NHL 11 Hands-On E3 (Gamespot)

[Flamesfan102]

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6266343...tories;story;1

[UwantRadie]

What is he talking about in regards to the passing? It sounds just like the manual passing from last years game. Am I reading his words incorrectly? Or did he just never switch it to Manual last year...

Is this a hint that manual will be default? I had heard that it was in more modes, but maybe not default... Who knows?

[Ridgeberg]

Thanks for the link.

This paragraph stood out to me...

"A new wrinkle in the passing game has some important ramifications for NHL 11. In last year's game, a pass was completed when a player pulled the right trigger; this year, the on-ice player releases the puck when the player releases the right trigger. That ever-so-subtle difference in passing turns out to have a significant effect on gameplay; playing isn't as instantaneous has it has been in the past but you can now control the speed of your pass. The longer you hold the the right trigger, the more powerful the pass will be once you let go of the trigger. This new passing tweak has an upside and a downside--on the positive side, you can zip in strong up-ice passes to forwards or set up vicious one-timers with relative ease. On the other hand, passing requires some slightly different timing, as the puck isn't let loose as quickly as it used to be. It's a subtle change and one that will require some getting used to."

That gets me excited. Last year, when manual passing was announced, I was really excited, but for whatever reason, I just could not get a handle on how to do it well. I think that it was partly because it felt like I was constantly shorthanded. As soon as I made any kind of mistake, the CPU would flawlessly tic-tac down the ice for a good scoring chance. In my opinion, the CPU was not mistake prone, while all of a sudden, I was making more bad passes than good ones. By all means, I appreciated the manual passing but it I was discouraged by the one-sidedness of the game.

Long story short, I like the switch in passing controls. It seems that this one little tweak puts the manual passer in mind first. Last year, non-manual passers had a clear advantage, this year, hopefully, not so much.

[Bama83]

The only thing I disliked about manual passing is the part they implemented in the game. The "holding" of the trigger seems inordinately wrong to me.

It would make more sense to have it based on how hard you pull the trigger, but the length of time makes no sense. It didn't take me longer to send a BB to my winger compared to a soft touch pass. If anything the soft pass was tougher.

It's not game-breaking, but it's certainly not my favorite concept.

[JezFranco]

Yes I read about this already in that swedish interview that leaked the dissalowed goals info. They mentioned that it seemed like manual passing would, if not be default, be available in all modes.

When I turned to manual passing in NHL10, it became a whole new game to me. You can't do those easy tic-tac-toe instant passes and smack one timer plays, but you can do some lovely passing on the open space instead of the player, and it's just so much more rewarding.
I missed it in the online games I played.

[Edit] But yes, it's kind of unprofessional to spend the biggest part of the preview speaking about manual passes and how they work... Last years news.

[tyler289]

The big question about passing is: Will the CPU be able to pass with complete ease, while the user has difficulties (like in real life)? Last year (and every year) the computer has been able to go down the ice with ridiculously quick and easy passes.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by tyler289

The big question about passing is: Will the CPU be able to pass with complete ease, while the user has difficulties (like in real life)? Last year (and every year) the computer has been able to go down the ice with ridiculously quick and easy passes.

Question of the day, and one I'd love to know the answer to as well.

This will up the 'organic' feel to this series and will help greatly in removing the 'berserker mode' we've all become accustomed to dealing with.

[JezFranco]

Why don't you change the CPU's passing sliders?

I dont have a problem at all with the CPU's passing.
Took some time getting used to manual passing sure, but imo that was only my own mistakes that was the difference, not the CPU's accuracy.