NHL 08 Impressions

[Dave]

Man, you guys really know how to rub it in to those of us waiting to get a 360 back from MS!

[ScoopBrady]

Unfortunately the variety isn't what it could be since there are basically only 3 styles of offensive play but there is a noticeable difference between playing a team like the Redwings and a team like the Coyotes.

What is the difference that you are seeing? What are you seeing the AI do other than almost always looking for the quick wrister or one-timer to the slot?

Dump and chase? I only see the CPU try that a handful of times each game.

Some teams like to clutter the front of the net and take shots from the point. These teams usually pass the puck more often and retain possession longer. Some teams like to move the puck around in hopes of finding a man open in the slot. Some teams like to hold the puck behind the net waiting to feed the slot. Then the level of execution varies by team. The Blues and Redwings play similarly but the Redwings are much more dangerous than the Blues. I have an easier time stopping what the Blues are doing than trying to stop the Redwings. Good positioning and knowing when to try the hook or check is key. I also noticed that they like to feed star players so I make it my top priority to mark the stars first and foremost. There could definitely be improvement in the offensive variety but I feel far from playing the same game over and over in the defensive zone.

[webdanzer]

Thanks, Scoop. Maybe I haven't played enough teams yet, then. Which ones play from the point or from behind the net? I haven't seen a single instance of the latter.

[ddtrane]

Can you guys help me out? I have not been able to play online team game since opening night of the 12th. Its starting to frustrate me. I've tried over 30 games only to make it through the national anthem, then lose connection. I'm loving this game, but not being able to play is killing me. Any suggestions will be appreciated. TIA

[nyisles16]

try resetting your router/modem.. I think that maybe a little lag is what is causing that - first few tries against Terry, all it would do was go to the faceoff & basically repeat the faceoff sequence over and over again.. a nice reboot fixed that...

they are also working on a patch to fix this issue...

[WillHunting]

Without reading through all the posts, how different is 07 vs 08? I am thinking of picking up 07 for the cheap just to tie me over.

I don't play too much offline v. CPU, but to me 08 is a massive improvement overall compared to 07, really a huge leap. The first big thing is the frame rate, which is now very smooth, and the skating engine, which is much, much better. In 08, when you are without the puck, like say when defending, you have much, much better control over your man's position and his momentum than was the case in 07; you can move him a little bit one way or the other, you can stop where you want to, and so on. This is all a HUGE upgrade over 07.

There are some things where I agree with Jimmy that they screwed up 08 compared to 07 (can't seem to think of them right now), but those are heavily overwhelmed by the things they made much better.

Also, you now have the AHL teams, and can play their games in the franchise mode. Plus, you have the Swedish league and the Finnish league, and though I'm very disappointed you can't do a season mode in those leagues, just having them around is a huge improvement. Not to mention how well they nailed the goalie mode.

And the biggest difference for me is online team play. This is a feature I've been frustrated to have to wait for since we were given a taste of it with XSN's NHL Rivals, and I can't get enough. Every sports game is better when you play two on two, so being able to play that way online is HUGE. NHL08, when it works and you can get into the actual game, works flawlessly two on two or three on three: it is smooth and lag- and stutter-free, and is more fun, for me, than any other game I have, period.

I haven't played 07 in a while, but I'd think at this stage it would feel like a very rudimentary first try compared to the much more complete and polished 08. Remember, with 07 many of us preferred it to the smoother, more complete 2K game despite all of 07's evident flaws, simply because of the freshness and fun-factor of the R-stick controls. With this version, it's not nearly as much a case of overlooking a bunch of problems because of one or two extraordinarily good gameplay features.

Thanks Zeppo. I notice the framerate difference between the PS3/360 08 demo (360 being alot better), so just for that alone, I will choose 08 instead of getting 07. Maybe I will convince my wife to let me to buy the B2G1F from TRU.

[ddtrane]

Without reading through all the posts, how different is 07 vs 08? I am thinking of picking up 07 for the cheap just to tie me over.

