maxed out. However, the game is completely unrealistic with these settings. However, I also feel that the game speed set at 1 is equally unrealistic as every player feels like they have lead in their boots.

Now, one other thing. I realize the game might not have Parise's speed exactly right. He is rated an 86 in the speed category. So with that being said, there is going to be some margin for error. But it should not be a 2-3 second margin of error.

In fact I would say that if I can get times within 1-1.5 seconds of the real life times, I think that would be pretty accurate. Simply because you have to navigate around the nets, which I can't remember if they are in the actual competition or not.

I'm going to do a second test with the fastest player on the game, Calgary's Jay Boumeister, who is rated a 95. I will post results in a bit.

[Gagnon39]

Bouwmeister

Game speed 2, acceleration 1.

1. 15.579
2. 15.654
3. 15.376
4. 15.699
5. 15.652

[mkharsh33]

interesting...and sounds like your wife is a keeper!

[davep]

I like gamespeed on 0, but nice research anyway!

[Gagnon39]

Bowmeister...

Game speed 3, acceleration 0.

1. 15.385
2. 15.309
3. 15.197
4. 15.297
5. 15.456

[Gagnon39]

Quote: Originally Posted by mkharsh33

interesting...and sounds like your wife is a keeper!

Ha. Yeah, she's alright sometimes. Although she hates my gaming habits.

[Gagnon39]

The more I mess with the speed sliders the more I think realistic speeds have to do with acceleration. If you have acceleration all the way at 0, your players very rarely have time to reach top speed, and therefore you don't see the game as being "too fast".

When acceleration is bumped up, everyone is at full speed after one or two strides, making everyone on the ice fly around. I'm really liking game speed at 3 and acceleration at 0 right now. I'm going to keep messing around with it.

Also, I'm wondering, if anyone knows for sure, does game speed change anything besides the speed of the skaters? It says on the description something about changing the speed of the game as well as the players. I wonder what this means because I don't notice any difference besides the speed of the skaters.

[imdahman]

I'm curious if setting acceleration all the way down to 0 affects speedy players - ie, the reason those players have an edge is because they accelerate so fast and get to a top speed quicker. Does lower Acceleration take away that advantage and essentially put all skaters on an even playing field?