NHL 13

[Spooky]

What are these 'tuner sets'? Is that something I've missed in the game settings? And does the game default to manual or auto shooting on default 'Pro'? ('cause that's what I've been playing)

Tuner sets can be selected in Game Settings. Set 1.01 feels looser, more organic and a hell of a lot more fun to me than 1.02, which seemingly has returned many of the characteristics that I didn't like about the AI in NHL 12. Could be a placebo, but my perceptions stand!

The game defaults to manual shooting. There is no global shooting option that can be saved, unfortunately. So you need to enter Gameplay Settings before every game and switch shooting to auto if you want to use it.

Fair warning: I think very few -- if any -- online modes allow auto shooting. EA has a hard-on for manual shooting.

Thank you sir.

[toonarmy]

One thing that is annoying my is that in HUT mode when I lose a connection to the EA servers, even in the game menu, in offline tournaments I get credited with a loss and it knocks a game off my players' contracts. I also have added contract cards to my players in HUT, exited out of the mode after autosaving, and upon returning have my players with no games credited to their contract, but my contract cards gone. Kind of crap.

[Aristo]

I just got knocked off the server for a third round HUT tourney game. I didn't know it would credit me with a loss. I was waiting to log on to replay the game.

It was a third round game in a tourney played on Superstar. I won the first two 2-1, the second game in OT. This game I went up 1-0 in the 1st, but gave up a goal on a penalty shot in the second. Late into the second it was looking like I was going to have to squeak out another 2-1 win, when it just booted me.

It will mean I wil have wasted three contract games on each player, and beating this tourney is no easy feat.

[Jimmydeicide]

One thing that is annoying my is that in HUT mode when I lose a connection to the EA servers, even in the game menu, in offline tournaments I get credited with a loss and it knocks a game off my players' contracts. I also have added contract cards to my players in HUT, exited out of the mode after autosaving, and upon returning have my players with no games credited to their contract, but my contract cards gone. Kind of crap.

I just did my first gm connected game and lost connection. In the demo, hut never failed to lose connection the first time in for me.
Frustrating to say the least.
Never had a problem in clubs ever. you would think it would be opposite.

[toonarmy]

I'm kind of digging the new tuner set on AllStar. When I miss a good scoring chance it really burns me up because it's tougher to score now. One thing that is pissing me off though with the new set is the penalty calls. I have now been called for 14 straight penalties with the cpu not receiving one f***in penalty called against it. And the thing is I have only been responsible for 4 or 5 of the penalties called against my team. Not sure if others are experiencing the same thing. EA really needs to fix the penalty problem. I don't mind a lack of penalties called if it is the same for both teams, but don't give me dumbass random slashing and roughing penalties all over the place when it's not even the dude I'm controlling.

[Inuyasha]

One thing that is annoying my is that in HUT mode when I lose a connection to the EA servers, even in the game menu, in offline tournaments I get credited with a loss and it knocks a game off my players' contracts. I also have added contract cards to my players in HUT, exited out of the mode after autosaving, and upon returning have my players with no games credited to their contract, but my contract cards gone. Kind of crap.

I had that happen to me a lot last year and one incident I got so pissed off I contacted EA customer support and complained - it was thru their website using the chat support portal. The guy took down my complaint and like 2 weeks later I got awarded 10000 HUT points to my account for the trouble.

Last years game it happened a lot and it sucks to see they haven't fixed it this year.

[Naples39]

One thing that is annoying my is that in HUT mode when I lose a connection to the EA servers, even in the game menu, in offline tournaments I get credited with a loss and it knocks a game off my players' contracts. I also have added contract cards to my players in HUT, exited out of the mode after autosaving, and upon returning have my players with no games credited to their contract, but my contract cards gone. Kind of crap.

I had that happen to me a lot last year and one incident I got so pissed off I contacted EA customer support and complained - it was thru their website using the chat support portal. The guy took down my complaint and like 2 weeks later I got awarded 10000 HUT points to my account for the trouble.

Last years game it happened a lot and it sucks to see they haven't fixed it this year.

Yeah, I posted something a few pages ago about getting screwed in HUT. It makes me afraid to apply any training cards. I spent a few thousand pucks upgraded a player, and his rating went down after the glitch!

EDIT: Screwed again!!! Bought Bernier, upgraded him 84->93, and after one game all the upgrades disappeared. I am bitching to support as I have lost 10k pucks easy on this damn glitch!

