Diablo25 wrote:
Definitely going to try ALL STAR after what you said Mizzou! I was a PRO guy on 11 but I am anxious to give ALL STAR a try after hearing your thoughts.
10spro will be happy.. I had a breakaway with Burrows and waited on Thomas to come out and then let off a wrister, top right corner. Just felt like a great goal as I yelled, "YES".
In the PES thread I think someone posted how they felt the game was on rails.
That's how I feel with the passing in NHL. It's pretty much stick to stick. And this gets more frustrating trying to center passes with guys in front of the net. It's almost as if a slightly misaligned pass screws with the AI and they don't know how to handle it. For me it changes the way I play the game. Instead of trying to throw a puck in front of the net, I know either the defenseman's "force shield" will suck up the pass or a slight knock will render my guy out the play because the shooting animation will be locked up and he'll whiff.
Far too much of this game remains on clean passes and wide-open opportunities. Maybe it's just the way you had to play hockey games in the past. I hope I'm wrong...
Diablo25 wrote:
Definitely going to try ALL STAR after what you said Mizzou! I was a PRO guy on 11 but I am anxious to give ALL STAR a try after hearing your thoughts.
10spro will be happy.. I had a breakaway with Burrows and waited on Thomas to come out and then let off a wrister, top right corner. Just felt like a great goal as I yelled, "YES".
JRod wrote:In the PES thread I think someone posted how they felt the game was on rails.
That's how I feel with the passing in NHL. It's pretty much stick to stick. And this gets more frustrating trying to center passes with guys in front of the net. It's almost as if a slightly misaligned pass screws with the AI and they don't know how to handle it. For me it changes the way I play the game. Instead of trying to throw a puck in front of the net, I know either the defenseman's "force shield" will suck up the pass or a slight knock will render my guy out the play because the shooting animation will be locked up and he'll whiff.
Far too much of this game remains on clean passes and wide-open opportunities. Maybe it's just the way you had to play hockey games in the past. I hope I'm wrong...
Are you using manual passing? I'm not really understanding what you mean here?
Most of my chances have been from pucks that didn't make it clean to another player, as it was tipped maybe.. then I would wait for the screen and let a rocket go towards the net.
Played 2 games on all star and had a ball. Scoring opportunities were hard to come by. I ended up losing in OT/Shootout. All star is definitely a better experience this year. I am loving the goal variety. I had a sweet one timer in the slot. Great pass, dropped to a knee and blasted it by Thomas! Still catch myself pumping a fist on a goal once in a while
Diablo25 wrote:Played 2 games on all star and had a ball. Scoring opportunities were hard to come by. I ended up losing in OT/Shootout. All star is definitely a better experience this year. I am loving the goal variety. I had a sweet one timer in the slot. Great pass, dropped to a knee and blasted it by Thomas! Still catch myself pumping a fist on a goal once in a while
sportdan30 wrote:Nice to hear All-Star is the way to go this year. With all the tuner updates they tend to do, I'm hoping I can find one I like.
Gamertag on the 360 is Sportdan37. Add me....this is a release day purchase.
It's a hit and miss sometimes with the tuners. I remember with 11, I liked the 1st couple of ones only to feel frustrated by the following ones. It's been AS for me always with this game but the difference this year is that the CPU doesn't seem to do the impossible laser tic tac toe passes of past years, especially in your own zone.
I never really cared about the dekes as it's not all that common in the game today except when it's performed by your skilled players so I played a few games tonight with the '94 control theme and I actually did pretty well.
Also found a new camera angle that I am really enjoying and that is 'custom 3'. Give it a try.
sportdan30 wrote:Nice to hear All-Star is the way to go this year. With all the tuner updates they tend to do, I'm hoping I can find one I like.
Gamertag on the 360 is Sportdan37. Add me....this is a release day purchase.
It's a hit and miss sometimes with the tuners. I remember with 11, I liked the 1st couple of ones only to feel frustrated by the following ones. It's been AS for me always with this game but the difference this year is that the CPU doesn't seem to do the impossible laser tic tac toe passes of past years, especially in your own zone.
I'll add you Dan.
If BeaGM has been fixed this year, I doubt NCAA or Madden will get too much playing time from me. AS is really great in the demo and I don't want a tuner that changes anything I've seen thus far.
JRod wrote:In the PES thread I think someone posted how they felt the game was on rails.
That's how I feel with the passing in NHL. It's pretty much stick to stick. And this gets more frustrating trying to center passes with guys in front of the net. It's almost as if a slightly misaligned pass screws with the AI and they don't know how to handle it. For me it changes the way I play the game. Instead of trying to throw a puck in front of the net, I know either the defenseman's "force shield" will suck up the pass or a slight knock will render my guy out the play because the shooting animation will be locked up and he'll whiff.
Far too much of this game remains on clean passes and wide-open opportunities. Maybe it's just the way you had to play hockey games in the past. I hope I'm wrong...
Are you using manual passing? I'm not really understanding what you mean here?
Most of my chances have been from pucks that didn't make it clean to another player, as it was tipped maybe.. then I would wait for the screen and let a rocket go towards the net.
