NHL 13 News Post

NHL 13 Hands-On Preview with Lots of Good Info (Game Informer)

11:04 AM - May 21, 2012 by Steve_OS

Game Informer's Matt Bertz checks in with his NHL 13 hands-on preview. Lots of good nuggets in this one, as he hits on 22 things you need to know about the game.

Just a few quotes below...

Quote:


	This year speedy wingers like Marian Gaborik have the ability to fly by defenders. Going fast has its limitations. Players will get fatigued faster, and only elite players like Sidney Crosby are able to stickhandle and take accurate shots while skating at top speed. To build the new skating system, EA Canada has added over 1,000 new animations. For the first time in the series, goalies now have individual limb control. "This year we've invested more effort in AI than in the last three years combined in terms of effort," Ramjagsingh says. Much to the dismay of some fans, both Gary Thorne and Bill Clement return to the broadcasting booth.

Source - 22 Things We Know About NHL 13 (Game Informer)

Game: NHL 13Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 23 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 savoie2006 @ 05/21/12 11:24 AM

Things are sounding REALLY promising, but this isn't the first time

# 2 Simple Mathematics @ 05/21/12 11:35 AM

Absolutely awesome!!!! I can't wait to hear more!!

# 3 Broncos86 @ 05/21/12 11:48 AM

Quote:


	EA has moved away from non-interactive cutscenes. NHL 13 now uses the AI to drive the players after the whistle and the developers implemented true broadcast camera angles to capture their activity.

Thank goodness!

# 4 BlueNGold @ 05/21/12 12:01 PM

Is it September yet?

# 5 savoie2006 @ 05/21/12 12:13 PM

The only thing I hope for is to be able to edit all the stratagies for ALL teams once I start a GM or before and have them applied to my GM. If I can only edit my "favorite", which I have a feeling we'll be prompted to choose for Presentation purposes, I'll be bummed.

# 6 jyoung @ 05/21/12 01:47 PM

Quote:


	19. Much to the dismay of some fans, both Gary Thorne and Bill Clement return to the broadcasting booth. EA recorded commentary for the new features like True Performance Skating and some league information that will keep their comments up to date.

Bummer.

Thorne only calls 3 hockey games a year in real life (ESPN's coverage of the NCAA Frozen Four).

Clement hosts a satellite radio show about hockey, but that's the extent of his involvement with the sport to my knowledge.

# 7 Fiddy @ 05/21/12 01:52 PM

the strategy stuff has me even more fired up.. now, just hope all these actually work and the sliders are not broke.

if they had strats like mentioned in the previous games, even with all the issues, it still would be playable.

# 8 RM938 @ 05/21/12 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyoung


	Bummer. Thorne only calls 3 hockey games a year in real life (ESPN's coverage of the NCAA Frozen Four). Clement hosts a satellite radio show about hockey, but that's the extent of his involvement with the sport to my knowledge.

Agree, but Clement does stuff with the Flyers on the local network. But yes I'd like to see the NBC team in there.

# 9 Qb @ 05/21/12 03:05 PM

I'm reading on my phone while at work, so no quotes, but I'm seeing some promising stuff:

More gliding - Not a sexy addition, but very important to representing real skating.
Backskating - I hope the quote of "you can't skate backward as fast as attacking players skate forward anymore" proves true.
Strategy sliders - I hope these are in a menu somewhere so they can be set for all teams/lines. I talked this up at the NHL11 CE.
AI Awareness - I hope the AI improvements pan out, especially about being more aware of players without the puck. I always felt they did a terrible job of reading & reacting to the actions of human players, at least when compared to a team of all CPU skaters.

Overall, lots of goodies and a lot of the new stuff reminds me of discussions we had with the devs during the event two years ago. Hopefully it's somewhere near as good as it sounds.

# 10 mbergh22 @ 05/21/12 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RM938


	Agree, but Clement does stuff with the Flyers on the local network. But yes I'd like to see the NBC team in there.

I wonder how much longer Gary and Bill's contract is.

# 11 bwiggy33 @ 05/21/12 03:18 PM

Man oh man does the strategy portion sound good. These are the options that are finally and hopefully going to separate the top players from the bad, and each teams style of play. Exactly what I have wanted. I just pray that all of this plays as good as it sounds because we all know we have heard all of this before.

# 12 jkra0512 @ 05/21/12 03:20 PM

Two things really stood out to me:

Quote:


	"This year we've invested more effort in AI than in the last three years combined in terms of effort," Ramjagsingh says.

I hope that "effort" actually materializes in the on-ice action.

Quote:


	"If you're not happy how your lines are performing you can tweak their behaviors with a new set of strategy sliders. On offense, you can control your players tendencies to carry vs. dump the puck, cycle vs. shoot, skate with efficiency or energy, or go down to block shots or not. On defense, you can use the sliders to determine whether or not your defensemen should pinch or hold the line and whether they should cycle the puck or shoot. If you want to create a fourth line that dumps and chases 100 percent of the time, you now have that option."

Absolutely LOVE the sound of this...For much too long, it seemed every team played the same exact way. There wasn't much differentiation between the NY Rangers (grind it out) and Vancouver (finesse). I really, really hope this works out perfectly from the start. The NHL series sorely needs it!

