I personally don't care about what modes or whatever was added, the gameplay is very similar to last years'. The jump from 2010 to 2011 was huge, not this year.
The players move slightly slower making it slightly more sim and slightly less arcady and the body checks are more realistic as they consider your velocity and mass. You can actually tackle goalies which is fun! And fight with them aswell I think. The crowd is more dynamic too. It's just minor tweaks/improvements. The most important tweak I think is that the puck is less magnet-like.
Basically they shoot for more realism all around.
The AI and the commentators are identical. The OST is worse. It's still amazing like last year, but no big change occured.
Well, considering that Madden and Pokemon (both rehashes, essentially) got 7.5s, I think its safe to assume that it got 6.5-7.5.
Calvin079
Game definitely doesn't feel like it should score that low. I've only played like 20 games but I would rate it higher than that personally.
If its only minor improvements like another user was saying, why should it be able to score AA and not A when it is basically NHL 11?
When will you get major improvements really though if you release every year? I doubt they would have time to add anything major in only a year ya know? To me when they went from NHL 09 to NHL 10 I could agree it felt like very minor iomprovements. This year the BAP mode seems so much better to me at least because all other years I could never really get fully into it. I can't put my finger on what was missing or why I didn't like it but this year it is by far the best. I would guess GS will score it an 8.5. For fun what do you think it will get? I would also assume this week at the latest with a review. Too many games are gonna be coming out and after this week it would probably get lost.
[QUOTE="Dracula68"] Game definitely doesn't feel like it should score that low. I've only played like 20 games but I would rate it higher than that personally.Dracula68
If its only minor improvements like another user was saying, why should it be able to score AA and not A when it is basically NHL 11?
When will you get major improvements really though if you release every year?I doubt they would have time to add anything major in only a year ya know? To me when they went from NHL 09 to NHL 10 I could agree it felt like very minor iomprovements. This year the BAP mode seems so much better to me at least because all other years I could never really get fully into it. I can't put my finger on what was missing or why I didn't like it but this year it is by far the best. I would guess GS will score it an 8.5. For fun what do you think it will get? I would also assume this week at the latest with a review. Too many games are gonna be coming out and after this week it would probably get lost.
This is where a lot of essentially rehashed games eventually fall. They make so many minor improvements that there's basically no improvement at all. Which is why a lot of this year's reahsed games were score 7.5; becasue they didn't change anything at all except the graphics. So to that end I'm going with 7.5-8.5 for a score if GS gets around to reviewing the game.
If its only minor improvements like another user was saying, why should it be able to score AA and not A when it is basically NHL 11?
Calvin079
When will you get major improvements really though if you release every year?I doubt they would have time to add anything major in only a year ya know? To me when they went from NHL 09 to NHL 10 I could agree it felt like very minor iomprovements. This year the BAP mode seems so much better to me at least because all other years I could never really get fully into it. I can't put my finger on what was missing or why I didn't like it but this year it is by far the best. I would guess GS will score it an 8.5. For fun what do you think it will get? I would also assume this week at the latest with a review. Too many games are gonna be coming out and after this week it would probably get lost.
This is where a lot of essentially rehashed games eventually fall. They make so many minor improvements that there's basically no improvement at all. Which is why a lot of this year's reahsed games were score 7.5; becasue they didn't change anything at all except the graphics. So to that end I'm going with 7.5-8.5 for a score if GS gets around to reviewing the game.
They won;t ever do this as they would lose sales but it would be nice if they released a new sport game every 2 years and provided roster updates/tweaks between releases at least.
It's only minor improvements if you don't know s*** about Hockey. The so-called little things add up to an amazing improvement over last year's game, which was fantastic in its own right.
It's only minor improvements if you don't know stuff about hockey. The so-called little things add up to an amazing improvement over last year's game, which was fantastic in its own right.DarkCatalyst
What little things have they supposedly improve this year?
