NHL 13 Hands-On Preview with Lots of Good Info (Game Informer)

[Steve_OS]

Game Informer's Matt Bertz checks in with his NHL 13 hands-on preview. Lots of good nuggets in this one, as he hits on 22 things you need to know about the game.

Just a few quotes below...

• This year speedy wingers like Marian Gaborik have the ability to fly by defenders.
• Going fast has its limitations. Players will get fatigued faster, and only elite players like Sidney Crosby are able to stickhandle and take accurate shots while skating at top speed.
• To build the new skating system, EA Canada has added over 1,000 new animations.
• For the first time in the series, goalies now have individual limb control.
• "This year we've invested more effort in AI than in the last three years combined in terms of effort," Ramjagsingh says.
• Much to the dismay of some fans, both Gary Thorne and Bill Clement return to the broadcasting booth.

Source - 22 Things We Know About NHL 13 (Game Informer)

[savoie2006]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

Things are sounding REALLY promising, but this isn't the first time :wink:

[Simple Mathematics]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

Absolutely awesome!!!! I can't wait to hear more!!

[Broncos86]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

EA has moved away from non-interactive cutscenes. NHL 13 now uses the AI to drive the players after the whistle and the developers implemented true broadcast camera angles to capture their activity.

Thank goodness!

[BlueNGold]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info



Is it September yet?

[savoie2006]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

The only thing I hope for is to be able to edit all the stratagies for ALL teams once I start a GM or before and have them applied to my GM. If I can only edit my "favorite", which I have a feeling we'll be prompted to choose for Presentation purposes, I'll be bummed.

[jyoung]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

19. Much to the dismay of some fans, both Gary Thorne and Bill Clement return to the broadcasting booth. EA recorded commentary for the new features like True Performance Skating and some league information that will keep their comments up to date.

Bummer.

Thorne only calls 3 hockey games a year in real life (ESPN's coverage of the NCAA Frozen Four).

Clement hosts a satellite radio show about hockey, but that's the extent of his involvement with the sport to my knowledge.

[Fiddy]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

the strategy stuff has me even more fired up.. now, just hope all these actually work and the sliders are not broke.

if they had strats like mentioned in the previous games, even with all the issues, it still would be playable.

[RM938]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

Bummer.

Thorne only calls 3 hockey games a year in real life (ESPN's coverage of the NCAA Frozen Four).

Clement hosts a satellite radio show about hockey, but that's the extent of his involvement with the sport to my knowledge.

Agree, but Clement does stuff with the Flyers on the local network. But yes I'd like to see the NBC team in there.

[Qb]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

I'm reading on my phone while at work, so no quotes, but I'm seeing some promising stuff:

• More gliding - Not a sexy addition, but very important to representing real skating.
• Backskating - I hope the quote of "you can't skate backward as fast as attacking players skate forward anymore" proves true.
• Strategy sliders - I hope these are in a menu somewhere so they can be set for all teams/lines. I talked this up at the NHL11 CE.
• AI Awareness - I hope the AI improvements pan out, especially about being more aware of players without the puck. I always felt they did a terrible job of reading & reacting to the actions of human players, at least when compared to a team of all CPU skaters.

Overall, lots of goodies and a lot of the new stuff reminds me of discussions we had with the devs during the event two years ago. Hopefully it's somewhere near as good as it sounds.

[mbergh22]

Agree, but Clement does stuff with the Flyers on the local network. But yes I'd like to see the NBC team in there.

I wonder how much longer Gary and Bill's contract is.

[bwiggy33]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview (Game Informer) - Lots of Good Info

Man oh man does the strategy portion sound good. These are the options that are finally and hopefully going to separate the top players from the bad, and each teams style of play. Exactly what I have wanted. I just pray that all of this plays as good as it sounds because we all know we have heard all of this before.

[jkra0512]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview with Lots of Good Info (Game Informer)

Two things really stood out to me:

"This year we've invested more effort in AI than in the last three years combined in terms of effort," Ramjagsingh says.

I hope that "effort" actually materializes in the on-ice action.

"If you're not happy how your lines are performing you can tweak their behaviors with a new set of strategy sliders. On offense, you can control your players tendencies to carry vs. dump the puck, cycle vs. shoot, skate with efficiency or energy, or go down to block shots or not. On defense, you can use the sliders to determine whether or not your defensemen should pinch or hold the line and whether they should cycle the puck or shoot. If you want to create a fourth line that dumps and chases 100 percent of the time, you now have that option."

Absolutely LOVE the sound of this...For much too long, it seemed every team played the same exact way. There wasn't much differentiation between the NY Rangers (grind it out) and Vancouver (finesse). I really, really hope this works out perfectly from the start. The NHL series sorely needs it!

[Money99]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview with Lots of Good Info (Game Informer)

Really like the following:

16. EA has redone every single forecheck in the game so teams employ their real-life strategies. This includes aggressive or passive 1-2-2, 1-3-1, and even the 1-4 the Tampa Bay Lightning used against the Philadelphia Flyers during last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

22. EA has moved away from non-interactive cutscenes. NHL 13 now uses the AI to drive the players after the whistle and the developers implemented true broadcast camera angles to capture their activity.

The rest of the stuff I'll wait to see myself.
I've heard of great AI before and it turns out to be rubbish.
I really hope they actually make your own CPU teammates far more aggressive. If you play BAP or player-lock, watch how pathetic your teammates are. They literally stand around, or simply hover around the puck carrier. They won't hit, or barely attempt a poke check.

This intrigues me:

In our limited time with NHL 13, this dynamic created an interesting cat and mouse game between defenders and forwards. Since you can't skate backward as fast as attacking players skate forward anymore, Knowing when to back off, when to turn and skate, when to close the gap, and when to attempt a check requires much more awareness than in past games.

If this is true, then they have to make sure they implement it right with the CPU's d'men.
Guys like Lidstrom, Chara and Girardi should be really solid in their end, hardly ever making a mistake, but other, lesser defenseman should be more prone to choose the wrong thing to do at times.

All in all, it's a good read, but again, I'll wait and play it myself before passing judgement.
I swear, the minute I see George Paros fly down the ice and do a toe-drag at top speed, I'll throw my skate at the monitor. And I don't care if that's on superstar.
Moving up in difficulty shouldn't result in boosts, just SMARTER AI.

[RealmK]

Re: NHL 13 Hands-On Preview with Lots of Good Info (Game Informer)

Sounds great on paper. Let's hope it actually translates to the gameplay as it's written up.
Couple things in that bullet list stood out at me

Part of the AI work includes making sure there is better player differentiation on the ice. Fourth liners will go into corners more aggressively and finish their checks.

Excellent and it's about time, Hank I think they finally heard us.



12. EA is also working on making sure teammate AI knows what to do when you have an odd-man rush on offense. If you cross over into their lane, they will know that they should criss cross and position themselves for a scoring opportunity

Also excellent along with players being aware of situations rather than just where the puck is. Goalies coming out to challenge to cut down the angle on a 2 on 1 for example.

Really digging what I'm hearing, I still want to SEE it in action however before I get a chubby about it.