NHL 12 News Post

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

05:52 AM - August 23, 2011 by Steve_OS

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NHL 12 demo is available now, please play a few games and post your impressions here. The demo weighs in at 1.34 GB. Available now for 360, later this afternoon for PS3.

UPDATE: PS3 demo is available now.

What's included in the demo? Check out the NHL 12 demo announcement blog.

Game: NHL 12Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 26 - View All

NHL 12 Videos

Member Comments

# 301 Blzer @ 08/25/11 12:14 AM

Downloaded it, played one demo game so far. I actually think it's head and shoulders above 11 in terms of polish (EDIT: nice word choice by the poster above me as well haha). I'm looking at Best Buy's list of five games to pre-order and claim a $100 gift certificate, and this would be on top of my own personal list if it was an available option. It's a shame it isn't on said list, though.

# 302 Vikes1 @ 08/25/11 03:20 AM

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.

# 303 SinisterAlex @ 08/25/11 04:39 AM

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.

# 304 Therion7 @ 08/25/11 04:44 AM

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.

# 305 SinisterAlex @ 08/25/11 04:49 AM

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.

# 306 savoie2006 @ 08/25/11 05:10 AM

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.

# 307 TIm @ 08/25/11 06:55 AM

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

# 308 ComaFaction @ 08/25/11 07:12 AM

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).

# 309 BleacherCreature @ 08/25/11 08:48 AM

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.

# 310 Money99 @ 08/25/11 09:14 AM

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.

I wish this was the case for most EA games.
I think EA needs to realize there's always going to be cheesers online and no amount of tweeking will help that.
Perhaps the best way around this is to force the team to have a human goalie in EASHL games.

# 311 mkharsh33 @ 08/25/11 09:30 AM

Screw the online stuff... Fix this game for OFFLINE players, and those who absorb their time into BAGM. This is what makes me mad... You can't tweak a game for morons, so fix it for those of us who play user vs. cpu and want to play multiple BAGM.

They killed last year's game with those stupid tuning updates - it was like the game would play completely different.

I've been reading comments on the hands-on NBA 2K12 game, and it appears this upcoming game will be phenomenal - they listened to the community and are willing to make major changes. I wish the NHL team cared as much for their fans - not the online cheesers. And then I come to this forum and read many here giving EA a free pass, and almost pat them on the back for all the mistakes. Look, the fact that we're STILL listening to the same old stale commentary after all these years is an embarrassment... But the "well, they've only got 10 months...blah, blah, blah stuff" gets under my skin. How hard it is to lock a couple guys in a room with a microphone and come up with NEW stuff???

The appeasement I'm reading in this thread is laughable... This is the SAME game we've been playing for a few years now, with a few tuning and patched tweaks, but according to a lot of what I read here that is totally acceptable... I don't agree with that...

# 312 SGMRock @ 08/25/11 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkharsh33


	You can't tweak a game for morons, so fix it for those of us who play user vs. cpu and want to play multiple BAGM. They killed last year's game with those stupid tuning updates - it was like the game would play completely different.

At least NHL series unlike the NCAA series gives you the option to use what tuner pack you want instead of forcing you to use the latest one for offline play.

I mean if you liked the game best with 1.0 tuners then keep using them, i'm not sure why you are complaining about that part. I do agree that last year they overtweaked stuff to combat online exploiters but you at least had the choice to avoid using those tuners.

# 313 MizzouRah @ 08/25/11 09:44 AM

I can't wait for the retail game, I think the game plays great and want the FULL gaming experience.

You could easily play NHL 10 and then skip to NHL 12, IMHO. (which is what I'm doing as I traded NHL 11 in pretty quick last year)

# 314 SGMRock @ 08/25/11 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money99


	I wish this was the case for most EA games. I think EA needs to realize there's always going to be cheesers online and no amount of tweeking will help that. Perhaps the best way around this is to force the team to have a human goalie in EASHL games.

Again like I said above at least they give you the option to use older tuner sets. I think they should almost have seperate online and offline tuners because of the differences between the two. That way they could totally seperation the tuning of them from eachother, one not messing up the others gameplay.

# 315 Money99 @ 08/25/11 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah


	I can't wait for the retail game, I think the game plays great and want the FULL gaming experience. You could easily play NHL 10 and then skip to NHL 12, IMHO. (which is what I'm doing as I traded NHL 11 in pretty quick last year)

Same here. That's probably why I'm enjoying this demo right now.

mkharsh33's arguments are valid. The presentation really needs a major overhaul and I wonder if they added NBA2K's presentation experience if more people wouldn't think this game was simply NHL10.v2.

The gameplay has been tweaked considerably so that game has a more gritty experience.
But with the same models, lighting, sounds, overlays and commentary, it's easy to think the game hasn't been touched all that much.

Saying that, I hope for NHL13, the EA team doesn't spend the majority of their time on HUT or EASHL.
The offline modes of this game need a lot more love. If we could get a BAP that mirrors what NBA2K has done, I'd be in heaven.

# 316 Fiddy @ 08/25/11 09:52 AM

the issue with saying, just use whatever tuner pack you want etc.. is that, they added some things to the later packs that should have been added to previous versions, small things here and there..

but yeah, at least you have an option, ill give them some small credit for that.

# 317 theglory @ 08/25/11 10:06 AM

Why is it that no matter what strategy I have my offence set to, two of my forwards are always crashing the net... Hopefully this is just the demo trying to show up net battles and goalie interaction...

Hopefully online settings for retail will have heavily boosted goalie interference penalties. I clipped the goalie once and he slid to the corner of the rink where I continued to check him mercifully.. nothing.

Whatever controls the anticipation ai needs to be toned down a bit too. Too many players are a big defensive liability. If you dont have a 1 pass outlet from your zone, you frequently have 1-2 forwards just sitting at the blue line waiting.. This is even on "conservative."

Edit: Also maybe due to only playing 3rd period hockey, but the CPU defense seems way over aggressive, it is very easy to get them out of position with 2 quick passes in the zone. With a quick cycle kicked out to the D, one of your Dmen gets left alone to just walk into the high slot for a very good scoring chance.

Again the little tweeks in animations and physics are great, but the AI seems worst then it was before.

# 318 SGMRock @ 08/25/11 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiddy


	the issue with saying, just use whatever tuner pack you want etc.. is that, they added some things to the later packs that should have been added to previous versions, small things here and there.. but yeah, at least you have an option, ill give them some small credit for that.

Ya I think thats why if they want to really do it right they need to have a seperate offline and online tuner.

# 319 kerosene31 @ 08/25/11 10:41 AM

They need to fix terrible glitches with a patch, and tune gameplay with tuners. The problem is they tried to fix a glitch goal with tuners and just gave goalies superhuman abilities. It only helped reduce the glitch and made the game less fun.

# 320 Fiddy @ 08/25/11 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerosene31


	They need to fix terrible glitches with a patch, and tune gameplay with tuners. The problem is they tried to fix a glitch goal with tuners and just gave goalies superhuman abilities. It only helped reduce the glitch and made the game less fun.

the same wrist shots from NHL 11 and prior games, still go in on NHL 12.. i dont know how they stop it, but something needs done after all these years.

maybe somehow have the goalie know when that move is being made on the stick prior to shot and have them stop it a % of the time? i dunno, but its getting old.

maybe have Qb, start a NHL 12 Demo Glitch type thread? so maybe EA can see some of the issues that still exist and maybe get working on fixing it quicker..

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