What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

[Scrif]

Up until the weekend I was loving NHL13. Games were competitive, goals we 'real' looking, besides the lack of penalties I 'was' saying this is the best NHL yet....then, something happened. I changed no settings in my offline season and now Im being lit up by all CPU teams. Rebounds everywhere for CPU, they pick the top corner like nobody's business.

I didnt change the way I played, I even lowered my tweaked settings for All-star. Was there a patch in addition to a tuner upgrade? Anyone else notice this?

[Taku]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

yeah i agree. I switched back to tuner 1.01. They said that they just increased tripping and interference penalties but i think they also tuned something else.

[Taku]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

its like the games are much more open with 1.02. Lot harder to skate around with the puck using tuner 1.01.

[Scrif]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

Yep. Its almost like my players offensive and defensive awareness has dropped. They are nowhere near the puck, but the CPU is on it like a rash. And the CPU seems alot more aggressive. I understand EA is trying to patch the game to satisfy everyone's complaints, but they really should tell people 'hey, we made it harder by doing this and this'. I find it hard to believe that the latest tuner had only 2 updates.

I had to go play a game on Pro just to win and feel better

[Taku]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

My guess is that 1.02 tuned game because EASHL players whined about players bumping into opponents without the puck. No penalties called because they didnt use "bodycheck" to do this. So its possible that there is less incidental contact and/or aggressiveness in 1.02.

[crosbie87]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

This adds more fuel to my argument that 1.02 isn't working out that well. Go back to 1.01 if you want FAIR and competitive games.

[Scrif]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

Yep - will go back to 1.01 and post my experience.

[Taku]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

I really hope that I'm wrong and gameplay in 1.02 is identical to 1.01. That's because if they fix the penalties with tuner 1.03 and it plays like 1.02 which is worse than 1.01 then I'm pissed.

[zukes]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

I found that the CPU is much more aggressive with 1.02, which is good, but it's to the point of ridiculousness. A guy can be flat footed beside you and cream you. You have about a second with the puck before you are on your ***.

The CPU can score at will at times now. Case in point, I am the Flames and lighting up Montreal to the tune of 5-1 in the 1st. (I had not scored more than 6 in a game against them in by offline BEAGM, and that was only once, and haven't since). Cue the comeback, they score one late in the 1st and 4 in the second and lead 6-5 going into the 3rd. We trade goals and then I tie it at 7-7 and finally get the winner in OT.

I do like that there is variety, my next game was a 2-1 game where every inch was contested against the Wings.

I think that the AI Learning was jacked up, I have not touched anything from default AI and the game definately plays different. After a few games last night, all of a sudden I couldn't win a faceoff. I have the different ways I found to be successful with each of my centres, but now it seems I have to switch it up, which I guess is good, but at times it just seems like you aren't winning face-off no matter how good your timing. Your centre will just stand there.

I may go back to 1.01, it did seem better.

[Scrif]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

I just played a 1.01 game (TOR me vs BUF cpu) on All-star NORMAL and no changes to the settings. Even on 1.01 I would say its the aggression of the CPU that has been cranked. My controller is rumbling constantly now. Even the announcers started saying 'look at how many hits Buffalo is dealing out' or something like that - I had never heard that commentary until today. I bet they increased the CPU aggressiveness in hopes that the CPU would take more penalties.

There must have been a patch in addition to the Tuner set coz 1.01 seems similar to 1.02 to me.

The other thing I noticed is I cant deke the goalie on a breakaway like I could before the 1.02 tuner set upgrade.

I wouldnt be so miffed if EA provided greater detail as to what 'else' they actually tweaked in addition to the tuner set.

[Taku]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

try changing between tuners mid-game or during practise to see if there's difference between them.

[tvman]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

I just played a 1.01 game (TOR me vs BUF cpu) on All-star NORMAL and no changes to the settings. Even on 1.01 I would say its the aggression of the CPU that has been cranked. My controller is rumbling constantly now. Even the announcers started saying 'look at how many hits Buffalo is dealing out' or something like that - I had never heard that commentary until today. I bet they increased the CPU aggressiveness in hopes that the CPU would take more penalties.

There must have been a patch in addition to the Tuner set coz 1.01 seems similar to 1.02 to me.

The other thing I noticed is I cant deke the goalie on a breakaway like I could before the 1.02 tuner set upgrade.

I wouldnt be so miffed if EA provided greater detail as to what 'else' they actually tweaked in addition to the tuner set.

IF you check out the pre release tuner notes you'll see where they say cpu aggression is higher when playing on all-star and above.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/8976019.page

[jake19ny]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

You know whats funny? or in reality sad.....if the sliders, which have not functioned right since NHL12, actually worked properly we would not need tuners. I would rather tweak the game myself then wait for EA to release a tuner set for all.....everyone plays the game different so one size does not fit all. My opinion is that many of the sliders do little or nothing at all.

[Scrif]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

IF you check out the pre release tuner notes you'll see where they say cpu aggression is higher when playing on all-star and above.

Yes - but that doesn't explain the sudden increase in aggressiveness that I (and others) have noted since the 1.02 tuner upgrade.

[crosbie87]

Re: What happened? Game was great, now its ridiculous.

I found that the CPU is much more aggressive with 1.02, which is good, but it's to the point of ridiculousness. A guy can be flat footed beside you and cream you. You have about a second with the puck before you are on your ***.

The CPU can score at will at times now. Case in point, I am the Flames and lighting up Montreal to the tune of 5-1 in the 1st. (I had not scored more than 6 in a game against them in by offline BEAGM, and that was only once, and haven't since). Cue the comeback, they score one late in the 1st and 4 in the second and lead 6-5 going into the 3rd. We trade goals and then I tie it at 7-7 and finally get the winner in OT.

I do like that there is variety, my next game was a 2-1 game where every inch was contested against the Wings.

I think that the AI Learning was jacked up, I have not touched anything from default AI and the game definately plays different. After a few games last night, all of a sudden I couldn't win a faceoff. I have the different ways I found to be successful with each of my centres, but now it seems I have to switch it up, which I guess is good, but at times it just seems like you aren't winning face-off no matter how good your timing. Your centre will just stand there.

I may go back to 1.01, it did seem better.

Try 1.01 on PRO difficulty ... dont's use HARDCORE .. use NORMAL. I am a pretty decent and experienced player and have always played with ALL STAR difficulty in previous NHL games .. but this year PRO with 1.01 is proving to be a great challenge !