[holtzie]

I have been off work this entire week so I have got to spend a lot of time with NHL 11. I played a good 50+ games since Monday. As excited as I was about this game when I first got it and as much fun as I had playing it the first week I had it, it is hard for me to comprehend the fact that I might put this game on the shelf.

I posted in another thread an "experiment" that I did to test CPU accuracy and shooting percentages when there was no score and then again when the CPU was trailing. The numbers speak for themselves. The shooting percentage for the CPU goes up tremendously when they are trailing. I know a lot of people have made threads and comments about a comeback logic and I'm not saying that I bekieve in that. Especially since EA has rtold us that it is not there. At least I do not believe that EA has programmed anything in the game to make it where, for example, "the next shot is going in" against the user.

However the more I have played the more clear it is that the CPU does, in fact keep games close, at least on superstar. I had more games than I can even remember where I had 15-20 shots in a period to the CPU's 2 or 3. And yet we would be tied at 1. On the other hand there were times when I had 10 shots and had not scored. The CPU had similar shot totals, no goals.

The final game that really did it for me was the last game I played. I had outshot the CPU 24-3 half way through the second period. No score. I scored on he 25th shot. Less than 1 minute later I passed a puck up ice that was intercepted at the blue line. The CPU wheeled around and threw a very slow, non-screened, non-deflected wrist shot past my goalies' glove side. Unbelievable. This was not the first time this had happened. And let me clarify one thingnabout this. 90% of the time when the CPU scored on me while they were trailing they were legitimate, good goals that I could accept. However, and this is a big however, up until these goals (the 90% I am talking about) my goalie was making the saves. But all of a sudden, when I get a lead, they go in.

At one time (after the CPU had tied the game after being down 2-0) I literally sat the controller down and let the CPU go to town. I wish I had the video to show you. It was simply laughable at how many miraculous saves he was making. Save after save, but then again, the game was tied.

I've often wondered how well the programmers at EA really know their own AI. I know it might sound crazy but I think it is entirely plausible that when you create a competitive AI program for a sports game there are going to be some details that even the creators don't understand. How does the CPU decide where or how to shoot? In a sense doesn't it know exactly where it needs to put a shot at any given time to beat itself (the human goalie)?

We can debate the issue all we want but in the games that I have played (which are many) since release day, I've seen this issue more and more each game. I tired to justify what was happening but the fact of the matter is that the CPU becomes unrealistically accurate when it is trailing. And unfortunately for me it is just a bit too much for me to enjoy the game.

To ignore this completely is crazy. There's been entirely too many people discussing he same issue(s). A lot of people simply take EA's word for gold, that there's nothing that gives the CPU an advantage. EA can tell me that all day but until they can explain to me how Ed Jovanovski can beat Patrick Kane to a loose puck the length of the ice when both players are fully energized and are both using hustle, I'm not going to believe everything I'm told. Sorry.

I didn't really mean for this to be such a long post but I guess I'm still holding out hope that there's an answer to this problem that I have not found.