NHL 13 News Post

NHL 13 E3 Hands-On Preview

02:27 PM - June 12, 2012 by RaychelSnr

When it comes to getting their game down pat, the EA teams up in Vancouver, Canada, are masters. Especially the NHL folks; because once you get your own hands on NHL 13, you won’t want to put down the controller.

By introducing momentum, and by being the first team-sports game to implement real-time physics in skating, NHL 13 is already an early favorite for sports Game of the Year – yes, even above Madden NFL 13 and all of its improvements.

Read More - NHL 13 E3 Hands-On Preview

Game: NHL 13Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 23 - View All

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# 21 Semipro91 @ 06/12/12 10:38 PM

Another thing I wanted to touch on was the ratings of players, as well as skating and puck handling. First the ratings, even though I didn't see actual rating numbers I noticed the skating ability of players, for example I was using the devils and tried beating defenders who were skating backwards, the coolest thing was blowing by Matt Greene. I'm sure as all of you know (and hated) you could never blow by defenders. Now at first I was scared thinking it was too easy, but when I tried to do the same to doughty I had no luck. When I tried to go wide on drew he started his cross overs and stay with me stride for stride.

No for the skating and puck handling, let me just say that when going full speed you can't weave in an out like years past. I was able to get into the EA booth before it opened at E3 and much to my surprised there looked to be a non demo build in the Xbox. The reason I thought this was I was able to choose my teams, I wanted to be quick so I went with Philly vs Pitt. I figured looking at napkin, Crosby, giroux would be fun. I noticed right away that playing with geno or Sid was far different then trying to dangle with Elias or even parise.

# 22 Semipro91 @ 06/12/12 10:38 PM

Sorry for type Os, iPhones are super tough to type on

# 23 MizzouRah @ 06/12/12 10:48 PM

Well I didn't know each coach has their own style and takes that with them wherever they go. That's excellent!

# 24 BaylorBearBryant @ 06/13/12 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fsufan4423


	I haven't purchased a hockey game in years, but with all the things I'm reading on NHL 13.....might have to give this a try.

The NHL series is the best EA Sports series. The EASHL is golden.

# 25 Roggie @ 06/13/12 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaylorBearBryant


	The NHL series is the best EA Sports series. The EASHL is golden.

As godly as NHL is, FIFA has it beat.

# 26 savoie2006 @ 06/13/12 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roggie


	As godly as NHL is, FIFA has it beat.

As beastly as FIFA is, The Show is better

....I'm kidding, but I would say both are definately the best two sports games around. NHL could very join those ranks this year though.

# 27 Roggie @ 06/13/12 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RealmK


	That depends on if one likes soccer. I'm American, I don't like soccer.

Good job trying to stereotype an entire country. I know plenty of Americans who like soccer, myself included.

Most people who have no bias from one sport to another will say FIFA is a better game than NHL.

# 28 bwiggy33 @ 06/13/12 02:37 AM

Semipro keep the impressions coming! This is basically exactly what I wanted to hear. All I need is player separation, better AI, and better goalies, upgraded BeAGM and I am totally set. It seems as though all of these have been worked extensively on.

Semipro what did you notice goaltending wise in your short time playing? I am huge on goalies (being that I am one). They glide way too fast on the ice but I'm pretty sure goalie movement didn't get worked on, so how are the new saves and limbs looking?

I tell ya what if these new implementations to the game pan out, imagine what we could have in the years to come. Maybe they can finally start adding the little details that we see every time we watch a game and just keep upgrading and working on perfecting the features already in the game instead of adding new unexciting features. By no means will the game be complete with NHL 13 but at least the meat of the game will be what we want and they can just keep touching up the AI, skating, etc. This could be quite a year for NHL.

# 29 Canadian Vampire @ 06/13/12 03:37 AM

Sounds good, but my main worry is that after a week or 2, all the glitchers cry about it being too hard. So EA will release a patch and turn it into NHL 12 all over again.

