NHL 10 News Post

NHL 10 Review

11:36 AM - September 15, 2009 by RaychelSnr

Since the invention of yearly sports games and the less-than-12-months development cycles, it has become virtually impossible for videogame developers to fix everything that went wrong with the last version of their games.

Give the NHL 10 team credit, then, for coming the closest anyone’s gotten in recent years to fixing everything that plagued the last version of a sports game -- in this case I'm obviously talking about NHL 09.

Fact is, if you had a problem with something in NHL 09, there’s a good chance it has been fixed for NHL 10:

Read More - NHL 10 Review

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Game: NHL 10Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 28 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 hq3000 @ 09/15/09 11:49 AM

Solid review. I was thinking about picking this up today, but I should only pick up one game today.

I like the idea of be a GM. Its a great feature that shouldn't be excluded from being utilized in other sports titles.

I played a bit of 09 and was severely impressed by the game.. I'm surprised this game continues to improve above and beyond many sports games coming out today.

# 2 notoriouzwun @ 09/15/09 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMChrisS


	Give the NHL 10 team credit, then, for coming the closest anyone’s gotten in recent years to fixing everything that plagued the last version of a sports game -- in this case I'm obviously talking about NHL 09.

I think what I like is that they didn't overhaul. Devs (Especially EA ones) have a tendency to overhaul a whole game every year. I think the NHL crew took what worked and just tried to fix what didn't although many would complain cause it wasn't done in just a patch. I like the formula.

# 3 boritter @ 09/15/09 01:33 PM

How about a list of all the offline slider changes you made?

# 4 jyoung @ 09/15/09 01:46 PM

These are the sliders I settled on after about 15 or 20 games:

Quote:


	Game Style: Normal Game difficulty: All-Star Game speed: 1 Player Fatigue: 1 click away from max Player Recovery: 1 Puck Control: 0 Player Acceleration: 0 Pass Speed: down one click Pass Interceptions: maxed out CPU Pass Accuracy: 0 Agression: maxed out

Everything else was left to whatever the default setting is for "normal" style.

Like the review states, I basically just put the game on normal settings and tweaked it 'til I got as many problems out of the game as possible.

Aside from a few issues that sliders can't fix, I think it plays a pretty darn realistic game of hockey on those settings.

# 5 kerosene31 @ 09/15/09 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notoriouzwun


	I think what I like is that they didn't overhaul.

Yes. To me, "subtle" gameplay changes can be huge. At least in the demo, hardcore mode felt like an entirely different game.

# 6 jyoung @ 09/15/09 04:39 PM

I didn't run any extensive tests on the stat-simming engine, but here are the stats from the Be a Pro season I completed:

Quote:


	Goals R. Nash - 51 M. Sturm - 48 T. Vanek - 48 A. Ovechkin - 47 M. Gaborik - 47 Assists R. Nash - 65 J. Toews - 64 R. Umberger - 63 J. Voracek - 57 T. Vanek - 57 Points R. Nash - 116 T. Vanek - 105 R. Umberger - 102 M. Gaborik - 96 A. Ovechkin - 93

Quote:


	Goals Against (minimum 30 games played) P. Rinne - 1.93 (the anomaly, since he was my team's goalie) T. Thomas - 2.50 K. Lehtonen - 2.55 R. Luongo - 2.59 T. Vokun - 2.62 Save Percentage (minimum 30 games played) P. Rinne - .917 (much closer to the norm here) T. Thomas - .914 K. Lehtonen - .912 R. Luongo - .912 T. Vokun - .910 Shutouts P. Rinne - 13 (just goes to show how pass-happy the CPU offense is at times) R. Luongo - 6 J. Giguere - 5 C. Osgood - 5 E. Nabakov - 4

# 7 jyoung @ 09/15/09 05:07 PM

Those stats are all from the end of the season, but I just filtered out the goalies who didn't have more than 30 starts.

All of the goalies in the top five lists started 60-ish games overall.

# 8 JeffHCross @ 09/15/09 10:51 PM

Jayson, the NHL team documented several changes they were making with an early patch, based on demo feedback. One of those items was CPU passing. From the videos they shared, it's definitely an improvement post-patch.

# 9 budsticky @ 09/15/09 11:35 PM

I have been struggling with my decision between this game and 2k10. I can only afford one game and want to make the right choice. Despite your high praise for this game you bring up three points that really are huge sore spots for me:

1. CPU robo-passing
2. Dumb teammate AI
3. Lifeless franchise mode

Being mainly an offline franchise guy I think it's easy to see why these 3 areas are a major concern for me.

I'm anxious to see what you guys think of 2k10 as this site and GameShark are pretty much the only two sites whose reviews I consider to have any merit.

