NHL 13

[10spro]

Now get the real hockey season going, so we can get a real roster update!

That might be awhile unfortunately. At least they're talking...

I've heard there is a 50/50 offer?

Yeah, but I am sure the players are a bit cautious about the 'related revenue shares of that portion'. On paper it sounds good or is it a gimmick somewhere hidden from the league? Again, at least they're chatting, there seems to be some kind of urgency finally from the league to get something done. Another issue for the players is probably contracts capped at 5 years.

[Gangrel]

Patch coming:

http://www.easports.com/nhl/news/articl ... -next-week

Gameplay Updates

Separated ability for backwards to forwards pivot for ‘with puck’ and ‘without puck’ and made it quicker to pivot without the puck.
Poke checking – fixed bug causing players to always miss to the same side of the puck.
Goalies will be more aware of shots right off a faceoff in the offensive zone.
Goalies will have a harder time dealing with screens.
Ability to tune shooting back against the grain so it can be less accurate/effective than shooting with your weight behind the shot and moving towards your shooting direction.
Ability for players to be more susceptible to lose the puck when getting hit while skating backwards with the puck at speed.
Prevented desperation shots from knocking the puck away from the goalie minimizing the strategy of diving at the goalie to knock the puck loose.
Fixed shootout logic in GM Connected to include both locked and unlocked users.
Allowed BAP games to resume from simulation in the middle of a shift (fixed crash when sim intervening).
Fixed goals screening goalie stat.
Goalie has a better chance of squaring up to shots from far out.
Improved orientation of off-puck players in one-timer situations.
Improved AI behavior against a back skating puck carrier.
Fixed hit power sliders so only the hitter’s slider value matters.
Fixed AI players occasionally standing around looking at the puck when resuming from simulation in BAP.
Fixed BAP being taken off the ice after a short shift that results in a stoppage.
Fixed rapidly spinning players in BAP when resuming from simulation.
Ability to tune players puck control coming out of a 45 glide deke.
Ability to tune CPU pass error on long passes.
Improved puck hop behavior when it hits the boards.
Pokechecking effectiveness range tweaked. Players with better stick checking skill will stand out more compared to players with lover ratings in that category.
Tuned goalies and shooting accuracy to ensure shots in the slot/middle of the ice are more effective than shots from sharp angles.
Presentation and Graphics
NEW - Added unique (green) Reebok 20K EA Sport branded skates and stick to the RBK pre-order pack (XBOX).
NEW - Added unique (blue) Reebok 20K EA Sport branded skates and stick to the RBK pre-order pack (PS3).
NEW -2012 Winter Classic Jerseys (PHI / NYR) now selectable in regular game modes.
Reduces frame rate jitter on the Xbox 360 as experienced by a number of players in all game modes but was most noticeable in OTP/EASHL (XBOX).
Replay Wipe timing fixed.
Commentary for replays won’t continue if a replay has been skipped.
Action Tracker post effects (barrel distortion on net cam) is working correctly.
Tampereen Ilves home/away jerseys now displays correct logo.
Dynamic board ads added to Toronto’s stadium.
Snow on players/goaltender/environment now fades out more smoothly/realistically.
Flag holders in the Winter Classic stadium now stand correctly at all corners of the flag.
Lulea HF center ice logo now displaying correctly.
Transition wipes should no longer hold on white frame longer than necessary.
Boston jumbotron no longer white; has proper textures (PS3).
Rare occurrence of skate spray not lining up correctly with action now fixed inside of the Action Tracker.
Shuffling of NIS’ has been improved. Less chance of seeing the same NIS inside of the same game.
Goalie stick mirroring has been corrected. Blade will now be pointing in the right direction during shootout NIS’.
NHL Moments Live snow build up on ice will now work correctly.
Calgary Flames now have proper logos on helmet for both Home/Away.
Prevented replay speech from playing over top a fight or if goof off is skipped.

