News Post

NHL 09 360 Patch #2 Online -- Impressions

06:25 AM - March 3, 2009 by CupCrazyManiac

EA has just released their NHL 09 patch for 360 users. Please post your impressions here.

Quote:


	Exploit fixes: -Fixes the 99 attribute bug in OTP/EASHL by preventing players from entering games with attributes that are raised beyond the level they can reach with the card they are entitled to have. Players who have elevated their attributes this way should reset their character by changing the type and reassigning their points. -Limit the size of human goalies in OTP/EASHL games to 6'4" (NOTE: it will still allow them to be set larger, but the actual height in game will not go above the new limit). -Fixed some problems that could cause the game to hang or go out of sync when pausing. -Prevent use of LB to get up instantly after being knocked over. -Reduce accuracy of shooting while using vision control to skate backwards. -Prevent high, accurate slap shots from in close to the net. Other changes: -Reduced the ease of beating the goalie on the short side. -Decrease the tendency of the goalies to use a desperation save unnecessarily. -Strict calling of interference, though you can still clear players directly in front of the net without getting called for interference. -Added stick lift to Classic controls using LB+X(XBox)/L1+Square(PS3). It is also on R3 (press Right Stick). -Fixed shot targeting using the Always Up control when skating down ice. -Added new NHL rule to locate face-offs in the attacking zone to start a powerplay. -Prevent CPU players from getting delay of game penalties frequently while clearing the puck from their zone. -Prevent puck from being poke checked away from the goalie when he has it covered under his glove. -Reduced the amount of time it takes to get control of the last man back, holding RT(Xbox) /R2(PS3) -Reduced the amount of time it takes to get control of the goalie, holding LB+A(Xbox)/L1+X(PS3) - Reduce the range of heights on randomly generated CPU players, including goalies. -Eliminate the ability to accelerate and maintain high speed while stick lifting. -More penalties for high sticking when stick lifts are done from behind the opponent. -Made the colours of the OTP/EASHL indicators more distinct (yellow and orange). -Made face-off outcomes slightly more random and slightly less dependent on attributes. -Added assistance to prevent one-timer and shot attempts from leading to accidental hits and interference penalties. -Goalie tuning to increase goal-scoring a bit to compensate for taking away the easy short-side high goals. -Improve hit stat tracking to not count all of the small bumps in front of the net. -Increased injuries caused by CPU teams. -Prevent puck from being launched with very high speed following a hit. -AI tuning for superstar. The Aggression slider now affects how intense the CPU team is on that difficulty level.

NHL 09 screenshot gallery - Click to view

Game: NHL 09Reader Score: 9/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS2 / PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 47 - View All

NHL 09 Videos

Member Comments

# 41 JohnnytheSkin @ 03/03/09 10:16 PM

Initial gut reaction...online versus randoms still sucks. I saw the top of the circle glitch goal (high glove side), the goalie flopper pass in front, and the short side post jammer (where the goalie doesn't hug the post).

I'm sure offline it's great, and granted, I only played three randoms (I won twice). Still, the cheap **** is still there, and yes, I know that the loser d-bags will always find a way to cheat/exploit the game. At least they all get XBL complaints and bad feedback from me...for what it's worth.

# 42 canucksss @ 03/03/09 10:25 PM

VERY IMPRESSED & SATISFIED!!!

i used to play tons of Online games since 2k3. i stopped last year coz the eagerness was dumped by cheesers online. early on, i tried playing EA prior to this patch & found out that there were still tons of cheap players (specially random players). finally after this patch, i have the enthusiasm to get back to online games.

i played 6 games tonite and got the record of 5-0-1. im not that great player but i love to play SIM and realistic hockey. the reason why i won these games because most of my opponents (4 of them) were trying to do some cheeze moves and only knows how to play "hit-the-guy-with-the-puck" kind of defense. at 1 point, my opponent was called 10 penalties and i was able to convert 5. i shut him out like 7-0.

