NHL 08 Impressions

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:49 pm

Playing on AS, I am trying to tinker with sliders where my guys don't get too passive and let the CPU walk around too easily as they don't deflect or block enough passes resulting in far too many one-timer chances.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:53 pm

It has to be tough getting that balance of cycling the puck in the zone and having the defense aggressive, but not too aggressive.

I just know that playing defense sucked last year and this year we at least have something to work with.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:19 pm

10spro wrote:Playing on AS, I am trying to tinker with sliders where my guys don't get too passive and let the CPU walk around too easily as they don't deflect or block enough passes resulting in far too many one-timer chances.

The agressiveness slider doesn't really affect your own team. For the sliders it seems that on Pro the Agression slider is at 25%, AS is at 50% and SS is at 100%. That leads me to believe that the aggression slider is more for the CPU defense.

I have pass blocking at 100% and poke checking at 100%. Passing I've dropped down to one click. (This worked last year to "sloppy" the passing game. I have aggression at 100% so the CPU defense is tenacious.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:28 pm

MizzouRah wrote:
JRod wrote:
The problem here is most can't criticize a game and enjoy it. It's like politics in here. Any criticism is taken as the game completely blows and you shouldn't look at the problems in-depth.
No, the problem is your posts have become very predictable and sort of "ho-hum" reading material.

The game has been out 3 days and already you know each and every so called, "flaw" in the game? Thanks for letting me know, you've saved me valuable time learning the way to play defense in this game.

No, I'm just typing stuff as I see it. Will these problems exist with more gameply, maybe, maybe not. But for f***'s sake what the hell is wrong with bringing them out to the board.

I said there were too many one-timers. Scoop posted a screen and he doesn't have the same experience. Seems that we have had a discussion about it.

Everyone gets so damned upset when you say anything negative about a game. Yet no one really picked up that I said NHL 08 scoring system is in the class like WE. So that compliment didn't get picked up upon but the criticism did.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:52 pm

JRod wrote: Everyone gets so damned upset when you say anything negative about a game. Yet no one really picked up that I said NHL 08 scoring system is in the class like WE. So that compliment didn't get picked up upon but the criticism did.

Who's upset? Just stating an opinion.... no biggie, really.

Hell, I just lost to my AHL affiliate.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:00 pm

Does anyone know how to get your sliders to save to a franchise or exhibition game?

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:09 pm

I think one of the problems with the one timers is they are easier to pull off in 08 add in the added accuracy and it seems worse than it may be. The ai never took this many in 07.

I would rather have the skating engine of this game with 07 Ai at least i couldnt cycle at will in that game even with crappy defensive options. It just doesnt have that every game is different feel like last year.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:11 pm

One other thing...is anyone getting freezes during the team key points screen?

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:47 pm

this game is definitely my favorite sports game yet for the 360...period.
I love it and I can't stop playing it!

Haven't tried goalie mode yet. Sounds like a great way to spice up 3 on 3 multiplayer games.

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 11:40 pm

I'm having an issue with the PC version, where the menu screen comes up with the background image, but no menu items?!?!

I only see the "ESC to quit" up in the upper right corner, but nothing else?

Anyone have any ideas?

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 11:58 pm

Ok i keep hearing about stick collision on /off but i dont see anything, can someone steer me in the right direction please.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:16 am

Been playing this game to death today/tonight.

JRod - I do see the "jet packing" on hits, never really noticed this until I changed my defensive strategy to hitting every one that had the puck.

I will also say, after not touching any slider last year (besides game speed), this year needs some necessary tweaking due to the CPU AI and offense passing greatness. Sometimes they pass so quick and accurate, they'll score before I can even comprehend what the hell just happened.

I'll apologize to JRod... I do see some of the things he has been seeing as far as defense gameplay goes. At this point, I'm starting to get frustrated at:

1. The lack of goals I'm scoring.
2. The CPU offensive game play.

I'll try changing a few sliders...

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:28 am

MizzouRah wrote: At this point, I'm starting to get frustrated at:

1. The lack of goals I'm scoring.
2. The CPU offensive game play. I'll try changing a few sliders...

True. Not so much frustration because I am creating a lot of chances for scoring but puzzled. However in either difficulty I seem to score no more than two goals, maybe a third on an empty netter usually.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:31 am

I didn't even realize this game was out now. How does it compare to 2k's hockey offering? I'll probably pick one of these games up in the winter.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:43 am

10spro wrote:
MizzouRah wrote: At this point, I'm starting to get frustrated at:

1. The lack of goals I'm scoring.
2. The CPU offensive game play. I'll try changing a few sliders...
True. Not so much frustration because I am creating a lot of chances for scoring but puzzled. However in either difficulty I seem to score no more than two goals, maybe a third on an empty netter usually.

Yeah, I'm estatic if I score 3 goals.

It's like every team adjusts perfectally to my offensive scheme. I'm going to try Qbert's sliders from OS.

Again, my apologies to JRod as I keep waiting for this game to "click", but everytime I start to dominate a game, the CPU plays catch up.