[Phototropic]

One thing that is annoying my is that in HUT mode when I lose a connection to the EA servers, even in the game menu, in offline tournaments I get credited with a loss and it knocks a game off my players' contracts. I also have added contract cards to my players in HUT, exited out of the mode after autosaving, and upon returning have my players with no games credited to their contract, but my contract cards gone. Kind of crap.

I had that happen to me a lot last year and one incident I got so pissed off I contacted EA customer support and complained - it was thru their website using the chat support portal. The guy took down my complaint and like 2 weeks later I got awarded 10000 HUT points to my account for the trouble.

Last years game it happened a lot and it sucks to see they haven't fixed it this year.

Yeah, I posted something a few pages ago about getting screwed in HUT. It makes me afraid to apply any training cards. I spent a few thousand pucks upgraded a player, and his rating went down after the glitch!

EDIT: Screwed again!!! Bought Bernier, upgraded him 84->93, and after one game all the upgrades disappeared. I am bitching to support as I have lost 10k pucks easy on this damn glitch!

I believe training cards only last for one game this year.

[Aristo]

Yeah, and I think goalie training cards last for two games.

It's a bummer, but I think it is part of EA's way to make HUT much more NHL centric. There is just very little need for minor league and European players. What you really need are players ready to roll without training.

This year, everyone got their favorite NHL jerseys and Logo in their initial pack. I've yet to see a HUT opponent using anything but their NHL jerseys and such. And I rarely have more than a couple NHL guys on my roster. And the few I have used in my lines also get a Change Team card used on them so that they become NhL players, and chemistry in increased.

It feels like the NHL paid for, or demanded, that HUT become a better promotional tool for the NHL. It's okay, but I miss both the more personalized looks of teams and the rosters with much greater spread of ratings. But i can see why the NHL would want to get the focus back on them over all of the minor league teams.

But still, in the big picture, I'm enjoying HUT more than ever. I'm even getting great games against randoms online.

It's taken some work, but I am even figuring out how to earn pucks in the auction house. I ran my total up to 11K pucks today by selling off stuff that I knew would go for a nice amount. I used my profit to pick up TJ Oshie and Patrick Bergland. I was close to adding David Perron, too. I may still get The Kid Line together again.

I watched a bidding war on Ryan Miller hit 40K pucks today. That would be a nice find in a pack.

[toonarmy]

HUT is very fun, but I wish that the packs of cards had more players and less training cards and the like. I have come across enough healing cards to make Benny Hinn proud. I really enjoy putting together teams of players from the Canadian and Euro leagues, however that is going to be tough given that I get so few players per pack of cards. I've resorted to scouring the trading area for cheap players from the aforementioned leagues and gobbling them up. I do like that they got rid of the set number of games a player can play in a career. I am bummed that player boost cards only last a game. It added a fun bit of strategy to get young players that had more training card potential and wait for really nice training cards to try to make them permanently better.

It's amusing to see how much some of the big name NHL player cards sell for. Many of the bigger names really are not rated that much higher than guys you can get for 2-3,000 pucks (mid-80s rated). The whole economy in HUT is interesting. I played an online HUT game on the day after release with my crappy team against a guy who had the entire Minnesota Wild team minus Zach Parise. There is no telling how much money/pucks he spent to come up with an entire NHL team in only the second day of release.

Something I wish EA would do with HUT is add a ton more offline tourneys with a wider variety of modifiers for team composition. There is so much more they could do with this great mode.

[toonarmy]

But still, in the big picture, I'm enjoying HUT more than ever. I'm even getting great games against randoms online.

I have had the same experience online. In all the games I've played I have yet to play someone who has tried to cheese in any way such as spamming the same moves and take advantage of any gaps in the AI. Every person has played good straight-up hockey. One dude I played had sick passing skills and got up on me 4-1 by the end of the second (worst I've been beat so far). He effectively countered every strategy I used and was robotic in how well he played. the guy did not have a stacked team either. He ended up winning 5-2, but his play made me realize what a great game this is when it comes to AI, player movement, and strategy. Just having good joystick skills is not enough to beat the better players. The whole game is designed to reward people who have a good understanding of hockey plays and strategy, which I think is very cool.

[Aristo]

Agreed.

