EHM:FE Screenshots!!
 

Riz has posted some screen shots of Eastside Hockey Manager: Franchise Edition! YAY!!!

Screen Shots

Satch, this link was posted in the CM link the other day, you gotta learn to like soccer, than you wouldn't miss this stuff!

Looks like a great game huh?!

It sure does! I really like the look of the interface, but after hearing about the greatness of Champ Man, I can't say I'm too surprised.

Lookin' good. What's the projected release date?

the game looks sick. jim needs to sign with sigames quickly.

From what I understand, they are hoping for a late 2003 release.

It looks just like the CM3 interface right now, but I think it also said they will be changing it up a little bit, which is probably a good thing. Overall though it should be light-years ahead of anything else in what has always been an overneglected sports category.

Uhh...if i told you guys i spontaneously ejaculated when i saw these screen shots....would you think less of me?

No, cause I almost had the same thing happen to me. ;)

The hockey version of CM is one step closer to the football version of CM. WOO WOO!

I still don't think this would happen for a very long time. SI Games is, after all, an England-based company with a global market; I doubt they would want to market a game that would have very little appeal throughout the rest of the world. More likely, I see the next logical game for them would be basketball, a sport which is gaining a broader worldwide audience.

Am I the only one not impressed with these screens?

Yes. ;)

Fair enough. They just seem so Nintendo like. Why do developers insist on using round or oval buttons? The highlight doesn’t even match the shape of the button and it just looks so rough and uncared for. I know it’s early and there is still a lot of time left for development but it seems that they would have been better off taking a more squared approach to the interface, which would have made the screen shots look smoother and less jagged. As it currently stands the shots remind me of a game that has been outdated before it has even been released. I am a big fan of the EHM series so I am really looking forward to the final release. My opinions are just that and not meant to sound like I am bitching or complaining but rather simply stating what comes to my mind when I see the screens.

No, but isn't this game free or am I thinking of another ?

I am actually more interested in this than I am CM4.

BUT....

They definitely need to de-CM this game. Right now, it appears to be a soccer-ized version of hockey. Nation & Clubs??? Competitions??? Transfers??? I would suggest to have them take a look at the various NHL interfaces that are more in tune to the Canadian/American customers as oppose to appeasing the CM-based fans.

The previous version that had been finalized some time ago is in fact free. The new version that the screens account for is supposed to be released this winter and will have a fee that some say should be about the same as CM.

BTW, the free version looks great and IMHO much better than what I currently see for the new version.

The previous game was, but this one in production is not. You can still get the last one, but if your not impressed with these screens, you wont like the other...

Illini..bbor.....your sick bastards...i feel the same way:)

Man, why do we go several months without a good game and then all of a sudden get swamped. More games that I have time for. :)

Why?

I really like the original version of the game and the screen shots look so much better or in the least so much cleaner.

Original Screen Shots

Swaggs, don't worry. This one's not coming out for quite awhile. :)

it could very well may be that they took NHL rosters and just pasted them on in a CM interface, and didn't bother to de-emphasize things such as transfers and clubs.

or they just may be focusing on the sport itself of hockey and not on the NHL in particular, like how they didn't really focus on the MLS in the CM series. it's just another league.

personally i don't care - this game is going to be ridiculous and will instantly wipe it's ass on anything jim could ever hope to create on his own.

I believe that is it. Remember, unless something has changed, they do not have a US distributor for this game yet. They have to be working on the assumption that most of their sales are going to be in Europe. So, this game is not going to be just a NHL simulator.

This game is definitely not just an NHL sim. If I remember the postings on the EHM section of the board over at sigames.com, they plan to have quite a few European leagues including Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and England besides having the NHL. I don't know if the potential for manager movement will be as good for EHM as in CM just because you don't see a lot of Finnish Elite League coaches move to the NHL. However, the game still looks pretty good and we're a year away from release.

Oh. I didn't know that. Nevermind then.

