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NHL 10 News Post

The NHL 10 demo is available for the Xbox 360. Post your impressions here. The PS3 demo will be available next week.

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Game: NHL 10Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 28 - View All
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# 21 Ridgeberg @ 08/20/09 07:11 AM
Whoohoo. Found it. It was in under All Demos for me.
Should we post impressions in here or under a new Impressions thread?
 
# 22 Fiddy @ 08/20/09 07:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ExtremeGamer
If you're on the console, look by all demos and search for N. It's in there.

Mine's under new arrivals as well though, along with Dirt 2.
thanks for tip, i was about to turn off the box and chalk up another jump the gun thread here lol..

thanks again..
 
# 23 VeryEvilAsh @ 08/20/09 07:45 AM
Couldn't ask for a better demo. Fighting is sweet, crowd is sweet, puck physics are sweet, board play is super sweet!! This will keep me occupied until the real game comes out!
 
# 24 Ridgeberg @ 08/20/09 07:52 AM
Well here are some impressions:

I've played 2 games so far (Battle for the Cup). Both on Hardcore mode. The first game I was Pittsburgh and the difficulty setting was on Pro. The game ended 2-0. I took over when it was 2-0 in the 3rd, so it was pretty uneventful. Heard a "We Want the Cup!" chant from Detroit's fans in the first game and "MVP" chant in the second game after Osgood made a nice save.

Graphics are largely the same. New equipment looks good. Line changes seem more reactive and there is a bigger interface, though it is pretty much the same as last year. Crowd sounds much better as do shots, passes, saves. Passing on Hardcore is HARDCORE! You'll have to break the habit of passing it as soon as you get it (on dumps and such). I've had difficulty making passes out of the zone, even though I think I have it pretty well lined up. I think holding the RT to get the proper pass speed is going to be most difficult and will be the thing that throws people off the most, at first. Board play is fantastic. It is going to be a great weapon, I am going to try to start using it as much as possible near the corners. If you don't the CPU will come in a get it.

The CPU game (on All-Star) is tough. They scored a goal on me (deflection from a point shot, off of my defenseman) and I had a real hard time getting into the offensive zone. If you have a player bringing it through the neutral zone with speed, most times a defenseman will meet you (and knock you on your butt) around the blue line. I am going to try to dump it a little more in the next game.

CPU players do a pretty good job of avoiding aggressive defensive players but it doesn't come off looking all that realistic. They will turn back or loop around in order to avoid the check. It kind of reminds me of FIFA 09 (for those that have played) when an attacking player will turn around and run in a circle to avoid a challenge.

I'll post some more after I get some more games in.
If any of you have specific questions, feel free to ask (Hank, I'm looking at you!)

Edit: Woohoo! Scored by first goal. On the PP, point shot from Stuart, deflected by Franzen. This of course was after Guerin scored a nice rebound goal.

Another cool touch, during the Finals, when they show a graphic overlay (after a goal or penalty, etc...) there is a picture of the Stanley Cup behind the players head, a nice touch signifying the playoffs.

Edit 2: Rebounds seem a little big, they might need to be tuned down, hopefully there is a slider. Stick lift seems much less effective and it seems that players known for their defense do it better (ie: Datsyuk, Lidstrom). It also seems like dump ins are a lot better. The longer you hold the RB button, the higher the puck goes. If you tap RB and Up, it will be almost like a line drive dump.

Played a Be-A-Pro game. Got 2 slashing penalties. It was fun. It is North American Jrs. vs. Wold Jrs. Player names are pretty recycled and pretty funny looking, but whatever. One thing I am starting to notice is that CPU does not really make mistakes passing. I think this is more noticeable because, right now, I am pretty bad at it. I cannot maintain possession for a long time and the CPU can spend a minute or so in my zone. I think adjusting the CPU passing slider will be necessary though.

Went into Shootout for the prospects game. It seems more fluid to me. Dekes are smooter and seem more physically appropriate. Also, goalies really stand out while making saves, although a lot of them go down early and then making some sort of split-save animation to recover. It doesn't look bad though. I was drafted #13 by Atlanta (yecch!)

Another chant I heard "Send 'em home! CLAP CLAP CLAP, Send 'em home! CLAP CLAP CLAP"
 
# 25 crobert0247 @ 08/20/09 08:24 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ExtremeGamer
If you're on the console, look by all demos and search for N. It's in there.

Mine's under new arrivals as well though, along with Dirt 2.
I got up at 5:00AM this morning and didn't see it in New Arrivals so I went back to sleep. I awoke a couple hours later and automatically went to All Demos and then to the N section. It was hard to miss the Blackhawk red and Kanees mouthpeice. DL'g now. Will play in a bit!
 