# 30 ShadowBot @ 06/13/12 05:39 AM

Sorry savioe2006 but if we are talking about overrated sports games, then Fifa is number 1 on the list. Let me just say one thing, i am a die hard football(proper not american) fan and FIfa is a joke. Since the beginning of fifa, i can't even remember the last time they had good AI. Their Ai, is just crap filled with cheat scripts . Multiplayer is fun but it gets tiring scoring the same goals because the AI is just crap. TBH, the only thing fifa has progressed in is the animation technology. It still feels like the same ai they were using in the ps2 days and we all know that was bad. Enough about fifa.

Looking forward to NHL 13. I took a break last year because i was tired of the bad ai and lack of skating physics. I love to play BAGM offline and was just boring in NHL 11. Just so excited for 13, already have mine pre ordered and paid off fully.

# 31 ComaFaction @ 06/13/12 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thevaliantx


	Not that it's applicable to the conversation as it pertains to NHL 13, but I'm having trouble following your logic. You seem to think it's wrong for someone to dismiss a product that isn't even out, yet you have no problems dismissing a product (of a different sports genre) based on its history. What do you say to the folks who criticize last year's EA hockey game? That they haven't played it enough? Do you suggest that their criticism isn't valid because "at least wait until the NEXT version comes out before...."? At some point the timing of criticism becomes valid.

But shouldn't that timing coming after...I don't know...actually playing the game?

# 32 Rwings832 @ 06/13/12 08:54 AM

"As you can tell, Be A GM mode is getting a make over. Though the majority of the details are said to be coming out in the next couple of weeks, some information was available. The biggest bit of information given, though, was how the mode will be making its way online. You’ll be able to play with your friends and manage your team from an iDevice if needed. You can also watch the new and improve AI battle each other while watching your team, but still having control. You’re able to choose when to shoot the puck, to substitute, to switch lines, etc. You’re also able to draw up your own plays outside of the gameplay and then watch the AI perform that play"

So from the article above, is this kind of like a coach or manage mode type thing, where you can set the strategies and then just kind of watch the AI play it out?

# 33 Money99 @ 06/13/12 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semipro91


	It's funny that you mention the AI. So when I got my hands on it the first thing I wanted to do was test skating with the puck. So I picked the puck up with Parise and circled behind my net in an attempt to " bobby Orr" it. Kopitar was first on the forecheck at about the right circle, I blew by him but immediately what noticed was how the AI responded to that. Brown was on th boards at about the blue line, as soon as I went around Kopitar to the outside brown instead of skating directly at me shifted a little to the center in an attempt to " bait" me into going between him and the boards. As soon as I did scuderi stepped up and destroyed me. It was AWESOME to see the AI react like that. I also wanted to mention how much better the goalies seemed. The stupid shortside deke didn't work on quick and I tried it 3 times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semipro91


	Another thing I wanted to touch on was the ratings of players, as well as skating and puck handling. First the ratings, even though I didn't see actual rating numbers I noticed the skating ability of players, for example I was using the devils and tried beating defenders who were skating backwards, the coolest thing was blowing by Matt Greene. I'm sure as all of you know (and hated) you could never blow by defenders. Now at first I was scared thinking it was too easy, but when I tried to do the same to doughty I had no luck. When I tried to go wide on drew he started his cross overs and stay with me stride for stride. No for the skating and puck handling, let me just say that when going full speed you can't weave in an out like years past. I was able to get into the EA booth before it opened at E3 and much to my surprised there looked to be a non demo build in the Xbox. The reason I thought this was I was able to choose my teams, I wanted to be quick so I went with Philly vs Pitt. I figured looking at napkin, Crosby, giroux would be fun. I noticed right away that playing with geno or Sid was far different then trying to dangle with Elias or even parise.

I know I should just use the 'thumbs-up' feature, but I had to comment on how excited these two comments have gotten me.
I know, I know. I'm a sucker and I said I wouldn't buy this game outright. I'm still going to rent, but after reading this, I'm far more excited for NHL13 than I was before.
Seriously, the game was barely on my radar until reading this.
It sounds like we're finally going to see more noticeable player differentials.