If this game ends up being what I think it will be Championship Manager for hockey, it will be The. Greatest. Game. Ever. Taking two things at the respective heights of their genre: hockey for sports and Championship Manager for computer games and combining them... Wow. Wow.

Yes, definate potential for being the benchmark in sports sims. If I remember correctly, Riz was saying that the game will have more than 50 leagues avaliable. I don't know if you will be able to actively play in that many or not, but the stats will be there. Hopefully, Riz is looking at ways to keep the database size down to a minimum... :eek:

From the last chat with Jim, he was open to working with SIGames. I suspect they are not too interested in American Football though. I could see them going with Baseball and Basketball before American football because of international appeal.

If sachmo is right about the potential of having 50 leagues for this game, we just might be able to begin a coaching career in major junior hockey and move from there to the AHL or IHL and then move to the NHL. I could see that being more interesting than moving from Italy to coaching the Rangers or something like that.

I think it will be good, but I don't want to get my hopes too sky-high yet. It's still VERY early and still the first non-soccer game to use the CM engine. I think the worst thing for it is to get insane publicity, and then it doesn't live up to the sky-high expectations.

I personally don't think those are even true game engine screens. They look directly stolen from the CM4 screens but with little hockey sticks attached to the 2d guys.

I'm gonna love this game, but I really hope that it doesn't end up just being CM on skates.

CM on skates would be fine by me.....remeber we are at CM4...if this is where EHM is gonna start...by the time EHM4 comes out....well...it will just blow my mind.

One thing to keep in mind is that it will be using the CM3 engine, not the CM4. Not that the CM3 is a bad engine at all, I'm sure it will still do an excellent job, but I wonder if it will just 'feel' like a step backwards, especially after playing with the CM4 engine for close to a year. Kind of like how, even though the Unreal Tournament engine is very nice, will we look at it the same way once Doom 3 comes out?

I think it is the Game(hockey) itself that will make this game exciting to North Americans....

As small an audience as hockey gets i still think the game itself as a hockey game will be more playable for most people as opposed to soccer.

it may be a step back regarding the engine, but it will still be a huge step forward for the hockey sim market. It will blow everything out of the water

They're true shots, they're just using the CM3 2D view (tarted up a tad from our 'debug' state) which was never made public.

Bear in mind that this view of the match is for snapshots only in EHM:FE and will only show positions when goals are scored for instance - it isn't animated like CM4 because CM3 doesn't support that (but Riz has made what were formally very tacky debug screens look quite presentable imho :) ).

No. I don't know what I was expecting but these really early screen shots didn't excite me. But I do realize that the game is in very early development and will come out in the fourth quarter or next year so I'm not worried.

I also think the hype will create unbelievably high expectations so I'm trying to tamper my "vision" of what "CM on ice" might be.

So, the game won't have a true animated 2D mode? Is it basically going to be just like the CM3 commentary?

Personally, I want a hockey simulation that revolves around the NHL, since it is clearly the top world league. I don't mind having other leagues in the background to serve as training grounds for the NHL, but if this game is set up the way CM is, with the MLS just another league (and the playoffs not even properly set up, as I recall from a previous version of CM), then I'm not sure I'm going to bother with it - especially if it uses "soccer language" like transfer and club.

I understand the marketing issues involved here, and if hockey's top league(s) was in Europe like it is in soccer (I assume, since I have no clue), then I wouldn't mind. But it seems that while Europe has its share of leagues and players, hockey at its highest level is being played in North America and should reflect that.

I guess I'd prefer a strict NHL simulation along the lines of what Jim does with football, as opposed to a global hockey sim that doesn't really look like the hockey I watch on TV. If the ultimate goal isn't winning the "SIGames Cup," then I'm not sure this is the game for me.

Although I would look forward to relegating (isn't that the soccer term?) the NY Rangers to the IHL!

Are'nt they there now? :D

Agreed. I'm looking forward to this, but I hope the "NHL sim" aspect is the focus, or at least done very very well. If not, I don't think the realistic Teir-Three Swiss league is going to excite me.

