Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

[jyoung]

I haven't heard anything yet about what kind of game setting the EASHL will be using, but I really hope it is Hardcore and not Casual.

My guess is that they'll probably just set it somewhere in between, but has anything official been said yet?

[tgalv]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

normal

[gator3guy]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

I'd imagine passing on hardcore EASHL would be damn near impossible.

[Redshirt_EA]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

Yes, it is pretty tough. You have much less time to move the puck and human players are also much less quick to react to an errant pass than a CPU teammate player is.

Basically we didn't find it to be any fun at all to play.

[adayinthelife]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

I think it would be pretty neat to have the option. Maybe a setup similar to Call of Duty where players would have to choose to join a 'hardcore' game just so people that really don't want it don't get stuck playing it.

[jyoung]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

Cool, well, just as long as it's not set to casual, that's the main thing.

I just like the added creativity that comes with being able to aim passes anywhere on the ice.

[canucksss]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

if this will not be on eashl... at least put IT AS AN OPTION. specially for private leagues, HARDCORE so far is like SIM gameplay. or have sliders available to tweek some aspects in the Hardcore.

[AngryMikeGrrr]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

AFAIK, there are going to be 2 leagues, the casual league and the pro league. From what I've read in the EA blogs, both leagues will have monthly tournaments with virtual trophies for the club. There's no differentiation between the two leagues. I believe that the Pro league should have hardcore mode and the casual league can have a more user likeable setting.

The fact is, you don't want everyone jumping on the pro league. Honestly, the majority of the people who buy the game probably shouldn't even bother with it. In 09, there were really only a handful of teams that were strong. IMO, you want the strong teams to be in the pro league and everyone else to be in the casual league.

To the avid gamer, "fun" isn't the word you're looking for. The word you want is "competitive". We want people to actually be good at the game and not just good at scoring cheesy goals on CPU defenders and goalie. From what I'm hearing, hardcore mode takes the simple things that we take for granted (i.e. passing) and makes it a skill. You don't see people playing Counterstrike tournaments with any sort of aiming assist. If I want to be the best in the world, why should I have a passing assist? Leave "fun" to the casual EASHL league.

Lastly, a whole big selling point of this year's game was the precision passing. If you hype it up so much and then not even use it for online play, it will be a huge disappointment. Honestly, do people play this game offline anymore?

For the record, I'm on the PS3 so I haven't had a shot at the demo yet. I may be wrong in some of my assumptions about hardcore mode so forgive me if I'm ignorant.

[kai123]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to set what kind of game style you wanted for each online game you play?

[AngryMikeGrrr]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

But then wouldn't the rankings be moot? If teams had the choice of being in the pro league and playing either hardcore or normal mode, they would pick the easier one. Basically, you can't compare two teams in the same league if they're playing under varying settings.

A nice idea though. I think the real solution is to offer all the options, but separate them. That way, rankings are accurate and people can pick which league they want to be in. It's almost like adult senior hockey. Anyone play beer league? They typically have multiple divisions (usually something like A-D) and your team has to pick the proper division to ensure ample competition. Of course, the beer league has a smaller number of teams so there can be a single authority that can kick teams out of a division if they're too good, but you can't do that with the EASHL. A simpler solution would be to have separate gameplay settings so that weaker players (or players who simply don't want to play the hardcore mode) can avoid it.

[kerosene31]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

I'm guessing the lag would make hardcore passing downright impossible. I'd think you'd spend most of the game trading icing calls.

[AngryMikeGrrr]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

Maybe or maybe not. I find that the weaker EASHL teams already do this because they try to make long passes (which rarely happens in an actual NHL game).

Just like when EA released their 2nd patch and everyone started taking lots of penalties because interference was strictly called, people will adjust with time (and make shorter, more accurate passes). I feel that a lot of people are complaining because this is different (albeit probably more difficult as well).

I am just trying to give the perspective of a "top" team (my team finished #2 overall on the PS3 side and participated in the EASHL Invitational).

[sroz39]

Re: Will the EASHL be set to Hardcore?

Maybe or maybe not. I find that the weaker EASHL teams already do this because they try to make long passes (which rarely happens in an actual NHL game).

Just like when EA released their 2nd patch and everyone started taking lots of penalties because interference was strictly called, people will adjust with time (and make shorter, more accurate passes). I feel that a lot of people are complaining because this is different (albeit probably more difficult as well).

I am just trying to give the perspective of a "top" team (my team finished #2 overall on the PS3 side and participated in the EASHL Invitational).

For the most part, I agree with you, but I think that the settings on Normal mode aren't a piece of cake either. You still have to pass in the proper direction as the pass assist is minimal. And I would hope that there would be a seperation in the Casual and Pro leagues by making the Casual league play on Default or Casual settings. If not, then there's really no point in splitting the two up.