NHL 11 - Catch-All

TheCounselor wrote:

Amazon shipped my preorder today. Of course, with the holiday, I won't get it until Tuesday.

I'd be down to try another league. Hopefully we can get it to work this year.

I want my crappy Sabres, though.

That's okay, I will take the Blues, who are not going to be too good in the game.

I am in as alawys my biggest complaint is that I wish that NHL 11 wasn't 69.99 but I can't wait for it and the addition of CHL teams is amazing.

I am so tempted to run out to walmart at midnight hoping to find someone who might have access to go get it. No midnight launches here in the US from what I can tell.

My copy just came. Too bad I'm at the office, then I have a court appearance tonight.

I got it. Played one game. It's good. All good. Scoring *feels* easier, but hard to tell after only one game on default settings. (4-2, Sweden - Belarus. Insert Tommy Salo Joke here.)

magnus wrote:

I got it. Played one game. It's good. All good. Scoring *feels* easier, but hard to tell after only one game on default settings. (4-2, Sweden - Belarus. Insert Tommy Salo Joke here.)

Sweden? Who plays as Sweden?! Ick.

Driving over right now to get it. Will have to wait until tonight to play.

Abner review.

NHL 11 is the best game EA Sports has ever made. The gameplay is certifiably brilliant – the best I have ever seen in any EA Sports game – ever.

edit: Added quote.

One online game is now officially under my belt, and I'm 1-0! My Blues took down Boston 2-0, although the second goal was an empty netter with less that five seconds left. Steen scored my only real goal early in the first.

Right now, the worst part was the lag. It was a laggy mess of a game. I willing to give them a break on the first day, but it was far too much lag to play online regularly at all.

Otherwise, everything is just awesome.

The other worst part of the game was TJ Oshie getting Oshied and taken off the ice in the first period. He never returned. EA is messing with my man crush.

Seriously, the new physics work great, but might be the source of the online lag? The hit Oshie took was freaking beautiful, if not brutal. But real-time physics means lots more info is getting sent up and down the tubes.

You guys suck. Now I have to skip out of here early and play a game.

Oh, wait. That's awesome!

After a 8-3 win and then a 10-2 win I'm moving up from Pro to All-Pro. Too easy on default so far.

I just played my first game, with my Ultimate Team.

It's awesome. The new puck physics are really cool. The Ultimate Team mode seems like it will suck up the majority of my time.

Psycho and I just had 2 amazing games. So many awesome details and organic moments. I lost both games and I don't care because it was so friggin' cool.

Kicking and screaming, EA Canada is pulling me into using manual aim, they are.

It turns out that this year's most addictive feature, Ultimate Team, is just like online play in that it does not allow auto-aim, even in offline mode. I guess this is fair.

So last night I decided to figure this aim thing out. I started by playing with Pittsburgh on rookie, but that was annoying. Rookie mode is not just easier, but there are continual pop-ups with instructions on how to use the different controls. and they repeat. A lot. So after scoring a goal with Crosby, I shut that down.

Next, I fired up a game on Pro, but used the Blues against one of the European teams with a terrible goalie. What I did was just concentrate on trying to hit corners. After every shot, I would hit the replay, use the meters that show where your sticks are when and look at what i did, and try to figure out whatI should have done. I finished up the first period with just one goal.

But things started to click in the second period, as I fired in three more goals. My favorite was a slapshot by Backes from pretty far out to the right. I aimed to the far side, but the pock hit the goalie in the chest, but glanced off to the left. McDonald was crashing the net (which the AI seems to be able to do even better than last year) and popped in the rebound. But overall, I was seeing the benefit of aiming, and finding that I was starting to make god decisions. the only thing is that every shot is top shelf. I never feel comfortable going low, even though McDonald's shot probably should have been to the lower left, instead of the top corner.

In the third, the AI got pretty aggressive, and I spent more more time in my end, so even though I only scored one more goal, it didn't feel like a step back. I won the game 5-2. It probably should have been worse, as the team I faced was pretty bad.