Ksyrup. I wouldn't worry. This are very, very early screenshots. Have you played the first EHM? It's all about the NHL. They use all the right words "trade", "waivers", etc, etc. I am not worried in the slightest that this wont be the case for EHM:FE.

Sure there will be more depth and the language used in the Finnish or Swedish or Russian leagues may vary, but at the end of the day, I think you should be able to play an NHL simulation (with the other leagues as background) and have it feel and look like the NHL. There will be no transfer windows, there will be a trade deadline. There will be no transfer payments, there will be free agency. There will be play-offs, the Stanley Cup, the whole nine yards. Our man got it right (more or less) in the first EHM. This one will not be a step backwards. It will be everything EHM was, but with much more depth.

At least that's how I've always invisaged it.

Fuck me if i'm wrong...but is the release date 2003 or 2004?

If that's the case, then I need to know what you thought the right answer was before I tell you!

Honolulu_Blue, I hope that's the case. I enjoyed EHM as well, I just hope the CM influence doesn't rub off too much here.

Lil' Bbor... It's end of 2003... Which we, as computer-playing geeks, all know could easily mean 2004. At least we'll have something to do during the league shutdown.

Ksyrup, I just popped over to the sigames EHM board and they mentioned it there. Some guy asked why it said "match" instead of "game" on one of the screenshots. Riz replied something along the lines of "this is only a early shot, 'match' will be changed to 'game'" and that there will be a graphics overhaul at some point. Likely to make it less like CM graphics-wise.

I agree, though, I would like it to feel like a separate game, but run like CM.

O.k..i feel better now....i thought it was 4th quarter of 2003...but for some reason i started to think 2004...and had a slight panic attack.

At least we will have CM4 to play until EHM:fe comes out.

Message From Riz
 

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster...well kind of...until I manage to squeeze in an application my own account. Firstly, thank you for the nice feedback and comments on the early screens.
It's also been a pleasure reading some of the earlier comments and discussion about EHM on these boards. Now then, some general notes about EHM:FE development thread...

First of all, as some have noticed, there are some football terms across the development screens. That is only natural, since I haven't had much urge to re-do the existing layout and screens because we are possibly looking at a complete overhaul of the screens at some point. Kind of like de-CMalize it a bit and more. And the terms used on the screens will definately be the standard hockey stuff..it won't be just CM3 on skates ;)

Secondly, CM is a football (soccer) sim with the main audience in Europe and mainly England. EHM was an icehockey sim with main audience in North America and it focused solely on the NHL. So keeping up with the tradition of EHM, EHM:FE will feature NHL as the main league but the plan is to add some other playable leagues around it, just like CM has done. Again, it won't be just CM3 on skates ;)

Off topic, interesting note in this England/Europe/NA thing...While making EHM in Finland, which could be considered a hockey nation before England, I had something like 4-10 NHL
games on terrestrial tv a year. Now that I'm in England, I can enjoy live (or max half an hour delayed) NHL games three times a week on terrestrial tv. Just enough to keep me awake every other night to code more EHM:FE. Who said they don't care about hockey and NHL over here ? :)

Finally, I hope you try to keep your expectations at a reasonable level, as this is the first version of EHM based on a whole new engine. As time goes by, we'll be able to add things
to the core but it is practically impossible to include every single feature imaginable to the very first release. We are served with some highly evolved sims this year, so being a first-born
we're in a tough league. Nevertheless, with the same passion that drove me through the long nights of writing original EHM, I'll be hacking away with EHM:FE on those late trains and through
those nights of NHL games. I hope we can put together something everyone of us can enjoy.

Dictated to Marc Vaughan by Riz :D

Well, wasn't that a surprise!

Riz...get back to work! :D

Sounds promising and like it's going in the direction I hoped it would. Thanks for the feedback.

Re: Message From Riz
 

Hey Riz, if you want even more hockey, check out NASN if you have access to Sky Digital or NTL. It costs between £10 to £12 per month, but you get about 200 hockey games a season for that price.