Hockey Ultimate Team

NEW - implement training duration item so training items can last for multiple games.
Addressed an issue where some users were not getting Puck rewards for playing games and would sometimes get a Loss for actually winning games.
Fixed an issue where players would continue to receive the Happy Hour bonus if they never disconnect from the EA servers and continued to play HUT games.
Fixed an issue where after playing a game against the Team of the Week or a team from the Leaderboards screen, the wrong roster would be downloaded for all of the teams in the EAUHL 24/7 league when playing a Single Player game.
Item Pack Art EASST Player Premium Pack art now shows Promo and not Deal.
Fixed an issue where players would see an error message with missing text when bidding on the same item over and over until while being out bided by another player.
Applied training boosts are no longer used up for players in the user's Scratched Roster.
If user has a Stanley Cup edition item in their starting lineup, they are no longer able to add that same player from the New Items screen, thus resulting in them having 2 of the same players in their lineup.
Fixed an issue where users are not getting wins for opponent DNFs when playing Online Tournaments against the same opponent twice.
Fixed a crash that occurred when a player enters the Watch list and highlights a sold (green outline) item.
Online Tournament opponent searches now check for player skill level and team star rating.
Fixed the crash issue when applying Consumable items to some of the players in the New Items screen.
Addressed an issue where spamming in and out of a challenge team game will cause a blank lineup screen to appear.
Fixed an issue where users would advance through tournament rounds by entering the tournament tree and then playing through a regular non-tournament game (online and offline).

Be A GM

Addressed an issue where players that should not be considered waiver eligible were being listed as waiver eligible.

Be A Pro

Tuned off season player growth effect on the BAP player EXP Growth.
Fixed an issue where the player’s BAP team would not sign FA’s or RFA’s to contracts.

GM Connected

New - Trade messaging has been added to the mode.
Speed up Hub loading times.
Improved responsiveness when scrolling through the Main Menu to reduce accidently scrolling past the option players want to select.
Improved scrolling when looking to selecting a team on the trade player screen and select team screen.
Users should no longer be able to adjust the gameplay sliders during a CPU game.
Improved responsiveness of league search screens.
Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause a crash when bringing up the player list on the Trade Player screen.
Fixed an issue where the game would sometimes crash while backing out of the mailbox screen.
Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash while loading into the GM Connected HUB.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when proposing a trade to a CPU team (also fixed in Be-A-GM).

Online Team Play / EASHL

Addressed an issue where team members from different regions could not match up together in a club practice and the matchmaking would fail as a result.
Fixed PS3 microphone fluctuations when not set in HQ mode.
Resolved an issue with EASHL matchmaking where it was returning the captain’s versus skill level instead of the club’s skill level. This will improve the accuracy of matchmaking.
Addressed an issue where Hockey Shop Boosts were being unequipped to the player’s EASHL Pro upon reboot of their console.

[pk500]

Goalies will have a harder time dealing with screens.

Amen!

Tuned goalies and shooting accuracy to ensure shots in the slot/middle of the ice are more effective than shots from sharp angles.

Amen and a hallelujah, brothers of the ice!

The rest of the patch looks quite comprehensive, too. Eager to download this baby and try the updated game!

[Diablo25]

LookingLooking forward to it.

[MizzouRah]

Can't wait! Probably time to kick off a franchise after the update.. I'm tired of waiting on the NHL.

[sportdan30]

Can't wait! Probably time to kick off a franchise after the update.. I'm tired of waiting on the NHL.

Thinking of downloading Matt's sliders from OS and starting a season. Gotten a lot of praise.

[Aristo]

Can't wait! Probably time to kick off a franchise after the update.. I'm tired of waiting on the NHL.

It's rough, though, as a Blues fan. I'm 30 games into a Blues season in both a Season Mode and a GM Connected Mode with friends. But what I'm really waiting for is Tarasenko to be added to the game. I don't see starting over until that comes to pass.

I also just deleted my HUT team and have decided to start over. That cost me a ton of my pre-order and returning player bonuses that made it too easy to build a better team. This has really exposed how awesome the new skating engine really is. My team is actually less NHL dominated now, and the stark difference in speed, agility, and accuracy in both passing and shooting is really visible.

I also think that some of these differences are seen when playing NHL games, but because they are more subtle, it feels like the game is just messing with us. Passing is so much harder now, but I think it highlights how well the game does take ratings into consideration.

HUT is still my favorite mode, even when playing online against much better teams. My record is not good, but I've gotten so much better at using conservative strategies to frustrate teams that rely on having more skill players. My defensemen are way too slow to push too forward on the forecheck. But figuring out how to avid the breakaways and still play tight defense has been pretty fun.

Hopefully I can turn that from losing close low scoring games to winning a few. But when I have grinders like Ryan Reaves on my first line, it's hard to generate offense, especially when playing conservative.

[MizzouRah]

I'm with you Aristo.

[vader29]

Patch is now out for 360 and PS3.

[MizzouRah]

Patch is now out for 360 and PS3.

Ooohhh yeah......

[Inuyasha]

This game on sale anywhere?

[FifaInspected]

Any of you guys play the 1.6 tuner? It's a small sample size but I played 2 be a pro games last night using them and enjoyed both games. I had 2-3 penalties in each of my games and the flow just felt pretty good. I'm curious what you guys think about it.