So I moved up to playing an NHL team, the Bruins. I did the same, stopping to review every shot with the replay. I was having some pretty severe mixed results. I felt like I was getting it, but the final score was 1-0, Boston. Worse, I followed that with a 3-1 loss to the Islanders, still on Pro. Oh, and I was the Western All-Stars getting just one goal.

So I've got some work to do, but I do admit I am having fun trying to work this out. I think part of the treason I feel comfortable with this is that i am so much more comfortable with the rest of the game now. The last couple of years, I was just trying to figure out how hockey works. I'm a long ways away from feeling like I could play well online, but I also fell like I can get there using the similar method I used to learn the rest of the game. I will just keep it on Pro, and maybe even tilt sliders even more in my favor. Then, as i improve, start sliding the sliders up.

I'd love some suggestions from you guys on what goes through your mind as you begin to take a shot.

Otherwise, this game is a huge step up from last year. The physics just work. I am noticing the difference between players much more now that last year. Checking feels much more realistic, as you can get glancing blows, so it is less hit or miss. Even more, the AI has really improved, not just in terms of more challenging, but they play much more realistically.

The new passing mechanic, where how long you hold the RT down affects how hard the pass is creates a much more realistic feel. When you fire a puck too hard from too close, it will get mishandled. Pass it too soft and you lose momentum trying to receive it, or worse, the AI will grab it. But then you start to get what you need to do to pass the puck around, and it just feels very organic.

It's pretty clear after one day, that this is a suitable upgrade, because I'm not sure I could go back to 10.

Oh, and having actual international rinks is going to be great. I played out some of the games from the Olympics last year, as they got the national teams right with a roster update, but was disappointed that I was still playing on an NHL size rink. This is a great addition to the game.

So yeah, this will be my new addiction for some time.

Good impressions, Jayhawker.

As far as my theory on shooting, and I'm hardly a great player, but I generally try to pull the goalie out of position, and adjust my shot aim to compensate for what the goalie does. You're generally going to get more goals if you can get a shot off from the slot, as the goalie can't hug the post and shut down most of the net. Seems like I have better luck going stick side, but there's no scientific basis for that.

I've only played two games so far, but it seems like rebound goals are going to be a bigger factor this year with the new physics.

I played the season opener with my Sabres this morning, and had quite the barn burner on the difficulty on higher than Pro (All Star?). I took a 2-0 lead into the third against the Senators. They scored with about ten minutes left, then potted one with less than 30 seconds left and their goalie out of the net. I won the draw, got the puck to Vanek, who worked himself into the slot and scored with 9.7 seconds left. It was exciting.

Finally, they leaked the new Sabres' sweaters this morning, and they need to unlock them in NHL 11 now.

TheCounselor wrote:

I played the season opener with my Sabres this morning

Wait, there are people that actually like the Sabres, too? Dogs and cats, living together... mass hysteria!

I played a season mode game this morning and got my ass handed to me by the CPU-controlled Senators, 3 - 1. I'm playing Hardcore game style with increased fatigue effect and decreased recovery to get all lines reasonable ice time. My third line defense got caught on a long shift and got burned on a breakaway. It was an amazing goal as the CPU player pushed the puck ahead to get some distance and then deked Ward out into the parking lot. You truly do not want to give breakaways to the CPU, they'll cash in.

I simply can't get over how "hockey like" the games feel. Very few things feel scripted, the puck is lively -- be sure if you're using hardcore to turn down the CPU accuracy one notch since otherwise they have even more of an advantage with the manual passing -- and it's just so damned fun.

I had a blast with the 2 games I played with Coldie last night. All the little details really add to the experience. Afterward, I played one game online with my ultimate hockey team or whatever the hell it's called. I lost 2-0, but I didn't feel like the game was out of my reach. A few more good scoring chances and I think I could have won.

Anyway, if we're doing a league I'll take the Sharks. If not, feel free to seek me out online if you want a game.

Jayhawker wrote:

I'd love some suggestions from you guys on what goes through your mind as you begin to take a shot.

I'd love to tell you wonderful wisdom but as anyone who plays me often knows quite well when I shoot the only thought that goes through my mind is apparently SHOOT HIGH GLOVE SIDE. What can I say, I get in ruts.

