Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

[RaychelSnr]

This holiday season I'm interested in what kind of experience the community has had with NHL 11 to this point -- a community roundtable, if you will. Now that the game has been out for 90 days or so, I think we have had ample time to see what NHL 11 is all about. And since this is my column, I suppose I'm both privileged and obligated to go first.

Read More - Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

[Nickflyers]

My experience has been great. I'm easy pleased when it comes to games so this game is win-win for me. What's new to me is taking an up and coming team. Usually I'd take the Flyers and win cup after cup after cup, but now i'm playing as the Predators and got knocked out in the Conference Finals. The Ultimate Team is a cool feature too as I've put ample time into that mode too. The only thing that is lacking in my experience is the BAP. Oh what a great game this is!!

[Uncle Stumpy]

11's ok. When I got it I thought it was a slight improvement over 10, but very slight. But then Istarted playing UHL, and I'm very addicted to it. I'm offline with my machine now, and I'm having a hard time getting into franchise or be a pro. One thing I'd like to see for UHL is every time you beat someone, you get one of your opponent's cards. Just to even it up a little for the guys who like building the team from scratch and not wasting their money, like myself. Would also like to see UHL be offline because I haven't played online in a couple months and I'm going nuts without it.

[superbus]

It's a disappointment for me. I couldn't get over the bugs - both the ones that have been fixed and the ones that still exist, including some that have been there for *four years running* - and the fact that the game has become even worse in terms of arcade hockey in terms of how hits are given. And when the hell are they going to fix that wraparound issue?

At a time when these games need more staff on them for quality assurance, EA's firing people at EA Canada and giving them less. They know the money's theirs already, and are shorting their fans. It's been epidemic in all of their games this year, including FIFA. They're really losing my faith.

[Jgainsey]

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

I was also really excited leading up to the release of '11. When it finally dropped I was really sucked in by the Ultimate Team thing. I had originally scoffed at the idea of something like this, but I was hooked from the get go. It was surprisingly addictive, and I found myself playing this mode almost exclusively for the first couple of weeks.

Though once the newness of HUT wore off I found myself increasingly annoyed when playing teams against guys who had poured dollar after dollar into this mode. I couldn't get into the single player aspect of HUT, and I refused to spend more than a couple of bucks on this mode. Not sure if there's a solution to this, maybe a league or something for the non-paying players, I dunno. Anyways, I stopped playing HUT after a few weeks and really haven't been compelled to get back into it since.

Once I finished my quick foray into Ultimate Team gaming, I headed off to the friendly confines of the GM mode. Only this year we could no longer share rosters. If this isn't the kind of move that makes hordes of sports gamers around the internet hate EA, then I don't what is. I'm not really going to go into this anymore, but it is complete bs, and I was extremely disappointed.

Anyways the pre-patch experience was good, but ultimately, it wasn't good enough to keep me from spending my sports gaming time with NBA 2k, and others instead. But now that I've spent a little time with the game post-patch, I'm definitely back. I'm sure I'll probably play a season or two in my GM mode before it's all said and done.

I guess it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it is still a pretty good effort from EA. Though with other games stepping up, it's not quite the standout it was in years past.

[H to the Oza]

Disappointing. Not as fun as 10. Only play online so I cant fix lots of stuff with sliders.

What I dont like:
Losing the puck too often on the simplest of moves
Getting stick lifted when my stick is on the opposite side of my body from where my opponent in trailing me
Own players getting in the way of passes
Some passes are too soft, some passes are too hard
Lack on interference calls
Lack of AI in teammates im not controlling (dont go for pucks, poor offensive angles)
Goalies playing puck too often
Player catching an edge and just laying there (This is the pros ITS THE BEST ICE IN THE WORLD players arent gona fall that often!!!)
Getting slashed and giving up on the play
Cant switch to certain players sometimes while playing with human teammate

What I do like:
-physics
-tonned down effectiveness of the pin
-faceoffs
-and the overall gameplay minus the above

[DJ]

I definitely went through buyers' remorse with this game. Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I would've held on to NHL 10 and waited for NHL 11 to go on sale before picking it up. While I do like the upgrades to the game, there really isn't a huge difference between NHL 10 and 11.

Like you, Stephen, I had gone weeks at a time without playing NHL 11 pre-patch and I also took several days to download the patch. I am enjoying things more now that the patch is out but still, I'm having a hard time getting into this game. Again, this could be because I played so much NHL 10 last year and put my basketball gaming on the back-burner. This year it's the opposite as NBA 2K11 blew me away and if forced to choose between the two, I usually go with NBA.

So for now, I'm grabbing a game of NHL 11 here and there and enjoying myself. I'll probably dive into this game more over the winter but for right now, it's a secondary option.

[H to the Oza]

and to add to my previous post, I will this game is heading in the wrong direction

[cheechoo98]

I loathed NHL 11 in the beginning. I only play online and it was so unbalanced, we all know the issues...
Because I didn't play it enough, playing online meant that my player was steps behind all the other users who played the game and maxed out their players after a month.. on the consatnt imploring by my club-mates to join them, I eventually got some games in..

After struggling to play 30+ online games, I eventually sunk more hours into it and leveled myself up a bit..
I still found it a struggle to play in our club. It's NOT fun losing every every game... I've never loathed a sporting game so much as this game. Seriously.

