NHL 11 Demo - Out NOW

[Rudi]

I wanna hear ya'lls impressions on the 360 later tonight. Cant get PS3 version till tomorrow.

 

[leaffan]

Le Sigh,

I have a dummy load of work tomorrow now thanks to a couple certain companies being lazy.

 

[Krebs]

i probably will stay away from the internet tmrw because i wont be able to take it...lol

 

[leaffan]

Allright starting the download now.

1.19GBs for those who are wondering. I'm going to be playing this off and on this morning. I'm more worried about gameplay myself so I'm excited to see what changes they made there.

 

[Krebs]

ill be at work til 5, i havent touched it yet...

 

[leaffan]

Played a battle for the cup. Used the hawks and won 7-1 lol.

Settings must be on Pro using Hardcore gameplay due to the gameplay feeling really really slow although when I had someone like campbell or hossa flying down the win they actually were skating faster then some. I didn't go over the tutorial thing so i didn't know how to do the speed burst thing yet.

Passing on this mode was still shit. Although I'm one of those people that hated the way they did "hardcore" passing. I've never thought it was anything realistic.

Hitting seems fairly good. I tried hitting pronger with hossa and it wasn't happening. Layed out a bunch of people with Keith and Seabrook.

ONE TIMERS FINALLY WORK! This was a huge part of my offensive strategy in 10 and it rarely worked since they missed the one timers so much.

The faceoff thing well I should of watched the tutorial. I had no idea what I was doing.

 

[leaffan]

Off to play a game as the flyers now.

 

[leaffan]

Stick lifting appears to be toned down and players don't seem to have that shock effect they had before. It was hard to test it out though as I didn't get much chance to stick lift.

Running people over with pronger was hilarious. Can't wait to start a be a gm with the leafs defense running people over.

Changing lines feel slow and sluggish. The user interface doesn't pop up right away like before as it has this little fade in effect. Thats kinda annoying as I usually change them rather quickly and now it seems I have to wait a second or two just for the thing to pop up.

 

[leaffan]

Guess I'll try that ultimate team thing.

 

[Ravin]

In my one game this morning I played before coming to work, this is what I found.

Game speed was slow it seemed, but I'm not a madden player and I'm not going to bitch about it like they do . I think evey demo seems slower then the final product and then you just get use to it. But other then that, played normal for me.

Passing is as leaf said, a little sticky, but that I believe is hardcore mode.

Physics engine: I really did like the physics. Things happened like they should. One of the flyers was coming down the side and I laid him out in a nice fashion rather then the standard hip check we always got. You also can hit people on breakaways like you should be able to. I hit him from the side and he fell over, no penalty shot as I was skating beside him. The hits also felt a little slow when players went down, but nothing to really care about, as its fun to watch.

I scored two goals, and it was nice to pick a celebration. Was also cool to see a spotlight come out to the one who scored. Tips seem to happen fairly good, and in my opinion the players (AI) are playing position both my team and offence. I had no cross crease chances at all, and I tried to force a few and it didn't work to well. I also saw a broken stick in the net when I scored, but no idea whose stick it was.

Faceoffs I couldn't get. I did some of the things that we saw in the video like tying the person up, and spinning around, but couldn't tell you how I did it. I think once you get a hold of how to do things in the circle, you'll be fine. I didn't read the tutorial as well, so it probably will say how to in there.

Overall, its funny to say, but this is normal for NHL. Improvements are actually there, you can see them, and they are not all messed up.

 

[Ravin]

I also wasn't a fan of the change lines screen, as instead of just being there, it had to do this little animation thing. But I only tried to change lines once.

 

[leaffan]

I've played 3 games and have yet to see or notice a broken stick.

 

[killgod]

Demo was cool.

+ Player physics
I wasn't wowed like the EA team was claiming they were, it was still cool none the less. I'll be wow'd when I see a dman and forward crash down into the goalie and take out the net on a breakaway. That's wow factor. Still, the opponent vs opponent physics are great.

+ Puck Physics
Definitely more variety with the puck and how it acts.

+ Overlays
Improved, although I found the stat overlays for players to have hard to read font depending on the team colors. White on Orange is a bit rough.

+ Faceoffs
I got killed in them while playing, checked out the tutorial afterwards and figured it out quick enough. No where near as complicated as I expected, really quite simple.

+/- AI
The AI seemed better, but still was retarded at times. I had a rush, where I had me and my winger coming into the net (thankfully he didn't veer off into the boards like they would last year) but the THREE opponents in the passing lane failed to take away the pass or my winger. They just skated straight and watched the puck go across them to my player. Like fuck, know your role and take away the shooting lane and the 2nd man in, that's hockey 101. Terrible.

+/- Passing
For the guys above, the game was not on hardcore, this is the new passing.....which is alot like hardcore from last year. It works well except down low when you need to make quick yet hard passes, which I haven't figured out how to do or if it's even possible. Tic Tac Toe's are a thing of beauty and I better be able to do it.

- Commentary
Same ol ish, not surprised. EA hasn't figured out commentary in any game, so didn't expect this to be good.

- Advertising
I don't mind ads in games, I really don't. But WTF @ the Honda logo spotlight during the pre-game intro????? Every EAUHL and EASHL is going to have that? GTFO WITH THAT FAGGOTRY. That's the dumbest shit I've ever seen and takes your new intros and makes them worthless. I drive a Benz, fuck Honda's.

- Goalies
Goalies are still bums. I don't care that it was on pro, these goalies are pure bums. There's no excuse for scoring 7-10 goals on 8-12 shots on ANY difficulty. The EAUHL is going to be a garbage mess with all these CHL goalies to start with. Yuck.

---------- Lack of User Goalie options
WHY THE FUCK DOES EA PREVENT USER GOALIE PLAY IN THE DEMO?! YOU CANT EVEN PLAYER LOCK THIS YEAR. THIS IS THE HARDEST SHIT TO LEARN AND SHITTY USER GOALIES RUIN EASHL GAMES. These 3 weeks of practice would have went a long way, instead the shooters get 3 weeks to find all the easy ways to score, setting up for another year of 5 goals on 15 shots as your average EASHL match. Dumb ass EA.

 

[Ravin]

It is going to be useful now to have a bigger guy on your EASHL team. Someone out there laying the body and knocking guys around. Is making me reconsider my guy at 5'11" 187lbs because he is just going go get thrown around out there.

 

[Ravin]

My game I played was 0-0 after one, and then 6-2 for the Hawks after the second. lol. I lawled, knowing even if I put the controller down, I'd still win the game.

 

[Krebs]

good looks guys, cant wait to get home and play it

 

[Senators26]

Demo is almost done downloading..

Where are the Stanley Cup patches..

 

[wingsfan77]

Nice to see the CPU grow a brain when they're carrying the puck down ice and I take my defenseman out to make a hit they deke out of the way, last year they just let themselves get crushed haha

 

[leaffan]

lol @ these goalies.

Have a shot right in front... its going in 99% of the time.

Shot from the point with no one in front of you, top cheese and its going in.

I hope this is the ai being dumb and not the normal goalies.

Did I mention the passing is gay as hell.

Had two broken sticks finally.

 

[leaffan]

Also I didn't notice a lot of the back and forth passing the cpu did when in your zone. That killed me for offline after a while because it was so predictable.