NHL 09 Q&A: EA Sports Hockey League Revealed (Gamespot)

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by ColdForged

It was a bit hard to miss with that one flurry of passes between Dupuis and Whitney. I assume that was the CPU and I was really hoping that that back and forth business would disappear this year.

Yeah so was I. I can deal with it though if the defensive tools are that much better, and having a dedicated dump button is pretty nice too along with all the new goalie animations. Guess we can't get everything in one year unfortunately.

[thmst30]

THIS IS ****ing awesome. It has incredible potential if pulled off right. Hopefully there will be some real clubs that don't fall apart after a week or so.

edit: Keep reading more and more about the absolute failure that is the NCAA online dynasty. Can only hope that it doesn't happen to this feature, but I'm very skeptical.

[stephensonmc]

Quote: Originally Posted by ColdForged

Nice find. I find the idea very interesting, though how it will work in practice obviously remains to be seen. I'm nervous about the Be A Pro default playing view. Might be great, might be horrible.

I've been playing it up here in the office non stop. The Be a Pro camera really adds to the effect of YOU actually being on the ice. When playing the top down view in OTP last year, you really felt a disconnect as if you weren't responsible. This camera alone makes you feel like you're responsible.

It's hard to get used to because we've all played the top down view for so long, but because of this, you'll feel like not playing with the Be a Pro camera is a cop out.

[BigH2k6]

To me, the passes back and forth looked way too fast and way too accurate. Looked like a ping pong game. Hopefully, you can slow down the passes alot and some passes will miss cause that was unrealistic.

[Qb]

I like the idea of this EASHL, but I'm very skeptical as I just can't see it being anything but ranked-game cheese combined with maxed-out players. Said it before, not my cup of tea. I hope they improved the 'traditional' online leagues in addition to cooking this up...

[savoie2006]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

I like the idea of this EASHL, but I'm very skeptical as I just can't see it being anything but ranked-game cheese combined with maxed-out players. Said it before, not my cup of tea. I hope they improved the 'traditional' online leagues in addition to cooking this up...

Those created players will be given set attributes based on their playstyle(sniper,dangler,ect.)It will basically be a players Be A Pro player most likely and I think those players can actually improve based on how they play the game.

[savoie2006]

Quote:

To accomplish this we took what we did with the offline Be a Pro mode, where you are trying to become an NHL legend, and decided to bring that created user online so the users can have the opportunity to be the best of the best in the EA Sports Hockey League.

[quote][Everything a club or player does will be tracked and listed on the EA Sports Hockey League leaderboards as well as your individual performance tracker screen in your game. /QUOTE]

There,those are parts of the interview that best explain what I was trying to say.

[Qb]

Yeah, I understand you Savoie. There is some ambiguity for me when it comes to building up attributes. Will users be free to purchase attributes for their player until he is rated 99 in every category? Or will there be limits on certain attributes determined by player type (ie, sniper checking maxes out at 80)?

It sounds like the more you play and the more you do, the more you can accumulate points for your player which is what has me worried. The ranked-game crowd plays insane amounts of games while scoring inordinate amounts of goals and registering exorbitant bodycheck totals. If my fears about the system prove true, in time those players will have 99 rated supermen to go along with their questionable methods.

I don't know, I guess I just feel like its going to be hard to find a decent game as a part of this league. Not to mention that if it follows the ranked format from 08, it will be only 5 minute periods with speedy gameplay. Anyways, I'm just saying that while I'm very excited to play 6v6, the EASHL (while a cool concept) may not be my thing...