The more I play, the more I appreciate the new skating engine. Their is a so much depth to how you use the momentum of not only your player, the momentum of your opponents against themselves. There are times when you need to dig n your skates to stop and change directions. There are other times when you need to take a turn.

One of the keys in passing that I have not gotten down very well yet is that trying to pass while moving at top, or close to top, speed results in bad passes. You have to manage your skaters speed and acceleration to pass and shoot accurately.

[pk500]

I'm through screwing with tuner sets and sliders. I played five offline tournament games tonight -- the last two of my Stanley Cup playoff and three in the Memorial Cup -- and lost all five with tuner set 1.01 and a few slider adjustments and switching between manual and auto shooting. Very frustrating, as the CPU goalies were robo-quick, and the CPU forecheck was ruthless.

Exasperated, I decided to run the game stock out of the box with the current tuner set, 1.02, on Pro difficulty with manual shooting. Calgary (CPU) at Edmonton (me). No adjustments whatsoever other than extending the periods to eight minutes.

This was the most enjoyable game of NHL 13 I've ever played. Calgary was all over me in the first period and scored when I turned over the puck in the neutral zone, leading to a semi-breakaway converted by the speedy Alex Tanguay.

I paid close attention in the second period to each line's offensive strategies and kept chipping away, trying to keep monsters like Iginla to the outside. I forechecked like a mother, without over-committing or pounding on the fast skate stick, and got some nice turnovers.

Finally I broke through in the second period with a screened slapper from the high slot by Ryan Whitney to tie the game 1-1 entering the third. Then my relentless forecheck and attention to detail on offensive strategy paid off. Jeff Petry launched a bomb from the point when my offense was Crash the Net, and Sam Gagner was there to stuff in the rebound past Kiprusoff -- even though Petry was credited with the goal, Gagner cleared scored it -- for a 2-1 lead.

Later in the period, Taylor Hall steamed down the right wing and hit the brakes, threading a perfect pass into the high slot for an inexplicably open Ales Hemsky. Hemmer popped a one-time wrister over Kipper's left shoulder into the top right of the net. 3-1 Oil.

Ryan Smyth ended the game with an empty-netter when shorthanded to seal a 4-1 Oil victory. I outshot Calgary, 32-23.

An incredibly fun game. So satisfying just to play hockey and not worry about tuners, sliders, etc.

No more research at OS. No more slider-itis. The only tuner I'm going to worry about is the AM/FM one in my car.

I'm just going to play NHL 13 and enjoy it for what it is -- the best console hockey game I've ever played.

[Naples39]

I believe training cards only last for one game this year.

I considered that possibility for a brief moment, but then I decided there was no way they would make that design decision. Last time I buy a training card or a young player! This design also renders the former premium on long term contracts useless too.

[Aristo]

As someone who spends most of his time playing HUT, so I sliders and such are not available, I concur 100%, PK. The game has ben 100% solid for me. All I have to work with are my offensive and defensive strategies, as well as trying to get better at skating. I've found it to be a really responsive game to using logical strategies to solve problems I encounter.

OS has just gone mad because so many want to force the game to reward poor play. So they tweak the sliders and it turns the game into a mess.

The one valid complaint I see there is that there really should be more penalties. But to be honest, the CPU nd I both commit penalties in every game. Not as many as I'd like, but I suspect that playing on longer periods would help. HUT is five minute periods, I believe. The longer periods you play, the more fatigue affects play, and the more penalties you will see.

The game may not be sim perfection, but I feel sorry for folks that can't find the fun to be had in this game.

[pk500]

As someone who spends most of his time playing HUT, so I sliders and such are not available, I concur 100%, PK. The game has ben 100% solid for me. All I have to work with are my offensive and defensive strategies, as well as trying to get better at skating. I've found it to be a really responsive game to using logical strategies to solve problems I encounter.

OS has just gone mad because so many want to force the game to reward poor play. So they tweak the sliders and it turns the game into a mess.

The one valid complaint I see there is that there really should be more penalties. But to be honest, the CPU nd I both commit penalties in every game. Not as many as I'd like, but I suspect that playing on longer periods would help. HUT is five minute periods, I believe. The longer periods you play, the more fatigue affects play, and the more penalties you will see.

The game may not be sim perfection, but I feel sorry for folks that can't find the fun to be had in this game.

Yes, sir. Lack of penalties is my only beef.

[10spro]

HUT is very fun, but I wish that the packs of cards had more players and less training cards and the like. I have come across enough healing cards to make Benny Hinn proud.

