NHL 11 News Post

NHL 11: Physics, Faceoffs, Broken Sticks, & New Dekes

09:40 PM - June 8, 2010 by Steve_OS

LuGer33 has posted his thoughts on the new real time hitting physics, new faceoff system, broken sticks, and some of the new dekes available in NHL 11. He has answered a lot of questions in the thread as well.

Quote:


	"You guys saw a tiny clip of this in that recently released video, and that was really only a taste of what this year's hitting engine offers. It's definitely the best that I've ever seen in a hockey game, and even though big hits were tuned up in the version I got to play last May, I still didn't see anything alarming like in NHL 07 or NHL 09 where there were way too many big hits. When someone landed a big hit, it looked and felt very real and very satisfying. One of the aspects of this area that I'm most excited about is how glances have been implemented. In years past, players could bump into each other and nothing would happen, it would be like two solid blocks colliding and the game didn't recognize this as a collision; well, that has been changed this year as slight nudges and glances will actually impact your control of the puck and player movement. I had a guy glance off a defender in the offensize zone at one point during my playtest only to then be absolutely crushed by someone else who finished a big hit. It was really a thing of beauty, and I found myself watching it on the replay again and again. Safe to say that over 8 hours of play time, I didn't see the same hit twice. One thing I have to caution people though is don't expect NHL 11 to be a hockey version of Backbreaker. The game is using a new real time physics engine for hitting, stick on stick / stick on puck collisions, but things like skating, goal celebrations, goaltending are improved but still similar to what they have been in year's past. This is understandable because it would be very hard to turn NHL 10 into Backbreaker in the short year long development cycle, however as Littman mentioned in an interview (and he told us too), it's a 3 year plan to get the game entirely physics based just like Backbreaker, and from what I've seen so far, NHL 11 is a very darn good start."

Game: NHL 11Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 36 - View All

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Member Comments

# 21 Qb @ 06/09/10 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AtomicLegend


	THAT IS STUPID!!!!!!!!!! Then I could just keep goig early.... c'mon EA

I didn't notice it being an issue, just as it wasn't an issue with the old system. If you go early, it usually hurts your chances of winning the draw, at least that was my experience. I guess we won't know for sure until it goes through the rigors of versus & OTP where people will cheat like their lives are on the line.

# 22 pf8363 @ 06/09/10 10:17 PM

handing your stick to a teammate... that could be problematic with the righty/lefty issue

# 23 Qb @ 06/09/10 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pf8363


	handing your stick to a teammate... that could be problematic with the righty/lefty issue

Yes... Yes it could.

# 24 Vikes1 @ 06/10/10 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pf8363


	handing your stick to a teammate... that could be problematic with the righty/lefty issue

Good point...I never thought of that.

It will be interesting to see if it ends up making a difference.

# 25 Qb @ 06/10/10 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jemens


	Specially when forechecking, you'll see skaters sometimes rushing puck handler and sometimes going in a more energy saver type of forechecking and avoid costly stop and go by just patrolling offensive zone describing long arc. My questions: - did you see this 2 kinds of behaviour by the CPU ? - is a stop and go cost more (fatigue) than just turning with a long arc pattern ? thx Mark

I'm sorry, Mark, but at this point I can only answer questions about the topics in the thread title.

# 26 Money99 @ 06/10/10 04:31 PM

QB, did the deking feeling different when using different players of varying skill?
Were you able to pull of those special dekes with a grinder?

# 27 b3organ @ 06/11/10 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pf8363


	handing your stick to a teammate... that could be problematic with the righty/lefty issue

There might be an update (that I'm not aware of) but when I last checked Vicodin & Co. said (at EA forum) that you may end up with wrong blade (is that right word with sticks?) and at the meantime the effect of that was unknown (they were guessing... an attribute loss maybe?).

# 28 Qb @ 06/11/10 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b3organ


	There might be an update (that I'm not aware of) but when I last checked Vicodin & Co. said (at EA forum) that you may end up with wrong blade (is that right word with sticks?) and at the meantime the effect of that was unknown (they were guessing... an attribute loss maybe?).

That sounds about right, but I didn't have my notes with me when I replied earlier. Didn't want to give out false info.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money99


	QB, did the deking feeling different when using different players of varying skill? Were you able to pull of those special dekes with a grinder?

I'd say there was some difference, but probably not as much as many of us would like to see. I'm not Mr. Super Deke so I wasn't trying them all over the ice with everyone, but I did have several unsuccessful ones, some even with top players. IIRC, deking/puck control was something Redshirt was still tuning and wasn't quite there on the build we played. Almost all of us agreed during the feedback session that there needs to be some ratings impact on what could and couldn't be done.

On a related note, I tried to play with something similar to my NHL10 sliders, including puck control @ zero, to see if that changed anything. J warned me that might not be a good idea and he was right. Didn't make it out of the 1st period.

# 29 TDKing @ 06/11/10 04:43 PM

Ratings really need to have a major impact on players abilities to pull off these dekes, offline and ONLINE in all modes. EA do it right... please.