EDIT: In more depressing, slightly off-topic news both Psycho and I noticed that the trade-in price of the game was $25... as we were laying down our $59.99 to walk out with it. What a racket, eh?

ColdForged wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

I played the season opener with my Sabres this morning

Wait, there are people that actually like the Sabres, too? Dogs and cats, living together... mass hysteria!

Yep, those are the people that bought all the tickets when the Sabres played the Canes in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2006.

What difficulty level are you guys playing on? I'm outshooting the CPU by a lot on All-Pro(Or is it All-star? I forget). As Toronto, just outshot Boston by 41-7 in a 5min period game...

Won the game 4-0, which seemed realistic given the number of shots I got.

magnus wrote:

What difficulty level are you guys playing on? I'm outshooting the CPU by a lot on All-Pro(Or is it All-star? I forget). As Toronto, just outshot Boston by 41-7 in a 5min period game...

Won the game 4-0, which seemed realistic given the number of shots I got.

Note: Ignore game requests made by Magnus.

Seriously, I'm sticking to Pro for right now. I've gotten pretty good results.

How aggressive do you keep your forechecking and such?

Also, I've got a player in HUT that I cannot figure out how to get into my line-up. He appears in My Collection, but he is not even among my scratched players. I don't mind waiting to plug him in until I improve my shooting and build up some contract cards, but how do I activate him? The only options seem to be Discard and Send to Trade Pile.

Jayhawker wrote:

How aggressive do you keep your forechecking and such?

Well, I poke check a lot in the neutral zone and force them outside with my forwards, then check them on the outside with my defense. Don't do that much forechecking, really.

Hmph. 36-10 in shots the game after in my favor. I lost 5-2.

Jayhawker wrote:

Also, I've got a player in HUT that I cannot figure out how to get into my line-up. He appears in My Collection, but he is not even among my scratched players. I don't mind waiting to plug him in until I improve my shooting and build up some contract cards, but how do I activate him? The only options seem to be Discard and Send to Trade Pile.

Do you need to give him a contract? I plan on doing some serious HUT when I get home, and hopefully that should be soon!

Here's a question for everyone. My copy's winging its way to me via GameFly, but I wonder if a concern from last year is still hanging around. Other than scoring seeming a little too difficult at times, is there finally some distance between the players? By which I mean, are the elites really elite? I remember watching the Caps play about a year and a half ago, and not only did the crowd catch its breath when Ovie got the puck, but you could see everyone on the opposing side think "Jesus Christ, not this guy again" whenever he did, and every shot felt like it might nestle in the twine.

Now, I know that Ovie's a special case, and certainly there aren't a cavalcade of players in the NHL capable of making people that afraid, but it's a gripe that i've had with EA games for a while now. Last year, the league's elite scorers never really felt like elite scorers to me, i'd get my 3rd-liners scoring more than their fair share of goals, even with limited ice time. Do the really good players feel really good?

EDIT: Roughly 4:25 in. Bleurgh.

Well, I just dominated and destroyed Counselor. He should feel lucky that it was only 2-1.

Seriously, I lucked out after he outshot and outhit me by a factor of about 3-1. He just couldn't catch a lucky bounce, and nothing he shot found the net until Halak was literally about 2 feet to the right of his crease. That shot went in!

Pred, I think there is a definite difference in the elite players from my experience so far. Weight and speed matter so much, that a big guy with quickness is devastating.

Do others agree?

Yeah, that was a good game, JayHawker. I screwed myself by trying to get too cute with the passes from the goalie.

One tip for scoring: if you're looking to get shots from the point through, and pick up some rebounds, you might want to shoot it low. It works, just like in the real NHL. Imagine that.

I haven't played with any elite players yet, but I can tell the difference between an NHL guy and a minor leaguer that I'm using on my Ultimate Team.

I should have played the demo. Think it's too late?

TheCounselor wrote:

I should have played the demo. Think it's too late?

I'm not sure. But I heard you got another pack if you won a HUT tournament kin the demo, and I never tried it. I may go back and see if it pays off.

I booted up the demo and played one game, and nothing happened when I logged back in. I deleted the demo after that. I'd rather just pay the $2 then spending my time trying to get free packs from the demo when the full game is out. Of course, now I know for next year.