Time to get back to it.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:01 am

AS was so frustrating that i tried pro for a few games. So much for Pro. It's just too easy to score on Pro and I can waltz around the offensive zone for so long that the AI never gets a chance to mount a serious offensive threat. I even upped the aggresiveness slider and it didn't seem to do anything as far as making it harder for me to move around in the offensive zone. Perhaps i need to max it out.

Jrod, have you found that maxing aggresiveness makes the Pro D play more like it's on AS?

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:28 am

-10 MINUTE PERIODS, PENALTIES maxed, FIGHTING at halfway. NHL rules for all others. All gameplay sliders are on a zero to six scale...

GAME SPEED: 1*
PUCK CONTROL: 0* (Don't know why I didn't do this earlier! Now players lose the puck when they should)
FIGHT DIFFICULTY: 2
FATIGUE EFFECT: 5
AI LEARNING: 4/5/6*

FATIGUE RECOVERY: 1
PLAYER ACCELERATION: 3*

HITTING POWER: 0*
AGGRESSION: 4/5*
POKE EFFECTIVENESS: 6

PASS SPEED: 4 (the puck should be faster than the players!)
SAUCER PASS SPEED: 6* (trust me, this allows you to 'soft dump' with manual control)
PASS INTERCEPTIONS: 6
GOALIE PASSING: 2*

SHOT ACCURACY: 3* (dropping puck control is keeping CPU's shot total where it should be)
SHOT POWER: 3*

SHOT BLOCKING: 6
HOOK EFFECTIVENESS: 6
PENALTY SHOT FREQUENCY: 6
GOALIE COVER FREQUENCY: 6*

I tried these, not too bad. (AS)

Is anyone beating the CPU on AS level on a consistent basis?

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:35 am

Nope cant even score i think i had 2 on my first 2 shots of the first game on allstar and havnt scored since.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:50 am

LAking wrote:AS was so frustrating that i tried pro for a few games. So much for Pro. It's just too easy to score on Pro and I can waltz around the offensive zone for so long that the AI never gets a chance to mount a serious offensive threat. I even upped the aggresiveness slider and it didn't seem to do anything as far as making it harder for me to move around in the offensive zone. Perhaps i need to max it out.

Jrod, have you found that maxing aggresiveness makes the Pro D play more like it's on AS?

I think the AI is tied to the level. So I don't think you are going to see the AI on pro be extremely aggresive when that slider is maxed.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:55 am

After playing a bunch of games where the one-timers were fine, I've seen the crazy passing and one timers in my last two games, where the CPU attempted something like 75-80% one timers. I didn't play defense any differently.

I also got KILLED both games (all-star) and could barely touch the puck.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:45 am

JRod wrote:One other thing...is anyone getting freezes during the team key points screen?

I'm still getting freezes but not during the team key points screen. I should probably return my copy but I don't know if it's the game or the 360 (which has never had any problems with any non-EA games). I'm still pissed that EA didn't get the game running at 60 fps on the PS3. I downloaded the demo for the PS3 last night and I'd never be able to play that version with its choppy frame rate (compared to 08 on the 360 and 2k8 on the PS3).

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:26 am

webdanzer wrote:After playing a bunch of games where the one-timers were fine, I've seen the crazy passing and one timers in my last two games, where the CPU attempted something like 75-80% one timers. I didn't play defense any differently.

I also got KILLED both games (all-star) and could barely touch the puck.

I'm not real happy with the way that the game handles difficulty or the same sliders for CPU/human. Pro is easier because the CPU does not challenge you until you get deep into their zone. All-Star is harder because the CPU does forecheck and also makes unrealistic lightning fast tape-to-tape passes. On Pro I can hold the CPU to a few one-timers and on All-Star sometimes I have them shoot over 50% one-timers. There is way too big of a jump in difficulty from Pro to All-Star IMO and the sliders aren't much help.

It's not like I'm not having fun on either level, but I can't start a season yet because I much prefer the forechecking CPU on All-Star, but I can't win a single game (almost always lose by 1 or 2 goals). The crazy thing is that I actually give up more goals on Pro, but score a lot more too. On All-Star a don't give up as many goals but the majority are one-timers.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:55 am

Yeah, there is definitely a big jump from Pro to AS.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:00 am

I'm still stuck on Pro and just won my first game 2-1 so something tells me AS is way off in my future.

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:07 am

JRod wrote:Does anyone know how to get your sliders to save to a franchise or exhibition game?

I haven't figured how to yet either and that's my most annoying thing so far in the game, I'm only adjusting the game speed and fatigue sliders and have to do it before every franchise game. I had to re-enter the reebok jersey code also as for some strange reason it didn't save for me the first time either.

Played a quick tournament as Team Canada and won that, had a really really good game against the Russians in the final game.

For my dynasty I am going to do what I did last year and that is play my first season or two on Pro before making the jump up to All Star. Last years game I couldn't do anything on All Star in the beginning but after playing Pro for a couple of seasons making the jump up to All Star level felt easier than when I first got the game. I am going to play all of the NHL games the regular way and the AHL games I am going to play exclusively in goalie mode and I finally got my first win playing as the goalie last night giving up only 3 goals on 20 shots, felt really good.