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I downloaded the NHL 12 demo last night and liked it a lot. It plays a lot like 11 of course, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing to me. Here are some of my quick impressions.
Pros:
1) Love the way the puck bounces around now. Much more lively and unpredictable. It will roll on it's side and bounce over sticks. It also doesn't seem to be sucked into a player's stick as bad as in the past.
2) Checking seems more realistic and varied. You seem to bounce off more checks when you play as a smaller forward. It's not always a huge hit. Sometimes you'll hit someone and both players will fall down.
3) Slap shots seem to have some power and oomph behind them now. I think a lot of this has to do with the new sound it makes. Shea Webber and Zdeno Charra's slap shots sound nasty.
4) AI is smarter. I like to play Be A Pro as a RW grinder/power forward. I love screening the goalie and deflecting shots. This was almost impossible last year because your teamates almost never shot the puck without you calling for it. They now seem to be smart enough to cycle the puck and shoot when they have an open lane. Add this to the realistic puck physics and I think I'll have a lot of fun grinding this year.
5) Throwing a hard pass across the front of the net and through traffic seems a little more realistic now. Last year, most of the time the pass would just stick to the first defenders stick it went by. Now it is more likely to be deflected by the defenders stick and bounce around there in front of the net which causes some chaos. That is exactly what should happen most of the time.
Neutral:
1) The front of the net play that has been touted as a big enhancement isn't really effective. I think this could be improved with some tweaks before the game is released.
2) They kept talking about running the goalies, but in my experience so far there seems to be a magical barrier around the crease most of the time during play. As soon as the plays over have at it. Hopefully this can also be tweaked because I'd like to see people bumping the goalie more when they are fighting for position in front of the net.
3) They slowed the game down immensely. This is going as a neutral for now because I think they slowed it a little too much. If they speed it up or slow it down before launch this could move to a positive or negative.
Negatives:
1) fighting still sucks
2) I don't know how many times I checked a guy into the bench. It's a cool animation, but it shouldn't happen 3 or 4 times a game.
3) Hip checks are still ridiculously overpowered. There is nothing better in hockey than a good hip check. But when you can hip check a guy by barely clipping the back of his leg as he skates by and he goes flying into the air, something is a little off. Hopefully this can be tuned before release as it seems to be even worse than it was last year.
So what are all of your impressions? Excited about the game in general?
Pros:
1) Love the way the puck bounces around now. Much more lively and unpredictable. It will roll on it's side and bounce over sticks. It also doesn't seem to be sucked into a player's stick as bad as in the past.
2) Checking seems more realistic and varied. You seem to bounce off more checks when you play as a smaller forward. It's not always a huge hit. Sometimes you'll hit someone and both players will fall down.
3) Slap shots seem to have some power and oomph behind them now. I think a lot of this has to do with the new sound it makes. Shea Webber and Zdeno Charra's slap shots sound nasty.
4) AI is smarter. I like to play Be A Pro as a RW grinder/power forward. I love screening the goalie and deflecting shots. This was almost impossible last year because your teamates almost never shot the puck without you calling for it. They now seem to be smart enough to cycle the puck and shoot when they have an open lane. Add this to the realistic puck physics and I think I'll have a lot of fun grinding this year.
5) Throwing a hard pass across the front of the net and through traffic seems a little more realistic now. Last year, most of the time the pass would just stick to the first defenders stick it went by. Now it is more likely to be deflected by the defenders stick and bounce around there in front of the net which causes some chaos. That is exactly what should happen most of the time.
Neutral:
1) The front of the net play that has been touted as a big enhancement isn't really effective. I think this could be improved with some tweaks before the game is released.
2) They kept talking about running the goalies, but in my experience so far there seems to be a magical barrier around the crease most of the time during play. As soon as the plays over have at it. Hopefully this can also be tweaked because I'd like to see people bumping the goalie more when they are fighting for position in front of the net.
3) They slowed the game down immensely. This is going as a neutral for now because I think they slowed it a little too much. If they speed it up or slow it down before launch this could move to a positive or negative.
Negatives:
1) fighting still sucks
2) I don't know how many times I checked a guy into the bench. It's a cool animation, but it shouldn't happen 3 or 4 times a game.
3) Hip checks are still ridiculously overpowered. There is nothing better in hockey than a good hip check. But when you can hip check a guy by barely clipping the back of his leg as he skates by and he goes flying into the air, something is a little off. Hopefully this can be tuned before release as it seems to be even worse than it was last year.
So what are all of your impressions? Excited about the game in general?
