Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

**FBeaule04** · 12-07-2010, 12:05 PM

The hope was high, the feeling was great. I even took a week off to play the game as much as possible. At first, I was pretty stunned by all the details, and the game.

It didn't took me long to get back to Earth though. Not that the game is bad, it's not the case. But there's again exploits, AI stupidity and lapses that makes the game less enjoyable than last year.

Online, I have to say that it's been ok overall. Lately, been running against a bunch of glitchers and since the patch, I've seen more and more goals that I didn't saw at first. Physical part of the game is way out of control too. There's too much bang and boom for my liking in the game.

Like someone said, the problem with fixing something is that it opens up the door for new problems. They patch the Boost glitch, 99 glitch is back in full-force. They patch robot goalies, then people are starting to score from everywhere and try the peek-a-boo shot all game long.

So, the game is still good, but for me, I'm enjoying more NBA 2K11 than NHL 11 so far, even if I'm a hockey fan at first.

**GlennN** · 12-07-2010, 12:52 PM

Let me first say I only play offline franchise (BeAGM), so HUT, online, etc, not my thing. I'm disappointed with 11, but only because I loved 10 so much.

I have buyers' regret on 11, especially because I bought on day one, at full price. The changes in 11 are, for the most part, meaningless to me. The few shortcomings in 10 (sometimes wonky stat sim engine, goalies who play 82 games, hard to view rosters, non-existent display of stats, awards and records) are all still present in 11. Plus, I liked the pushing and shoving after the whistle that is gone in 11, the scouting (with juniors in now) is too spread out, there are no impact rookies, and I detest autosave. I keep switching back and forth between 10 and 11, because I really want to like 11 better (but, I seem to always gravitate back to 10).

I just hope I have the self control to wait before buying 12 next year, to make sure there is actually some improvement being made. Again, I feel bad ripping on 11, because it remains a fantastic hockey game; unfortunately, it is only almost as good as 10.

**TDKing** · 12-07-2010, 12:53 PM

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

BORED!! Don't like playing randoms, BAGM and Be a Pro seasons are too long, having to play 82 games kills those modes for me. (I don't like to sim, we already had those discussions).

**GrandMaster B** · 12-07-2010, 01:02 PM

The difference between All-Star and Superstar. (offline with no sliders) I can destroy the CPU on All-Star with 8 goals and then can't score on Superstar.

I also don't like how the CPU magically gets to pucks with super human speed and how their D-men can keep most pucks in their own zone in front of the blue line when you try to chip it out.

The Legend card online has been mentioned. Really hard to get. I think there is an issue with the team play rating.

Never got into HUT because you can't change any of the settings and the speed is just too slow offline.

**Juiceman612** · 12-07-2010, 03:31 PM

I am a HUGE fan of the series and I haven't touched NHL 11 for months now. I have been at 51 games played in EASHL for months.

Here is why I quit playing: Boosts and poor matching (arguably non-existent game matching).

The grind to get XP points is a chore and bore. Your guy is going to suck until you get to at least 30-60 games played. What if you don't want to buy your boosts? Well, if you don't play hours on end from the second the game is released, then you'll go up against giant opponents who have more skill from playing more AND much more powerful player attributes than you. So plan to get worked while you grind to 60 or 100 games and up. But they keep getting better too as you play - so unless you are going to poopsock, might as well count yourself in for some serious frustration in a good 50% of the games you play - more if you're not very skilled at NHL. The team matching system is horrid. I don't even know if it exists. It's frustrating when I have 60 goals and 70 assists and my opponent has 500 goals and 1100 assists. Those numbers are not exaggerations. I should never be matched against an opponent of that level.

I've said for years now that in order for EASHL to be fun there needs to be a division for teams who purchase boosts and a division for teams who earn boosts PLUS there needs to be a good team matching system. Without those two things EASHL is becoming a losing grind most of the time and ultimately led to me rarely playing the game. Not having popped the game in for two months is a record for me. It's too bad because I think the gameplay is great and it's a fun game overall. But I like playing human opponents and EASHL is a broken league due to boosts and lack of reliable team matching.