I don't play too much offline v. CPU, but to me 08 is a massive improvement overall compared to 07, really a huge leap. The first big thing is the frame rate, which is now very smooth, and the skating engine, which is much, much better. In 08, when you are without the puck, like say when defending, you have much, much better control over your man's position and his momentum than was the case in 07; you can move him a little bit one way or the other, you can stop where you want to, and so on. This is all a HUGE upgrade over 07.

There are some things where I agree with Jimmy that they screwed up 08 compared to 07 (can't seem to think of them right now), but those are heavily overwhelmed by the things they made much better.

Also, you now have the AHL teams, and can play their games in the franchise mode. Plus, you have the Swedish league and the Finnish league, and though I'm very disappointed you can't do a season mode in those leagues, just having them around is a huge improvement. Not to mention how well they nailed the goalie mode.

And the biggest difference for me is online team play. This is a feature I've been frustrated to have to wait for since we were given a taste of it with XSN's NHL Rivals, and I can't get enough. Every sports game is better when you play two on two, so being able to play that way online is HUGE. NHL08, when it works and you can get into the actual game, works flawlessly two on two or three on three: it is smooth and lag- and stutter-free, and is more fun, for me, than any other game I have, period.

I haven't played 07 in a while, but I'd think at this stage it would feel like a very rudimentary first try compared to the much more complete and polished 08. Remember, with 07 many of us preferred it to the smoother, more complete 2K game despite all of 07's evident flaws, simply because of the freshness and fun-factor of the R-stick controls. With this version, it's not nearly as much a case of overlooking a bunch of problems because of one or two extraordinarily good gameplay features.

Thanks Zeppo. I notice the framerate difference between the PS3/360 08 demo (360 being alot better), so just for that alone, I will choose 08 instead of getting 07. Maybe I will convince my wife to let me to buy the B2G1F from TRU.

Hey Will, that sale at TRU doesn't happen until the last week of October. Are you sure you can wait that long?

[ddtrane]

try resetting your router/modem.. I think that maybe a little lag is what is causing that - first few tries against Terry, all it would do was go to the faceoff & basically repeat the faceoff sequence over and over again.. a nice reboot fixed that...

they are also working on a patch to fix this issue...

Thanks, I'll give it a try once online again. But for me, I make it to the lobby, talk to the guys, randoms though, we choose teams, positions and the game loads. But once the anthem starts, boom, I lose connection. One guy gave me a code that supposedly resets your cache at the system blade. But after I did that, I would have to keep doing d/l the new rosters and keep getting the new Rbk jerseys.

I don't ever remember Rivals ever having connection problems for all the XBOXs playing online. But then again, XSN ran those servers not EA.

[WillHunting]

Hey Will, that sale at TRU doesn't happen until the last week of October. Are you sure you can wait that long?

It is happening now. Check slickdeals.net, or cheapassgamer.com. It ends this Friday.

I am thinking of getting Skate, NHL08 and maybe another game like Eternal Sonata.

[ddtrane]

Hey Will, that sale at TRU doesn't happen until the last week of October. Are you sure you can wait that long?

It is happening now. Check slickdeals.net, or cheapassgamer.com. It ends this Friday.

I am thinking of getting Skate, NHL08 and maybe another game like Eternal Sonata.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the heads up. My problem is, I've purchased all the games that I've wanted. NCAA, check, TW, check, NHL, check.

This looks like a good time to stock up on older titles or buy something for the PS2 now. Again, thanks.

[JRod]

try resetting your router/modem.. I think that maybe a little lag is what is causing that - first few tries against Terry, all it would do was go to the faceoff & basically repeat the faceoff sequence over and over again.. a nice reboot fixed that...

they are also working on a patch to fix this issue...

Thanks, I'll give it a try once online again. But for me, I make it to the lobby, talk to the guys, randoms though, we choose teams, positions and the game loads. But once the anthem starts, boom, I lose connection. One guy gave me a code that supposedly resets your cache at the system blade. But after I did that, I would have to keep doing d/l the new rosters and keep getting the new Rbk jerseys.