THANK YOU EA FOR MAKING THIS PATCH. IM LOOKING FORWARD TO 2010 (hopefully these kind of style in the patch up is included right from the box next year)

# 43 Redshirt_EA @ 03/03/09 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seasprite


	Not so fast, the 99 is still out there. This has been confirmed that some people are able to still get into OTP game being juiced. This is a huge example of "DROPPING THE BALL"!!! Thanks EA for getting my hopes up that you would actually fix the problem that has crippled this game.

The player will still have the attributes show up that way in the editor, but they will not get them in game.

# 44 Redshirt_EA @ 03/03/09 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy


	Always Up control scheme still isn't correct. The shot aiming height controls are reversed. Is there any way that a fix could be snuck into the trade deadline roster update?

The fix was for left and right aiming when going down screen (and in Broadcast camera). Unfortunately there's no way to make a code fix in the roster update.

# 45 clivo1050 @ 03/03/09 11:46 PM

the first game i played online post-patch had a combined 50 penalty minutes!!! (22 by me). i'm all for sim play, but this is a little ridiculous.

# 46 jyoung @ 03/04/09 12:21 AM

Simple rule to follow:

if the guy doesn't have the puck, or he's not standing directly in front of your goalies, don't hit him.

# 47 Redshirt_EA @ 03/04/09 12:43 AM

Another tip is to use Vision control (Left Trigger) to avoid accidentally throwing a hit when trying to shoot a loose puck.

The patch does change it to interpret the right stick as a shot rather than a hit if you are in front of the net trying to fire a loose puck, but when the puck is away from the slot this helps.

# 48 mkharsh33 @ 03/04/09 01:14 AM

played a bunch of games tonight (offline - regular play)...

- had a goalie interference penalty called on me...beautiful!! goalie was sliding across the crease and i had no where to go except to drill him. i was toast...

- on THAT very penalty, one of my d-men got hit by a puck and got hurt...he didn't go down, but slowly skated off the ice, all the while i gave up a freakin' power play goal because he just left the ice on me. weak side was left wide open.

- same game, i shot the puck it got deflected a couple times in front of the goalie...while in the air, my player behind the net was poking it in (watched the replay and he did it twice) stuffing it in for a game tying goal with a minute to play!

i'm using Qb's latest sliders and am loving this game post patch...

at one point i was starting to get pissed because of penalties being called, but then started to laugh because we all remember the day when they NEVER called any at all...

# 49 LanteriX @ 03/04/09 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clivo1050


	the first game i played online post-patch had a combined 50 penalty minutes!!! (22 by me). i'm all for sim play, but this is a little ridiculous.

No offense, but if you commit 11 penalties in one game, then you don't have a clue what sim play is. It's really not hard to, you know, not hit people that don't have the puck.

I don't get what makes that so difficult of a concept for some people.

# 50 bad_philanthropy @ 03/04/09 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redshirt_EA


	The fix was for left and right aiming when going down screen (and in Broadcast camera). Unfortunately there's no way to make a code fix in the roster update.

Thanks for the explanation, it's really my only gripe about the patch. I love all the gameplay tuning you guys did.

# 51 Bahnzo @ 03/04/09 02:34 AM

Redshirt, you and the guys (and gals?) at EA really deserve a "well done" on the patch. OTP is back to being the best online sports experience I've ever played. 4 or 5 games with my team tonight and awesome describes it to a tee. Team play is rewarded, the penalty changes are done well while not taking away the ability to check intelligently..etc. Great Job! I'll be first in line for NHL10.

# 52 Redshirt_EA @ 03/04/09 04:21 AM

Glad the OS consensus is positive. There's a lot more debate about the changes on the EA forums. Anyone mind if I hide out here for a bit?

# 53 Smiley79 @ 03/04/09 07:32 AM

For me, I was able to play 5 OTP games with randoms last night, and it was like night and day. I couldn't believe how much of a mentality change it was for the entire game. For people stuck in that pre-patch mode, they sat in the penalty box the entire game. For the rest of us, it was nothing but great fun. Passing was much better than I've ever seen before. I was actually being passed to (as a defender) much more frequently, and had my best stats night than I've had in a long time. It seems like, now, people are starting to realize that it does help to spread the puck around. It was also very comforting knowing that those "99s" weren't floating around and that many of those glitch goals weren't around.

