NHL 09 First Look

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:54 pm

First producer blog: http://www.easports.com/nhl09/news.jsp?itemID=cover

On the left side..

Some excellent things in 09 for sure!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:15 am

Dion Phaneuf will be the cover boy for NHL 09. OK, I'll be boycotting the game, I'll go for 2K9.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:28 am

It'll look like this:

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:31 pm

MizzouRah wrote:First producer blog: http://www.easports.com/nhl09/news.jsp?itemID=cover

On the left side..

Some excellent things in 09 for sure!

Forechecks that work? Flip dumps? The ability to cut to the net with one hand on your stick, and one hand shielding you from the player? The ablility to switch D AND forwards separately?????

Wow, 2k9 will have to be miles ahead to get me back now if nhl09 is going to be this good!

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:36 pm

New features sound great but I hope they don't screw up the game. NHL08 is one of the best ever. But how many times have we seen in this gaming industry where one perfect game one year they completely f up the next year. Example : NCAA 2004 followed by NCAA 2005

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:50 pm

Inuyasha wrote:New features sound great but I hope they don't screw up the game. NHL08 is one of the best ever. But how many times have we seen in this gaming industry where one perfect game one year they completely f up the next year. Example : NCAA 2004 followed by NCAA 2005

Gameplay will remain the same:

http://consolesports.net/content/view/334/51/

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:19 pm

Well, NHL 07 was excellent as well as NHL 08.. I don't think we have to worry.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:20 am

10spro wrote:
Inuyasha wrote:New features sound great but I hope they don't screw up the game. NHL08 is one of the best ever. But how many times have we seen in this gaming industry where one perfect game one year they completely f up the next year. Example : NCAA 2004 followed by NCAA 2005
Gameplay will remain the same:

http://consolesports.net/content/view/334/51/

Nice article.

To me, NHL 08 was a good but not great game (I know, I know), but it was great to read about the improvements to the checking. More importantly is the free poke-checking and stick-lifting!

The only discouraging thing to me was no mention of goalie play tweakings. NHL 08 was dangerously close to CPU super-goalies on the highest difficulty levels (which for me provided the only satisfactory challenge), while my goalie became garbage on that level. This is game killer territory for me, so I hope it's addressed in some way, even if it's just bringing back the goalie boost slider from old NHL versions.

Also let me add another voice to the calls for 7 or 8 minute periods.

Lastly, as someone who still plays NHL 94 with friends, I got a chuckle out of this part;

In doing so, we have a new control scheme and it is labeled “NHL 94”. Yep, it gives you the minimal control scheme like we had in NHL ’94 on the Sega Genesis. It’s actually quite fun to play and brings back some memories and it really does simplify the game for some of the more casual fans out there.

Definitely gonna have to try and convince some old 94 players to give this one a shot!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:08 am

Good point Naples. I also hope they have a slider for Goalies, I often run into Super-goalies on AS while my poor guy at times would give away a softy one after you work so hard for scoring. I look forward to the lifting of the stick feature and "Be a Pro" mode. If the gameplay remains as good as 08, I'll be happy... Well is it too late to ask for a 2K8 faceoff style? The best in the business.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:46 am

They need to play 2k8 and see how they modeled the goalies. One excellent part of that hockey game. Oh.. and the faceoffs too!

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:09 am

Goalies have been worked on fellas 75-100 new animations , supposidly putting in all the different styles and desperation saves.

Everything sounds good , the only thing i see as a negative is the board play, reports have it the same as last year so even with a new dump and chase option there isnt going to be 2,3,4 man scrumbs for the puck against the boards its going to be hit guy of puck gain control get hit lose control so on and so forth.
Its all to clean, if a player is along the boards with his back to me i should be able to pin him(without being called for a penalty) and expect my teamates to come in and dig for the puck, seems like this will still be missing.
And if puck physics arnt tweaked goal variety is going to be the same again and in the end was one of the things that spoiled it for me. Where in 07 it was phenominal, they need to go back to that sans the goalie hitting it in his own net.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:23 am

Jimmydeicide wrote: Goalies have been worked on fellas 75-100 new animations , supposidly putting in all the different styles and desperation saves.

Nice, but I just want the CPU Goalies to be less Superman and play more to their ratings. A TPA keeper can't make the same super saves like a R. Luongo for example.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:20 pm

10spro wrote:
Jimmydeicide wrote: Goalies have been worked on fellas 75-100 new animations , supposidly putting in all the different styles and desperation saves.
Nice, but I just want the CPU Goalies to be less Superman and play more to their ratings. A TPA keeper can't make the same super saves like a R. Luongo for example.

