NHL 12 Catch-All

Jayhawker wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

I admit, I preordered from Amazon.

I admit, the reason I payed the sucker fee for EA's Season Pass last week to play Madden was that I knew I could download NHL 12 on Friday this week.

IMAGE(http://www.shadowlocked.com/images/stories/features/invasion/Sutherland_scream_Invasion_Of_The_Body_Snatchers_Kaufman_1978.jpg)

I'm posting this here rather than necroing the NHL 11 thread. Is that cool? It's basically the same game. Anyway, I just finished a great game in NHL 11 (wall of text incoming).

Lately I've been going home during lunch and playing a game of NHL 11, eating while playing. I started a Be A Pro game with my self-updated rosters (probably won't get NHL 12 because of this) and have been playing as a Two-Way Defenceman, on the Leafs, on All-Star with the AI difficulty slider most of the way up.

It is hard. Man is NHL 11 ever punishing if you're out of position. But it's a teaching me too, because I've played all the way through my first season and my positioning is tons better. Players were skating past me on 2 on 2s before, no longer. I block more shots, intercept more passes.. I'm still having trouble pushing traffic out from in front of the net, but I'm getting better. My +/- still isn't that good because my teammates can be &*@#% idiots a lot of the time, but +/- is a ridiculous stat anyway. This game is just incredibly fun.

There are real problems though - a lot of the time the AI completely fails to anticipate play, and I use that to my advantage. I scored ~65 goals on the season (crazy for a d-man), and probably half were because I just simply anticipated the play better than anybody else on the ice and took a good shot from a good position. Initially I got a ton of breakaways and I victimized goaltenders on the backhand, but the AI has figured that one out and basically shut it down. The game tells me my positioning could be better (usually get about an A- feedback from the coach), but I could care less when I'm averaging about a point a game.

I just finished the first round of the playoffs today at lunch, vs Washington. What a great series. I refused to change the difficulty slider at all during the series, because I'm determined to win the cup honestly. Won game one 3 - 0. Basically played smothering defence and didn't give them any space to get a decent chance at the net. They had maybe 10 shots in the game. Game 2, went up 2 - 0 in the first, but they scored just before the end of the second period and momentum went their way. Momentum is infuriating in NHL 11, because bad momentum on your team means the stupid AI gets a lobotomy. WHY WON'T YOU DRIVE THE LANE AND GET THE PUCK OUT OF THE ZONE? We lost 3 - 2. Game 3 was more of the same, played back in Washington and my team looked like sh*t the whole time. I picked a fight with Semin in the 3rd period and my Leafs woke up a bit, but it was too little too late.

Game 4 I scored the first goal right away, and Washington responded with 3 goals in the first. Stupid teammates were playing like sh*t and I was getting pissed again. Lose this game and we go down 3 -1 in the series and first round elimination is just around the corner. If I was going to be eliminated I would be eliminated, but there was no way I was going to give up. I started a fight with Brooks Laich in the beginning of the 3rd, and Washington scored again while I was in the box. I cursed my tv. When I got out on the ice again, I pinched aggresively and got pucks on the net. With just over a minute left I scored, making it 4 - 2. I was going to come back and win that game. I was determined. I was going to be freaking Messier, and win that damn game myself if I had to. 30 seconds left I scored again. 4 - 3. A tie game was in reach, I just needed to get to overtime. 15 seconds left I had half a step on a defender and drove to the net, went to my patented backhand move.. and got stoned. They cleared the puck, and we lost. Damn it.

But we had our momentum back. Game 5 was on home ice again and we shelled Washington. 40+ shots, 4 goals, one against. Game 6 in Washington looked like it was played in Toronto. Stifling defence, win 3 - 0. Game 7 back in Toronto we went up 2 - 0 quickly in the first period, and had Washington penned up like before. But freaking Ovechkin got a lucky bounce in the second and took a shot from a half-decent position - right over Reimer's shoulder. 2 - 1 Toronto, but Washington was back in the game. Memories of the game 2 collapse came flooding back.

Except this time we didn't crack like before. Rather than folding under the energetic Washington pressure, my Leafs AI didn't go into full lobotomy mode. Made some decent passes and got the puck out. Gave it back to Washington hit for hit. In the third period Grabovski scored with 5 minutes left to go up 3 - 1, and Washington cracked. We ran over them and went up 5 - 1 by the end of the game, won the series, and I did it without messing with the difficulty.

Wow.

That was one of my best ever moments in a video game. I watched the after game celebration video (the handshakes and everything) just because I was so relieved at having won the series. What a great game NHL 11 is, and that was only round one.

Just awesome.

Loving NHL 12 to death. They have really amped up the CPU in good ways. It is really tough on defense, and much more aggressive on offense.

The improved physics just feel right, as there are just a ton more animations when players collide. Both may fall, or the guy you hit might just stumble.

But overall, it it is NHL 11, but more better.

It took pretty much all of last night, but I got the EA Season Pass copy of NHL. Of course, I have a full weekend, and I don't really have much time for games anymore these days, but I'll be getting it.

Not played NHL since 09. I enjoy sports games though, more than any other. Took me a long time to work this out to be honest. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up at some stage when I have the money.

Tomorrow! Huzzah!

I realize our record is less than impeccable, but any regulars want to try some kind of league this year? I'm open to suggestions: HUT, fantasy draft, or just regular.

ColdForged wrote:

Tomorrow! Huzzah!

I realize our record is less than impeccable, but any regulars want to try some kind of league this year? I'm open to suggestions: HUT, fantasy draft, or just regular.

I'm definitely down for some HUT play this year. I'd take the Blues in a league, but i would haver to see what kind of league offerings there are.

LeroyOG will be up for teamplay in the EASHL. I just can't bring myself to play that mode. I don't have time to level up a player and EA has made it a grind anyway.

Dont think of it as a grind.

I love team play aspects of online gaming.

I'd be interested, but I don't feel comfortable committing to being in any league you guys start at this point.

Put me down as a strong maybe, though.

Anyone is welcome for the EASHL team. It isn't a "League" thing where we organize games. You just pop on and hop in my party. I already have a few people lined up and excited for the game. My team generally ranks around the top 1000. I've been as high as 250 in the world in terms of EASHL players. we just go out and have fun and curse a lot.

Leroyog wrote:

Anyone is welcome for the EASHL team. It isn't a "League" thing where we organize games. You just pop on and hop in my party. I already have a few people lined up and excited for the game. My team generally ranks around the top 1000. I've been as high as 250 in the world in terms of EASHL players. we just go out and have fun and curse a lot. :P

I may give it a go with you. It's not my favorite way to play, but it could make for a few fun evenings.

TheCounselor wrote:

I'd be interested, but I don't feel comfortable committing to being in any league you guys start at this point.

Put me down as a strong maybe, though.

The big plus to HUT this year is that you can now play friends with your HUT game, but they don't count for pucks or against the contracts of your players. But the game will track wins and losses with your friends. So we can assemble teams and have some pretty nice pick-up games.

I'm gonna push for some HUT love this year. I have to believe that more of you will like it once you give it a real try. It's like board game crossed with video game hockey. what is there not to love?

Should be getting my copy from Amazon today. Haven't played since NHL 09, but if you see me on I am usually more than willing to play a game with a fellow Goodjer.

maxox wrote:

Should be getting my copy from Amazon today. Haven't played since NHL 09, but if you see me on I am usually more than willing to play a game with a fellow Goodjer.

I thought I was getting mine today from Amazon. Instead, it will be here tomorrow :shock:. I admit, Amazon's "release date shipping" things are a mystery to me. Apparently if you ordered too early (I ordered July 26th), you got a $20 credit and no release date shipping. If you order slightly later, you got a $10 credit and release date shipping. All things considered, I'd rather have an extra $10 but I'm sad I won't be playing tonight.

I think you should buy a copy from Best Buy today, play it tonight, and then return your Amazon copy back to Best Buy on Thursday.

/evil_genious

ColdForged wrote:
maxox wrote:

Should be getting my copy from Amazon today. Haven't played since NHL 09, but if you see me on I am usually more than willing to play a game with a fellow Goodjer.

I thought I was getting mine today from Amazon. Instead, it will be here tomorrow :shock:. I admit, Amazon's "release date shipping" things are a mystery to me. Apparently if you ordered too early (I ordered July 26th), you got a $20 credit and no release date shipping. If you order slightly later, you got a $10 credit and release date shipping. All things considered, I'd rather have an extra $10 but I'm sad I won't be playing tonight.

Complain about this to Amazon. You might be able to get additional credit.

Just played three HUT games, and one thing is crystal clear. I really suck. I did not play NHL 11 all that much last year, as I spent most of my time in NCAA 11, and it really shows.

When you play an offline HUT game, in addition to the being able to play any team from any league on the disk, the game adds a EAUSHL 24/7 option, which has four teams in it. The idea is that three of them are rated just better, just worse, and the same as your team. the fourth is a random team from the Top 100. At the end of games, the quality of your opponent i one of the factors that affects your multipier.

Starting out, its pretty hard to see who is worse and better, as everyone kind of has a dud team. I set my first game to All-Pro was was proceeded to be blown out by the the CPU, 6-0. It was brutal.

I then dropped down to Pro and lost 3-1. Ugh!

So I went into the Store and found all of my free packs waiting for me. If you played the demo, you get a pack. If you spammed a friend (sorry wife and child) you get a free pack. There are others, too. I also was started off with 2200 Pucks or so from my time playing year. I didn't spend any pucks, but I did get some decent players in my packs.

And by decent, I mean I have a 78 rated defensemen from Boston as my very best player. All of my other cards are from the various minor and European leagues. So my OVRs in my first line range from 74-78. So I have a lot of room to grow. But it is telling when my first inclination is to use a 30 game contract card on my loan NHL player, even though he is kind of a bad player in the grander scheme of things.

Right now, after playing games, I have about 2800 Pucks. A standard Pack of 12 cards costs 2500 Pucks. There might be one NHL guy in the pack, and some of the cards will be consumables, like contract or training cards. When I looked for Blues players in the auction house, guys like David Backes or David Perron at going for 4000-8000 Pucks. One card! but it also doesn't seem like anyone is buying yet.

I have enough extra cards now that I thought I would unload some, but you are not allowed to sell any cards received in free packs. So I have nothing to sell yet. A Jumbo pack cost 7500 Pucks, and has 36 cards, but significantly more Rare cards. If I can play for awhile and save up, I buy a pack of those and maybe turn a small profit. Or plug them into my line-up and maybe earn more pucks that way.

Yeah, I still love this mode. It's really fun build your roster and set your lines.

I checked out the Online League mode, and it is like last year. We can have up to 32 teams. there is no schedule. the Commish simply sets how many games each team plays each other, and teams begin arranging their game on their own. At the end, there are playoffs if you set them up.

My suggestion would be to set up a GWJ league with the maximum of 10 games a piece. We can all play each other and let the game track out stats and such, but not worry about playoffs. It doesn't seem like we have enough interest to really do a strong league, but we do have some guys that would enjoy playing each other and having our stats tracked. It would be more like a club than a league.

Any thoughts on that?

Going to be Versus-ing all night from about 1 to 5AM PST. If you happen to run into Axisdotblack out there, pray for mercy.

ColdForged wrote:
maxox wrote:

Should be getting my copy from Amazon today. Haven't played since NHL 09, but if you see me on I am usually more than willing to play a game with a fellow Goodjer.

I thought I was getting mine today from Amazon. Instead, it will be here tomorrow :shock:. I admit, Amazon's "release date shipping" things are a mystery to me. Apparently if you ordered too early (I ordered July 26th), you got a $20 credit and no release date shipping. If you order slightly later, you got a $10 credit and release date shipping. All things considered, I'd rather have an extra $10 but I'm sad I won't be playing tonight.

Definitely complain. I went to my amazon account on Sept 12th and noticed my delivery date was the 16th. When I preordered back in August, release date delivery wasnt an option, but as you said the 20 promo credit was. But on August 31 I got an email saying release date delivery was now being offered and my order was automatically upgraded.

I started a phone chat and a net chat with amazon at the same time, just in case one took longer to initiate. They both responded at same time. Net chat customer service said there was nothing they could do to speed my order up but gave me additional 5 promo credit. The phone rep however, told me I could cancel and rebuy and get release day delivery and she'd force the 20 promo credit to my account. She did this. By some weird stroke of luck, she forgot to take off the current 10 promo credit offer when she forced it to 20 and I got an email saying I got the 10 as well. So All in all i got the game on release date and $35 in credits.

In the end though, they still weren't able to explain how I got the email saying the order would be updated to release date delivery but the system never processed it.

I have to say, I am very impressed with things so far. All the goals I've seen have felt like legitimate hockey goals, as opposed to the strange nonsense I used to get away with on a regular basis in NHL 11. However, this may simply be because we haven't yet figured out the tricks that break this game entirely.

My friends and I decided to warm up for Versus by playing against the new 'Legends' team on the highest difficulty. We lost 2-1, with both Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux dangling through 3 or 4 defensemen to light us up. Hard to complain, I suppose.

it's tough to say that is cheap when they used to do that in real life on a game by game basis.

Got 10 games played with my EASHL team, 4-5-1. Not thrilled with our start but I can't complain too much. We brought in 2 new guys to the team(1 new, 1 from 2 years ago) and they are a bit green.

Bean wrote:

Definitely complain. I went to my amazon account on Sept 12th and noticed my delivery date was the 16th. When I preordered back in August, release date delivery wasnt an option, but as you said the 20 promo credit was. But on August 31 I got an email saying release date delivery was now being offered and my order was automatically upgraded.

I went back and checked my mail after you said that, because frankly I couldn't recall receiving that. Whadyaknow...

Amazon wrote:

Hello from Amazon.com,

We are writing to you today because you purchased a pre-order copy of 'NHL 12.'

We are now able to offer Release-Date Delivery for this video game. This special delivery option is available to you free of charge and has been automatically applied to your order. Your copy of 'NHL 12' will arrive on 9/13/2011.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com

So I chatted with them and got an extra $5 as well. I thought it was just "oh well, I missed out on the release-date shipping". Nope, they boofed it somehow. Thanks for the heads up.

zpaine wrote:

Totally agree. The fact that the puck used to "stick" to your player allowed me to do things like wade into a bunch of defensemen, and still pull off a big slap shot. No more.

The worst is how often I have given up a break-away because I tried to take slapshot from the blue line, only to have the CPU take the puck and break for my goal. You actually have to have space and time to get a slapshot off now.

EASHL hass no commitment. It's basically pick up hockey with people you know.

Played 10 games last night, unlocked my "rookie" card. really enjoying it right now. Gonna have to keep an eye out for the glitches.

The rebounds seem to correspond more closely to the physics simulation, whereas in 11 you pretty much had to go low far-side pad (and when you did, the result was entirely too predictable).

I have to say, I am very impressed with things so far. All the goals I've seen have felt like legitimate hockey goals, as opposed to the strange nonsense I used to get away with on a regular basis in NHL 11. However, this may simply be because we haven't yet figured out the tricks that break this game entirely.

Totally agree. The fact that the puck used to "stick" to your player allowed me to do things like wade into a bunch of defensemen, and still pull off a big slap shot. No more.

Also, I'm loving how many rebounds I'm seeing off goalies right now. It could be because I'm playing against a bad HUT team, so we'll have to see, but currently I'm seeing all kinds of crazy ricochets off the pads, whereas in NHL 11 I felt like goalies would just suck up the puck every single time.

I never tried EASHL last year, and I'd definitely be interested in giving it a go this year, depending on how much of a commitment it entails.

I spent some quality time with both Be A Pro and HUT last night, two modes that I entirely ignored in NHL 11.

At first, as I spent 30 minutes arranging various unknown European players into my lines, HUT seemed a little tedious. However, once I started to understand player potential and things like career and contract length, I'm getting more into it. I got all of the free card packs available to me, played a couple games and grabbed the PeeWee pack. I got Phil Kessel in that pack, so now I have a bunch of unknown Europeans and Phil Kessel! Anyways, I'm starting to see how this mode can be highly addictive. My major complaint is that the UI for managing your roster and collection kind of sucks.

Be a Pro is pure fun so far. I'm playing as an OFD and enjoying the different look at the game. The one oddity is that my first 4 games have all been like 10-1 blowouts, and not because of anything I've done.

zpaine wrote:

I spent some quality time with both Be A Pro and HUT last night, two modes that I entirely ignored in NHL 11.

At first, as I spent 30 minutes arranging various unknown European players into my lines, HUT seemed a little tedious. However, once I started to understand player potential and things like career and contract length, I'm getting more into it. I got all of the free card packs available to me, played a couple games and grabbed the PeeWee pack. I got Phil Kessel in that pack, so now I have a bunch of unknown Europeans and Phil Kessel! Anyways, I'm starting to see how this mode can be highly addictive. My major complaint is that the UI for managing your roster and collection kind of sucks.

It would be cool if we could get a web interface for HUT, as that would really make it easier to manage your team.

I'm not sure if you saw, but you can also tweak your team by improving your line chemistry. You boost is by having thee different player types one one line. Then there is another boost if any of the players are from the same league. And finally, it boosts it even more if you have players from the same team. Having two is boost, and three is even more.

Then you have coach cards that add boosts to specific ratings team wide. You can go way down the rabbit hole in this game.

The best part is how attached I have gotten to some random European players. Because no matter how lowly your team is rated, you will find players you count on. As much as I love playing with my Blues, I start to feel much more attached to my HUT team.

Uncharacteristically (which, incidentally, is a long Goddamned word) I haven't even touched season mode or even seen the Hurricanes yet. Usually that's about all I do. Instead I tried HUT and cranked up Be A Pro.

It's possible that it will get old, but so far Be A Pro has been a revelation. I'm starting in Drummondville as a 17-year-old right winger so I can chase Canadian teen tail. Gotten through 3 or 4 games at All Star and have been averaging a point per game. I think we're 2-2. The ability to sim to the next shift is fantastic, but I often find myself actually watching the simulation which feels a bit ridiculous, but it's surprising how often it's entertaining. I've ended up with A+ ratings for position, team and stats each game so far so I guess I'm going to hang on the first line for a bit. I'm playing full 20 minute periods which, again, feels ridiculous if I think about it too much but it's surprisingly doable.

I like a whole lot of the additions this year. I like the obvious impact longer shifts take on players when they get fatigued, how they get that hangdog look and they're obviously slower. I like that there are attributes for this so you can work at staying out there longer. The tie ups and crease battles are excellent. My first goal in my first game was as a result of my positioning in front of the net and breaking free to mop up a rebound. I need to practice the "spin off the tie-up" that's apparently available because I have yet to pull it off.

I played one single-player game of HUT with my oh-so-poopy team. We won it. I've never been a franchise guy, so I'm not sure how much I'll get out of it. Chemistry would be easier to manage for me if there was a quick way to know at a glance which league my players are in. I don't know them all and I haven't found that info easily available. Is it?

It's too early to tell the kind of legs it really has -- I sold NHL11 last December after it ended up simply frustrating the hell out of me -- but I have some hope that this one will last a while.

ColdForged wrote:

I played one single-player game of HUT with my oh-so-poopy team. We won it. I've never been a franchise guy, so I'm not sure how much I'll get out of it. Chemistry would be easier to manage for me if there was a quick way to know at a glance which league my players are in. I don't know them all and I haven't found that info easily available. Is it?

Flick your RS to the left or right and it rotates to all of the available information each player has. There is one that has a league logo, and you can look at the entire lineup and see who you might want to move around. You will also see which players have training slots left for you to play cards on, how many games a guy has left on his contract and in his career, and so on.

I think NHL 12 plays a bit better than 11. But really, this series has felt just about the same each year since 09, to me. That's something I like, because there is no need to reinvent the wheel with each new release. Last year, HUT wore thin because playing online against other HUT kid kind of sucked. But I really like that I can play the random HUT teams offline, and play friends online.

The key is how much of a slog winning pucks is if you don't spend cash.

Jayhawker wrote:

Flick your RS to the left or right and it rotates to all of the available information each player has.

May a thousand hot Canadian teens... etc, etc, etc.