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NHL 12 News Post


EA Sports released another NHL 12 tuner update this morning. Check below for the details.

Quote:
We have released a new tuner this morning. The tuning file is an update to v1.02 to help out with goalie grading.

----v1.02 Updated----
1) Slightly decreased medium hit interference penalties in all modes except for OTP/Clubs. Overall they are higher than when we shipped with, but lower than the v1.01 update as well as lower than what is currently in OTP/clubs. This will help with the CPU players being called for interference and putting you down a man.

2) Adjusted online and offline Be a Pro goalie stat grade ratings so they are more generous. Please note that the starting grade is a C+ so the grades go up/down from there

Offline:
Each save is now worth 3.3 points towards your raw grade value
Each goal against is now a 9 point reduction

Online:
Each save is now worth 5 points towards your raw grade value
Each goal against is now a 9 point reduction

----v1.02----
1) Reduced effectiveness of hip checks to Versus and HUT, previously this was only applied to OTP/Clubs

2) Decreased distance traveled when diving for a poke check because it was too effective in certain situations (applies to all online and offline modes)

----v1.01----
V1.01 (effects all modes, except offline with V1.00)
-Small adjustment to goalie hug post to reduce vulnerability to far side goals coming around the net
-Small adjustment to guard the near post on shots
-Increase skating friction while doing protect puck (pretty small amount)
-Reduce stick lift penalties (hitting the hands is not a penalty now in some situations)

OTP Specific Changes:
- Made hip checks ineffective to prevent exploit

-Call interference on medium hits more strictly
-Make poke check radius slightly larger

Game: NHL 12Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 26 - View All
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Member Comments
# 21 Steven547 @ 10/22/11 12:19 PM
I always believe competition breeds quality. Ever since the 2k football series went under, the Madden series quality went down as well. I've been afraid this would happen with the Hockey series, and I feel it is happening now.

I just hope they can address a lot of these issues with a tuner and patch. (does EA even read these forums anymore?)
 
# 22 savoie2006 @ 10/22/11 12:36 PM
I just don't believe in the whole competition bit anymore. EA Hockey stepped it up, what happened to 2K? NBA 2K stepped up, where's NBA Live? The Show has been quite good and MLB 2K remains barely playable. So to say that competition makes games better is a crock. Plain and simple it comes down to resources and execution.
 
# 23 jyoung @ 10/22/11 12:42 PM
I feel like EA made a big push to get this series on top of 2K, starting with NHL 07 and lasting until NHL 09.

But since NHL 10, the series has just kind of been coasting.

Hardcore hockey fans don't care about additions like "legends" or "ultimate team," they want a game that doesn't play like a bunch of midget figure skaters doing figure eights and scoring weak wristers from impossible shooting angles.
 
# 24 Fiddy @ 10/22/11 01:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by wEEman33
I feel like EA made a big push to get this series on top of 2K, starting with NHL 07 and lasting until NHL 09.

But since NHL 10, the series has just kind of been coasting.

Hardcore hockey fans don't care about additions like "legends" or "ultimate team," they want a game that doesn't play like a bunch of midget figure skaters doing figure eights and scoring weak wristers from impossible shooting angles.
IMO they have a solid base to do what they tried with the eashl a few years back. if your team was a causal or pro type team. they need to get back to that of sorts.

online

causal - no rules at all, fast paced etc, no stoppages..

pro (normal) - just play how the game plays on default normal now, keep all settings the same etc.

hardcore - have all sliders adjusted to zero, puck control, pass acc etc. shot acc to zero as well, you know what i mean, make the game play as sloppy as possible.

if you want to be a part of the eashl banners, trophy's etc, then you have to play in the hardcore league. if you pick hardcore, you would never, NEVER, get matched up against lower levels bc they would be there own type of leagues, but without the official banners etc like mentioned above.

same would go for 1v1 and HUT.. for HUT, pick what league to participate in, again, hardcore being the one with all the stuff etc.

