NHL 13 News Post

NHL 13: Five Items That Still Need Improvement

01:10 PM - January 29, 2013 by RaychelSnr

As much as I loved the subtle additions to NHL 13, as well as the more meaningful stuff like the True Skating engine and GM Connected, there are still some outstanding issues with the game in terms of its AI performance on the ice. The team at EA Vancouver has really brought the series along over the years, addressing some bothersome exploits and annoying holdover issues from previous versions. However, in doing so, it has underlined a few pesky problems that remain, and it's also introduced a few new ones. These are five AI issues that I believe still need some work, and I think there are solutions for each one of them. I'll start from the goalie on out.

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# 1 asu666 @ 01/29/13 01:41 PM

You've made some really nice gameplay observations. I'd love to see all of the pre-game introductions and penalty sliders working right out of the box too.

# 2 wildhockey19 @ 01/29/13 02:15 PM

EASHL lag issues......enough said.

# 3 w_unit_17 @ 01/29/13 02:39 PM

EASHL lag issues are not the problem.

My brother and I play Be a gm mode offline and experience every single one of these issues. We find that #5 is the most annoying. We have tried adjusting the sliders countless times to prevent the constant breakaways for both us and the cpu that have resulted from the new skating system coming to the conclusion that it's simply a computer AI issue. Hopefully it will be resolved

# 4 Al_Tito13 @ 01/29/13 03:29 PM

Great points! I agree with mostly everything you said. I love NHL 13, but it still need work and having all these gameplay items improved in NHL 14 is a must.

# 5 JohnMcClaneTW @ 01/29/13 03:35 PM

I agree with pretty much everything here.

Your points about the CPU are why I find playing Online Vs or HUT or anything one on one with another player to be borderline unplayable. I'm tired of the constant awful positioning by my CPU teammates on both offense and defense. I regularly find myself needing a pass to an open winger and that winger is just not in position for some reason. Things like that bother me a great deal.

It's for these reasons why I mostly stick to EASHL. Sure, the lobby and drop-in games can be frustrating with bad teammates, but those can be fun. The real fun is to be had on club teams with a full 6 on 6 (all human players) game. That's where teamwork can be seen at its best and if someone is out of position, it's your own fault instead of the fault of some crappy AI decisions.

# 6 Tonic @ 01/29/13 03:50 PM

Great article. I definitely agree. I made a post last night about some of these things as well.

You can read it here!

# 7 Steven547 @ 01/29/13 04:30 PM

Let's not forget Goalie Fatigue and goalie confidence. If I'm correct, awhile ago, there was something with the goalies. When they were scored on a lot in one game, or let in a lot of goals in a short span of time, their confidence went down.

And for the Goalie fatigue, it can't just be "Goalie is tired", and you sit him. His stats needs to be affected as he progresses into exhaustion. This would force the user AND CPU to make goalie changes throughout the season.

# 8 Cletus @ 01/29/13 04:58 PM

The cpu crashes the net fine, the problem is, the cpu vacuum tie up. They try to crash the net and if the aggressiveness is set to 5 or higher then they defenders automatically tie up anyone in the vicinity. One thing that needs to be changed in EASHL are the buttons. Make Y (or Triangle) the tie up button. I hate when playing EASHL and trying to stop a cross crease as a forward and getting a penalty because I'm one centimeter out of where the tie up animation is. If the defense could pick of passes or poke them to safety (instead of to the offensive teammate across the ice) then this wouldn't be as big of an issue either.

Also, please fix the puck physics and make it so people can't hold down poke check and skate and become unbeatable.

# 9 half-fast @ 01/29/13 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildhockey19


	EASHL lag issues......enough said.

I wouldnt say "enough said", but surely it must be embarrassing for EA when I can play FIFA online team play with almost a full compliment of human players per side and very little to no noticeable lag, then we play NHL otp 4v4 and there can be so much lag that its no fun.

# 10 KleShreen @ 01/29/13 05:52 PM

I don't understand how people can complain about lag. It was way worse in NHL 12. This year, I've logged over 300 EASHL games at various combinations between 3v3 and 6v6 and MAYBE five times has the game lagged at all. Maybe you guys should be looking at your ISP or equipment for your internet. There is not a lag problem in EASHL. Unless you are talking about there being too much time between periods for things to get off the "Please Wait" page, then yes, that needs some help.

FWIW, I might even have more validity by saying that I run my internet through a wireless router with an ethernet cord going to my 360 and an ethernet cord going to my laptop, and I'm actively surfing the web (during stoppages) and streaming pandora at the same time I'm playing EASHL games. So if anyone should have lag problems, it would be me.

# 11 MizzouRah @ 01/30/13 12:39 AM

Nice writeup.

# 12 gsize19 @ 01/30/13 01:12 AM

some GREAT point!!! but to some of the commenters, do you guys plat defense at all? i see very few breawaways a game, lest than 1 a game really, maybe 2... If you play with your defender you can get in pointion and stop a lot of this... it is all about defense, and having that mentality first. Scoring is awesome, but defence wins games... work on your de, the breakaways go away rather quickly!!!!

# 13 actionhank @ 01/30/13 01:23 AM

I feel like no matter what my settings are at, there's just no passing game in NHL13. What i mean is, that while watching NHL games, or even just tonight, highlights from other games around the league, what i see is a lot of passing. On the powerplay especially, the teams are sometimes hurling the puck across the ice just above the slot, right through a few of the defending forwards. But in NHL13, it's damn near impossible to do anything but pass the puck between your D-men, or maybe down the boards to your forwards. In the real NHL they will frequently throw the puck from one side to the other, or from the Dmen down to the man at the top of the circle, or the side of the face-off circle, who launches a one-timer on net. But in this game that's almost immediately picked up by the AI, then cleared almost instantly out of the zone (It's a bit better than last year, but it's still ridiculous how easily the AI can get that puck down ice.)
Passing in general is tough. I feel like the skating engine made things a bit better, but things like skating along the blueline with your defensemen seems to be tougher to get right. They seem to always want to pivot and take the put out of the zone and end up offsides.

# 14 Dougie_G_93 @ 01/31/13 03:40 PM

There will always be some tweaks in gameplay and presentation every year so EA can justify the next game as being "new" However, my main mode I play is be a gm. For the last few years this mode has been completely neglected along with accurate rosters.

# 15 kerosene31 @ 02/01/13 05:14 PM

I agree with all of those. The AI really hurts the game offline. #5 shows the big flaw in the game - the AI doesn't know how to use the new skating engine.

I know if I have my slower d-men out there against speedy forwards, I have to pull them back sooner. The AI doesn't seem to realize this until a moment too late. It is so easy to exploit. Faster skaters can easily get too much space on the wings. Then, just make a couple spins with an agile player and the slower d-men will be lost in space.

For my team, it forces me to not play in the neutral zone and instead manually control the D and make sure someone is back properly.

# 16 @legendm0de @ 02/01/13 09:46 PM

those are nice observations, I have been thinking more freedom puck handling, I think they'll give us more arsenal stick handling in next edition. Maybe an overhaul of the entire puck carrying system

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NHL 13: Five Items That Still Need Improvement