Tried two quick games of the demo. It might be the speed, but the gameplay feels very deliberate. One thing I did notice is that your player loses possession of the puck when winding up for a slapshot, and while I could dangle on the CPU defensemen, when I tried to shoot they would mute my shot. Changes for the better.
I still don't like having to "charge up" manual passes for power because you can't do quick passes.
I also did much better with Vancouver than Boston, and scored all my goals on medium/long slapshots going straight in or deflected.
JRod wrote:In the PES thread I think someone posted how they felt the game was on rails.
That's how I feel with the passing in NHL. It's pretty much stick to stick. And this gets more frustrating trying to center passes with guys in front of the net. It's almost as if a slightly misaligned pass screws with the AI and they don't know how to handle it. For me it changes the way I play the game. Instead of trying to throw a puck in front of the net, I know either the defenseman's "force shield" will suck up the pass or a slight knock will render my guy out the play because the shooting animation will be locked up and he'll whiff.
Far too much of this game remains on clean passes and wide-open opportunities. Maybe it's just the way you had to play hockey games in the past. I hope I'm wrong...
Are you using manual passing? I'm not really understanding what you mean here?
Most of my chances have been from pucks that didn't make it clean to another player, as it was tipped maybe.. then I would wait for the screen and let a rocket go towards the net.
It's also the CPU. They rarely ever miss a pass.
I'm not worried about that at all. I had no problem finding a slider setting in which the CPU bumbled its passes at a rate the felt right. But there is no way EA is going to set the game to play as sloppy as sim guys want. Because 90% of the people buying a hockey game enjoy what they have always loved about hockey games since the days of Blades of Steel. They want to zone out and pass the puck back and forth and try to set up one-timers. It's almost like meditation.
And really, that's exactly where I started. What I love about the NHL series is that they have made it easier and easier to make it sloppy and feel right, which s more appealing as I watch more and more real hockey. But I have to admit, I used to love NHL 2K7's pond hockey, which was pure arcade. I wish EA would put that mode in.
The rebounds off the keeper's pads seem to happen too often for my taste but overall I am really impressed at the improved AI. It's not a huge leap over 11, there are things that I want to find out more in the demo like poke checking the opponent which doesn't seem to work very well. On slapshots, the puck is not glued to your zone for the perfect shot anymore, I like the fact that it is looser depending how you're controlling your skater.
re:CPU passing accuracy... i browsed the sliders to see if there was anything new (there isn't) but I did notice that the CPU pass accuracy was at least one notch higher then the humans. So, i'm sure that has an effect.
My complaint about manual passing last year was that while *I* felt like I had it on, the CPU doesn't, if that makes any sense. They could instantly fire perfect, hard passes anywhere, while I struggled with the charging, aiming, etc.
From the demo it seems improved for the human..... though sometimes I still miss my pass by a mile, which hopefully can be fixed with a click or two of pass assitance.
I love banking the puck up off the boards though when the AI pressures the puck carrier. Feels more real, especially now that my teammates anticipate a bit better.
But the real proof for me will be a full 10 min period game.
Aristo wrote:
One benefit for being weak and buying the pass for Madden is that NHL 12 will be coming to me sooner.
Believe me, I've thought long and hard about buying the season pass, especially since I'm on vacation until 9/12 and I could be playing NHL 12 on 9/9.. but I just can't do it..... yet.
Finally downloaded this and anyone else having as much fun as I am with HUT on the demo.
I've been thru 2 teams now and still can't win the tourney. Just lost in the finals to Team USA in ot. so close!
I got a great team 2nd time around, Malkin and Stamkos!
Damn this game is good. I agree at the surface it doesn't seem so much different than last years, but it's a demo so the final version should be good with me.
I can definitely see the slight changes in the AI, as well as some pretty significant ones. I do not like the demo much, though, because it seems to play too slow for my liking. I'm not getting much sense of excitement and speed that is a big part of hockey. I can see a lot of potential based on the demo and will likely get the full version and bump up the game speed. I've been playing a lot of NHL 2K8 and 2K10 this summer with sliders and updated rosters, so NHL 12 will be a good change of pace for me in terms of video game hockey.
Lancer wrote:Finally downloaded this and anyone else having as much fun as I am with HUT on the demo.
I've been thru 2 teams now and still can't win the tourney. Just lost in the finals to Team USA in ot. so close!
I got a great team 2nd time around, Malkin and Stamkos!
Damn this game is good. I agree at the surface it doesn't seem so much different than last years, but it's a demo so the final version should be good with me.
toonarmy wrote:I can definitely see the slight changes in the AI, as well as some pretty significant ones. I do not like the demo much, though, because it seems to play too slow for my liking.
Yeah, I mentioned this in the previous page, once the game comes early to me the only thing I would change is the speed slider to another notch or two along with the pass slider.
Has anyone tried the game style setting? I tried setting it to casual and it plays pretty differently. Definitely faster, more shot happy, though I prefer the default setting. Ever since they started putting sliders in games I've always thought they should have a few factory presets for slider settings packages, and I presume this is what this does.