**NHLandPESFan** · 12-07-2010, 05:20 PM

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w

oNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w

ontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w

ontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w

ontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w

ontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> I only play online versus, although I would like to play Be a GM if EA would ever add multiplayer to it.

My complaints are:
1. Online league support for versus play is terrible and has been for years. League admins still cannot reset games if there is a connection issue and it is quite obvious EA wants everyone to ditch online leagues for the money grubbing EASHL. This year they got their wish as a league I have been in since NHL 2k6 on PS2 finally gave up the ghost to a combination of people defecting to the EASHL and the abysmal league support took its toll.

2. Franchise mode needs multiplayer, another complaint that goes back years! 2k8 had this for crying out loud!

3. Yet another long standing complaint against the EA NHL series is that all the teams are ranked pretty closely together and that there is not a lot of player separation in ability, similar to FIFA.

4. Manual passing needs to be re-implemented or ditched altogether. It is extremely frustrating in situations where you need to make a quick hard pass that you cannot do it. Basically the pass strength needs to load up a lot quicker than it currently does. I don't know why a 2mph pass is even possible as you would never do one.

5. AI players stand still a lot. Coaches would be yelling at them a lot for all the standing still that I see in the offensive zone. At least defensemen stay within the blue line for the most part, which to be fair is something that drove me crazy about 2k8.

Even with all of these complaints, I still have a good time with the game and I think the goal variety is better than NHL 10 and I have decent matches online. I worry for the future of this series however as apparently the only modes and changes EA wants to make are ways to get more money out of people. Considering that $60 every year is something of a ripoff already, I consider this a poor business strategy and unless some of the above mentioned complaints (especially the ones that go back years) are fixed, I will break my string of buying 1-2 hockey games per year which I have maintained since NHL 94 on the Sega Genesis and avoid NHL 12.

**NHLandPESFan** · 12-07-2010, 05:21 PM

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

I forgot to add my complaint about controls. Line changes should be possible from classic controls and the user should be able to customize the buttons to do what they want.

**savoie2006** · 12-07-2010, 06:05 PM

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

I like what NHL 11 has to offer feature and depth wise, but the gameplay has grown stale for me. There is no difference between teams and how they play. The AI strategy is the same no matter what game it is. The only difference is how the human teammates play. This and the slew of little bugs that have plagued the game have made me lose interest for the time being. Currently updating my 2K10 rosters so I can play it instead. The AI doesn't feel nearly as scripted.

**onlybygrace** · 12-08-2010, 09:14 PM

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

Wow...that was a LOT of negative feedback...way more lopsided than I was expecting.

**uclabruins87** · 12-09-2010, 03:28 AM

NHL games are awesome.

**tabulaRasa** · 12-09-2010, 04:37 AM

I am totally into HUT, although the there need to be
Search options in HUT for nhl12: Like Overall, potential, Forwards as a single search term, etc
Also needs to be an option to have more than one lineup. A single roster bracket not a my collection pile like now. Overall they should make it more GM/Franchise like and less Upperdeck-ish.

ANyhow, gameplay wise, I think they should have the hardcore momentun in as default, to many use the pathetic start stop and turn to skate around players. Afterall the players are on skates, they dont run with nikes on tarmac.

But still, the game is really good overall, although one-times cross crease are insanely effective, and being the goalies is cheap and easy on shootouts.

**Matt_350z** · 12-09-2010, 02:32 PM

Re: Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

On the surface, there is a lot to like about NHL11.

(my personal observations)
-The game looks great.

-Overall the audio is pretty decent.

-The controls are responsive, and intuitive.

-There are a decent amount of modes, options, and sliders.

-For geeks like me- being able to change goalie equipment, altar color patterns, and
swap equipment out is very cool.

-Online play/modes are all there, and run very smoothly.

-I feel the team at EA supports the game very well. The tuner updates are great.
Last year the couple EASHL updates fixed a lot of the glitches that were killing it and making online no fun.

Its when you really get into the game, some of these things don't feel so great.

(random observations about NHL11)
-BAP has gotten extremely stale and boring. Nothing new at all to see here. Yay, you get to play in the Junior Championship finals to solidify your draft position. Awesome. Then its the same BAP mode that hs been in the last two NHL games.

