News Post

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

02:47 PM - July 21, 2008 by Joborule

Gamespot has posted an interview with David Littman, Producer of NHL 09. They've also posted 2 video clips as well.

Quote:


	Gamespot: "Tell us about the development of the EA Sports Hockey League in NHL 09. What was the goal with the EASHL feature and what was the toughest challenge you ran into when developing this feature?" David Littman: "When we came up with this idea, it was directly related to the fact that everybody on our team at one point or another wanted to be a professional hockey player. Some did play high level hockey but others, who are big hockey fans, wanted to get that experience as well. So we took our online team play experience from last year and discussed taking the next logical step--a full six-on-six [game] but with an environment where everybody is a unique player in the world."

Game: NHL 09Reader Score: 9/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS2 / PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 47 - View All

NHL 09 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 savoie2006 @ 07/21/08 02:55 PM

Cool,if only I had friends

# 2 unisol_us @ 07/21/08 03:16 PM

Looks very interesting indeed. I have always wanted to play a Role playing type game but the MMORPG's seemed too addictive to be real fun. With this I can get involved with sports which I am already interested in anyway. I just hope the online play is not lagged down by folks with horrible connections. Nothing can ruin a fast paced hockey game like even a little bit of lag.

# 3 ColdForged @ 07/21/08 03:30 PM

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.

# 4 savoie2006 @ 07/21/08 03:50 PM

Did anyone watch the gameplay vid and notice that passing is still dead accurate?Man I hope they added a pass accuracy slider,though we will be forced to use the default most likely the league.

# 5 ColdForged @ 07/21/08 04:05 PM

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.

# 6 savoie2006 @ 07/21/08 04:08 PM

I think it was a user or users,that would disappear if they lowered the pass accuracy and made making touch passes harder to pull off.

# 7 thmst30 @ 07/21/08 04:22 PM

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.

# 8 stephensonmc @ 07/21/08 06:25 PM

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.

# 9 BigH2k6 @ 07/21/08 07:43 PM

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.

# 10 Qb @ 07/21/08 08:54 PM

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...

# 11 savoie2006 @ 07/21/08 09:00 PM

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.

# 12 savoie2006 @ 07/21/08 09:03 PM

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.

# 13 Qb @ 07/21/08 09:30 PM

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...

# 14 savoie2006 @ 07/21/08 09:37 PM

I would hope that the attributes you can increase are in the areas you have excelled at.That would be the correct way to determine how attributes are improved.

# 15 Rules @ 07/21/08 09:42 PM

Wow, that sounds exciting. I'm definitely down with joining an online hockey team (Hopefully, we can get a team up and going here to take into the EA Hockey League Online).

# 16 JimmyDeicide @ 07/22/08 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qb


	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...

The only way this will work for guys like us is if a team of sim minded players who know how to play hockey are able to counter all the cheese with proper hockey sense and play.

I seriously doubt that that we have enough tools to stop all the cheese especially if the league speed is above slow.
I think it might still be fun tho trying to frustrate the cheesers with a good sim team maybe play spoilers and take some of them down . Kinda turn the tides on them so to speak.

# 17 nyisles16 @ 07/22/08 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyDeicide


	The only way this will work for guys like us is if a team of sim minded players who know how to play hockey are able to counter all the cheese with proper hockey sense and play. I seriously doubt that that we have enough tools to stop all the cheese especially if the league speed is above slow. I think it might still be fun tho trying to frustrate the cheesers with a good sim team maybe play spoilers and take some of them down . Kinda turn the tides on them so to speak.

Jimmy - look forward to shooting some pucks again with you!

# 18 TheLetterZ @ 07/22/08 10:28 AM

I'm not too worried about the passing. Most videos like these are usually played on a low difficulty level like Rookie, so I'd expect the passing to be easy.

# 19 kerosene31 @ 07/22/08 11:22 AM

Passing is waaaayyyyy too fast. Even if there are sliders, I bet you'll have to play this league with the default settings. That passing in the 2nd video is absolutely nuts. All star teams couldn't pass like that...

Passing is such an important part of hockey. How are you supposed to play D against those laser precise passes? I thought I read somewhere that they toned it down, but that looks just as bad as 08 to me.

The first thing most people do with sliders in 08 is turn the gameplay speed down to zero. That should tell you something about the default setting.

# 20 bukktown @ 07/22/08 10:47 PM

This feature kind of makes my imagination run wild!

You gotta give EA Canada a lot of credit for this.

I know some people are worried about the online nuts who will max out there attribute ratings and dominate with the cheese but I just hope that my created player doesn't go down in ratings.

I don't want to be the worst created player on the ice!

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