NHL 09 Preview

[catcatch22]

Quote: Originally Posted by kerosene31

What does that have to do with roster updates? I'd like to see a company the size of EA be able to at least give us NHL rosters with the summer moves sometime before the season starts. We shouldn't have to make all those moves each year.

To make all those moves you have to include the AHL rosters as well or the whole thing is a mess. They had to wait till all the AHL rosters were set and then send them documents to sign so they could have each of those players in the game. With the large amount of transactions between the AHL - NHL - CHL plus many other sources such as the OHL, Juniors and guys leaving college early the AHL roster has alot of turnover.

If you complaining about rosters then explain 2k not updating a trade day roster yet??

[kerosene31]

Quote: Originally Posted by Vince

The problem with tons of sliders is that tweaking one thing can screw up another aspect of the game and you are left with compensating for every little tweak you do.

This is the problem with EA's sliders, but 2k's work quite well.

EA's existing sliders do weird things sometimes, and only have a few positions (0-6 iirc).

The big one I remember is the shot blocking slider. Turning that up seemed to also impact the goalie as well, which is not what people want. We want the D to block more shots, but not make the goalies any harder.

Their sliders just seem "weird" sometimes and don't do what you expect. While 2k has a ton of sliders, they all do mostly what you'd expect. Turn speed burst to zero, and you get no speed burst. Turn the goalies down, and you get more goals.

Most of my complaints with 08 could be solved with more sliders. And as was said, separate sliders for human and cpu.

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigH2k6

Roles seem to have reversed for the last couple of years. from 2000 to 2006, including 2007 to some extent with the useless defensive control, EA was bringing out garbage except for maybe NHL 2004, while VC/Sega was listening to the community and bringing out a more realistic sim type game culminating with ESPN 2k5. Since 2007, VC/Kush has been bringing some useless things such as cinemotion and not fixing presentation (although they did make great strides I thought in 2k8 with the goalies and I really like the pro control) while EA made great improvements since 2007 in making their game more sim and improving presentation as well as bringing inovative controls (even though I'm not paticularily fond of the skill stick). Hopefully, taking Kush out of equation will bring some improvement and a new perspective to 2k hockey.

Totally man, and I hope you're right, it sure would end some of the debates I tend to get myself into lately hehe

[Cardot]

Quote: Originally Posted by kerosene31

I doubt EA will allow us to customize the game like that though, for some reason EA wants you to play the game one way and only one way.

I agree with this. One thing that has frustrated me about some EA titles inclucing this one (as well as the MVP '05), is that they don't offer options for shorter seasons any more. I know most of you guys are die hard and have no problem playing 82 games, but that is too much for me....not to mention that I like to dabble with the AHL and international tournaments.

As for sliders, a simple goalie slider would have really helped my enjoyment of the game. A few options with the clock would have been nice too...I didn't really like the way it sped up and slowed down at certain points of the game (I know that I am in the minority on this one).

I have my fingers crossed on a few of these things for '09.

[kerosene31]

Yes, I think a goalie slider would have been a simple way to get rid of a lot of people's problems. I'd love to turn shooting accuracy down to zero, but with good goalies, they are hard to beat if you turn it down too low.

[JimmyDeicide]

The shot accuracy slider in general needs fixing , hitting a slapshot into the crowd like a sandwedge is not very realistic and frankly a cheap way of implementing less shots on goal.
I dont think ive ever seen someone shoot a puck over the glass on a shot in the NHL.

[tgalv]

can't you play 2 on 2 or 3 on 1 in practice mode of 08? i only have 2 controllers so i'm not sure. granted it isn't nearly as good as a real mode for it, since you can only play one side at a time and can't really battle for loose pucks.

[tgalv]

i wish they'd improve the AI neutral zone play as well. the mechanics are there to make it pretty realistic, the cpu just does a poor job (none at all really) of taking away passing lanes. if you play online teamplay and get 4 people who know what they're doing, you can make it really difficult for the other team to enter the zone without dumping it, like it is in real life.