NHL 13 News Post

Five Things That Will Make or Break NHL 13

11:39 AM - September 5, 2012 by RaychelSnr

NHL 13 has lots of potential, and lots of question marks after the demo had a few issues hardcore NHL fans are concerned about. EA promises a tuner update for several issues at launch which may alleviate many of the concerns, but our own Jayson Young is still skeptical a bit. Check out his five things that will make or break NHL after the jump.

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

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# 1 chickenhed @ 09/05/12 12:06 PM

"Coach mode fans, however, will be pleased to know that unlike Madden NFL 13, NHL 13's Connected Career mode does support user coaching. Coach mode lets the player pick line changes and alter team strategies on-the-fly, in addition to a "shoot" button that will tell whomever has the puck to fire on net."

I am one of those fans and yes, I am very very happy. Hopefully its as fun as it sounds.

# 2 Cletus @ 09/05/12 12:49 PM

I'm not excited at all about EASHL this year. I'll still play it but not the thousand plus games I have been. It's been getting more about stop the glitchers (even in 6 vs. 6) year after year. Hopefully the no super build this year will help, but people always find ways around it.

# 3 tfctillidie @ 09/05/12 01:09 PM

Can't imagine there's alot of Columbus Blue Jacket fans in the middle of Africa.

# 4 Rwings832 @ 09/05/12 01:28 PM

I am with you on the coach mode thing as well, but I am hoping this can be used in offline mode, not to crazy about doing an online league, although I wonder if we can start an online league but just play it as single players, and have the other teams be CPU controlled.

# 5 ocho cuatro @ 09/05/12 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfctillidie


	Can't imagine there's alot of Columbus Blue Jacket fans in the middle of Africa.

Can't imagine there are a lot of Blue Jacket fans in the middle of Ohio.

# 6 tsp120 @ 09/05/12 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chickenhed


	"Coach mode fans, however, will be pleased to know that unlike Madden NFL 13, NHL 13's Connected Career mode does support user coaching. Coach mode lets the player pick line changes and alter team strategies on-the-fly, in addition to a "shoot" button that will tell whomever has the puck to fire on net." I am one of those fans and yes, I am very very happy. Hopefully its as fun as it sounds.

I've always thought a coach mode would make sense for a hockey game, but never thought I'd see the day when a game would add it as an option given how few people like myself would actually be interested.

I am absolutely excited about coach mode. I've been playing the demo this way and despite not being allowed to make line changes, I'm having a lot of fun messing around with the different strategies.

Last night I was playing in coach mode with aggressive strategies and a NZ vs. FC biased way towards the forecheck and I watched the computer struggle to get out of their own zone a couple of times. At one point the CPU make a blind backwards pass to nobody and Brodeur had to come out of his net to the faceoff circles and gather the puck and pass it to a teammate. It was pretty cool.

# 7 drewst18 @ 09/05/12 02:46 PM

The glitch should not be mentioned, there will always be glitches unfortuantly but the ones in question EA has already addressed...

# 8 Vikes1 @ 09/05/12 04:06 PM

Good read.

But I do disagree a little about the AI's aggressiveness. I think it has certainly improved.

In my experience anyway on the higher levels, I've been cut off and checked into the boards more in my time with '13's demo...than all my time with NHL '12'. Again for me...I'm finding it quite a bit more difficult to skate around in the AI's zone because of the improved AI's aggression. Especially if your looking for a quality shot on goal. So overall, yeah...still a bit too easy to get through the zones at times. But imo....'13' seems like a nice improvement over '12'.

# 9 MetalCavs @ 09/05/12 04:36 PM

As always EA is targeting the youngsters with this years release, more arcade gameplay wrapped up in simulation looks. I'll save my scrilla as this series unfortunately has come down with a terminal case of FRANCHISE FATIGUE

# 10 chickenhed @ 09/05/12 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsp120


	I've always thought a coach mode would make sense for a hockey game, but never thought I'd see the day when a game would add it as an option given how few people like myself would actually be interested. I am absolutely excited about coach mode. I've been playing the demo this way and despite not being allowed to make line changes, I'm having a lot of fun messing around with the different strategies. Last night I was playing in coach mode with aggressive strategies and a NZ vs. FC biased way towards the forecheck and I watched the computer struggle to get out of their own zone a couple of times. At one point the CPU make a blind backwards pass to nobody and Brodeur had to come out of his net to the faceoff circles and gather the puck and pass it to a teammate. It was pretty cool.

This makes me giddy.

# 11 plaidchuck @ 09/05/12 07:29 PM

well based on the demo the ai is as dismal as ever, especially with the defensemen. Yes I know good AI is hard to do but they still can't even defend the slot?

# 12 LighttheLamp @ 09/05/12 07:43 PM

if people play the game for fun and not for exploits, then everything should be ok. the problem is that people find ways to exploit the game. how is that fun?

# 13 THE YAMA @ 09/05/12 07:45 PM

I'm still on the fence about this game. Not sure how much play I'll get out of it with FIFA coming out two weeks after NHL.

# 14 ManiacMatt1782 @ 09/05/12 09:14 PM

For GM Connected to not be a colossal failure, it needs to avoid the horrid mistakes that NBA 2k12 and Madden 13 made. No option for a reset or commissioner to assign a winner in the event of a network drop. This cannot happen in NHL 13.

# 15 Flyermania @ 09/05/12 11:41 PM

All good points, but for me one of the top items is penalties. In the past couple iterations, penalties were flat out broken. If the sliders truly work, this game could be something great. The lack of penalties/PP/PK is not realistic and is flat out not a true representation of the sport.

Fingers crossed!

# 16 piffbernd @ 09/06/12 01:02 AM

Very good read !

Most imported is that the freezing issue is gone. I hope for a balance GM AI, sometimes EA make it to tough, u can't trade what happened in reality.

# 17 Therion7 @ 09/06/12 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyermania


	All good points, but for me one of the top items is penalties. In the past couple iterations, penalties were flat out broken. If the sliders truly work, this game could be something great. The lack of penalties/PP/PK is not realistic and is flat out not a true representation of the sport. Fingers crossed!

Agreed, I think things were slightly better in the demo, but they still had to be drawn by some stick dangling.

With the penalty slider and AI aggressive at max in 13 then the CPU should be boarding, charging and crosschecking the hell out of my players. I personally wouldn't play it that way, but that's how sliders should function!

# 18 canucksss @ 09/06/12 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyermania


	All good points, but for me one of the top items is penalties. In the past couple iterations, penalties were flat out broken. If the sliders truly work, this game could be something great. The lack of penalties/PP/PK is not realistic and is flat out not a true representation of the sport. Fingers crossed!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Therion7


	Agreed, I think things were slightly better in the demo, but they still had to be drawn by some stick dangling. With the penalty slider and AI aggressive at max in 13 then the CPU should be boarding, charging and crosschecking the hell out of my players. I personally wouldn't play it that way, but that's how sliders should function!

in 9 min per period in BaGM i would at least expect 4-6 penalties total for the entire game. i'll be happy and satisfied with that. i will be strongly disappointed if i see another back-to-back games with no penalties in AS hardcore setting.

# 19 BaylorBearBryant @ 09/07/12 02:48 AM

It's all about the EASHL and VGHL for me. That means stable connectivity is at the top of my list.

# 20 SlyBelle @ 09/07/12 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyermania


	All good points, but for me one of the top items is penalties. In the past couple iterations, penalties were flat out broken. If the sliders truly work, this game could be something great. The lack of penalties/PP/PK is not realistic and is flat out not a true representation of the sport. Fingers crossed!

Exactly my thoughts too....to me this is the only concern for the game.

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