# 10 jyoung @ 09/16/09 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffHCross


	Jayson, the NHL team documented several changes they were making with an early patch, based on demo feedback. One of those items was CPU passing. From the videos they shared, it's definitely an improvement post-patch.

Given how great the NHL team was with their patches last year, I wouldn't be surprised if some of NHL 10's issues get addressed early-on with patches or tuner sets.

Right now, though, it looks like EA has their hands full trying to fix the overloaded online servers.

Guess they didn't learn their lesson from last year's server fiasco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by budsticky


	I have been struggling with my decision between this game and 2k10. I can only afford one game and want to make the right choice. Despite your high praise for this game you bring up three points that really are huge sore spots for me: 1. CPU robo-passing 2. Dumb teammate AI 3. Lifeless franchise mode Being mainly an offline franchise guy I think it's easy to see why these 3 areas are a major concern for me. I'm anxious to see what you guys think of 2k10 as this site and GameShark are pretty much the only two sites whose reviews I consider to have any merit.

We were able to get our review of NHL 10 published in time for launch day because EA was gracious enough to send us a reviewable copy two weeks in advance.

Unfortunately, 2K's game arrived in our reviewer's hands only a few days before launch, so we will probably have to wait until late this week or early next week before the 2K10 review is ready to go.

That said, since there's no demo this year, my experience with 2K10 is limited to watching videos of it online, so I don't have much basis to make a comparison between the two games aside from how they look graphically.

For whatever it's worth to you, I'm still having a lot of fun with the NHL 10 offline modes (mainly Be a Pro) even in spite of its flaws.

There are moments of frustration for sure, but overall, modes like Be a Pro are still a great experience.

# 11 Redshirt_EA @ 09/16/09 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wEEman33


	Right now, though, it looks like EA has their hands full trying to fix the overloaded online servers.

Different teams. I wouldn't know the first thing about how to fix a server problem so I'm still free to work on gameplay fixes.

(BTW, there is a fix already up for the servers, we'll see tonight if it remedies the problem fully).

# 12 jyoung @ 09/17/09 01:40 AM

It looks like the lobbies are finally stable enough to where they actually work now, but unfortunately, there is still some serious lag going on once you get in a match.

One step at a time, I suppose.

# 13 Redshirt_EA @ 09/17/09 02:27 AM

The good thing is that the servers can be updated fairly rapidly, not at all like a title update. They're continuing to track down kinks in the service and it should be sorted out "fairly soon".

# 14 brezz2001 @ 09/17/09 09:19 AM

What's the deal with these "tuner sets" talked about in the review? Have they released any yet?

Brian

# 15 Splitter77 @ 09/17/09 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PYA-MUSTANG86


	Have they fixed the stat engine in franchise mode this year? ex. goalies getting way too few shutouts, the NHL leader would have something like 3 or 4. Same for save % where there may only be like 3 G league wide with a % of higher then .900. And there would also gbe like 12 players with 100+ points. Has this issue been addressed at all? Cause I know Madden 10's stat engine is total crap. So no real reason for optimism here.

so far this is my biggest gripe with the game. I still dont think the goalies save % is as high as it should be. Its better than last year, but I think 2k10 has a near perfect simmed stats engine this year.
Also- I dont like how your players dont get injured much during simmed games. I simmed up until January and only 2 players on my team missecd any games. The sim engine should at least scratch guys do to fatigue, bumps and bruises or if theyre just not playing good.

# 16 sroz39 @ 09/17/09 05:23 PM

I would give this game a 9.0 at least but that's just my opinion. I think the "tweaks" they made to the gameplay and the additions like board-pinning have completely changed the game. As a prime example, last year I used the Flames for most of my online games, which was frustrating at times because their "rough and tumble" style of hockey didn't translate well n 09. Played a couple of nights ago and it was unbelievable what all the tweaks and additions did to make the Flames a difficult team to play. I physically manhanded my opponents with a combination of dump and chase hockey, solid board play and timely body checks. It was one of the most satisfying games I've ever played online in any sports games.

For the authenticity alone, it deserves a 9.0. After making some slider tweaks, this game is close to "perfection". With a patch? The sky's the limit. Regardless, well thought out review and besides the rating I agree with most of what you said.

# 17 roolz @ 09/18/09 01:35 PM

Some positive user feedback, interesting.

# 18 Redshirt_EA @ 09/18/09 01:41 PM

Links to other reviews. Not sure why but Metacritic doesn't seem to put up the OS review scores any more -- didn't for Madden this year or NHL last year.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/nhl10
http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...box360/nhl2k10

# 19 Aggies7 @ 09/19/09 04:38 AM

Good review hopefully get a chance to play this here soon

# 20 Brian_OS @ 09/19/09 05:54 PM

-1 point for no online co-op... Bottom line 7.5

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