NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360 & PS3)

**Kid_Roll** · 08-21-2009, 12:56 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by sanders

Great post - I totally agree about the auto pass.

I didn't like how the tap left trigger to push the puck ahead works. I like the idea but I think it could have been implemented better. I think if you tap it then it should push the puck ahead a bit like it does. If you hold it down you should be able keep skating with the puck on the end of your stick. (Players do this all the time when trying to burst by a guy) You wouldn't be able to change direction while holding the trigger without losing the puck and defensive players would be able to lift your stick easily or bump you off the puck easily.

I think this would be a great representation of what guys really do on the ice. Am I right?

That actually reminds me, the "push the puck ahead" play seems different this year. The puck doesn't seem to go as far, or your player seems to retrieve the puck much quicker, so it doesn't seem as effective as last year. Sometimes it feels like my player pushes the puck ahead a few inches then just grabs the puck back right away. I don't know if this was intentional, but it is different from last year.

**sanders** · 08-21-2009, 01:07 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Kid_Roll

That actually reminds me, the "push the puck ahead" play seems different this year. The puck doesn't seem to go as far, or your player seems to retrieve the puck much quicker, so it doesn't seem as effective as last year. Sometimes it feels like my player pushes the puck ahead a few inches then just grabs the puck back right away. I don't know if this was intentional, but it is different from last year.

I noticed that as well. I thougth last year it went to far so using most places didn't make sense unless you were going down the boards to get past the defensmen. Otherwise players had a tonne of time to skate to the puck and grab it. This year its the opposite and there is really almost no speed gain from doing it.

I think they should just use my idea as patch 1

**born_bad** · 08-21-2009, 01:09 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Redshirt_EA

Yeah, that's fair enough. There was work done on cut scenes, there are definitely some new ones, but I'm not too qualified to talk about any of that -- I tend to skip them instantaneously myself out of habit.

When comparing NHL to other games keep in mind that the resources a dev team has are generally proportional to their revenue (and that's definitely the case where the sales trends are well established, as they are with a game that is in its 18th(?) year). There are other factors as well, of course, but on the whole NHL is a pretty lean team and has to pick its battles. I think the emphasis on gameplay in the last few years has been a wise choice, there's always more we can do but at some point it will be more value to transfer more effort to presentation.

Thanks for the feedback. It's understandable and I'm sure the team did what they could.

I'm not trying to be negative or suggest people aren't doing their job well; I'm just giving my reaction to the demo. The problem with leaving the "look" of the game pretty much unchanged is that for those of us that played a lot of the last 2 years' versions, it "looks" like the same game again. So, sure, I can apprecaite the gameplay improvements, but as I said, it just feels stale because I feel like I've seen it all before.

So, I understand gameplay is and should be the priority always, but when the game looks unchanged for multiple years in a row, I actually get tempted to switch sides (to 2k) just to see something fresh. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm sure there are others that feel the same.

Also, there will always be room for improvements in the gameplay each year, so that will always take priority... where is the line drawn for when to also improve presentation significantly? How many years in a row would the "gameplay is all that matters" crowd still buy the game if the commentary, graphics, presentation, etc. were left mostly unchanged? I'm kind of at the point (3rd game with basically the same presentation) where I'm looking for something in addition to gameplay improvements for my $60 again.

I feel like someone without the controller in their hand should be able to look at 09 and 10 and clearly see they are 2 different games and I don't think that's the case.

**Roscosuper II** · 08-21-2009, 01:14 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Redshirt,

What's the deal? Is this game going to be able to be played with at least 10 minute periods for a sim game? Playing the demo on superstar hardcore is cool but, within the 5 minute periods shots can get high. Double the totals and wow, back to square one for me. Please tell me honest, I can't afford to waste money this year.

**Redshirt_EA** · 08-21-2009, 01:56 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Roscosuper II

Redshirt,

What's the deal? Is this game going to be able to be played with at least 10 minute periods for a sim game? Playing the demo on superstar hardcore is cool but, within the 5 minute periods shots can get high. Double the totals and wow, back to square one for me. Please tell me honest, I can't afford to waste money this year.

Offline you can set it anything from 4 to 20 minute periods. Online it is still 5 mins. This is the same as NHL 09, so I might be misunderstanding the question.

Edit: Ok, I get the question now. I think hardcore/superstar will probably require most people to increase the period length to get realistic shot totals. It is likely that some slider fine tuning will be necessary to fit your skill and style if you want to get everything coming out just right, but I think that should definitely be possible now with the sliders that are available. I'm sure there will be plenty of (more objective) feedback on these forums on the matter when the full game is out.

**Ridgeberg** · 08-21-2009, 01:57 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Roscosuper II

Redshirt,

What's the deal? Is this game going to be able to be played with at least 10 minute periods for a sim game? Playing the demo on superstar hardcore is cool but, within the 5 minute periods shots can get high. Double the totals and wow, back to square one for me. Please tell me honest, I can't afford to waste money this year.