# 34 Semipro91 @ 06/13/12 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwiggy33


	Semipro keep the impressions coming! This is basically exactly what I wanted to hear. All I need is player separation, better AI, and better goalies, upgraded BeAGM and I am totally set. It seems as though all of these have been worked extensively on. Semipro what did you notice goaltending wise in your short time playing? I am huge on goalies (being that I am one). They glide way too fast on the ice but I'm pretty sure goalie movement didn't get worked on, so how are the new saves and limbs looking? I tell ya what if these new implementations to the game pan out, imagine what we could have in the years to come. Maybe they can finally start adding the little details that we see every time we watch a game and just keep upgrading and working on perfecting the features already in the game instead of adding new unexciting features. By no means will the game be complete with NHL 13 but at least the meat of the game will be what we want and they can just keep touching up the AI, skating, etc. This could be quite a year for NHL.

Hey bwiggy, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to goalies but here's what i saw. I mentioned I tried the shortside deke, where you come down shortside and with the right stick you fake to the middle of the net and quickly go back shortside. I tried that 3 times on quick and didn't score once. It seemed as though his side to side movements weren't as big as years past. I will say that I played an entire game of devils vs kings and two periods of flyers vs pens and I only scored 4 goals. 1 breakaway, 2 one timers, and a tip. The difficulty was on pro which on NHL 12 I would of scored at least 10. While a saw a few animations for goalies that were new I think the smaller goal count can be attributed to both goalies and better positioned AI

# 35 Money99 @ 06/13/12 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semipro91


	While a saw a few animations for goalies that were new I think the smaller goal count can be attributed to both goalies and better positioned AI

LOVE reading this! Scoring should be harder due to defensive AI, not uber-goalies.

Did you notice that scoring chances were hard to come by? But if you did have a legit chance to score, with a scorer, you could convert?

# 36 Roggie @ 06/13/12 01:18 PM

As long as the goalies don't seem to all be a mix of Jonathan Quick this year, Jean Sebastien Giguere the year Anaheim went to the finals, and Dominik Hasek in his prime to where it seems they're cheating to make saves, and most saves are made through great positioning, then I have no problem with good goaltending. I'm tired of seeing the whip shot from the faceoff circle and short side deke goal work so often due to goalies not knowing how to position themselves correctly and giving up the post side of the net. Make teams play hockey to score, not stupid shots.

# 37 ComaFaction @ 06/13/12 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money99


	LOVE reading this! Scoring should be harder due to defensive AI, not uber-goalies. Did you notice that scoring chances were hard to come by? But if you did have a legit chance to score, with a scorer, you could convert?

Exactly, hopefully the enhanced AI systems means that you can beat a goalie realistically from a good scoring chance.

# 38 canucksss @ 06/13/12 03:43 PM

thanks semipro for posting these exciting points. at least there's a hope now that player differential and sim-hockey will be present in NHL 13. im glad that EA is also working with presentations upgrade, but in all honesty, just player differentials and team strategies are in effect, for me its worth buying it.

please keep us salivating for more exciting and in case non-exciting news semipro

# 39 JamieLeeWV @ 06/13/12 07:04 PM

Was their a difference between goalie styles? i.e Brodeur's style is so unique does his actions reflect this in nhl 13?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

# 40 bukktown @ 06/13/12 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semipro91


	It's funny that you mention the AI. So when I got my hands on it the first thing I wanted to do was test skating with the puck. So I picked the puck up with Parise and circled behind my net in an attempt to " bobby Orr" it. Kopitar was first on the forecheck at about the right circle, I blew by him but immediately what noticed was how the AI responded to that. Brown was on th boards at about the blue line, as soon as I went around Kopitar to the outside brown instead of skating directly at me shifted a little to the center in an attempt to " bait" me into going between him and the boards. As soon as I did scuderi stepped up and destroyed me. It was AWESOME to see the AI react like that. I also wanted to mention how much better the goalies seemed. The stupid shortside deke didn't work on quick and I tried it 3 times.

Whoa dude!

Sounds too good to be true!

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