NHL 14: "One-Touch Dekes" Trailer Breakdown - Wiggy's Blog

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NHL 14: "One-Touch Dekes" Trailer Breakdown Stuck

Posted on May 16, 2013 at 04:19 PM.

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EA has released a new trailer for NHL 14, and it previews the new one-touch dekes that will be available in this year's game as well as the revised "True Performance Skating" features. These features had been talked about a little before now, but this video provides a first glimpse into what they will actually look like.

As is the norm with most EA sizzle videos from the developers these days, they start by slagging the game from last year (you know, the one you're currently playing). Producer Sean Ramjagsingh talks in the trailer about how last year's deke system required pre-planning as well as hitting a modifier button and pointing both thumbsticks. He certainly won't get any argument from me. The deking system, while rewarding to those who mastered it, was (and has been) overly complicated for casual and mid-level users. The only fear in this new system is that it would lead to spamming of dekes and that users would have less control over what dekes they pulled off.

These fears are mostly assuaged in the trailer, as they show that users will have to hold the left bumper (or L1) and then flick a direction on the left thumbstick. In this way, a player would be able to cruise towards a defender and react much quicker when they see an opening. It's also mentioned in the trailer that low-skill players won't be able to pull these dekes off without losing the puck, which likely means that they will fail if you try and chain together too many dekes, or they will only be able to pull off basic side dekes and the like.

Then again, we won't know how all of this works until we get a chance to play the game for ourselves. It's totally conceivable that this will be a little too user friendly, and it might have to be tweaked via patch in order to find the right balance. I like the concept of removing the right thumbstick input, as it makes the act of deking more reactive than premeditated, and I think that will lend itself to chaining dekes together in order to get around multiple defenders. Ramjagsingh also mentions that the feel of these loose-puck dekes have been overhauled, with added animations and better puck pick-up. At the end of the day, the simplicity of these new dekes will be nice, but I still hope that they remain a tool for high-level danglers.

The trailer also touches on the improvements to the True Performance Skating engine, namely with the inclusion of strafing on defense. The idea is that players last year always focused narrowly ahead, with a limited range of deterrence. This year, the "focus cone" for each player seems to have been widened, and they are able to skate to the side with much more purpose and quickness, allowing for quick reactions and hits when an offensive player tries to make a move around them. Frankly, any improvement over last year's defensive skating (particularly for the AI) would be more than welcome, and if you combine that with the new hitting, I'm hoping to see a lot less breakaways from players who would just blow by the defenders.

It's also noted that pivoting and high-speed turning have been improved so that players are more responsive on all areas of the ice. To me, that sounds like code for "we won't punish you with inertia so much this year." The True Performance Skating last year was definitely the best addition to the game, but some people didn't like how out of control players got at high speeds. They appear to be relaxing this feature a bit. I hope only slightly, though, as the new skating really has a risk-reward element that I dig.

Final Thoughts

In general, I'm liking the promise of this trailer, especially in regards to more reactive deking and better defensive coverage and skating. The deking appears to be simplified without sacrificing complexity, and the defensive skating can't help but improve on last year's effort. If the words in this trailer ring true -- that they're striving for "gameplay balance" -- then there's good reason to be optimistic about these changes.

Comments

# 1 13whitebread @ May 17

I like what I am seeing but honestly this is stuff that should have been added awhile ago. I need more TV style presentation and new commentary team to immerse me more into the game. I love hockey realistically I will always get the game most likely but I want more to immerse me into the game like the NBA 2k series has IMO.