in 1v1 games you could pick what settings to send the invite as for unranked games, casual, pro, hardcore. even ranked games you could as well, they would have separate leader boards for all levels.

this could work and even make it look like they care about hardcore guys as well.

when you load up the game, it gives you an option to say pick a favorite team for backgrounds and also a skill level, causal, pro, or hardcore. once selected it would default all modes to that level and you would be good to go. have the levels explained in detail upon selecting.

obviously they would need to tweak the hardcore settings a bit more, make it a bit more sloppier than it is now.

as i said before, just frustrating that every mode you get lumped in while unrealistic skating jags and wrist shot goals from the dumbest angles ever. i would even add in hardcore mode, if you do more than 2 dekes in a row, you lose the puck and lose ability to pick it up until a teammate gets it or the other team picks it up. dont like it? to bad, play hockey the way it should be played and that will never happen.

/rant
 
# 25 jyoung @ 10/22/11 01:41 PM
Sloppiness is the number one thing missing from the gameplay.

It's way too easy to skate around and deke in full control of the puck like it's glued to your stick.

Most passes are perfectly received.

Most checks don't even knock the puck loose. Skaters just go into that stupid "bump" animation while still retaining full control of the puck.

Then there is the ridiculously effective stick lift that never results in penalties.

And a gimped poke check that takes like 3 or 4 successful pokes to finally dislodge the puck.

A "hardcore" setting with increased sloppiness would make the game so much better.
 
# 26 mikeb88 @ 10/22/11 08:46 PM
they need to fix the horrible framerate and lag for offline games on the ps3. I can't understand how nhl 11 ran as smooth as a hot knife through butter and nhl 12 is so glitchy and buggy
 
# 27 MizzouRah @ 10/23/11 07:55 PM
I just got a tuner update popup late last night, odd.
 
# 28 Steven547 @ 10/23/11 11:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MizzouRah
I just got a tuner update popup late last night, odd.
If anything, it's just an "update" to the previous update. It's more like 1.02a.
 
# 29 tfctillidie @ 10/24/11 10:02 AM
I really wish EA would take their own stance on penalties rather than letting the community piss and moan about what they want, it's really ruined the whole system.


I mean right now, interference is called 5x more than anything and many times there's NOTHING to be seen.

Elbowing? Never.
Roughing? Maybe once every few games.
High Stick? A bit low for my personal taste..but seen enough.
Slashing? Same as High stick.
Boarding? Not enough considering how often it happens in games.


Was I truly the only person who enjoyed watching these fuds get nailed with 5 min majors for boarding/check from behind...and game misconducts?

Instead of telling the players ..."well play by the rules of hockey" they let the complaints on the forum remove REAL HOCKEY RULES from the bloody game.

People constant get run from behind into the boards and crumble to the ice...which oft generates scoring chances for the player who should be penalized and can end up changing game outcomes. Yet guys are getting interference phantom calls out the wazoo. How the heck does this make any logical sense? You have completely difference stances (beyond realism and zero realism) on two different penalties.

I just don't get it.
 
# 30 Azamien @ 10/24/11 12:30 PM
The one that's been annoying me lately is the AI players that take runs at the goalie after the whistle. If that happened in real life the player would get a game misconduct and the refs would be very slow to pull the five guys pummeling him off.

In the game? No penalty (even with it set to authentic) and the players all form their little one-on-one staredowns.

Even worse is when you hit the fight button after that happens and it ends up with the goalie fighting a position player (about a third of the time). I can think of one time that happened in reality, and no one jumped in only because the goalie was handling the fight decently.
 
# 31 Cardot @ 10/24/11 01:10 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by RealmK
Blame 2k for not putting enough resources into NHL2k to compete and keep up.
LOL, yeah this is 2K's fault. Series has been dead for 2 years, yet they are still the source of all that is wrong with video game hockey.
 
