NHL 12 Video - Winter Classic and Action Tracker

[Steven547]

Quote: Originally Posted by Peter_OS

I could care less about height and weights!! Give me some stat overlays EA! Some historical stats and season stats for crying out loud!! Ughh.. I want to see team stat overlays. Comparing the 2 teams against each other. Win, Losses between the teams all time etc...

Yea...all we saw were HT / WT overlays. I'll assume they'll show more overlays other than HT / WT. So far, the game looks (graphically) just like NHL 11...Not a bad thing, but was hoping for a little more "oomph". But time will tell.

[Jattbreed]

Man...I am NOT impressed at all by anything so far.

Presentation looks OK but I don't care how fat someone is, or a pause menu, what do you want me to do spend my time at the pause menu instead of playing?

I hope the equipment gets updated and at least AT LEAST have real cyberfaces for the top line of each team, c'mon EA.

[CupCrazyManiac]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

I'm a horrible person for doing this, but I see the skating physics haven't been fixed at all. Look what Shultz does after he knocks down Kunitz. He skates forward, grabs the puck, then skates backwards, pivots and heads up ice. No physics. No gravity. No realism. I see many more games against the CPU where they fly into the corner and pull off these magical skating techniques. I've been begging for this to be changed since 08 and it's still in there. Very disappointing. The stat overlays look really nice though. That stuff is great. I just wish the skating was made more realistic. It looks like the users skating is still hindered, but seeing how Shultz defied physics, methinks the CPU will still be able to pull of things the user can never think of doing. Adding more weight to the user's skating doesn't make skating more realistic. And Kunitz is a good skater. He should feel lighter out there than some guys. If that's how Jody Shelly felt, then that would be awesome. But I have a bad feeling the CPU players will all be waterbugs, and all the users skaters will feel like 18-wheelers on a sheet of ice.

i agree! nooooooo oh no please EA do the damn physics right!
am NOT impressed at all by anything so far.
another year onother NO PHYSICS HOCKEY....

[Qb]

The Action Tracker looks great... looks like a lot of information will be available. I'm already thinking about monitoring my shooting tendencies...

With that being said, I too am disappointed with the aforementioned awkward skating seen when Schultz picks up the puck by the net. It's brief, but I'm fairly certain a person can't move like that on skates. It provides a good example of a fundamental change that could make a huge impact on how the game plays. Part of me thinks tuning the agility range could help -- think making a 90 AGL rating play more like 70 AGL -- but I think to truly fix the problem would require some deeper work on the skating physics.

Much like Money, I've been hoping for skating improvements over the past years -- you better believe I talked it to death at the NHL11 community event -- and it's the one thing that truly gets under my skin while I'm playing the game. I think I'm going to attempt to talk to Redshirt again and see what happens...

[Fiddy]

awesome.. so the skating went untouched. the same old same again this year!!

[Steven547]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

awesome.. so the skating went untouched. the same old same again this year!!

In the interview with EA, they said their main focus was on presentation this year. Ugh. Looks like they keep forgetting the important things in a game...like gameplay! I really hope what we are seeing is far from the final product. If not, EA once again, has their priorities mixed up based on this video.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

I've been hoping for skating improvements over the past years -- you better believe I talked it to death at the NHL11 community event -- and it's the one thing that truly gets under my skin while I'm playing the game.

I really hate nitpicking 30 seconds of gameplay. It's so early. But I'm the same as you QB. I've been wanting the skating fixed for years now.

I think I wouldn't be that upset about it as long as the User could do the same things as the CPU. If it was even, I could live with it. But I'm tired of controlling Datsyuk, who feels like he's skating in mud, while the CPU is dancing all over the ice, and performing physically impossible moves with John Scott.

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

awesome.. so the skating went untouched. the same old same again this year!!

I'm not sure about "untouched", but it sure doesn't look like there is a new "skating engine" based on this small amount of footage.

Without really knowing the ins & outs of the "guts" of the game it's hard to say how much they can do to improve the current system through under-the-hood tuning. I'm fairly certain they could decrease the agility scale or lower the speed/acceleration of backwards skating... but can they add more "weight" to the players? Would this bring out better skating transitions and changes of direction? Who knows...