NHL 2011, at least from what I can tell from the demo, plays almost identical to NHL 2010.
The game is a little slower and the new checking animations make hitting your opponent onto the cold hard ice slightly more satisfying. These animations also make the checks look much more realistic, supposedly every hit is completely different from the last.
The game is much slower this year making the overall experience a little more realistic. You can slow down the game in the offensive zone and actually have enough time to look for scoring opportunities. The game’s AI also seems a little bit more intelligent this time around. In the half hour I played the game, I only ran into one situation where my team’s AI forward stared at a loose puck and did nothing. That’s a definite improvement over one of my major complaints from last year’s game.
The game is a little slower and the new checking animations make hitting your opponent onto the cold hard ice slightly more satisfying. These animations also make the checks look much more realistic, supposedly every hit is completely different from the last.
The game is much slower this year making the overall experience a little more realistic. You can slow down the game in the offensive zone and actually have enough time to look for scoring opportunities. The game’s AI also seems a little bit more intelligent this time around. In the half hour I played the game, I only ran into one situation where my team’s AI forward stared at a loose puck and did nothing. That’s a definite improvement over one of my major complaints from last year’s game.
The graphics look pretty much identical; the crowd and arenas seem a little bit more polished though. The presentation has changed slightly as well; score overlays look fresh but also a little bit busier. It could be that I don’t like change, but I wasn’t that fond of the new ticker in the top left corner of the screen; maybe it will grow on me.
The game also features a new more fluid faceoff system. In the short time I played, I didn’t notice that much of a change. You can direct the puck much better if you win the faceoff or take the opposing player’s body rather than the puck so your winger can swoop in and skate away. I’m hoping, once I get used to the faceoff system a little more, it will add another level of depth to the game. It will also be interesting to see how it affects the series Be A Pro mode.
The demo only lets you play the CPU in the Battle For The Cup mode, you can’t play the Be A Pro mode in the demo. This really disappointed me as that’s where I spend most of my time with the NHL series. The vs. Mode, where you control the entire team, not just one player, gave me a strong idea of what to expect from this year’s Be A Pro but it still would have been great to actually give it a try before the game actually comes out.
NHL 2011 also felt extreme difficulty. The super human goalies from last year seem to be back and just as impossible as ever, if not more so. The AI, as I stated earlier, is much more intelligent and more aware in the defensive zone. I found it extremely hard to penetrate the CPU’s defensive strategy. I’m wondering why the difficulty was set to “default” in the demo rather than Pro or All-Star, is ” default.” Is this some some new difficulty level?
Another new mode featured in this demo was the is the somewhat hard to understand online franchise mode dubbed ”Hockey Ultimate Team.” Essentially you build your team from a pack of cards, you have to take into account player compatibility, positions and even hire coaches. It seems like a cool addition to the franchise but probably will only appeal to the hardcore fans that are into micro managing their teams down to the last little detail. The fact that this team can be used online is kind of different though, it might turn out to be a lot of fun.
The new stick breaking mechanic, as well as the ability to hand off one player’s stick to another, worked pretty well. I’m wondering how often it will actually show up in gameplay and I’m hoping it works out to be balance and doesn’t occur ridiculously often. Whenever EA ads new experimental features to their franchises I start to worry, so many things can go wrong with hastily added features. I’m hoping that EA has managed to avoid this issue this time around. I also wanted to play as the CHL hockey teams in the demo, one of the new features EA has been touting for awhile now.
In the end from what I can tell this looks like another solid entry in EA’s NHL franchise, even though from this it demo it seems like not much has really changed from last years iteration. NHL 2011 hits store shelves on September 7th 2010.
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That is a very good perspective dude i agree with you on the passing the stick from the bench feature. I think aswell that it will occur too often. It kind of reminds me of the puck handiling feature in 2006 when you kept loosing the puck Agree? please get back to me
ps: what other bad new features are there
@ Aiden Kane
I started playing the game a lot lately and I really feel like the stick breaking and passing from the bench is a cool feature. It does however like I feared seem to occur slightly to often. I didn’t play 2006 so I can’t speak for that feature, I have heard it was pretty brutal though.
As for other new features, I’m a big fan of the new faceoff system. It’s much more realistic and a lot of fun, you can actually pull the puck back to where you want it to go. It’s a little less about luck this time around as well. I haven’t played that much so I haven’t run into many of the other new features.
One thing I found yesterday was the option to create your own camera angle, I thought that was pretty cool and I haven’t heard anything about that feature on mainstream bigger review sites.