wow.... i guess you dont have to bump the level to Superstar to have a great defensive AI. hope NHL 13 will be the long awaited NHL game we die-hard, sim gamer, hockey fanatics are waiting for
WOW... These guys just get it. This game is going to be amazing last year. I was dissapointed in the minor improvements in NHL 12 but it looks to me like they took the last 2 years to build up for NHL 13..
wow.... i guess you dont have to bump the level to Superstar to have a great defensive AI. hope NHL 13 will be the long awaited NHL game we die-hard, sim gamer, hockey fanatics are waiting for
Lol in NHL 12 I have to set it to hardcore superstar to have the AI stop me gaining the blue line with ease, and after that I still get 40 odd shots off.
While the skating looks a lot better I'm not really excited about the players skating backwards so often and well while in the offensive zone with the puck. Looks a little figure skating-esque to me,
That being said, having the slot be more effective while making that area harder to attain is something I've been wanting for years. Add in more effective defenders (hopefully based on ratings mainly) and I'm pretty well stoked for this game....good job so far EA.
Don't like the skating backwards. How often do you see a hockey player peel out of a down low position in the offensive zone by skating backwards and out toward the slot while maintaining control of the puck? While other aspects of the skating look good, the backward skating ability with the puck is silly.
You bump that up to superstar with slider tweaks for a more sim game and I think you get the idea of where I'm heading with this.
What do you mean?
I am very excited about the fact that Sean says that the there are more loose pucks twice. Very, very excited about that. Hopefully it holds true. One thing I don't like it the excessive back skating. Its done at times when it never happens in the real NHL, perhaps its just the users doing it.
I liked a lot of what I saw.
The only thing that still bothers me is the passing accuracy. 1/3 way through the video Edler makes a perfect, 2-line, tape-to-tape, blind, backhand pass to a streaking Kessler.
I'm hoping it's because it's on Pro and sliders will take care of something like that.
But the good outweighed the bad in what was highlighted.
This is the video I've been waiting for, wow. I can handle some tape to tape passing, but the looseness of the puck is so much better than the last 3 versions.
That video portrayed hockey, yet still gave it that fun factor look to it.
Like some have already said, they really focused on a ton of gameplay and AI this year, add that to the enhancements to the franchise mode and I think I'm going to be really immersed into the game this year.
Looks like I might have to increase the period time from 10 min periods, which is a great thing.. due to what appears could be less shots on goal.
A little thing I noticed in several of the clips was the coaches on the benches. Looks like after every break in play, they change positions and stances. One clip I saw them with their arms crossed behind the bench and on another clip one had one foot up on the bench while it looked like he was talking to a player.
I think we're gonna need all the skating tricks we can get if this new A.I. and defensive pressure turns out to be as awesomely powerful and realistic as it looks.
The game needs to be balanced between offense and defense so they want to let the player be tricky with the backskate. I'm fine with that.
I mean in the sense of CPU AI gap control. Even on default sliders the AI was doing proper back checks and taking away pucks at center ice and the blue line. Bump that up to SS and it theoretically should be harder to gain the offense zone cleanly without having to dump and forecheck.
I see. I'm hoping a bump up to just All-Star will do the trick. I have a feeling I'll be spending the first week playing this game trying to figure out which difficulty setting to use.
Instead of the backward skating I think the LT should be a context-sensitive modifier. If the puck carrier is going too fast or is in too tight a spot, LT should have him shield the puck and stick his butt out to protect it. This would create a stable platform to buy time and space for teammates and create offense without the impossible backward skating tricks shown in the video.
Oh ya! Enjoyed watching this one. A focus on AI defensive play was my biggest wish for NHL '13'....and it sure looks like we got it.
One small thing though I'm not too sure I liked was...how fast the players were from standing still and into a back skate. Meaning...they got up to speed awfully fast skating backward. But overall, very pleased with what this video was showing.
Sadly and this is really my biggest gripe on 13, you can't alter sliders. You can set the type of mode, Casual, pro? Hardcore which prolly changes the base slider settings for GM Connected but you can't make individual slider tweaks. I'll take it though at least for this year and see how it plays out.
Damn that sucks. I believe changing it makes a decent difference. From my knowledge I played Hardcore/Superstar on NHL 13 and it was solid.
I just like tweaking sliders due to the big hits and such that seem to happen on default sliders. We'll see though, I still plan on doing an offline franchise and a GM Connected with some friends online.