# 26 Inapprope @ 08/20/09 08:26 AM
Well there goes any hopes of me being productive after I get off work tonight... Can't wait to download this.
 
# 27 Qb @ 08/20/09 08:37 AM
Hot damn! I love being wrong about stuff like this...
 
# 28 The Visualizer @ 08/20/09 08:44 AM
FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Just played 3 Battle for the Cup games (All-Star/Hardcore). I pretty much echo everyone else's impressions.

Hardcore Passing is great, gonna take some getting used to to get the speed to the pass down pat. One thing that kind of bothers me is that you can't hold down the pass button for as long as you want like you could for saucer passes last year. Seen a good number of passes that I thought I aimed pretty good not received by my teammates, I think you gotta really take into account which side of your teammate you want to pass it to, not just right at them.

A.I. did some nice one-on-one dekes when I got a little aggressive with my checking similar to the one shown by Littman in the latest blog videos. I like how you can miss checks/pin to the boards because the warping is gone.

Seen some new goalie animations that looked cool. CPU goalie (Osgood) seemed to have some difficulty handling the puck on more than one occasion.

I like the improvements they made to the dump pass mechanics, gotta play around with it a little more as it seemed I could not float one high once I crossed center ice.

The after the play stuff is cool, teams go a little wild when you mess with them. I wish they separated the buttons for face-washing & slashing/cross-checking so I didnt do some heinous stuff by accident. Gonna start targeting star players and see if I can get them off the ice. I really like the fighting, its pretty well done, theres some room for improvement as its still a little wide open, needs to be more clutching/grabbing at least in some of them.

Loving the new placement of the push-puck button (LT), wont be doing accidental saucer passes no more now. I tried skating towards guys using the pass block button (LB) and my guy didnt face up correctly like Litty said they would in the latest blog video. Will have to play around with this more to see if maybe Im doing something wrong. Like someone said already stick-lifts dont seem automatic anymore which is great news as it was abused last year.

I noticed my CPU defenders did a poor job of defending the cross crease passes, they seemed to react like they did in 09 despite what the blog videos showed. Gotta play a little more and see if this is really the case. Like someone else said they act weird in the neutral zone, constantly turning around when you dont let them carry over the blue line. They do this at least twice before trying to dump it if you have everything defended well. On a good note, CPU D did do a good job of pinching me as soon as I crossed the blue line on a lot of occasions causing turnovers that wouldn't have happened last year.

Board play is everything its cracked up to be. Littman talked about it like it was 1 option you could use to play a dump & chase style. Well he is a damn liar, because its gonna be absolutely essential to master this and use it often if you want to win this year no matter what strategies you use.

Lastly, the puck physics are awesome, lots of strange redirections of skates and sticks like they showed in the blog videos.
 
# 29 Ridgeberg @ 08/20/09 08:45 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTheorenHobbes
Are there any new camera angles to choose from, or any differences to the camera angles used in past games (particularly the broadcast or side view)? Thanks!
Camera angles are:

Ice
Classic
Overhead
Broadcast
Action

So far, I've only played using Ice. It seems the same to me.
 
# 30 DragonDemonico @ 08/20/09 08:53 AM
Ugh, owning a PS3 means I shall go insane before it's released....
 
# 31 davep @ 08/20/09 08:56 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Visualizer
FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Just played 3 Battle for the Cup games (All-Star/Hardcore). I pretty much echo everyone else's impressions.

Hardcore Passing is great, gonna take some getting used to to get the speed to the pass down pat. One thing that kind of bothers me is that you can't hold down the pass button for as long as you want like you could for saucer passes last year. Seen a good number of passes that I thought I aimed pretty good not received by my teammates, I think you gotta really take into account which side of your teammate you want to pass it to, not just right at them.

A.I. did some nice one-on-one dekes when I got a little aggressive with my checking similar to the one shown by Littman in the latest blog videos. I like how you can miss checks/pin to the boards because the warping is gone.

Seen some new goalie animations that looked cool. CPU goalie (Osgood) seemed to have some difficulty handling the puck on more than one occasion.

I like the improvements they made to the dump pass mechanics, gotta play around with it a little more as it seemed I could not float one high once I crossed center ice.

The after the play stuff is cool, teams go a little wild when you mess with them. I wish they separated the buttons for face-washing & slashing/cross-checking so I didnt do some heinous stuff by accident. Gonna start targeting star players and see if I can get them off the ice. I really like the fighting, its pretty well done, theres some room for improvement as its still a little wide open, needs to be more clutching/grabbing at least in some of them.