I don't ever remember Rivals ever having connection problems for all the XBOXs playing online. But then again, XSN ran those servers not EA.

To reset your cache you can enter that code. Or when the console starts up, press and hold A until the dashboard comes up.


When you lose connection at the anthem you need to restart the 360. It gets rid of the NHL 08 issues. You can get infected and every game after that becomes a crap shoot unless you do a reset of the system.

It's stupid but then again its EA.

[Danimal]

Anyone interested in a little 2 vs 2, double elimination tourney?

Do a blind draw for teams, or put players as A and B and pair that way.

Or maybe an Olympic stlye pool instead of a double elimination tourney.

Just trying to find a way to maximize the 2 vs 2 action.

[JackB1]

Hey Will, that sale at TRU doesn't happen until the last week of October. Are you sure you can wait that long?

It is happening now. Check slickdeals.net, or cheapassgamer.com. It ends this Friday.

I am thinking of getting Skate, NHL08 and maybe another game like Eternal Sonata.

The TRU Buy 2 get 1 free sale is going on now??? Is this online or in store? How come nobody's mentioned it?

[Zeppo]

Anyone interested in a little 2 vs 2, double elimination tourney?

Do a blind draw for teams, or put players as A and B and pair that way.

Or maybe an Olympic stlye pool instead of a double elimination tourney.

Just trying to find a way to maximize the 2 vs 2 action.

Don't want to be too much of a wet blanket, and I would love to try this, but I just don't think it would come off. It's hard enough to get people together for one-on-one league or tourney games around here, and I think the difficulties would be exponentially greater if it were two on two.

I'd love to be proven wrong, though. Making it three on three with set players playing goalie throughout would be cool, too!

[Gangrel]

Just an fyi, although I haven't tried them out....

On the PC version, there is no AHL dynasty tie in with the NHL one (if that makes sense.) There is only a season mode for the AHL (or exhibition games)

However, there ARE dynatsy modes for the European leagues, although I have yet to try them out to see if it's just a copy of the NHL with different teams......

[WillHunting]

The TRU Buy 2 get 1 free sale is going on now??? Is this online or in store? How come nobody's mentioned it?

Yes, it is going on now. I think for online, it is only select titles. For Brick and Mortar, it should be everything (but not PC games).

[WillHunting]

I stand corrected. Thanks for the heads up. My problem is, I've purchased all the games that I've wanted. NCAA, check, TW, check, NHL, check.

This looks like a good time to stock up on older titles or buy something for the PS2 now. Again, thanks.

No Skate? Thinking of getting Persona 3, but not sure if TRU carries it.

[Danimal]

Don't want to be too much of a wet blanket, and I would love to try this, but I just don't think it would come off. It's hard enough to get people together for one-on-one league or tourney games around here, and I think the difficulties would be exponentially greater if it were two on two.

I'd love to be proven wrong, though. Making it three on three with set players playing goalie throughout would be cool, too!

I should have been more clear. I didn't mean something extended liek the WE league etc.

I meant a one night tournament, starts at X time and goes until we have a winner type deal.

I agree it would be a beast but right now half my friends list is playign this game in OTP mode every night.

[wco81]

The TRU Buy 2 get 1 free sale is going on now??? Is this online or in store? How come nobody's mentioned it?

Yes, it is going on now. I think for online, it is only select titles. For Brick and Mortar, it should be everything (but not PC games).

Are they going to do it again at the end of next month or is this it?

Should be some good games coming out next month.

[Zeppo]

I meant a one night tournament, starts at X time and goes until we have a winner type deal.

I agree it would be a beast but right now half my friends list is playign this game in OTP mode every night.

Ah, now THAT could work well. If we can set a night for team play and get people signed up, we could have, say, six teams of two men per team, or four teams of three men, or something like that.

[ddtrane]

I meant a one night tournament, starts at X time and goes until we have a winner type deal.