# 30 Vikes1 @ 06/11/10 05:38 PM

Qb...kind of along the same line of question as Money asked,,,did the varying players just in normal skating feel different? I mean beyond their speed and acceleration. Such as being able to kind of feel their weight difference? Ie...the way they "handled". For lack of a better word.

# 31 vicodin14 @ 06/11/10 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money99


	QB, did the deking feeling different when using different players of varying skill? Were you able to pull of those special dekes with a grinder?

For the build we have, all players were able to pull of the moves. But it was mentioned this would be changed prior to release.

Quote:

Originally Posted by b3organ


	There might be an update (that I'm not aware of) but when I last checked Vicodin & Co. said (at EA forum) that you may end up with wrong blade (is that right word with sticks?) and at the meantime the effect of that was unknown (they were guessing... an attribute loss maybe?).

yes you will end up with the wrong stick. I spoke to jason and we discussed how it would add a negative effect to your shoot, passing and puck control. However if that ended up being possible is still in question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TDKing


	Ratings really need to have a major impact on players abilities to pull off these dekes, offline and ONLINE in all modes. EA do it right... please.

as mentioned above, this is being discussed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikes1


	Qb...kind of along the same line of question as Money asked,,,did the varying players just in normal skating feel different? I mean beyond their speed and acceleration. Such as being able to kind of feel their weight difference? Ie...the way they "handled". For lack of a better word.

not really, in my opinion. You still had the larger (taller) skaters feel slower and less agile on the ice, but weight wasn't a noticable thing. (mainly because the hit sliders were turned up when i played)

# 32 Qb @ 06/11/10 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikes1


	Qb...kind of along the same line of question as Money asked,,,did the varying players just in normal skating feel different? I mean beyond their speed and acceleration. Such as being able to kind of feel their weight difference? Ie...the way they "handled". For lack of a better word.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicodin14


	not really, in my opinion. You still had the larger (taller) skaters feel slower and less agile on the ice, but weight wasn't a noticable thing. (mainly because the hit sliders were turned up when i played)

Hmmm, starting to stretch the boundaries of the "physics" topic... Not sure if I tell a difference between players of various weights either. But, I think I mentioned before that I felt players on the whole (and the puck) had more weight to them, especially in the more polished build we played the second day.

On that note, I can't answer anymore questions until Sunday night at the earliest. Heading out of town -- yet again -- for the weekend. Adios muchachos.

# 33 swil @ 06/12/10 03:53 PM

they need to improve AI..... big time.

# 34 swil @ 06/12/10 04:00 PM

like wingers and the point playing "pong" in the attack zone, pass happy teammates that ignore wide open shots, soft defense players on the rush (they react waay too late), etc.

I'd also like to see more random fights happen between scrappy AI players; feels unrealistic when your player is the only one starting fights out there.

# 35 swil @ 06/12/10 04:05 PM

also maybe some goal displacements when a dives into the gaol head first

# 36 SinisterAlex @ 06/14/10 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qb


	I didn't notice it being an issue, just as it wasn't an issue with the old system. If you go early, it usually hurts your chances of winning the draw, at least that was my experience. I guess we won't know for sure until it goes through the rigors of versus & OTP where people will cheat like their lives are on the line.

Ya but like you said in your previous answer to my post, it might affect online. Plus it would be killer to have this for offline game modes... oh well always NHL 12.

# 37 CubFan23 @ 06/14/10 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swil


	they need to improve AI..... big time.

This ^^

# 38 LuGer33 @ 06/15/10 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pringles


	if they added physics i guess i am not to sure what all that will mean. once i play it i will know. but il take a stab at what i invision it will be. first let me say if you can hit someone on the ice and they will all act differently to the contact this must mean you can run into the goalie. and if you can run into the goalie and displace him from the net then i also invision playing online and seing people play together and one smashing into the goalie on purpose while the other shoots, getting a cheap goal so with this being said there must be some new penalties going to be inplace to prevent things like this as well as goal review. any thoughts to what i just wrote ?

Can't hit the goalies this year. They remain collision free, as in NHL 07-NHL 10.

# 39 Qb @ 06/15/10 11:45 AM

There is still more "feature" news to come, plus I stumbled across a lot of cool improvements/additions while checking out the various game modes that aren't big ticket items. Too bad I can't talk about most of them yet...

# 40 Qb @ 06/15/10 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bama83


	Would you categorize what's left as "mind blowing" (like the physics) or "just cool" or "meh"?

One of the remaining big announcements will be exciting for many, but possibly "meh" for others...

Most of the stuff I was thinking of is more along the lines of cool little tweaks & additions based on the stuff we asked for over the past year or two. I made it a point to check out the menus/settings/game modes/etc to look for changes. Encountered some surprising stuff, although much of it isn't "back of the box" material. It's more about depth & satisfying all of us internet crazies and our damn wishlists.

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