-BaGM is obviously just another name for "franchise mode". Not a problem, its just not very involving. Basically, the big draw is you juggle a couple of phones? There really is nothing seperating this mode from a basic franchise mode. By basic, I mean watered down, even when compared to other sports games on the market.

-The new HUT mode. Great idea. Terrible in execution. I love it at its core. It just takes way too long to build your team up. I don't mind a little hard work, and having to tough it out for a bit. However, this mode is a grind. The problem I have with that is, it seems EA designed it this way so people would be more prone to use actually money to buy some packs(see my next note before you jump on me). This mode could be extremely fun.
Why not flesh out an offline HUT mode/franchise mode hybrid? Why not give us other ways to earn pucks and player cards? Like doing in game achievements, or certain goals with players. Such as scoring a hat trick in an exhibition game on superstar mode or higher nets you 600 EA pucks. Or, scoring a total of 25 goals with Stamkos nets you his card. Why not incorporate your User Profile into it, and when you net a total of 100 goals across all modes, you get a EA pucks. 2k kinda had something like this, where you would unlock baseball cards in MLB2k, through in game and player achievments. It was the only reason why I would actually put down MLB-The Show, to play 2k. It was a lot of fun. I would love to see this in a hockey game.

-The EA "post purchase" cash grab. First of, Let me say, I totally understand and get the business model behind it. It obviously totally works, people are buying stuff, and nets EA even more money. However, it leaves me with a totally sour taste in my mouth. This goes beyond simply paying for DLC. Basically your shelling out 60.00(or whatever you have to pay) for a new game. You hop online to play EASHL on the first night, and people are already just a little bit better than you because they bought boosts.
More power to them. I understand nobody is holding a gun to my head to buy, or not buy attribute boosts, or jumbo HUT packs. However, MOST of the goals that are needed to unlock these the right way are absurd. There is zero chance a majority of the people are completing these goals to unlock said boost. Which stinks. I'm not saying make it a cake walk to unlock a +3 speed boost. However, don't make it an absurd way to unlock it either. I remember reading what unlocks most boosts, and it was utterly ridiculous. Which brings me back to my previous HUT rant. Obviously EA is doing this on purpose, so people just shell out 3.00 here, 3.00 there to buy an attribute boost. How many people have time to play 2 full season in BAP as a goalie, and keep there save percentage above 92%(just an example).

-The gameplay itself is a mixed bag. At this point in time, I except it for what it is. Its overall pretty fun. However, it just doesn't resemble real life hockey. I'm not saying I expect it to mimic the NHL to a tee. The game just feels so stiff, and lifeless. Even with some of the great goalie save animations, and over the top checking animations. ALL the teams play the same style game, not too mention there is no diversity from a top line forward to a 4th line one.

-EASHL is an extremely fun mode. I think EA was trying to get a solid mix of arcade hockey, with some sim aspects. Which I am fine with. Its just the games don't flow very well. There is almost zero way of setting up consistantly in the other teams zone. Too many big hits. I'm sick of constantly getting leveled trying to lug the puck up. They need to open up the game a bit. I'm not saying make it a focus on offense only. Its just the game needs more flow in EASHL. Its like your playing robot/ping pong hockey.

-the passing. I feel I have gotten very good with the somewhat updated passing system. I just don't think its very good. Too many passes going way off mark. I'm sorry, I know passes get intercepted and missed in the real NHL. Its just not at the frequency it happens in the game. They need to bring back more tape to tape passing. I can't count the times I have aimed, and executed a pass only to have it go sailing away from where I wanted it. I don't know. I just don't think this passing system benefits gameplay at all in NHL 11.

Overall, I like NHL 11. Its just I feel there are too many little things that could be fixed, and make the game amazing.

**Tieboomer** · 12-09-2010, 10:14 PM

Downright awful, I can't stand it. The CPU players in EASHL are awful no matter what position. My team plays legit hockey and you can't score goals playing legit hockey. Game is so frustrating it isn't even funny. Same game as last year, same cheesy goals, same horrible computers. Can't stand it, but love hockey to much to get rid of it.

Pucking Ridiculous: Your NHL 11 Experience

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment