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NHL12 Video Game Thread

Bender

Well-known member
I didn't see a thread about the game yet... hopefully this is the first.

According to the EA Website the NHL12 demo comes out today! I want to skip work to go play it.

What's your favourite addition this year?
 
I can't remember all the additions to this years version, but I considered waking up an hour early today to download and play it before work, this evening can't get here fast enough !
 
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are now interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.
 
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

Yeah, doesn't seem like too much of a change from years previous, but nonetheless I'll pick it up. It's basically the only video game I play any more apart from the odd game that will catch my eye.
 
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?
 
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?

No you can play a full 4 years in the CHL and then move up to AHL and then NHL.  I think you even get drafted into the CHL.
 
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?

No you can play a full 4 years in the CHL and then move up to AHL and then NHL.  I think you even get drafted into the CHL.

Holy crap, so 4 years in the CHL, possibly a year or two in the AHL and then the NHL, so you are looking at a minimum 5 seasons (if you jump right away from the NHL from being drafted), to winning the cup. I don't have the time to play that many seasons in a year lol
 
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?

No you can play a full 4 years in the CHL and then move up to AHL and then NHL.  I think you even get drafted into the CHL.

Holy crap, so 4 years in the CHL, possibly a year or two in the AHL and then the NHL, so you are looking at a minimum 5 seasons (if you jump right away from the NHL from being drafted), to winning the cup. I don't have the time to play that many seasons in a year lol

LOL.  Ya, I rarely play more than 1 season in GM mode.  I've maybe done 2.  But it sound very interesting.  Probably more geared towards kids who have all the time in the world to play video games.
 
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?

No you can play a full 4 years in the CHL and then move up to AHL and then NHL.  I think you even get drafted into the CHL.

Holy crap, so 4 years in the CHL, possibly a year or two in the AHL and then the NHL, so you are looking at a minimum 5 seasons (if you jump right away from the NHL from being drafted), to winning the cup. I don't have the time to play that many seasons in a year lol

LOL.  Ya, I rarely play more than 1 season in GM mode.  I've maybe done 2.  But it sound very interesting.  Probably more geared towards kids who have all the time in the world to play video games.

Yea, most likely, in college (8 years ago) I would play at least a dozen games a night if nothing was going on against random people that walked by. I used to be really good at it and only lost twice to one guy, who I eventually learned how he played and he never beat me again, now I am lucky to score a few goals against most people I play.
 
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?

No you can play a full 4 years in the CHL and then move up to AHL and then NHL.  I think you even get drafted into the CHL.

Holy crap, so 4 years in the CHL, possibly a year or two in the AHL and then the NHL, so you are looking at a minimum 5 seasons (if you jump right away from the NHL from being drafted), to winning the cup. I don't have the time to play that many seasons in a year lol

LOL.  Ya, I rarely play more than 1 season in GM mode.  I've maybe done 2.  But it sound very interesting.  Probably more geared towards kids who have all the time in the world to play video games.

Yea, most likely, in college (8 years ago) I would play at least a dozen games a night if nothing was going on against random people that walked by. I used to be really good at it and only lost twice to one guy, who I eventually learned how he played and he never beat me again, now I am lucky to score a few goals against most people I play.

I use to like playing against others, but here in California, there aren't too many to play against.  Besides, the computer has gotten a lot better over the years and actually resembles plays that teams would actually make in real life.  So, it's challenging enough.
 
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
Leafaholic99 said:
jonlleafs said:
I went through some of the features and it looks interesting.  If anything, I'd want to get this game for the upgraded roster to the Leafs.  The last roster update for last season made this team a lot better versus when the season started. 

But the things that I thought were nice improvements were the goalies are not interactive and can be knocked over and the weight of the players matter more now.  You can also start your career from the CHL.  All-in-all, it's more of an update I think.  Nothing radical.

By starting in the CHL, do you mean playing a season there or like last year, playing in the top prospects game, which after that was the draft?

No you can play a full 4 years in the CHL and then move up to AHL and then NHL.  I think you even get drafted into the CHL.

Holy crap, so 4 years in the CHL, possibly a year or two in the AHL and then the NHL, so you are looking at a minimum 5 seasons (if you jump right away from the NHL from being drafted), to winning the cup. I don't have the time to play that many seasons in a year lol

LOL.  Ya, I rarely play more than 1 season in GM mode.  I've maybe done 2.  But it sound very interesting.  Probably more geared towards kids who have all the time in the world to play video games.

One thing I wish they would change is that you have an option to turn off the ability to play games for your team in GM mode. Without playing the games you're at a horrible handicap. If you do on PRO mode then you're likely to win every game. So cheap.

I've always wanted the ability to run the goalies. I used to have a crappy SNES game called ESPN National Hockey Night. It was atrocious, but it was hilarious in the sense that you could bowl the goalie completely over and score without getting a penalty called. You could even run over your own teammates. Repeatedly.

Good Times.

Anyway! I thought this was interesting: Anticipation AI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKf31N3OJck

Now to get my ass out of my cubicle and into the Playstation Store :)
 
If you can run over goalies, hopefully they can be injured too, well its wrong to want to injure them, its just a game and goalies never get injured in these games besides fatigue.
 
So I've finished playing an hour or so of the game.

Some thoughts:

1) The game is better than last year.

The transitions are much more polished, I like the presentation and music more.

Anticipation AI does work, players are actually ready for the outlet pass.

Opposing defenders use a stick sweep as you're coming at them to get you away from making the pass.

It's a lot harder to score. Exploits seem a lot harder to come by.

Goaltender animations are much, much better. There're far more realistic rebounds and saves.

Overall the game is more fluid and more enjoyable.

Opposing team does a great job of clearing the puck while you're on the PP.

Collision animations are a lot better.


Needs Improvement:

The opponent AI is still kind of dopey. They don't seem to have any semblence of strategy while playing against them.

Hits are waayyyy too exaggerated. Any player can lay out almost anyone else except for Chara and actually send them flying. The hits feel like NHL Hitz, it's just too much.

Players still don't skate to their respective sides when a faceoff is called, they just stop skating like idiots.

Pre-recorded animations for pretty much everything kinda sucks. I always felt it took some of the polish away from the game. It wouldn't be hard to code the players skating to the bench properly and having semi-randomized camera angles.

That's it for now :)
 
Oh, and the HUT loaded me with good players.

My top 10 players in no particular order:

Mike Cammalleri
Jeff Skinner
Jarome Iginla
Taylor Hall
John Tavares
Michael Grabner
Corey Perry
Andy McDonald
Duncan Keith
Kevin Shattenkirk

Oh, and Jussi Rynnas :)
 
Bender said:
So I've finished playing an hour or so of the game.

Some thoughts:

1) The game is better than last year.

The transitions are much more polished, I like the presentation and music more.

Anticipation AI does work, players are actually ready for the outlet pass.

Opposing defenders use a stick sweep as you're coming at them to get you away from making the pass.

It's a lot harder to score. Exploits seem a lot harder to come by.

Goaltender animations are much, much better. There're far more realistic rebounds and saves.

Overall the game is more fluid and more enjoyable.

Opposing team does a great job of clearing the puck while you're on the PP.

Collision animations are a lot better.


Needs Improvement:

The opponent AI is still kind of dopey. They don't seem to have any semblence of strategy while playing against them.

Hits are waayyyy too exaggerated. Any player can lay out almost anyone else except for Chara and actually send them flying. The hits feel like NHL Hitz, it's just too much.

Players still don't skate to their respective sides when a faceoff is called, they just stop skating like idiots.

Pre-recorded animations for pretty much everything kinda sucks. I always felt it took some of the polish away from the game. It wouldn't be hard to code the players skating to the bench properly and having semi-randomized camera angles.

That's it for now :)

Nice, thanks for the good first impressions.  I'll have to download it when I get home. 
 
So I started season 2 in GM mode on NHL 11 and one thing I hope to God they fixed is the penalties in NHL12.  I had played season 1 with penalties off and it was so much better, but I missed the powerplays and penalty kills.  The ref calls for penalties in the game are horrible and it seems like it's almost a given that the computer scores on a PP.  I'm playing on All-star mode so it's quite a challenge.  I mean, you barely touch the guy on a check or you try to lift up their stick and it's a slashing/hooking call.  It's BS.  I have the penalties slider all the way down to the last rung too but I end up getting like 8 minors in a game.  How is that right when the slider is all the way down on the last rung?  IMO, it completely alters the game and it's so frustrating that I want to just turn penalties off.  I hope they either a) fix the slider to work right, b) reduce the calls made by refs, or c) have another button for lifting the stick.  I find that if you can't lift the stick of the CPU player, you'll never win the battles for the puck.  Computer always gets the puck first.  Anyways, I'm hoping this is fixed.
 
Well apparently its easier to get a goaltender interference call in NHL 12, the goalies get knocked down easily with the slightest bump apparently.
 
Has anybody gotten into a goalie fight in the demo?  I heard that was supposed to be one of the new things added to this year's game but I can't figure out how to do it.
 
coming from a guy who doesn't buy much nhl games do you people see a point in buying it every year?  Just wondering because I'm thinking of getting it but I might just get nhl11 for much cheaper and play that.  Would the nhl11 have a roster update? 
 
McPwnage said:
coming from a guy who doesn't buy much nhl games do you people see a point in buying it every year?  Just wondering because I'm thinking of getting it but I might just get nhl11 for much cheaper and play that.  Would the nhl11 have a roster update?

The last update did not have the newest players on it.  The last update that I did was just this week.  So, you'll be missing out on that.  If you haven't bought in a while, I'd get NHL12.
 
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