NHL 09 Preview

[mkharsh33]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

so in spite of some of the new positives being put into this game, it looks like we're still years away from a polished product...sigh.

[sportmats]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

But I dont understand why people speculates about new stuff and so on, when the dev-team has more important things to concentrate on. Like making a game without cheating cheese-goals. I think that should be the most important thing of all. And I cant understand why it would be so difficult making a game whitout cheese-goals. Can anyone tell me that please?

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

But I dont understand why people speculates about new stuff and so on, when the dev-team has more important things to concentrate on. Like making a game without cheating cheese-goals. I think that should be the most important thing of all. And I cant understand why it would be so difficult making a game whitout cheese-goals. Can anyone tell me that please?

Well it is hard because until the masses get a game it is not really known what is going to work for cheese type plays. I mean sure they test the game, but to really find what is going to work it needs to be played a couple dozen thousand times. And as you know once a few people stumble on to a glitch goal or cheese play and do it on the internet it won't take long for people to replicate it and abuse it further.

On the bright side the development team has really done somethings to counter the known cheese goals in last years game. Improved battles in front of the net along with the ability to tie up your opponent's stick will go miles in taking away the slap pass and one timers of 08. Still no matter what is put in place a new cheese or glitch is sure to pop up. Sometimes it is just the amount that pop up that determine what make a game fun to keep playing over time.

[wildhockey19]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

There will ALWAYS be money goals in any game you play. Until the day that an "actual" AI is developed, and by that I mean a system that thinks solely for itself and adapts to its surrounding we will all fall victim to the infamous "cheese" goals. The game is just that, a scripted set of code that may have different variations under different circumstances but always to a set limit. The goalie will always react the same way even to different moves. Again, until they solve the almost impossible task of developing a system that would be able to give the goalie the ability to act on his own, your doomed. Sorry to sound like a space cadet, but I am a computer science major so I cant help myself some times! Peace!

[Joborule]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

Good write up man.

[Eddie1967]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

The part about fighting being rebuilt from the ground up with the circling and turtling sounds awesome. If they could just add separate line changes and more board play, I might just buy 2 hockey games this year.

[ohyeahbaby123]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

The part about fighting being rebuilt from the ground up with the circling and turtling sounds awesome. If they could just add separate line changes and more board play, I might just buy 2 hockey games this year.

Separate line changes are in.

[Eddie1967]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

Separate line changes are in.

Not that I don't believe you but is that in the article?

[metallidevils]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

Not that I don't believe you but is that in the article?

It was definitely stated somewhere; I think in the dev blog

[Flyermania]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

Not that I don't believe you but is that in the article?

From Littman's blog entry:

NHL 09 Producer Blog
Hi there, David Littman here, producer of NHL 09.

This is my favorite time of year. The weather is nice. The Stanley Cup finals were awesome to watch. And we finally get to talk about our game.

More than any other year, I can honestly say that many of the features in NHL 09 come directly from your (the NHL community) feedback. The two most asked for features were better defensive controls and superstar mode. I don't need to go into those here, since you will be reading about them elsewhere.

As you have heard, Dion Phaneuf is our cover athlete. He is a perfect choice for NHL 09, not just because he loves playing the NHL series, but because he is one of the best young defensemen in the NHL. Taking control of Dion and stepping up on an opponent in the neutral zone is a beautiful thing.

Some things you might not read about over the next couple of weeks are:

- Yes, we are fixing bugs that have been called out in all of the forums, like the dynasty bug where released players ended up back on your roster and:

- The ability to turn off CPU trading in Dynasty

- PS3 locked at 60 FPS

- The bug called fighting

- Oh yeah...less hip checking

- The dump and chase style will be a genuine way to win a game. (The new flip dump will sometimes bounce over the defensemen's stick and get him in all sorts of trouble. Then you can use the lift stick or the new checking system to get the puck back using one of the new forecheck strategies).

- Lower skilled players will have a tougher time deking and scoring than in previous years.

- Did you watch Sydney Crosby protect the puck with one hand on the stick when powering his way to the goal? You can do that too.

- Separate line changes for forwards and d-men (finally)

- We are adding features that will help newcomers to the series. Features like an interactive tutorial and a simplified control scheme. The reason for this is simple. We want to grow the sport of hockey. Hockey has great momentum right now, and we should all be working together to bring new fans to the sport. Hockey is truly a global sport and this game sells very well overseas as well as in NA, so we added new teams from top leagues around the world.

- We will have lots of retro jerseys in the game (Seals, North Stars, etc) and we are doing something even more special with one of the NHL franchises.

[bigwill33]

Not that I don't believe you but is that in the article?

Yeah I mentioned being able to change the D lines separate from the O in the article.

[bigwill33]

Good write up man.

Thanks jobo!

[RealmK]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

Not that I don't believe you but is that in the article?

Seperate line changes, along with fully controlable stick lifting, and defensive sweepchecking more along the lines of how it is in NHL2k. A new fighting engine, more types of penalties including pucks over the glass and checking from behind etc. Thats not even mentioning the 75 or so new goalie animations including desperation types of saves, no more lock on hitting, its now all physics and momentum based. One handed dekes that only star players can pull off with any regularity. a dedicated dump with forechecking options for how many guys you want to send in behind the puck. And to top that all off added presentation like breakdowns of what you did right or wrong during replays. I think you owe it to yourself to at least give the game a chance this year, you may be suprised.

[meh]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

If all of these add-ons are implemented without taking away the quality shown in 08 - then wow, this could easily be the big game of the year!

Really looking forward to this one..... problem is, I want it now

[Splitter77]

Re: NHL 09 Preview

if they make somebody like donald brashear (or the other scrubs) a 35 or so for an overall rating- then I'll get really excited about the game. What this game needs is variation between the stars and scrubs.