NHL 12 Wishlist

[Sports fanantic]

will EA update the arenas in nhl 12?

[servo75]

Here's some of my stronger thoughts heading into NHL12. Overall I think this is a really solid game, and much better (for its sport of course) than Madden and NBA Live combined. That being said, there are a few things that I should mention (in order of importance, most important first):

1. More statistical categories: all stats by period, turnovers, takeaways,

scoring chances, detailed faceoff stats, shot chart. Have the announcers talk

about streaks (The Sharks have 9 of the last 10 shots, the Devils have now

scored on 3 of 4 power plays...)

2. More options for created uniforms. Custom logos would be nice (a la Teambuilder that NCAA has). Custom number styles (or at least more choices). At the very least, how about we can mix-and-match any uniform and number style from any NHL team, then put in our own logo. So for example, the Brandon Wheat Kings uniform, the Atlanta Thrashers number style, and my uploaded logo. Then put any colors we want.

3. Created teams should not become part of the current roster. If I create a team then download a roster update, my team can't be part of the latest roster.

4. Fix some of the throwback uniforms: Penguins, Flames (jersey #s look wrong,

they should have closer to a Blackhawks style - middle of the "2" should be

straight across, "1" and "7" and "4" should have the serif at the bottom,

etc.). Missing throwback uniforms: Devils red-and-green, the original Mighty Ducks.


5. I also notice that (and I'm not exactly an expert player), but it seems that even with pass assist all the way up, human passing all the way up and CPU passing all the way down, that a CPU opponent usually out-passes me by about 20%. On default settings, anything two feet in front of me gets gobbled up, passes go 180 degrees in the wrong direction, and my opponent gets tons of breakways. Meanwhile the CPU passes like the puck is magnetically drawn to the stick. Tape-to-tape perfect. Never misses a centering pass, just monkey-in-the-middle when he's in my zone.

6. Sorry, but the commentary is beyond horrible. It's flat, unemotional, repetitive and doesn't flow with the game. The instant someone takes the puck in their own zone (maybe before), Thorne says, "better get rid of it in that area," "better move that!" "dangerous area, gotta move it," Ok I get it! When I do something wrong, the comments are very high-horse, usually some variety of...
Thorne: "I can't believe he did that!"
Clement: "Yeah, what he said."
Though it may be too late for this year, get Jim Hughson or Doc Emerick to do the play-by-play commentary (or anyone else with a pulse for that matter).
But it doesn't matter who you have in the recording booth. If their lines are written by Yoda, it's going to suck. "Keep it in the zone he did."

7. There should be more "action" after a goal. Yes you get the red light, goal horn and goal song, but maybe show a few shots of the crowd for a home goal, a few more replay angles. The game goes to the face-off a bit too quickly. I mean at least give the goal song more time to play. Even if I don't touch any buttons it's like 15 seconds to the faceoff.

Hope you're reading this devs, and thanks!

[FBeaule04]

I would start with a save game option!

I understand that you can't put it on for BAP offline since that would be a trick for cheesers to unlock boost, but for BaGM and other modes, I'm sorry, this should be in.

There's no way people would be force to play another game if they only have 15 minutes to play because they can't save.

NBA 2K11 and MLB 2K11 have this and it's perfect. You play a few innings here and there, when you have time, and you progress.

[Iceman87GT]

Given recent events, the ability to play as the Atlanta Thrashers.

Preferably in Atlanta (Philips Arena).

The name Thrashers is obviously not going to be retained (as it relates specifically to the state bird of GA), so wearing throwbacks won't be enough (they'll still be called the Jets or whatever they choose to call themselves).

At least an option to select the Thrashers arena etc. in create-a-team (I know truth north sports will likely retain the rights to the logos etc. but there's no way they will ever use them, as opposed to when the flames retained the name).

It'd be nice if we weren't screwed all up and down by this sale.

[15 Step]

There are a number of things I would like to see in NHL 12:

1. Better defensive controls. Compared to the offensive controls, playing defense feels like a chore, and the controls seem rather simplistic in comparison.

2. Increased focus on team strategies. It seems as if the idea of team strategies was just an afterthought by the EA team, which is disappointing. There should be diagrams telling you what kind of style your opponent is playing, and we should be able to go into greater depth with how we want our team to play. For example, having the option to tell certain players to shadow the star players on the opponent's team would be helpful. Or, being able to control how physical of a game you want your teammates to play would be useful, such as if you are trying to intimidate the other team's finesse players.

3. Improved passing system. Perhaps, it would be best to adapt something similar to FIFA's system, so that we can have a 'leading pass' (the equivalent to the 'through ball') button that is separate from a regular pass. It'd be nice to have a button to tell your teammate to anticipate said 'leading pass'. The passing speed needs to be fixed as well, and it should not be something that needs to be tinkered with in the sliders.

4. A looser and more chaotic game. Too much of NHL '11 felt scripted as if the puck wasn't a separate entity from the players. In real life, if a puck is thrown in front of the net and it hits a players stick, the player won't automatically retain it. Most of the time it will probably take a strange bounce, actually. Little things like that would make the game feel a lot more realistic.

5. A more realistic growth system for prospects. I think that instead of a player having a letter grade for potential growth, there should be a range including the worst possible player he could become and the best possible as well. It's too easy to sign a cheap, young player with an overall potential rating of B, who you know will turn into a very solid player almost automatically. In real life, young players are an uncertainty and most of the time we have no idea what kind of player someone will turn into. Sometimes the highly touted prospect underwhelms, such as Patrik Stefan. Sometimes a player becomes much better than what people predicted his ceiling to be, such as Ryan Kessler.

[zorroomega]

The franchise trading system is still odd sometimes. Its very strict like i'm looking for D not Offense, but you put a LW & D package or something like that for a better LW. After the draft some prospects some how get into free agency ( not because they're unsigned) sometimes there a lot of busts.

[fender227]

Fix the Bauer 9900 visor. It points downward and looks nothing like it does IRL. Its gotta be pretty easy to fix and would make a difference in the game for me.

[sandmite]

Peter,
ITS NO LONGER A WISH ITS A MUST! NHL 2012 & NBA LIVE/ELITE SHOULD HAVE ONLINE DYNASTY/FRANCHISE/SEASON JUST LIKE MADDEN AND NCAA WITH USER AND CPU CONTROLLED TEAMS! LEAGUES ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN RUNNING WITH ALL USER CONTROLLED BASED TEAMS. MAKES SCHEDULING A NIGHTMARE, PLUS ALL GAMES ARE HEAD TO HEAD NOT VERY REALISTIC! SO PLEASE ADD THIS IN NEXT YEARS GAMES! WE CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF HOW AWESOME OUR MADDEN AND NCAA ONLINE DYNASTY'S ARE GOING! NEED TO ADD NHL & NBA & MLB TO THAT LIST!