But eventually I got enough games in to gain my Superstar Card and with the extra allotment of points, on a lark, I changed my player to a Defensive Defenseman and the game changed for me.

Instead of getting crushed, I was now doing the crushing.. with all his Defensive skills now very high, I routinely get 15+ big hits per game with a high of 25 hits in a regulation game. I'm not happy if I don't get 14+ a game now.. I know this is TOTALLY not sim, and TOTALLY arcade-ish, but it is TOTALLY fun now.
Fun in not letting people into 'my' zone!!!! That's MINE! Sit down!!!! I'm almost at my Legend Card and after that, I'll probably wind down my playtime though..

I play only Drop-In games.. crushing people daily!
Our club sucks, simply because we're old and can't score.. seriously kids, enjoy your teen and 20-something reflexes while you can! Cheers!

[meep316]

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

Mostly all I play is online VS.

I played alot of HUT at the beginning, but that quickly wore off because of all the dickheads that buy their teams. I refuse to spend real money on packs, EA really dropped the ball on this one. If you're going to have people who are going to boost their teams with real money, at least have a separate HUT for the people who want to do it on their own. It's no fun going up against people with ridiculous all star teams when you're playing with prospects.

Then there was a period of about 2 months where I didn't play the game at all because the gameplay was so horrid, but as it stands right now I'm pretty happy with it. There are definitely things that need to be cleaned up, such as the effectiveness of cheesers just laying down in front of their goalie as a means of "defense".

But overall the gameplay is pretty good, but I think they need to make some big strides in NHL 12 if it's going to be considered a success.

[milesizdead]

Apart from a quick trip with HUT, EASHL all the way.

Offline just doesn´t deliver like EASHL does and HUT is just a bunch of Fantasy AllStar Teams without personality.

A great game, and looking forward to NHL12 making huge strides in improving online game modes, and Bap offline as well.

[actionhank]

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

I've had a great time with it.
I've only had my time spent in Be A GM, but i think maybe some day i will take it online.
I've had some good sliders, and while there are frustrating moments, i really love the game, flaws and all.
One thing that bugs me, is i feel like my team mates just lack any sense of wanting to make a play.
If i puck up a puck mid-rink and a team mate skates in behind the D heading to the blue line, instead of going for the break away for a scoring chance...he just stops and waits for me...
Little things like trying to control your guys in front of your net to keep the crease clear can be frustrating when your guys seem to just slide every where, but it's not bad at all.
I've had my bouts with rival (Being St. Louis i nearly launched my controller through the wall playing Chicago. True to life the first meeting they stoned me ,and shut down my come back attempt, but then lady luck came to my bench for game 2 of the home and home series and we rallied in the 2nd to beat them 5-4 in overtime on a short handed break away).
It's little moments like that, that i absolutely love.
They make all of the frustrating moments seem insignificant. While it can be difficult trying to get a fair trade, or keeping those damn grinders from crashing down on your goalie (Also, can they please get rid of the goalie deciding when he wants to push the puck into the corners, or back into play for NHL12 and let me decide. Halak seems to like coming out of his crease to slide the puck to the other team...i can't figure him out. It's like he hates me).
But all of those moments don't matter when you get a perfect set up in the offensive zone and score the game winning goal in over time.
Then again, nothing compares to the frustration of losing a game in overtime after working for 2 periods just to get back in it.
But that's life.

[plaidchuck]

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

One word: disappointment. The patches and tuners seem to fix one thing and break 10 other things. The most annoying aspect is that the offline aspect of the game is becoming so bad it might as well be phased out, with the broken BAP XP earning, sliders that may or may not affect the game, and boring/predictable AI. For someone like me with neither the time nor internet connection speed to play the EASHL/HUT online regularly, these deficiencies make the game pointless to really play seriously.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

I pretty much play online drop-in games exclusively, but that's pretty much tapered off now. Basically, I can recognize that it's a fantastic game, but I'm having trouble personally getting invested in it. I've been playing video games for nearly two decades now, but these controls are still giving me fits. They're slightly less complicated than an F-16 cockpit. I do appreciate what EA is trying to do. You can replicate pretty much any move an actual NHL player would make with these controls, but I just haven't mastered how to process them at the speed of video game hockey. I've completely given up on offense, because no matter what I try my player seemed to blast the puck right into the goalie's chest logo.

And that doesn't even get into the absolutely obnoxious Skater Boost system, which requires players to grind in the single player in order to be remotely competitive online. WTF is up with that EA? I'm not a fan of giving any player upgrades over another in competitive multiplayer. The only time it works, in games like all of Duty or Team Fortress 2, the stuff you unlock is at best a sidegrade to the equipment you start with so newbies are on relatively level footing. Here, I'm being matched up against guys who not only have mastered the game, but are also stronger, faster, and more agile so I'm screwed coming and going. I could, of course, buy the upgrades but that only infuriates me more.

[addybojangles]

I'm happy with it, aside from the fact that ridiculous amounts of hitting is a viable tactic in EASHL. You can say "Just pass before you get hit" and it works, but with so many hits you start to get intimidated and stats-wise, everything drops.

The legend card is complete BS. I helped my team to a 19-game winning streak and can't get my team play higher than a B. It's like you have to play completely differently. Now I'm at 250 games played, no legend.