# 32 MizzouRah @ 10/24/11 02:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven547
If anything, it's just an "update" to the previous update. It's more like 1.02a.
Maybe I didn't see 1.02 before?
 
# 33 bukktown @ 10/24/11 11:23 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by wEEman33
Sloppiness is the number one thing missing from the gameplay.

It's way too easy to skate around and deke in full control of the puck like it's glued to your stick.

Most passes are perfectly received.

Most checks don't even knock the puck loose. Skaters just go into that stupid "bump" animation while still retaining full control of the puck.

Then there is the ridiculously effective stick lift that never results in penalties.

And a gimped poke check that takes like 3 or 4 successful pokes to finally dislodge the puck.

A "hardcore" setting with increased sloppiness would make the game so much better.
I basically said the same thing as you earlier in this thread except for the stick lift. I find it ridiculously under-effective. My reasoning for that belief is that you can have a puck carrier skate blueline to blueline with a defender right next to him. The defender can lift his stick repeatedly, maybe 8-12 times in that time span, without the puck carrier losing possession. The puck carriers stick goes up for .5 sec then right back down to the puck.

I think it is odd that we can see eye-to-eye on 90% of the gameplay but are total opposites on this.
 
# 34 Splitter77 @ 10/25/11 08:28 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by wEEman33
Sloppiness is the number one thing missing from the gameplay.

It's way too easy to skate around and deke in full control of the puck like it's glued to your stick.

Most passes are perfectly received.

Most checks don't even knock the puck loose. Skaters just go into that stupid "bump" animation while still retaining full control of the puck.

Then there is the ridiculously effective stick lift that never results in penalties.

And a gimped poke check that takes like 3 or 4 successful pokes to finally dislodge the puck.

A "hardcore" setting with increased sloppiness would make the game so much better.
agreed on that. i like the game, but its too non-stop. I think i played a periods yesterday with only 3 stoppages in play. Thats rediculous.
There is no offsides, no missed passes, no goalies covering the puck, and the puck rarely deflcects out of play.
 
# 35 speels @ 10/25/11 12:25 PM
Here's the problem with increasing the "sloppiness" of the NHL games. 90% of people would not enjoy it. This game is produced to make EA money, not to make people feel as if they can live out their lifelong dreams of playing in the NHL.

A soppy game where I am chasing the puck around and can't do anything I want with it would appeal to maybe 10% of the gaming population. Everybody talks about how they want sports games to be "SIM", but yet they never complain, nor would it make business sense, that when I play Call of Duty, I have to get shot 5 times before I die. No, truth is, I get shot once, go to the hospital, get bandaged up, rehab, and then maybe get sent back into battle. How many shooter games would sell if that is how they were made. The double standard people have for sports video games astounds me.

Sports games are designed to keep people interested for however long they choose to play. I am pretty sure that if the puck was bouncing all over the place people would get tired of not being able to do dekes like the pros do. And as for online getting all the attention, well yea, it makes more money than the freakin sales of the games. Name one major series that doesn't cater to online. Shooter game always add new quests or levels, because people pay for them.

EA has one job and tht is to make money. I am pretty sure, although it's just my opinion, that the reason we have no EA developers left on this website is because they really got tired of listening to less than 1% of the people that buy their game complaining that they don't know hockey and hate fans of the game.

Until people realize that they do things that the majority of fans want, then these types of threads are always going to happen. I enjoy the NHL series a lot and there are some things that tick me off, but I figure if I really wanted to live my life and make it to the NHL then I should have tried harder as a kid and not tried to live my life vicariously through a video game.

Sorry for the rant, just having a bad day at work.
 
# 36 Money99 @ 10/25/11 12:58 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by speels
Here's the problem with increasing the "sloppiness" of the NHL games. 90% of people would not enjoy it. This game is produced to make EA money, not to make people feel as if they can live out their lifelong dreams of playing in the NHL.

A soppy game where I am chasing the puck around and can't do anything I want with it would appeal to maybe 10% of the gaming population. Everybody talks about how they want sports games to be "SIM", but yet they never complain, nor would it make business sense, that when I play Call of Duty, I have to get shot 5 times before I die. No, truth is, I get shot once, go to the hospital, get bandaged up, rehab, and then maybe get sent back into battle. How many shooter games would sell if that is how they were made. The double standard people have for sports video games astounds me.

Sports games are designed to keep people interested for however long they choose to play. I am pretty sure that if the puck was bouncing all over the place people would get tired of not being able to do dekes like the pros do. And as for online getting all the attention, well yea, it makes more money than the freakin sales of the games. Name one major series that doesn't cater to online. Shooter game always add new quests or levels, because people pay for them.

EA has one job and tht is to make money. I am pretty sure, although it's just my opinion, that the reason we have no EA developers left on this website is because they really got tired of listening to less than 1% of the people that buy their game complaining that they don't know hockey and hate fans of the game.

Until people realize that they do things that the majority of fans want, then these types of threads are always going to happen. I enjoy the NHL series a lot and there are some things that tick me off, but I figure if I really wanted to live my life and make it to the NHL then I should have tried harder as a kid and not tried to live my life vicariously through a video game.

Sorry for the rant, just having a bad day at work.
At the same time, NBA2k11 was one of the best selling basketball games of all time.
It outsold every single game (sports, or non sports) in the month of March this year. This is 6-months AFTER release.
The NBA2K series is hardcore. There's no other way to describe it. From presentation, to commentary to graphics, to depth to controls, it's incredibly deep and takes a lot of time to really learn and absorb it.
I know nothing about basketball and I can't stop playing this game.
Some won't believe this, but I loathed basketball a couple of years ago. I warmed to the sport (because of my kids activity) and now I own an NBA video game. Why? Because of how hardcore it is.

This game is far from easy to play and yet it outsells the NHL by a country mile. Heck, it outsells MLB as well and has numbers comparable to Madden.
That's not bad for a sport that's not nearly as popular as MLB or the NFL.

What that tells me is that if you build a truly great representation of the sport, sports gamers will buy it.
I know a lot of people who couldn't care less about soccer that bought Fifa.

And if you recall, NHL2K outsold EA for many years on last-gen and their games featured a lot more sloppy play.

The greatest gift, and curse, EA gave us was the skill stick. It's great fun, but the problem is everyone thinks they should be able to stickhandle up to their ability with the controls, and not the player they're controlling.
So the minute Billy loses the puck when trying a behind-the back, triple-deke with Colton Orr he rages on EA's forums. And what does EA do? They tune the game and dumb it completely down.
And EA knows they have to adhere to Billy because it's not adults like you or I that spend money on upgrades. It's a 12-year-old with unlimited access to Mommy's purse. And those kids are way more vocal than the hardcore or mature gamer.
 
# 37 savoie2006 @ 10/25/11 01:36 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Money99
At the same time, NBA2k11 was one of the best selling basketball games of all time.
It outsold every single game (sports, or non sports) in the month of March this year. This is 6-months AFTER release.
The NBA2K series is hardcore. There's no other way to describe it. From presentation, to commentary to graphics, to depth to controls, it's incredibly deep and takes a lot of time to really learn and absorb it.
I know nothing about basketball and I can't stop playing this game.
Some won't believe this, but I loathed basketball a couple of years ago. I warmed to the sport (because of my kids activity) and now I own an NBA video game. Why? Because of how hardcore it is.

This game is far from easy to play and yet it outsells the NHL by a country mile. Heck, it outsells MLB as well and has numbers comparable to Madden.
That's not bad for a sport that's not nearly as popular as MLB or the NFL.

What that tells me is that if you build a truly great representation of the sport, sports gamers will buy it.
I know a lot of people who couldn't care less about soccer that bought Fifa.

And if you recall, NHL2K outsold EA for many years on last-gen and their games featured a lot more sloppy play.

The greatest gift, and curse, EA gave us was the skill stick. It's great fun, but the problem is everyone thinks they should be able to stickhandle up to their ability with the controls, and not the player they're controlling.
So the minute Billy loses the puck when trying a behind-the back, triple-deke with Colton Orr he rages on EA's forums. And what does EA do? They tune the game and dumb it completely down.
And EA knows they have to adhere to Billy because it's not adults like you or I that spend money on upgrades. It's a 12-year-old with unlimited access to Mommy's purse. And those kids are way more vocal than the hardcore or mature gamer.
I would say playing in NHL is considerably more difficult than playing Basketball. So if someone actually came close to replicating the sport in a video game, I think it would be much more frustrating for those trying deke after deke and losing the puck or trying to shoot and actually trying to puck protect and actually having the puck taken away.
 
# 38 Money99 @ 10/25/11 03:13 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by savoie2006
I would say playing in NHL is considerably more difficult than playing Basketball. So if someone actually came close to replicating the sport in a video game, I think it would be much more frustrating for those trying deke after deke and losing the puck or trying to shoot and actually trying to puck protect and actually having the puck taken away.
But they shouldn't be able to try those all the time.
In NBA2K12, once I learned a few sweet moves, I tried to breakdown defenses all the time. It didn't take long for me to figure out I couldn't do it all the time, and I'd actually lose the ball on quite a few occasions.
It forced me to learn how to 'play basketball'. I had to learn the game.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And I truly believe if EA gave us the NHL equivalent you'd see a lot less griping about this game, and a lot more praise.

Besides, that's what sliders are for. But it stinks when most of the sliders have very little affect at all.
If I crank the player attributes slider to max, then the worst player in the game should feel like a Mite player, while a guy like Stamkos should feel like an 18-year-old playing amongst those mites. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
 
# 39 Vikes1 @ 10/25/11 06:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azamien

Even worse is when you hit the fight button after that happens and it ends up with the goalie fighting a position player (about a third of the time). I can think of one time that happened in reality, and no one jumped in only because the goalie was handling the fight decently.
Myself...I normally don't bother with the fighting very often. But yeah I agree, the goalies dropping the mitts with one of the skaters does look kinda dumb. So I just don't bother with it. Imo, overall...the fighting in NHL leaves quite a bit to be desired.
 
# 40 Vikes1 @ 10/25/11 06:44 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Money99
But they shouldn't be able to try those all the time.
In NBA2K12, once I learned a few sweet moves, I tried to breakdown defenses all the time. It didn't take long for me to figure out I couldn't do it all the time, and I'd actually lose the ball on quite a few occasions.
It forced me to learn how to 'play basketball'. I had to learn the game.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And I truly believe if EA gave us the NHL equivalent you'd see a lot less griping about this game, and a lot more praise.

Besides, that's what sliders are for. But it stinks when most of the sliders have very little affect at all.
If I crank the player attributes slider to max, then the worst player in the game should feel like a Mite player, while a guy like Stamkos should feel like an 18-year-old playing amongst those mites. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
Great post, Money.

While I do pretty much understand both sides of things, "Timmy twelve year old."/"Hardcore guy"....I just wish both parties could be better satisfied. And like you Money, I like to think truly effective settings/sliders, could go a long way to getting there.

It'd be great [and realistic] if with say the puck control slider at zero...if I tried to ballerina around with a player who had no business doing so...I'd lose control of the puck nearly every time. Just as one example.

I'm really enjoying this years game. And for me, it's dang close to right where I want it gameplay wise, with a pretty heavy dose of slider work. But man...if only the sliders were more effective, we could maybe all get what we're looking for.

I do like to think EAC is at least trying to make a NHL game for most everyone to enjoy. But of course I'd always like to see more.
 


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