I agree it would be a beast but right now half my friends list is playign this game in OTP mode every night.

Ah, now THAT could work well. If we can set a night for team play and get people signed up, we could have, say, six teams of two men per team, or four teams of three men, or something like that.

I wouldn't mind getting something going tonight.

[ddtrane]

try resetting your router/modem.. I think that maybe a little lag is what is causing that - first few tries against Terry, all it would do was go to the faceoff & basically repeat the faceoff sequence over and over again.. a nice reboot fixed that...

they are also working on a patch to fix this issue...

Thanks, I'll give it a try once online again. But for me, I make it to the lobby, talk to the guys, randoms though, we choose teams, positions and the game loads. But once the anthem starts, boom, I lose connection. One guy gave me a code that supposedly resets your cache at the system blade. But after I did that, I would have to keep doing d/l the new rosters and keep getting the new Rbk jerseys.

I don't ever remember Rivals ever having connection problems for all the XBOXs playing online. But then again, XSN ran those servers not EA.

To reset your cache you can enter that code. Or when the console starts up, press and hold A until the dashboard comes up.


When you lose connection at the anthem you need to restart the 360. It gets rid of the NHL 08 issues. You can get infected and every game after that becomes a crap shoot unless you do a reset of the system.

It's stupid but then again its EA.

Thanks, I'm getting deperate now. I'm not much of an online gamer, but this game suits my needs. I'll give that a try.

[JRod]

The more I play this game the more disappointed I am in some aspects of it.

I think what it does right is was all good games do right and that's add a level of dynamic scoring that makes the user feel like they scored the goal, instead of the AI allowing a score.

The problem isn't the scoring but its how you get into scoring position that feels cheap. Once you get the puck out of your own ice you can go end-to-end every time if you don't do anything stupid. It seems there's always one guy who's sitting in cherry picking land and with the tape-to-tape passing he's not going to miss the puck. The AI never picks up on that even with aggression to full.

There's zero play from blue line to blue. This really needs some work for next year. At least have less accurate passing so you can't pass to an open winger sitting and blue line.

Because of this every game has the same feel to it. I don't think teams vary as much as the game makes it sound. I do notice considerable differences with the players. Sakic is hard to get off the puck and will not level anyone with a hit. The scoring guys always seem to get in great shots.


Finally, I think the goalie movements allow a certain type of goal in far too often.

STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

The goalies struggle on two types of shots. Minor cross ice shots where the shot is taken from the inner part of a circle to the far post. It's really effective stick side. The lateral movement of the goalies and position needs to be more random. The seem to play the same rigid position and on far shots this hurts them because the stick side animation doesn't really block this shot.

Second you can skate around the net and take a very tight turn shooting towards the oppostive post. I wouldn't say this is money because its hard to skate that line but if you pull it off you will score more often than not. Again the goalie just doesn't move laterally that well allowing the this type of goal.

Finally, I would like to see better AI for your teammates. I think they are downright stupid at times. I've said it before but they play a position more than a puck or a man. I don't feel they do that good of a job blocking passing lanes or shooting lanes.

These are the things I would like to see improved for next year. I don't think its bad but I don't think NHL is more sim than previous version. I just think the scoring engine is so good it overshadows some of the other issues that would be appearent if the scoring engine was mediocre.

[MizzouRah]

I love how the CPU players attack you in NHL 2k8 when you approach the blue line. Yes, there's a little too much checking you off the puck, but it works to create a better overall experience, imho.

In NHL 08, I can sit there with stick in the air as I await my shot.. in 2k8 you'll get knocked off the puck if you take more than a second or two.

[dbdynsty25]

I love how the CPU players attack you in NHL 2k8 when you approach the blue line. Yes, there's a little too much checking you off the puck, but it works to create a better overall experience, imho.

In NHL 08, I can sit there with stick in the air as I await my shot.. in 2k8 you'll get knocked off the puck if you take more than a second or two.

So you're rather get taken out by a check when you try to hit slap shot from 40 feet away? That's not hockey.