[QUOTE="DarkCatalyst"]It's only minor improvements if you don't know stuff about hockey. The so-called little things add up to an amazing improvement over last year's game, which was fantastic in its own right.Calvin079
What little things have they supposedly improve this year?
The Be A Pro mode in particular has been improved substantially. It no longer behaves like such a video game in terms of how your player is treated within the scope of his place on the team. The physics have also been drastically improved for a more realistic feel, battles in front of the net for territory have been made much more realistic (which as a defenseman myself, I greatly appreciate), the AI has gotten better, the overall game seems to have been tweaked to reward smart play far and above typical joystick jockeying that plagues a lot of sports games, the CHL implementation has been expanded to provide a complete junior Hockey experience, the collision engine has been ramped up to discourage players from trying to hit anyone much bigger than they are, and so on. It's really more of a Hockey player's game this year, and I've yet to find any justification for scoring it less than a 9.5 in my own review.
^hm; I'm all for smarter AI and new physics; but why try to discourage players from trying to hit someone bigger than your guy currently being controlled when it can happen on the ice in real life? For example, Dion Phanuef laid out Derek Boogaard last season or the season before it when Calgary was playing Minnesota. (Yopu can find it on youtube)
^hm; I'm all for smarter AI and new physics; but why try to discourage players from trying to hit someone bigger than your guy currently being controlled when it can happen on the ice in real life? For example, Dion Phanuef laid out Derek Boogaard last season or the season before it when Calgary was playing Minnesota. (Yopu can find it on youtube)
Calvin079
I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm just saying you're rolling the dice if you do. Obviously the checking, balance, etc stats play a role too, as well as the actual situation on the play. The way it works now is much more realistic than before. Just like in real life, there are now consequences for bad judgment.
Hm, ok. Well, we'll see. If it actuallyplays out as well as it does like you say it ought, then maybe 7.5-9.0; but I still think 9 is stretching it.
Calvin079
This is the problem that sports sims are going to be facing over the next several years - it's not a problem with the games, it's a problem with the playerbase. The entire point of the genre is to eventually build a perfect simulation of the sport in question, and they do in fact get better and more realistic every single year. Some call for radical change, but radical change from near-realism is detrimental for everything these games are trying to do, which is to put the sport on a disc. NHL 12 does a better job of this than any Hockey game to come before it, and therefore, the review scores should reflect that. So what happens the next year after a perfect simulation is finally achieved? Change it? Ruin a rare and beautiful thing just for the sake of doing something different? The fact is, elements of these games are tailor-made for the season in which they're released, and I'm not just talking about roster updates. Rule changes (and the associated player and referee AI adjustments therein), team relocations, and anything else that can change the landscape of the league itself from season to season gets implemented in-game. There is a pretty vocal group of players out there who want to see the entire status quo thrown out the window, but obviously enough players find $60 worth of value in the games to keep things going as they have been and should be. Some games need change, but those are the ones that probably didn't have any staying power to begin with. When it comes to sports simulations, they need to get as close to perfect realism as they can get every year, and otherwise, only change as much as the sport itself does.
The Be A Pro mode in particular has been improved substantially. It no longer behaves like such a video game in terms of how your player is treated within the scope of his place on the team. The physics have also been drastically improved for a more realistic feel, battles in front of the net for territory have been made much more realistic (which as a defenseman myself, I greatly appreciate), the AI has gotten better, the overall game seems to have been tweaked to reward smart play far and above typical joystick jockeying that plagues a lot of sports games, the CHL implementation has been expanded to provide a complete junior Hockey experience, the collision engine has been ramped up to discourage players from trying to hit anyone much bigger than they are, and so on. It's really more of a Hockey player's game this year, and I've yet to find any justification for scoring it less than a 9.5 in my own review.DarkCatalyst
I agree totally with this. I never invested this much time into BAP before this year. I love it now! I played about 25 games so far and if I reviewed it I would give it at least a 9. I still say GS gives it at least an 8.5
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