NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

**DerekOfferman** · 08-21-2012, 07:00 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

DL it. Awesome! You can really tell the difference in speed between players. I hate how the puck looks magnetic to the stick, but other than that, I'm sold on it.

**DerekOfferman** · 08-21-2012, 07:07 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

The speed is a huge difference. I was playing as the Kings and the CPU would just dump the puck in and beat my slow Defenders to the puck everytime. Also, I noticed that when defenders blocked the puck, it would bounce off them faster than I shot it. It feels totally different than NHL 12. Very slow gameplay! I do like it tho.

**DerekOfferman** · 08-21-2012, 07:13 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

The Goalies are really good. The one timer is a lot hard to score on. I still see the puck get blocked by defenders and it will bounce all the way down to my Goalie when I shoot. Seems to be a glitch. There is no Replay, so I can seem to figure it out.

**DerekOfferman** · 08-21-2012, 07:21 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Played 2 games, Passing is a lot easier. I noticed that more passes got thru traffic than in NHL 12. Hits are toned down. I had a player get his helmet knocked off in the first minute and a few line changes later, he came onto the ice and his helmet was still off laying down by my goalie. Really cool and Im not sure I saw that in NHL 12. Graphics look OK, players seem bulker and bigger than 12. Overall, it is nice to actually see the speed difference. You can really burn the Defenders.

Attached Files

IMG_0150.jpg (418.7 KB, 735 views)

**fizzo** · 08-21-2012, 07:24 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Just downloaded it in Europe, so it's here already. The new skating engine is absolutely awesome, makes a world of difference. It finally feels like your player has weight to him, cant turn on a dime with anyone really, speedy players blow by slow players. It's absolutely awesome.

AI seems solid, it's tougher to gain zone and get shots on net. On hardcore mode the puck seemed pretty loose, if you just skate towards players with the puck at your stick, it's super easy to lose it. Passing seems sloppy enough on user's end, i'm sure when we get the sliders unlocked, we can tweak it to near perfection. Tried charging a pass up (holding A), and the reciever failed to recieve a good amount of the time. BTW, for those of you that haven't already, set puck size and shadow to authentic, it doesn't actually change the way it behaves, but it sure does look a lot looser that way.

CPU still seems to pass a little too much tape to tape, but it's less so than previous years, it failed quite a few one-timers, so let's just hope that it's fixable with sliders. I really liked how aggressive and relatively unpredictable the CPU was on the offensive end, but it's tough to tell whether thats the default CPU playstype or a strategy it was using because of the whole 3d period, 5 minute, random score gameplay.

The broadcast camera looks awesome, but it's tough to play on it, for one, because of the controls, no matter if they're set on always up or cam relative, it just doesn't feel right. Obviously that's something that you can get used to, but the other thing is that you can't really see the ice very well, it's kinda tunnel visioned, so you're definitely going to do better playing on the up/down camera, broadcast is just eye-candy. Presentation overall looks better as well, but we've all seen that already.

Overall I'm really excited for this. I'm probably not gonna play the demo anymore, but overall this seems very promising.

**DerekOfferman** · 08-21-2012, 07:28 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Awesome New camera View. The net got knocked off and spun around. During the cutscene the showed the camera inside the net and it spun around twice. Really cool to see that.

**Steve_OS** · 08-21-2012, 07:46 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

So glad you can go against the goalie in Free Skate, 1 on 1. Would be cool if it had 2 on 1 breaks w/ a teammate vs. AI.

**Cletus** · 08-21-2012, 07:54 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Seems pretty solid, the AI is tougher. I wonder if they worked on it more than the last 3 years combined? I still have my winger bumping into me on rushes though. I'm also not liking the goalies play on the short side. Even when there's no one in the slot, he doesn't hug the post or even play the post. I got scored on because my goalie went into butterfly and left short side wide open.

**SeaNNyT** · 08-21-2012, 08:01 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Things I like
-The better lighting looks more authentic, combined with the True broadcast camera angle, looks sweet.
.The player models seem way more appropriately scaled and real.
-The skating feels way more real and can lead to some interesting 3 on 2 breaks or other breakaway moments.

Things I don't like
-Your AI defenders still might be a few feet from the puck and make no attempt to go for it, so you have to click on them, but by then the opposing AI probably has picked up the loose puck.
-Even on Hardcore the opposing AI can tape to tape pass way up ice.
-The hitting still seems unrealistic
-The stick and puck physics need a overhaul (probably won't happen until next gen)
-The goalie on fast breaks seems to win most of the time. An unreal level of winning.

**SinisterAlex** · 08-21-2012, 08:03 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Just finished playing 10 games on All Star - Normal. I'm loving the demo so far. Skating took only a game or two to get used to. Really loving how you feel your players momentum and weight in each stride and while turning. You definitely can't turn on a dime anymore.

As for passing, there was A LOT of missed passes and a lot of passes that were intercepted. So we should have no fear of laser passes. At least, that's what I noticed when I was playing.

I recorded some gameplay, so I may post some of it a bit later today. I've only done the Play Now stuff, haven't gone into HUT or NHL Moments yet.

**tsp120** · 08-21-2012, 08:11 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

I'm not a gold member so I'm going to have a wait a week to get my hands on the demo. But I'm curious, can you try out coach mode in the demo? That mode has me intrigued.

**Money99** · 08-21-2012, 08:51 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Stupid download took over 40 minutes so I could only get in half a period before racing to work.
The skating is definitely a big change and one that can take some time getting used to. But it's for the better as you can certainly feel the differences between good, bad and fast & slow skaters.

I want to get more time with it tonight because I really want to see if the new skating physics causes the CPU to experience the same limitations that the user does.

**Jonesey** · 08-21-2012, 08:59 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

I am broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/NuYd nhl 13 demo

**ejams** · 08-21-2012, 09:05 AM

Re: NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360 Now, PS3 Later Today)

Here's my post off the EA boards:

Platform
Xbox

Pros
- You can dump and chase now
- Hitting is the best I've seen it
- The skating physics are good
- Opponent AI is much better
- Stick collisions blocking shots
- Goalies are better

Cons
- Your teammate's AI is garbage. They are often out of position out taking a cruise or something, and often skating in the wrong direction. This means when you take control you are having to do wild turns and get scored on anyways.
- Player models as always are way off.. Was better in NHL 06 to be brutally honest. Stoll looks like a 15 year old goof.
- Drew Doughty gets beat to the puck by every single forward on the devils, even when I spam LS 3 times. TERRIBLE.
- Many terrible penalties taken by team AI.
- Pressing A unless in the absolute perfect position = penalty
- Opposition AI gets away with interference/tripping/crosschecking in front of the net so far 100% of the time. I've played probably 20 periods.

Overall Comments
I really want to like this game, I haven't bought it since NHL 10(which was a mistake as well.)
But having players like Stamkos/Doughty/Tavares/Malkin stripped and out raced to the puck by AHL and CHL players shows a terrible stat team or it means that stats don't do anything. Sure Colin Fraser misses the puck 70% of the time he takes a slapshot, but I wasn't aware that he could out-skate anyone on the Devils backend.
Teammate AI and the useless stats make this game and instant no buy for me. Sad because I really miss playing this game.

I'm not buying this one.
The engine is definitely amazing but the terrible team AI and the fact that star player Drew Doughty is slower than every Devil when racing back for dump-ins.
Incredibly disappointed I've been starved of a good NHL game for too many years..

NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

Recommended Videos

NHL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment