NHL 12 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[Vikes1]

Quote: Originally Posted by zjl0821

I am excited that this is probably an E3 build of the game and the retail build will be even more polished.

Yep, this is something worth taking into account.

Just a bit more polish here and there can make a nice noticeable difference.

Not to mention a possible patch here...and a tuner set there...do da, do da.

But anyway...spent some more time tonight playing the demo. And I'm liking what I see, the more I play. After dialing in some sliders with the retail version...I'm quite sure NHL '12' will be a winner for me.

[SinisterAlex]

Just noticed something cool today.

I was on a two on one with Henrik and Daniel Sedin. In past games, when you were in close with an open net, your guy would do a snap shot to put the puck in the net. Well, with NHL 12, Daniel literally just pushed the puck into the net. No big movement with his blade at all, just tapped the puck into the net. Thought that was really neat to see.

[Therion7]

Got the PS3 demo last night and my opinion has lightened somewhat. Took the time to spectate a couple of CPU v. CPU games. The goalies are much more lifelike this year if you spend a couple of minutes focused on their movement in the crease.

They still let in some helluva soft goals though.

[SinisterAlex]

Also there is one thing that particularly annoys me. The way the cut scenes after a goal are handled. Yes, they are better than NHL 11's by far, but here is how I think they should go:

You score
Cut to other teams goalie or players
Cut to your team doing the five man celebration or other team celebration.
Show two to three replays of the goal
Show the player and the overlay for goal and who got the assists.
Transition to the next faceoff.

The thing that bothers me currently in the demo is that after the replays are shown, it goes directly to the faceoff and to me, if feels awkward. I don't know how to describe it fully, but something feels missing and I thought of this earlier today. I think just a little tweak like that would make the world of difference.

[savoie2006]

Quote:

Not to mention a possible patch here...and a tuner set there...do da, do da.

While I like the idea of Tuner sets, I think last years game was partially ruined because of them. The did so much tweaking to it to counter the online cheese, it didn't feel as loose as it did when the demo came out. I remember thinking the Cpu felt lethal on Offense when I played last years demo and by the time the final tuner set came out, it seemed like I pretty much had to let them into my zone to keep it interesting. I'm hoping they can just release tuners for online only and leave offline alone, barring any major issues. I like the feel of the game right and with some slider adjustments, it should be golden.

[TIm]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flyermania

I wasn't expecting too much from the NHL 12 demo, and that's pretty much what I got. There are subtle changes, but there are still some glaring gameplay issues that still haven't been addressed (way to easy to enter the zone, poor teammate AI, goalies not covering the puck, etc.). Let's not make excuses about the time of the development cycle...this is EA we are talking about. Their resources are top notch. What it comes down to is priorities, and for the past 2-3 versions it's quite clear that the priority is on online play (EASHL, HUT, etc.). This is the new cash cow for them and they spend a lot of time and resources on it. As a result, the offline game suffers because it doesn't get the attention it deserves. EA doesn't need to gut the core gameplay or reinvent the wheel...it just needs to dedicate some time and resources to it. Instead they try and crank out several tuner sets to band-aid things after release and that never works out either. This series has gone up-and-down in quality over its history, and the current trend is for the online aspects. For this predominantly offline gamer, it makes my decision to pass on NHL 12 pretty easy.

Yup,
I agree.. I really wish they would take a year and get the CPU and Teammate AI fixed. and add presentation.. But noooooo we have to spend time on the online aspects and legends... Why is it so hard to get the gameplay/presentation where it needs to be?? The way I see it, If the gameplay/presentation is up to par then you can work on whatever the heck else they want... Unfortunately this will never happen and this is why gaming is becoming less and less part of my life

[ComaFaction]

As someone said, the gameplay is much more "active". Lots of movement off the puck which is nice, although I still feel position could be improved. The 2-1-2 Low forecheck looks much nicer. Puck physics look great and I like the skating more than 11. All in all, it plays nicer than 11.

The physics engine is very dissapointing to me, at least when it comes to player-on-player contact. I'm hoping the hitting is jacked up to "show it off" in the demo, but there is a LOT of player warping and ridiculous reactions to tiny nudges. The majority of hits look very awkward to me.

The presentation is unacceptable to me. Really, you write a blog about improving presentation and use goal scoring as an example? And all you do it re-arrange the same old cut-scenes we've had for 3 or 4 years? (And it still comes across unnaturally). Like others have said, due to the minor nature of the upgrades (which I do apprectiate), there is no way I could justify a $60 purchase on this game. I'm pretty bummed that a dev team who always seemed to push the envelope for sports games has done hardly anything with this development cycle. I'm holding hope that means that there are halfway implemented things that will show up next year (a la Madden this year).

[BleacherCreature]

Quote: Originally Posted by savoie2006

While I like the idea of Tuner sets, I think last years game was partially ruined because of them. The did so much tweaking to it to counter the online cheese, it didn't feel as loose as it did when the demo came out. I remember thinking the Cpu felt lethal on Offense when I played last years demo and by the time the final tuner set came out, it seemed like I pretty much had to let them into my zone to keep it interesting. I'm hoping they can just release tuners for online only and leave offline alone, barring any major issues. I like the feel of the game right and with some slider adjustments, it should be golden.

Totally agree. Sometimes it also felt that, while the tuners did improve some things, it mad other things worse. Almost as if the programming of the game only allowed a certain number value for all fixes, so to make fix A work better points had to be taken away from fix B, thus making B worse.