Exactly.. you can tell who's on the ice as far as non-goalies go, but the goalies seem to all play the same to me in 08.

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:58 pm

One poster on OS has stated that the period options are still 5, 10 and 20

Hopefully EA considers expanding this or the 10 plays a somewhat tighter game.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:25 pm

I'm also in the camp that wishes EA would give us more time options than just 5, 10 or 20 minute periods, but I'm going to take off and tip my typical EA hater hat and do my part to spread this little piece of good news, posted by bukktown over on the OS boards...I really can't wait to give this new mode a try:

"Matt Bertz from Game Informer on the KFAN Video Games weekly show 6-25-08

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/182...o_Games_Weekly
(F.Y.I. the intro music is really long)

A little bit after the 30 minute mark…….2/3 of the way through

"On top of that (Be a Pro mode)
not only can you create your guy and progress to become NHL All-Star
…you can also create a team with 5 of your buddies and play in 6 on 6 online leagues…not just like your league with your buddies and some other guys you know, it’s a universal, international league that you will be playing in.

They actually tried to take a little page out of the MMO book. You don't just need 5 guys. You can create a "guild" there can be up to 50 people there. So you get an elite bunch of people and they can play 5 on 5 or 6 on 6 matches versus anyone at anytime and it builds up your team ranking. And the ranking system works… there's divisions..
multi-divisions. So you work your way up from the bottom up to the top
If you're not playing very well you can get relegated. And at a certain point in the season, EA hasn't determined yet, they are gonna take a snapshot of the league. And the top 50 or 20, they don't know what the number is yet, but they are gonna actually make a cutoff and the top teams in the world are gonna be playing in playoff style format to determine a world champion and there will be prizes as well."

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:42 pm

GTHobbes wrote:On top of that (Be a Pro mode)
not only can you create your guy and progress to become NHL All-Star
…you can also create a team with 5 of your buddies and play in 6 on 6 online leagues…not just like your league with your buddies and some other guys you know, it’s a universal, international league that you will be playing in.

Well, if true, that could kick all kinds of ass.

Seriously, this has been guessed at by fans and would seem to sound incredibly ambitious. If they can, in fact, pull this off it would be huge for the sports gaming community. Definitely would look forward to a DSP team.

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:48 am

New video highlighting the defensive skill stick, also shows a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass:

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=14230950&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/vi ... rking="all"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360' ></embed>

Pre E3 NHL 09 Hands on from IGN:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/887/887208p1.html

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:15 am

Finally a penalty when you clear the puck off the glass. Looking good.

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:41 pm

Officially revealed by David Littman basically what GTHobbes posted from the Game Informer, the EA Sports Hockey League:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/ ... 3B1&page=1

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:10 pm

Read that Q&A and it just raises some more questions.

Sounds like you can only do the league thing with created players in Be A Pro mode?

And the only way to get stat tracking is to play ranked league games in this thing?

And there will be times when you'll have to play a different position than the one you chose for your created player because someone else on the club also has a created player for the chosen position?

All they really needed to do was stat-tracking and more options for starting and setting up OTP games, like booting people, being able to launch without waiting for the timer to count down, being able to boot or switch players from one team to another (if some asshole insists on playing goalie), etc.

This league thing, if it's the only way to get stat tracking, are only going to attract the ranking whores.

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:16 pm

Newest Littman Blog: http://www.easports.com/nhl09/blog.jsp

Good stuff in there and also includes news that period lengths will be tunable between 4 and 20 with 1 minute intervals.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:35 pm

GameSeven wrote:Newest Littman Blog: http://www.easports.com/nhl09/blog.jsp

Good stuff in there and also includes news that period lengths will be tunable between 4 and 20 with 1 minute intervals.

YES!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:58 am

grtwhtsk wrote:
GameSeven wrote:Newest Littman Blog: http://www.easports.com/nhl09/blog.jsp

Good stuff in there and also includes news that period lengths will be tunable between 4 and 20 with 1 minute intervals.

YES!

About time.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:05 pm

This "League" trailer looks incredible. Each player has their own specific 3rd person camera online. Very cool stuff.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37453.html?type=flv

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 6:47 pm

OK Boys, let's start the SIGNUPS!!!

I hereby officially induct myself and RallyMonkey as the charter members of the DSP Guild for NHL 09. We can accommodate up to 48 additional players to represent this fine site in the EA Sports League.

This is honestly the coolest feature I can imagine; collecting 6 DSP players on any given night shouldn't be that hard. So, sign up and let's bring the cup to DSP!