NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

[Money99]

UGO has posted an interview with Dave Littman, Producer of NHL 10.

UGO: "Now, will the intimidation system play into this? Using your example, if Crosby's hurt, will Pittsburgh play a little intimidated?"

Dave Littman: "Definitely, we have an intimidation system where, true to NHL, what you see when a team is intimidated in a game or series is they will be a bit more tentative with the puck. So if you dump a puck in on a defenseman and you go after them and that player is feeling a bit intimidated because of all the checking and injuries and such then he might bobble the puck a little bit; just enough for you to get in there and fore-check him and board play him. Or, a pass might come to a player who is intimidated and, again, he might bobble it. When he makes a play with the puck in his own end he might ring it around the board instead of making a tape-to-tape pass because he wants to get rid of it quicker. Now, you can get rid of that by fighting. If your team is feeling a bit overwhelmed because you're just getting run out of the rink, you can bring on your tough guys and fight. When you fight, and you win the fight, it negates any intimidation effects and your team feels good again."

[DragonDemonico]

Re: UGO Litty Interview Part 2

Bout' time part 2 was posted. Like the info about the intimidation stuff. Thanks for finding Money.

[Money99]

Re: UGO Litty Interview Part 2

Bout' time part 2 was posted. Like the info about the intimidation stuff. Thanks for finding Money.

My pleasure!

[bcgudely]

Re: UGO Litty Interview Part 2

Good find. I can't wait to play with hardcore mode. No heat seeking body checks, or auto tape to tape passes... sounds like it'll be incredibly rewarding to just get up the ice and get set up, and try to get a forecheck going.

[kerosene31]

Re: UGO Litty Interview Part 2

There's so much in gameplay that I think you're going to notice, such as the board play. The best way to win this year is to get into the zone, get it to your points, set up, shoot from the point, get rebounds/tips/etc. Last year, I still thought it was a bit to much "rush hockey." If you went online, people were just rushing the net, they curl, they get one-timers. It's going to be really hard to score on the rush this year; I mean, odd man rush it'll be possible but what we really want to do is have a realistic experience. When you watch NHL teams play, probably 60-70 percent of their game is set up and you really only go for a rush if it's an odd man rush or some kind of turn over in the neutral zone. When you get the back to the point and play that way, that's going to be the way to win. Plus, our AI will be getting open for you more.

This sounds great.

[VeryEvilAsh]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

With the new intimidation factors will we see an enforcer role in BAP? I guess you wouldn't want to be this online, but it would be pretty cool to see glitchers bobble the puck in attempt of a curve shot.

[Bolts_26]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

Yea Man, very useful find! Thanks!

[tyler289]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

This game cannot come soon enough.

[Vikes1]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

It's great to see David stress authenticity as much as he did/has.

It's kind of reassuring to feel as though the NHL dev team seems to really get it. That there should be room at the table for both casual and hardcore gamers within their game.

I'm beginning to think that the sport game developers are now starting to realize, that not all gamers, want to be able to just pick up their game and have fun blowing out the cpu. That there is a decent percentage of people out here that want to be challenged...in a fair way. That for many...the fun is found in the challenge, not just the winning all the time.

[Scottdau]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

Nice read. I like the direction this game is going.

[RealmK]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

One thing that's new too this year is that we have new game styles. Obviously, one is skill level. That's how good the AI is; how good they're playing against you. When we were doing the new precision passing feature where you could pass anywhere, it's basically a through pass. You get to control the speed and direction of your pass. We realized that only the hardcore guys are going to use that. If your causal, you just want a simpler experience, you don't want to put that much thought into every pass you make. What we did is, right from the start we have new game styles. It's basically like slider presets, like how tough is passing, how much control do you have over passing, how much control do you have over checking, how much control do you have over game speed, and all this. When you buy the game it's pretty much like last year; if people don't want to change game style they don't have to. But, if you change game style you can go even more casual which is much more arcade-y where passing is tape to tape every time. But, if you go up to normal, one level above the default, that brings the game a bit slower, you get hit a lot harder, and you have more control over your passing. Then, you can actually go to hardcore style, which slows the game down even more, to be more realistic, and that's where you have passing 100% control, manual passing, which is like a through pass. You can do whatever you want with it and guys will skate onto it. You also have control over the speed of the pass, so you can do small little passes or really hard passes. In addition to that, Checking is even harder. So, if you play on super star skill level with hardcore game style, you are getting as close to a real experience of an NHL game as I've ever seen in a video game. I mean, just getting up the ice, making good passes, becomes a challenge. On the other hand it's way more rewarding because you have full creativity to do whatever you want coming up the ice. I play that way all the time now and it's hard to go back. Basically what we're going to be telling people is that online play is all-star skill level and normal game style. If you go online, that's how it's going to be. We're really trying to make this as authentic an experience as possible. Not for everyone, because the default game style and skill level is geared more causal so they can get up and have fun, but the hardcore guys can go in and simply change game styles.

Reading this makes me a very happy hockey fan. Though I was hopeful that they would go full hardcore with EASHL, at least the offline portion of the game sounds to be about as simtastic of a hockey game that you can get.

[dorismary]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

Great find really sounds nice

[Money99]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

With the new intimidation factors will we see an enforcer role in BAP? I guess you wouldn't want to be this online, but it would be pretty cool to see glitchers bobble the puck in attempt of a curve shot.

I can't find it now, but on one of the blogs or early previews there was "Be A Tough Guy" listed amongst the modes.

I wonder if there's a separate BAP for goons?

[shakeable]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

I can't find it now, but on one of the blogs or early previews there was "Be A Tough Guy" listed amongst the modes.

I wonder if there's a separate BAP for goons?

I doubt it. It will most likely just be as it was in 09 with different seasonal goals depending on what player type you were.
If i remember correctly if you were a sniper, dangler you had seasonal goals to score a certain amount of goals and total points.

My guess would be for a tough guy would be to have seasonal goals for hits and fights.

[Flyermania]

Re: NHL 10 Interview: Part 2 (UGO)

NOTICE HOW THERE IS NO PRE-RELEASE EXPANATION OF BUYING MICROSOFT GAMER POINTS TO UPGRADE YOUR ATTRIBUTES. WAIT TIL WE BUY THE GAME, HUH?

If it's in the game it's lame! Authenticity award revoked in 2010.

The Captin has Spoken

(send me a post email on this one operation eat my shorts.com)

You are a complete tool. Tell mommy to monitor your internetz usage.

Enjoy your time away from the forums!