Anyone else still on the fence, like me?

[nddurst]

After all the blogs, videos, reviews, discussions and more, I still can't say with certainty that I will be purchasing NHL 12 - or that I will NOT be.

The gameplay seems to have been improved, leading to an overall fun on-ice experience that is the best we've seen on current gen. However, there is talk that Be a GM, a mode I was so pumped to play back when it was introduced in NHL 10, still has major flaws that are unaddressed (unrealistic FA quirks, bad trade AI, bugs, etc.). This, along with still unaddressed gameplay issues (lack of penalties, questionable defensive AI, laughably stale commentary and presentation, tape-to-tape CPU passing) make me wonder if I will get long-lasting fun out of this game. As an offline gamer, I was done with NHL 11 around December last year. I don't want to drop $60 on this game if that will happen again.

Is anyone else still on the fence like I am?

[plaidchuck]

Well I would say if you were done by december last year there won't nearly be enough changed to hold your interest this time...

I myself am studying abroad so this kind of makes the decision not to buy even easier, although it willl suck if I get it after christmas and the EASHL is its typical glitch fest.

[SlyBelle]

First year in a long time I struggled whether to pull the trigger. As you have seen with my other posts, my only real complaint right now is lack of penalties, everything else I enjoy and can live with. Because of the penalty issue, I was not going to buy it this year until confirmed fix. However, I am going to put me faith in a tuner/patch update will fix it at some point and acutally buy it now. But the main reason I was able to make this decision is I got it for $30 (after discounts from other amazon sales). Plus, you get $10 in credit from amazon when you buy it, so in the end really only cost me $20. If I had to pay $60, I would have probably waited until confirmed fix.

[Flyermania]

Nope, after all of the initial impressions I am no longer on the fence. I will 100% not be buying NHL12. Congrats on yet again messing up a good thing in this series EA!

[RealmK]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flyermania

Nope, after all of the initial impressions I am no longer on the fence. I will 100% not be buying NHL12. Congrats on yet again messing up a good thing in this series EA!

Hardly a fair statement. The game play is actually to the point of being as close to hockey as you're prolly going to get in a video game. But hey feel free to hate for the sake of hating.

It has its issues still, and has weakness in areas that should be far better at this point in it's lifecycle (over all presentation) But talking like the game is complete garbage is really off point.

[Ktulu]

Just waiting to find out if PS3 voice chat actually works properly this year. Sick of the choppiness and some people not being able to hear others. Play Battlefield 2 with same group of friends and voice chat works perfectly, but hockey? It sucks every year and at some point you have to vote with your wallet.

You'd think that the nhl devs could steal the tech from the bf2 devs, it's all under EA.

[spike83]

I'm on the fence as well given what I'm reading.

I'll do what I did for Madden. Rent it on launch day (it confirmed all my fears and saved me $60.00). Besides, with FIFA out in two weeks, NBA 2K a week later and The Show still getting plenty of play time, NHL will be on the shelf in a hurry.

[Flyermania]

Quote: Originally Posted by RealmK

Hardly a fair statement. The game play is actually to the point of being as close to hockey as you're prolly going to get in a video game. But hey feel free to hate for the sake of hating. It has its issues still, and has weakness in areas that should be far better at this point in it's lifecycle (over all presentation) But talking like the game is complete garbage is really off point.

Hate for the sake of hating? Seriously? I realize my opinion is different than yours, but that is way off base and you know it. Like your endless rants against 2k, I just call them like I see them -- and that applies regardless who makes the game.

I see numerous issues that have plagued this series for 3-4 years...issues that are ignored because all of the effort is on the online aspects. As I recall, there are usually actual penalties that occur in an NHL game -- not sure how blowing this key element makes the game "as close to hockey as you're going to get". Maybe my expectations are too high, but I actually like to see things fixed and improvement from one year to the next.

But if you're happy with it, more power to you as that's all that really matters.