# 13 Money99 @ 05/21/12 03:32 PM

Really like the following:

Quote:


	16. EA has redone every single forecheck in the game so teams employ their real-life strategies. This includes aggressive or passive 1-2-2, 1-3-1, and even the 1-4 the Tampa Bay Lightning used against the Philadelphia Flyers during last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

Quote:


	22. EA has moved away from non-interactive cutscenes. NHL 13 now uses the AI to drive the players after the whistle and the developers implemented true broadcast camera angles to capture their activity.

The rest of the stuff I'll wait to see myself.
I've heard of great AI before and it turns out to be rubbish.
I really hope they actually make your own CPU teammates far more aggressive. If you play BAP or player-lock, watch how pathetic your teammates are. They literally stand around, or simply hover around the puck carrier. They won't hit, or barely attempt a poke check.

This intrigues me:

Quote:


	In our limited time with NHL 13, this dynamic created an interesting cat and mouse game between defenders and forwards. Since you can't skate backward as fast as attacking players skate forward anymore, Knowing when to back off, when to turn and skate, when to close the gap, and when to attempt a check requires much more awareness than in past games.

If this is true, then they have to make sure they implement it right with the CPU's d'men.
Guys like Lidstrom, Chara and Girardi should be really solid in their end, hardly ever making a mistake, but other, lesser defenseman should be more prone to choose the wrong thing to do at times.

All in all, it's a good read, but again, I'll wait and play it myself before passing judgement.
I swear, the minute I see George Paros fly down the ice and do a toe-drag at top speed, I'll throw my skate at the monitor. And I don't care if that's on superstar.
Moving up in difficulty shouldn't result in boosts, just SMARTER AI.

# 14 canucksss @ 05/21/12 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RealmK


	Sounds great on paper. Let's hope it actually translates to the gameplay as it's written up. Couple things in that bullet list stood out at me Part of the AI work includes making sure there is better player differentiation on the ice. Fourth liners will go into corners more aggressively and finish their checks. Excellent and it's about time, Hank I think they finally heard us. 12. EA is also working on making sure teammate AI knows what to do when you have an odd-man rush on offense. If you cross over into their lane, they will know that they should criss cross and position themselves for a scoring opportunity Also excellent along with players being aware of situations rather than just where the puck is. Goalies coming out to challenge to cut down the angle on a 2 on 1 for example. Really digging what I'm hearing, I still want to SEE it in action however before I get a chubby about it.

I hope this applies too to BaGM and offline games. Want to see it before I even plan to buy it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Segagendude


	Everything does sound good..... ....until patches and tuners screw everything up, lol.........

hahahhaha.....

# 15 phillyfan23 @ 05/21/12 04:44 PM

evrything sounds and looks good especially the new indepth strategies, ai, player difference, more 5 hole goals and more penalties. I would be lying if I said I wasn 't more optimistic after reading all of that but Ive been here before and I wong get burned again. No way this will be a first day buy like before unless the demo blows me away. nhl 11 and 12 demos convinced me to buy the games at less than 20 a piece later in the year. the demo will tell us more.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

# 16 ericromain @ 05/21/12 05:53 PM

This all sounds good as written, and the player strides in the video look fantastic. I'll be looking forward to hearing/seeing more.

# 17 Vikes1 @ 05/21/12 07:53 PM

Sure like what we're hearing so far.

I was really hoping to have read in the gameplay section that...."No longer can you just skate right through the zones [vs the AI] like you have a free pass."

I've been kinda focusing during this years playoffs on just how often teams dump/chip the puck into the offense zone. And man...it's often, really often.

I do understand that many times it's due to line changes, but also...it's the defender that's just not going to let the puck carrier skate right on pass him. I am a bit encouraged though, to see in the write-up that dump and chase is at least mentioned. Hopefully a good sign.

# 18 akacesfan @ 05/21/12 08:06 PM

I"m so happy you can play the 1-4. I'm probably going to bore the hell out of everyone I play, but it will be cool.

# 19 hollywood_cpm @ 05/21/12 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbergh22


	I wonder how much longer Gary and Bill's contract is.

I had a chance to speak with someone at EA regarding this issue at a recent playtest session. I think we'll be with Gary and Bill for a while still. He said that audio is EXTREMELY expensive when making a game. Surprisingly more of a budget goes to audio than people would expect - and obvs he did not mention exact numbers. But the the time and effort that go into making sure one of a number clips plays when a situation happens is very high. Redoing all they've done with new guys would be a major undertaking. Frankly the time is better spent working on gameplay - like the new skating engine

# 20 jkra0512 @ 05/21/12 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikes1


	Sure like what we're hearing so far. I was really hoping to have read in the gameplay section that...."No longer can you just skate right through the zones [vs the AI] like you have a free pass." I've been kinda focusing during this years playoffs on just how often teams dump/chip the puck into the offense zone. And man...it's often, really often. I do understand that many times it's due to line changes, but also...it's the defender that's just not going to let the puck carrier skate right on pass him. I am a bit encouraged though, to see in the write-up that dump and chase is at least mentioned. Hopefully a good sign.

Vikes, I'm with you. I'm a Rangers fan and they dump the puck in ALL THE TIME. However, you don't see that very often in this series. It's a bunch of skating by d-men, or a perfect tape-to-tape passing to gain the zone. I'd like to see more of an onus put on boardplay. It seems that when you or the CPU is pinned against the boards, it's a one-on-one match-up, when in reality there should be a few more guys in there trying to dig out the puck.

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NHL 13 Hands-On Preview with Lots of Good Info (Game Informer)