I think the shot totals in the demo include shots from the first two simmed periods. You might want to see what shot totals are at before the 3rd period starts and then after in order to find out how many shots the teams are taking during the 3rd (if you haven't already done that).

Qb · 08-21-2009, 02:18 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Ridgeberg

I think the shot totals in the demo include shots from the first two simmed periods. You might want to see what shot totals are at before the 3rd period starts and then after in order to find out how many shots the teams are taking during the 3rd (if you haven't already done that).

My thoughts exactly. I've rarely seen more than a couple of shots per team playing on hardcore settings. I've had a hell of time generating many good chances, although I'm cycling down low like a MONSTER with the manual passing. It's just not leading to much... yet.

*****

A little birdie just shared a nice nugget of info with me. We'll see user goalies in online versus shootouts in NHL10 (and for penalty shots). Better start practicing, boys...

**CarryTheWeight** · 08-21-2009, 02:45 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Played Battle For The Cup at least 10-12 times last night and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

-Hardcore passing is the best thing that could have happened to this series. It took me a long while to get used to (and I'm still getting used to it, quite frankly) but there's so much more control you have now. Variable speeds based on pressure is frustrating at first but it gives you so much more control over what play you want to run. Just the speed of a pass can cause you to overcommit.

-The new board play has made me look at the gameplay a lot more realistically. Instead of crushing an opponent along the boards whenever they came into hitting range like I did in NHL 09, board play gives those who can't hit an opportunity to jar the puck loose while getting a chance to set up some rushes (which I particularly liked...Sykora was pinned along the boards, kicked the puck behind the Penguin net with two defensemen waiting and began the rush to the Wings' end). Great addition, it adds a lot of strategy to the game.

-The crowd! I thought the towel-waving was only a pre-game cutscene. Boy, was I wrong. Seeing the Joe on its feet and towels waving with one minute to go in a tied Cup Finals Game 7 is unlike anything I've seen in a video game. I wish Gary/Bill would also play up how much the fans are going crazy but that's for next year I guess. What they did is fine with me. Chants are awesome as well. A++ in this department.

-I did not hear the booing of opposing star players (I have not had an injury yet so I haven't had that scenario happen), especially when carrying the puck coast-to-coast on a rush with Crosby. Maybe I didn't notice since there's so much other incidental noise in the arena.

Overall I'm very impressed and it only reinforces that this will be a day-one deal for me.

**bad_philanthropy** · 08-21-2009, 02:51 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Redshirt_EA

Offline you can set it anything from 4 to 20 minute periods. Online it is still 5 mins. This is the same as NHL 09, so I might be misunderstanding the question.

Edit: Ok, I get the question now. I think hardcore/superstar will probably require most people to increase the period length to get realistic shot totals. It is likely that some slider fine tuning will be necessary to fit your skill and style if you want to get everything coming out just right, but I think that should definitely be possible now with the sliders that are available. I'm sure there will be plenty of (more objective) feedback on these forums on the matter when the full game is out.

It's excellent that with the new sliders and gamepaly tweaks, you guys have provided the type of NHL gamer around these boards with the toolbox to really tailor the game to pretty exacting specifications. I can't think of anything that was really overlooked in regards to at least giving us all the options we could need to get the game playing like we want.

**bukktown** · 08-21-2009, 02:56 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

How do you do the leg kick?

**RealmK** · 08-21-2009, 03:24 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by bukktown

How do you do the leg kick?

click in the right stick.

**Rbear2k** · 08-21-2009, 03:37 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

I'm loving the demo, and the hardcore mode is the best way to amp up the difficulty as far as I'm concerned. I've been forced to try new ways of scoring and it's great to see some realistic deflections on shots from the point. I'm doing things on the 360 for the demo cuz the ps3 version wasn't available yet, but I'm wondering if the poke ahead conrols are different. I thought I read somewhere that litty said they were changing that to a different button. Has anybody found this out yet?

**RealmK** · 08-21-2009, 03:40 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Rbear2k

I'm loving the demo, and the hardcore mode is the best way to amp up the difficulty as far as I'm concerned. I've been forced to try new ways of scoring and it's great to see some realistic deflections on shots from the point. I'm doing things on the 360 for the demo cuz the ps3 version wasn't available yet, but I'm wondering if the poke ahead conrols are different. I thought I read somewhere that litty said they were changing that to a different button. Has anybody found this out yet?

Tapping the left trigger is now the push the puck ahead button since right bumper is saucer pass they changed it so to be less confusing to new players.

**Rbear2k** · 08-21-2009, 03:42 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

cool, thanks. Any other button movement I should be aware of?

**RealmK** · 08-21-2009, 03:45 PM

Re: NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

Originally posted by Rbear2k

cool, thanks. Any other button movement I should be aware of?

Pressing in the right stick allows you to fake a shot, and the passing is now completely dependent on where you're aiming, meaning you can bank pucks off the boards on a breakout pass (hardcore setting) Also you can now swipe at loose pucks to either one timer it or bat it towards to goal or away from your own net as well.

NHL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360 & PS3)

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