NHL 13 Available Now - Post Your Impressions Here

[Qb]

Between midnight releases and retailers opening nation(s)wide, many of us finally have our grubby little hands on NHL13.

Use this thread to post your impressions of the full game. Please remember to use the stickied Q&A thread to ask questions.

[Gosens6]

Love the game, but the feature I was most excited about, GM Connected Careers, is nearly unplayable for me. The loading times, and the menu lag is SO SLOW in this mode I can't even muster up the patience to sim 3 days worth of games.

I continuously get locked out of going into the menu, scrolling through simple stats is hard enough, and let's not even talk about the sim times. Until EA gets this fixed I won't be playing it.

Other than that, the gameplay is the best iv'e played in an NHL game. I'm having fun in every other mode and i'll be addicted to this game for a long time.

[kerosene31]

(just wondering, why not just rename the old thread?)

Well, I've never been to a midnight release before in all my years of gaming. I just happened to be off of work this week and I figured why not?

Just some very initial impressions. I only played one game so far.

All star diffficulty
10 minute periods
Sabres (me) vs Leafs

I didn't play the demo very much, so I was not used to the skating and out of practice quite a bit. I got outshot like 18-3 in the 1st. I took some dumb penalties and was just playing poorly. Miller held me in there (he is rated like a God in this game) and I was only down 1-0. By the 2nd I started to get going and eventually won the game 4-1 with an empty netter.

Now, for the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The good:

-Game is a lot more "sloppy". You can actually poke the puck away if you are in proper position without having to time it down to the nano-second.

-Passing was great (not laser beam accurate all the time) and I wasn't even playing on hardcore mode yet

-The physics overall are even better than previous games. Things like puck battles in the corner and poke checks used to feel scripted, now they feel natural.

-The skating engine is great and really adds to the realism. Momentum is huge now as it should be. Passing to a player standing still is completely different than hitting him on the fly.

The bad (and ugly):

-The teammate AI needs to get better. What's strange is that the teammate AI in some ways took a step backwards. One glaring example is with a simple behind the net D to D pass. I play left D in the EASHL and often in BAP and for years if I was under pressure, I would make the easy behind the net pass to my CPU d-man. Well, this year too often the D man will stand in the right spot but for some reason will watch the puck go by. What should usually be an easy clear ends up being a nightmare. This is only made worse by the skating engine. If your d-man doesn't have great mobility (lots don't) and your partner doesn't help you out, you end up in a lot of bad situations. It is hard to describe. It kind of punishes d-men who aren't the best skaters in the world a little too much?

-The home team still can't see the visiting team's line choice. This was only a minor annoyance in the past, but with the new skating engine I think line matching might be a lot more important. Most of the time in the past I would roll my lines, but now if I were playing the Pens, I would pay much more attention to when Sid is on the ice and which line matches up. However there's no way to do that even if you are at home.

-After about a period and a half, I pretty quickly figured out that after I gain the blueline that the old move of spinning towards the boards about the top of the faceoff circle seems to send the AI into a state of total confusion. Granted, I was playing a lower ranked team, but the Sabres aren't exactly rated high either (except goalie). By the 3rd period I was able to skate across the slot and get some really crazy scoring chances (maybe I finally need to "graduate" to superstar)

-While the physics are great overall, there are still a few "what the heck" moments. Not a huge deal but sometimes the puck just does strange things. For example I take a weak shot right in front of the net which hits the goalie and ends up getting "punted" out to center ice. I'm not talking a kick save on a 100 mile an hour slapper, but a quick wrist shot from in close that suddenly gains a ton of momentum that seems physically impossible. Again, far from a gamebreaker, but you can end up with a few comical moments in your game.

-I had zero penalties in the game except for dumb ones I took when controlling a player.

Overall:
As always my negatives seem to outweigh the positives but overall I think the game is another great one.

[gopher_guy]

Apparently I have to wait until the weekend to get it!

[striker3771]

Quote: Originally Posted by gopher_guy

Apparently I have to wait until the weekend to get it!

Thanks for your impression.

[BobSacamano]

Well, I had my first freeze within my first two hours of playing. I was backing out of the Be a Pro player edit screen. I hit "Apply and Save" or whatever the option is called, and... yeah, that was all. I couldn't even get to the XMB. Some impressions from the two games I got to play.

Positives:

- The game is hard. I consider this a good thing
- Skating is hard. I consider this a good thing as well.
- The puck feels very lively.

Negatives:

- Holy mother of slow menus (PS3). EA, I would trade every bell and whistle you've crammed into every screen for some functional, snappy menus. They're sluggish, slow, and unresponsive. I knew all the pretty screens would come with a price tag.
- I guess this is a "legacy issue" by now, but I really dislike how much crisper the CPU plays than me. Not only are their passes way more accurate, but they're able to control their players so much better. They're able to scoop up every rebound and loose puck and immediately shoot or pass, while my guy takes a second to orient himself. It's almost as if the physics engine doesn't really apply to them. This is frustrating.
- The aforementioned freeze

[DirtyJerz32]

There's already a thread about penalties, but EA has an issue with penalties not being called in there games. Some people are saying the tuner/patch that came out did some good while others are stating it's a placebo effect. I just want more penalties and over aggressive cpu when it comes to penalties and fighting.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by BobSacamano

- I guess this is a "legacy issue" by now, but I really dislike how much crisper the CPU plays than me. Not only are their passes way more accurate, but they're able to control their players so much better. They're able to scoop up every rebound and loose puck and immediately shoot or pass, while my guy takes a second to orient himself. It's almost as if the physics engine doesn't really apply to them. This is frustrating.

It's for this reason alone that I won't be buying this game but rather renting first.
And you're absolutely right, it's a legacy issue that has gone back as far as NHL08.
It took me a long time to finally come to the conclusion that this won't change until next-gen consoles come out. And even then, who knows.