Loving the new placement of the push-puck button (LT), wont be doing accidental saucer passes no more now. I tried skating towards guys using the pass block button (LB) and my guy didnt face up correctly like Litty said they would in the latest blog video. Will have to play around with this more to see if maybe Im doing something wrong. Like someone said already stick-lifts dont seem automatic anymore which is great news as it was abused last year.

I noticed my CPU defenders did a poor job of defending the cross crease passes, they seemed to react like they did in 09 despite what the blog videos showed. Gotta play a little more and see if this is really the case. Like someone else said they act weird in the neutral zone, constantly turning around when you dont let them carry over the blue line. They do this at least twice before trying to dump it if you have everything defended well. On a good note, CPU D did do a good job of pinching me as soon as I crossed the blue line on a lot of occasions causing turnovers that wouldn't have happened last year.

Board play is everything its cracked up to be. Littman talked about it like it was 1 option you could use to play a dump & chase style. Well he is a damn liar, because its gonna be absolutely essential to master this and use it often if you want to win this year no matter what strategies you use.

Lastly, the puck physics are awesome, lots of strange redirections of skates and sticks like they showed in the blog videos.
Nice write up, thanks! So the cpu D is aggressive in the neutral zone and there's not as much up and down?
 
# 32 davep @ 08/20/09 09:10 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by RealmK
Much more so. I'm having trouble just moving through the neutral zone on Allstar and Superstar. The Cpu AI actually forces you to dump and chase and use board play to get a forecheck going this year.
Nice, thanks! As a casual hockey fan this makes me very happy!
 
# 33 Bolts_26 @ 08/20/09 09:33 AM
Qb, I love how my thread came 1 hour before this one yet you felt the need to close mine.
 
# 34 Qb @ 08/20/09 09:39 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolts_26
Qb, I love how my thread came 1 hour before this one yet you felt the need to close mine.
This one was stickied (not by me) and had multiple pages of replies. It should be tagged for the homepage shortly. I didn't even look at the time stamp.

EDIT: I just checked the time stamps. This thread was started at 5:45AM, the other at 8:42AM. We only need one impressions thread and this one was already off and running...
 
# 35 plaidchuck @ 08/20/09 10:04 AM
Ugh Stupid PS Store.. hasn't even been updated yet, well maybe they go by pacific time and something will happen around Noon EST...
 
# 36 Ridgeberg @ 08/20/09 10:10 AM
Hey guys,

Has anyone figured out how to do a drop pass like Datsyuk made for Holmstrom in one of the first raw gameplay footage videos?

Also, how do you face wash?
 
# 37 Spanky @ 08/20/09 10:16 AM
Are you able to play with throwback jerseys for Pens and Wings?
 
# 38 bricap @ 08/20/09 10:19 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by plaidchuck
Ugh Stupid PS Store.. hasn't even been updated yet, well maybe they go by pacific time and something will happen around Noon EST...
PSN store updates at 7:00PM EST for me. If you really don't want to wait create a European account, which should get you the game by around 2:00PM EST.
 
# 39 18 eighty 5 @ 08/20/09 10:24 AM
This demo!!! Love it!!!

The gameplay refinements make this game feel so much more like a real hockey game. I have played a number of Battle for the Cups on hardcore and it will take some time to get the it down but it just feels so much better.

You really can just pass the puck off into space or to no one in particular if you want to. I was sceptical that the loose puck passing would be just animations instead of really being loose. PES and FIFA are notorious for this.

The ai are much smater and scoring goals just feels terrific.

The board play is a huge improvement over 09. At one point I had three guys pushing up against one defender on the boards. Entering board play is really smooth and the battles feel legit. You can even keep pinning someone after the play has moved on, it just looks and plays more like a scrappy hockey game and takes away from the up/down up/down fest of years past.

Visually the game is nearly identical to 09 except for the crowd who occassionally do stuff and its a nice touch. For example, I was moving the puck up screen and all of a sudden the entire crowd behind the goals got up and waved their towels, was a nice touch.

Crowd chants are better and so is the reaction to on ice play.

One thing, its a little thing but I love it is that we can finally reduce the puck shadow to the smallest setting which actually reduces the shadow to almost nothing this year. It makes the game look so much better.

Last year I didn't DL the 09 demo I played it when I purchased it and after a few games I was dissapointed. This demo is a big step up. I can imagine lots of fun unpredictable hockey this year.
The puck physics and turnovers are definitely there.

Glad I have the demo cause it will take some time to get used to the new feel.
 
# 40 ggazoo @ 08/20/09 10:33 AM
How are the cut scenes? Especially the goalies; are we seeing the same cut scenes that we've seen for the past two years?
 


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