EPTSo I like to play all kinds of different games. One of my favourites from the past year has been NHL 11. My friend convinced me to get it while I was at gamestop and after a full year of playing the game I can say I was not disappointed. I hadn't bought an EA NHL game since NHL 2004 so I was coming into a completely new control scheme with the right analog stick controlling most of the deking and shooting features. This took a while to get used to but I like it a lot better now because of the freedom it gives you with deking. Anyways, I started playing this game by doing Hockey Ultimate Team mode with my friend (A mode where you buy and sell players to play for your team, giving them contract extensions and training cards along the way). We would bid on players and try to get deals for hours at a time. This took up most of the first month of my time with NHL 11.
Eventually, he and I created a team for the EA Sports Hockey League (EASHL). This is when I really fell in love with the game. In this mode you control one player on the ice all game. You can also invite other friends to your club where they control another player on the ice all game, all the way up to having 6 players including the goalie. When you play enough games and meet certain goals, you unlock higher attributes and by meeting even more goals you can earn boosts for specific attributes (i.e. +5 for wrist shot or +3 for speed, etc.)
Anyways, I have played this mode for essentially 10 months now and never been bored once. I love the mode because of the teamwork that comes with having a few friends playing together and running plays on offense, as well as filling gaps defensively. What I love most is that everything in the game has a counter. Like any game there are "cheap" tactics which results on goals at much higher percents than other approaches, but in my experience they are all countered with good teamwork and positioning.
Now to the good part. I have been playing a fair bit of the NHL 12 demo and have to say I'm very intrigued to see how the new game will play out in the EASHL. I'll highlight some of the biggest differences I've noticed on both offense and defense.
Offense:
-Very difficult to deke around the defensemen now as they are far more conservative and rarely bite on moves (massive change from NHL 11)
-Generally easier to get passes through tight spaces, they aren't stolen or deflected as easily by opposing players
-Players receive passes easier as opposed to NHL 11 where if you charged up your pass long enough the receiving player would have it bounce off of his stick
-One timers seem to be king. Not just cross crease one timers, but it seems any one timer where the goalie has to change angles goes in at a much higher rate than other types of shots
-It seems much harder to score on breakaways as the goalie reacts much faster to last second deke attempts (i.e. no easy backhand goal)
-Regular wrist shots are going in a lot less than they were last year.
-Slap shots, especially at a closer range seem to go in a lot. (i.e. Shea Weber deking out someone at the point, skating up and releasing a Slap shot 15 feet from the net has a good shot of going in)
-There seem to be a lot more screens of goalies by the AI, this seems to help slapshots go in
-It seems like there will be less "run and gun" offense and a lot more "set up in the offensive zone" to take advantage of slap shots, one timers, and screens.
-Defensive AI plays VERY conservatively. Keeping possession in the offensive zone seems quite easy (likely will change once you can play on higher difficulties, can only play on pro in the demo).
Defense:
-It seems like a lot more people can get a legitimate hit or enough contact to knock someone off the puck (I was able to hit two people down with Martin Havlat after the whistle)
-Poke Checking still seems strong enough
-With passes going through players easier it will probably become more necessary to actually use the pass blocking function to get in the way of the puck, rather than just hope to get in the way of it or poke-check
-Not much to do with defense, but the physics of hitting seems a lot more realistic and you "feel" it a lot more when you land a big check
Haven't been able to try goalie yet but I hope they gave you the option to have all angles that a player can have in terms of visual settings.
Anyways, I like it. It will force me to change a lot of things about my gameplay but I like the challenge. Definitely going to be picking it up September 13th and here's to another solid year of NHL with my friends online
Thanks and feel free to add my GT if you feel like playing,
GT: Tribalgravy (Xbox 360)