It was just a completely different game altogether. Hits were penalized very strictly, but they were deserved. I had to be smart with my poke check and stick lift (as I was penalized were I tried them to frequently in the beginning). Playing defense, as a whole, was different but a better overall experience now than it was before. The best thing about it was seeing those idiots that still just couldn't understand that you can't hit someone without the puck. I don't know how many times I heard people screaming because of "bad calls". The one thing that I saw that was a little weird were some very wide deflections that went from weird locations. A couple of times, I saw people shooting from around the blue line at a direction that went completely wide of the net towards a teammate who deflected it in (I wish I could've saved the replays). The angle that the puck was deflected in was just so strange, but you could see it clearly hitting the stick and going in. I don't know if deflection accuracy has been turned up or what, but it was different than I've seen before. In the end, I'll take the longer games (because of all of the penalties) if it means it cleans up the garbage that I was seeing before this patch.

# 54 Fiddy @ 03/04/09 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redshirt_EA


	Glad the OS consensus is positive. There's a lot more debate about the changes on the EA forums. Anyone mind if I hide out here for a bit?

thanks for patching the game again. its funny how people complain about certain things etc. all in all this made this good game even better.

now if you guys would just delete the eashl records and start fresh for like 2 months and give teams (not mine bc we stink) a chance to win it all, and not the juiced up teams up top as of now.

# 55 seasprite @ 03/04/09 09:23 AM

I retract my earlier impression about the possibility of the 99 still being in the game. After further investigation, lol we have found that it doesnt exist. Sorry to Redshirt_EA and EA about my post and frustration. I love the patch and I think that it has made this game what it was inteded to be in the beginning. Again sorry if I got anyone up and crazy about it and my new impression is that this patch and the work from EA is spot on. Thanks

# 56 Money99 @ 03/04/09 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redshirt_EA


	Glad the OS consensus is positive. There's a lot more debate about the changes on the EA forums. Anyone mind if I hide out here for a bit?

Sure! But with every post, you must reveal something cool about NHL10.

# 57 andayaman @ 03/04/09 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiley79


	The one thing that I saw that was a little weird were some very wide deflections that went from weird locations. A couple of times, I saw people shooting from around the blue line at a direction that went completely wide of the net towards a teammate who deflected it in (I wish I could've saved the replays). The angle that the puck was deflected in was just so strange, but you could see it clearly hitting the stick and going in. I don't know if deflection accuracy has been turned up or what, but it was different than I've seen before. In the end, I'll take the longer games (because of all of the penalties) if it means it cleans up the garbage that I was seeing before this patch.

I saw this same thing during the first online versus game I played after the new patch. I hope I never see it again. The puck was slapshot wide from the blueline and hit an offensive player. After it hit the player the puck actually sped up and into the goal. I thought I was a glitch at first.

Wraparound goals have been toned down. I played a guy named Madden JDM, and he tried it five straight times before he quit with a big goose egg.

# 58 catcatch22 @ 03/04/09 12:56 PM

Checking from behing penalty, isn't that just boarding. There needs to be an animation that exemplifies this next year. As of right now the checking from behind penalty looks like a good pin or great check. There needs to be a animation specific for it next year.

# 59 LanteriX @ 03/04/09 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catcatch22


	Checking from behing penalty, isn't that just boarding. There needs to be an animation that exemplifies this next year. As of right now the checking from behind penalty looks like a good pin or great check. There needs to be a animation specific for it next year.

Nope, there's a difference between the two penalties. It's a small difference, but basically if it's above the boards then it's checking from behind. If it's into the boards then it's boarding.

# 60 LanteriX @ 03/04/09 02:15 PM

Christ.

I am in a game right now with the biggest group of morons ever.

It's the first intermission right now and they have already committed FOURTEEN minutes worth of penalties.

I'm playing goalie. We've been shorthanded the entire game pretty much. Most of the time it's been 5 on 3.

22 shots on me already.

Jeeeeessuuuuss

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