NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360 & PS3)

[Redshirt_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ridgeberg

Well thanks for following through with the screen shot! And if I am going to find some positive, then at least VL4's face looks better than it did last year. If you cannot make anymore changes, does this mean that the game has gone gold?

Yep, we've been hands off for final certification (internal and with first party) for a while now.

[Redshirt_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by akula

what the hell EA? how could you not see this? the leg lift should be limited to once every 5 seconds or something. PATCH!!!!!!!

I have to look at this more myself, but it looks a lot like the guy recorded the video playing on rookie, where you can skate through the other team like that with or without the leg kick.

Seems like someone trying to stir the pot to me, I do not think this will be exploitable and we will follow up on it to make sure that it isn't. No argument that it looks absurd and that alone is reason to make a fix.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

Hank, I'm very tempted at this point after putting an absolute metric asston of time into the demo today that NHL10 is EA's version of NHL2k3. IMO it's that damn good. As for your questions 1 With one timers you need to be spot on pretty much else you either fan on the shot or end up taking a weaker shot. 2. From my experience its only the more skilled CPU players who will do a one on one. I've only seen guys like Hossa and Sykora and the like do it when I'm lining them up. Better players seem to be better at doing it imo. 3. When playing against Detroit I notice that if I stand them up at the blue line well enough, they'll cut back towards center ice and regroup. Pittsburg on the other hand dumps alot more from what I've seen today. Thats not to say the Pens don't regroup as well, the Crosby line tends to do it more than the other lines though. 4. To a degree yes, the AI will try and play to the players attributes more and I've found it a tad harder to knock guys like Staal off the puck vs someone like Hal Gill for example. I do still think CPU passing is too tape to tape on the whole, mostly when the're already set up in your defensive zone but I'm figuring the sliders in the full version should help to tone that down a tad. 5. Eh I play with both, I was on a pens kick during those early impressions posts

WOW, 2K3 my favorite Hockey ever

[Eddie1967]

After playing the demo for a few hours the A.I. seems to be very challenging. I also like how my d men put themselves in great position to stop goals when I'm just running around trying to lay out the CPU players. There is no way you can just skate up and down the ice in this game. I really had to make good passes and cycle the puck around to get a clear shot on the goalie. I still don't feel a real difference in individual players just yet. I really dislike the after the whistle scrums which are a bit arcadish IMHO.
I could see it happening for a few seconds but it goes on for way too long IMO. The passing was hard but in a good way. I still have to get used to shooting with the skill stick (haven't scored a goal yet). One thing I'm not feeling is the animations of the players, and that includes the goalies. They all have this hunched over look that will take sometime to get used to. The way the players move and react just doesn't seem natural to me. All of the animations aren't bad but the majority seem too robotic to me.

I am definitely not impressed with the in game presentation. After watching those IGN videos yesterday I thought that the look and sounds of the game were really good, but after playing the demo, I can see why I prefer 2k's brand in the presentation dept. The crowd doesn't seem loud enough for my liking, although I did hear some MVP chants which was nice but not enough to call it anything other than okay. I saw the the players catching the puck and putting it down and other little things but stuff like that doesn't impress since it was already in 2k's game. It's not a bad game by any means, but I feel it needs to have more personality to keep me interested. Hopefully more time with it will lead me to discover new things that will change my mind.

It's hard coming from one hockey game to another so I'm sure I will have to be patient.

[Redshirt_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by akula

ea needs to see this.. hardcore mode isnt very hardcore considering you cant make hard passes without waiting for it to charge up! is this an oversight or is there a fix in the works? hmm.. i like the idea of controlling pass speed but this sure is one NASTY side effect redshirt?

You could try turning the Manual Passing option off and leaving Pass Assist at the minimum level. Then the power will not be on the duration of the press.

[kellkasey]

I'll be very surprised if it's late September and I haven't declared this the best sports game I ever played.

I've played NHL09 more than any game in my life--I usually tire of games within a few weeks--and NHL10 (even if it only improves by a SMALL SMALL margin) should be the best sports game we ever played.

From what we've heard, it has a bunch of new additions and it seems improved over last year...and last yr it was widely considered the best sports game of the yr. The guys who put NHL together keep getting better and better ever since NHL2k strongly challenged them.

If ever there was an example of why "competition" is great for the sports gaming industry, this is it. I wouldn't touch EA NHL for 2 or 3 years there because NHL2k was lightyears better. Last year, I bought both games and returned 2k within a week.

These guys really care about the product they put out there and it shows. The new physics and additions in the demo look great and I cant wait until the game hits store shelves. I've said "WOW" while playing the demo like once per period...and I've played the demo probably 10 times over the course of the past day.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by onlybygrace

Realm...did you mean to say that the saucer passes are harder on hardcore??? Gonna go play some more...

I meant more along the lines that you don't have to wind them up so to speak. Personally I'm fine with the passing, I figure with a few tweaks once we get the full version it'll be close to perfect. Honestly I have only one real complaint and thats with the cpu passing being still too tape to tape but again, thats something sliders will help to alleviate at the very least. The game feels like hockey, the board play implimentation is spot on, the puck physics are vastly improved and the AI does a fantastic job at bottling you up in your own end by playing good positional hockey through the neutral zone. Its no longer an end to end game by any stretch. I also love that its difficult to score, that I need to get a tender moving and out of position, or beat him on a rebound, deflection etc. But on the other end of the spectrum I still score clean goals be it slappers from the point, or a hard snap shot from the top of the circle that the tender misjudged etc.

I also love all the little neuances, hats being thrown on the ice for hat tricks. Guys swatting at pucks in the air or gloving them down. A player taking a solid hard hit, getting shaken up and slowly making his way back to the bench. Tenders being able to branch into animations to swat a puck away thats gotten behind them. That stars feel like alot more like star players and 3rd and 4th liners are able to do their jobs and grind it out or be a physical presence when appropiate. Varried penalties and having more animations for them, hooking calls for example don't always consist of a guy getting hauled down, sometimes its barely even a tug and it gets called, double minors, majors, coincidental calls etc. The fighting is growing on me as well.

For those guys that are complaining "oh its just like 09 I'm not impressed hurr hurr hurr" well what did you expect? The're continuing to build on what was already a solid foundation. The game isn't going to completely change every year just for the sake of looking different. The boardplay alone makes the game play so much more authentic, add that with all the other additions like precision passing, new tender AI and animations etc etc, and like someone mentioned earlier in the thread, yes NHL10 is the MLB The Show of hockey games as far as I'm concerned.

[bcgudely]

This game is 110% f*cking incredible. Best sports game I've ever played hands down. Wow, what an improvement over 09. I cannot stop playing the Battle for the Cup game over.. and over and over. If I'm ahead by 1 at the end of regulation, I pull osgood to go to OT lol!

If you don't like this game, sure you have a right to your opinion. You just have poor taste.