Something I wish EA would do with HUT is add a ton more offline tourneys with a wider variety of modifiers for team composition. There is so much more they could do with this great mode.

They've taken a page out of FUT which is incredible successful for EA and a mode I played to death in Fifa 12 until I would have enough coins to auction for a specific player in order to help my team. Smart marketing, they would advertised something like 12 items included in the gold package including 3 rare players (usually a player in the late 70's or eary 80's in attributes. But of course they don't tell you that contracts, training and team kits are also part of the package.

Fear not for those of you that want to buy player cards only. There's such a special with no contract sales but you have to keep an eye for it as they rarely come around. Of course the best way to earn coins and to bid for the player that you want is to play HUT often.

The tournaments will come as the mode becomes more popular.

On the subject of sliders and latest tunings, I haven't read many of you talking about manual line up changes. Yes, there's another thing to worry about in the game but in my opinion the CPU sometimes just leaves your players way too long during gameplay while the CPU smartly changes theirs.

Timing of course is key for manual line changes as you don't want to get caught flat footed but give it a try on your next game. It may just make a difference in the final outcome.

[Aristo]

I leave auto line changes on, but manually switch often. I have not run into many problems.

I've seen complaints that guys won't come off the ice when changes are made, but I suspect they are the very players the user is controlling. I've seen a guy headed to the bench, but I switched to him and continued playing.

I think if you call for a line change and then dump the puck and avoid controlling a forward, you won't see the problem.

[FifaInspected]

GM connected mode co-op vs AI = a bunch of fun.

Fellas. A buddy and I Played a number Of co-op games in a gm connected league tonight. Incredible fun and a great challenge against the AI. Its all the fun of eashl only against AI using NHL players going through a NHL season. Up to 6 humans can play on the same team.

[pk500]

On the subject of sliders and latest tunings, I haven't read many of you talking about manual line up changes. Yes, there's another thing to worry about in the game but in my opinion the CPU sometimes just leaves your players way too long during gameplay while the CPU smartly changes theirs.

Timing of course is key for manual line changes as you don't want to get caught flat footed but give it a try on your next game. It may just make a difference in the final outcome.

This is a damn good point. Thanks. I need to give manual line changes a go.

[Spooky]

Sliders are the worst thing to happen to sports video games, maybe ever.

[Naples39]

Sliders are the worst thing to happen to sports video games, maybe ever.

He speaks the truth.

I have a rule that I need to put in several hours with a game before I'll touch a single slider. Learn the game before you try to 'fix' it. Also, in a sport like hockey, everything effects everything, so even if you successfully address one issue you are likely creating another. Those people trying to create comprehensive sliders will never be happy.

If you have a niggling issue or two, I can see people trying to improve it, but mostly you have to take the game as it is. It will never be perfect.

[webdanzer]

Sliders are the worst thing to happen to sports video games, maybe ever.

He speaks the truth.

I have a rule that I need to put in several hours with a game before I'll touch a single slider. Learn the game before you try to 'fix' it. Also, in a sport like hockey, everything effects everything, so even if you successfully address one issue you are likely creating another. Those people trying to create comprehensive sliders will never be happy.

If you have a niggling issue or two, I can see people trying to improve it, but mostly you have to take the game as it is. It will never be perfect.

The sliders themselves are certainly not the problem. People who develop a tweaking obsession with them so that they spend more time playing sliders than playing the game have to look to their own composure and method of behavior as the issue. Please don't take my options away because some people can't deal with the flexibility.

I've saved several baseball titles for myself personally because of slider use, that, if the option wasn't there, would have otherwise ended up on the scrap pile.

[Naples39]

The sliders themselves are certainly not the problem. People who develop a tweaking obsession with them so that they spend more time playing sliders than playing the game have to look to their own composure and method of behavior as the issue. Please don't take my options away because some people can't deal with the flexibility.

I've saved several baseball titles for myself personally because of slider use, that, if the option wasn't there, would have otherwise ended up on the scrap pile.

I think they can be of limited usefulness to someone who has become extremely knowledgeable about a game first. Personally, I almost never touch them in any game.

The OS slider forums, OTOH, is one of the most mind-numbing places on the internet.

[pk500]

Sliders are the worst thing to happen to sports video games, maybe ever.

True. That's one of the reasons I've almost always enjoyed the PES series. No sliders!