[pk500]

Any of you guys play the 1.6 tuner? It's a small sample size but I played 2 be a pro games last night using them and enjoyed both games. I had 2-3 penalties in each of my games and the flow just felt pretty good. I'm curious what you guys think about it.

Same here. I had four or five penalties per team after maxing the CPU penalty slider.

But the game felt closer to the demo and release day game than anything since then. More turnovers by the CPU in the neutral zone, and the CPU's maniacal forechecking and speed chasing the puck in its offensive end seem toned down. A welcome change.

I play on Pro, BTW.

[sportdan30]

Really liked the flow of the game as well with the new patch and tuner. The CPU seemed less robotic and made the errant pass and made a few turnovers too. The penalties seem fine, although I noticed gettting tripped or knocked down away from the puck in which no penalty was called. Also, the CPU still has the long laser beam passing accuracy when passing from their end to a man on an odd man rush.

All in all, it's a really enjoyable game. I'm ready for some updated rosters.....which will be a while.

[MizzouRah]

Installed patch, tuner, latest rosters..

Started BeaGM on AS defaults and was up 4-0 over the Blue Jackets after 1 period, out shooting them 15-1? Something is not right here!

[Gangrel]

Uhm, you WERE playing the Blue Jackets.............

I have found the game to be pretty good with all the stuff. Some games I kick butt, others I get my butt kicked.

[MizzouRah]

Uhm, you WERE playing the Blue Jackets.............

I have found the game to be pretty good with all the stuff. Some games I kick butt, others I get my butt kicked.

True, but it just wasn't fun as weird as that sounds. Every slap shot I took seemed like a goal.

[Gangrel]

I've had some games lately where everything seems to go in, and others (like this morning) where both goalies have 40 quality shots, and both gave up only 1 until a shoot out.

The game isn't perfect, but I still think it's the best hockey game they've ever produced.

[Inuyasha]

Kmart has it on sale 15 off. Even with the strike and most NHL stars on euro teams is it still worth a buy? I've played it last 4 years so anything that significantly better in this years version?

[pk500]

I'm happy as hell with NHL 13 after the patch and the most recent tuner. Game has returned to the looser, organic, more realistic style of the demo. Big fun.

[Diablo25]

I'm happy as hell with NHL 13 after the patch and the most recent tuner. Game has returned to the looser, organic, more realistic style of the demo. Big fun.

Agreed PK. If you ever see me online and want to play a game just message me.

[Inuyasha]

took all your advice and bought it and I think I need to get use to it.

I started off with the NHL Live and the gameplay was really sluggish and slow, sort of how I remembered the demo. But then I played a regular game and it had me download the tuner set so it sped the game up which was good to see.

I am having trouble scoring so I'll need to figure that out. the feel of the game is definitely different compared to the last few years. It doesn't feel as arcadey pickup and play anymore but more hardcore where you really have to strategize your scoring chances.

I like that NHL LIVE feature and the stuff they added from last years' games, obviously nhl lockout nothing for this year. HUT is a bit disappointing since it seems they didnt add any type of modes to it like say FIFA did to it's FUT this year.

Right now for me FIFA and Madden top this but like I said, I think I just need to spend the time to get use to the new engine.

But is the current tuner set the one to go with or is it the 2nd one that came out right after launch?

[MizzouRah]

Wow.. that game which I won 6-0 was preseason, so Columbus had some rookies in the game, including a rookie goalie.

Simmed the rest of the preseason and played my first game against Colorado. This game had it all and playing on AS defaults, with all penalty sliders turned up, 8 minute periods and the attribute slider on 3 (halfway), v13 plays like hockey more than any other game ever has for me.

The whole game just flowed like a real game, my top line gets a turnover you better be getting your arse back on D because Oshie and Perron can fly as well as McDonald when he's out there. We were relentless on the forecheck at times and Halak made some great saves when he had to.

NOTHING felt chessey from the CPU team.

Just an immersive game that pulls you into it's world.. time for a visit to Nashville.

[MizzouRah]

Up 2-0, Nashville comes storming back to tie the game 2-2 and then they put it away in the final 2 minutes.. they add an empty netter (I almost scored on a faceoff wrist shot off the post) to win 4-2.

Home opener vs Detroit and former Blues D, Carlos Colaiacovo. Detroit comes in at 2-0, should be a fun game.

[Aristo]

Did you put Carlos on Detroit, or is there a new roster that gets him over there? I am wondering how accurate they are, knowing guys like Tarasenko won't be around until we get a season.