NHL 12 demo

The demo is available to download on 23rd Aug for those of you with xbox 360 and PS3. 5 days to go!

Wooo! Can't wait!

Yay, now I can:

- get Luongo to actually make a fucking save against the Bruins
- make the Sedins score
- knock Johnny Boychuk into the middle of next week, the tw@t
- face-wash Brad Marchand and get him to accept a fight for once
- get Ehrhoff to play defense
- play with a 2-eyed Malhotra
- make Max Lapierre wiggle his fingers in people faces during scrums (I wish they had added that!)

Oh, and win the fucking cup. God damn Bruins. Though even if we'd have won, I'd trade it right now to have Rick Rypien back with us

So, the demo has been out for a day. After numerous games on the three available modes - HUT, Be a Pro and Play Now - I've come to the following list of likes and dislikes:

LIKES
1. The opposition dumping/chasing. Never really happened in past games, is an excellent REALISTIC addition to this year's game. I really like it.
2. Hitting in general feels better, including weaker players (mostly) bouncing off bigger guys. Nice.
3. Helmets coming off looks cool - I scored a beauty with Duncan Keith and his long flowing locks!
4. It's harder to score this time. Yes, I like this.
5. Putting traffic in front of the goalie is another excellent addition.
6. Speed - some players are slow, some lightning fast. This makes it a lot more fun with the Canucks against the slowcoach Bruins.
7. The opposition AI for D is better in general.
8. Goalies are much improved, and Tim Thomas's style has been captured brilliantly. My first shift on the game saw Luongo get two minutes for dwindling in the trapezoid...

DISLIKES:

1. Hip checking has been ruined. Shame, as I loved it.
2. Running goalies looks rubbish, feels unnatural, and looks poor. They should take it out again.
3. Fights are horrendous still - players remain the same size, of the same skill, no atmosphere etc.
4. Skating backwards with poke check on auto drives me bonkers!!!!!
5. One shift I hit Chara HARD, and he could barely skate afterwards. Wouldn't have minded, but it was Henrik Sedin what hit him...
6. Brad Marchand is nearly black on this game.
7. I don't like Michael Grabner's picture. He freaks me out. Beardy Weirdy.
8. The overalls are messed up - Lucic and Krejci 87, Kesler 88, Sedins 91, Edler 83? Odd.

Overall, I like it

Azzy Luongo wrote:
8. Goalies are much improved, and Tim Thomas's style has been captured brilliantly.

What, you mean every time he lets a goal in, Lu pops up and says "pah, I would have saved that"?

My copy of NHL 12 was despatched today

Spent rather too long doing a fantasy draft last night! Fairly happy with my team though Check it out...

Ovechkin - B. Richards - Iginla
Malone - Ribeiro - Brown
Ott - Malhotra - Samuelsson
(forgot who i put here!) - Rupp - Grier

Vishnovsky - Boyle
Timonen - Corvo
Souray - Morris

Kiprusoff
Turco

Also picked up quite a few decent junior players in Gudbranson, Nugent-Hopkins, Landeskog and a few others I can't think of right now

I have to say after downloading the demo for the PS3 that NHL 12 is pretty good and EA will end up with my hard earned dosh for the 4th consecutive year. It's a bit early to really comment as it always takes a little while to adjust to the new style but I would generally agree with Azzy's positive points he's listed above. In addition I love the way they've reworked BAP, giving you the ability to skip to your shifts so you don't have to sit there watching CPU v CPU. I think it will mean that you'll end up playing a realistic amount of ice time in relation to your line and that games and therefore your career will be able to progress more quickly.

On BAP you are spot on Ronnie. When I started it up it even stated that you had to earn your time and there was a limit to ice time in one game (was 47 mins though!) but seems they addressed the issue of it basically being a one line game.

Yahoo fantasy or NHL 12 fantasy? I decided to go for the tried-and-tested 'normal' Be a GM mode and, while trading does cost you more, I have still managed to acquire Drew Doughty, Cal Clutterbuck and Oliver Ekman-Larsson! Madness!

I am in love with NHL 12. It's exceptional, and by far my favourite NHL game to date.

mc_homer wrote:On BAP you are spot on Ronnie. When I started it up it even stated that you had to earn your time and there was a limit to ice time in one game (was 47 mins though!) but seems they addressed the issue of it basically being a one line game.

Yeah, I seem to recall watching a video with one of the EA developers and he said as a 4th liner you'd only be playing a few shifts per game so could whizz through them quickly. I've played a few times on the demo as "Joe NHL" and it felt as though he was on the ice for the right amount of time for a top liner - providing you go off when you're told of course!

I must admit I didn't realise until just now that the full game was actually available! Amazon here I come...

Azzy Luongo wrote:Yahoo fantasy or NHL 12 fantasy? I decided to go for the tried-and-tested 'normal' Be a GM mode and, while trading does cost you more, I have still managed to acquire Drew Doughty, Cal Clutterbuck and Oliver Ekman-Larsson! Madness!

I am in love with NHL 12. It's exceptional, and by far my favourite NHL game to date.

That's a very bold comment considering you've only just got it! It always takes a little while for the gripes to emerge I find.

As long as they've fixed the erratic goaltending (which they seem to have) it'll be an upgrade from 11....

Azzy Luongo wrote:Yahoo fantasy or NHL 12 fantasy? I decided to go for the tried-and-tested 'normal' Be a GM mode and, while trading does cost you more, I have still managed to acquire Drew Doughty, Cal Clutterbuck and Oliver Ekman-Larsson! Madness!

I am in love with NHL 12. It's exceptional, and by far my favourite NHL game to date.

NHL 12. I started be a GM mode but with a fantasy draft. I will be doing a regular one when the season begins

mc_homer wrote:

Azzy Luongo wrote:Yahoo fantasy or NHL 12 fantasy? I decided to go for the tried-and-tested 'normal' Be a GM mode and, while trading does cost you more, I have still managed to acquire Drew Doughty, Cal Clutterbuck and Oliver Ekman-Larsson! Madness!

I am in love with NHL 12. It's exceptional, and by far my favourite NHL game to date.

NHL 12. I started be a GM mode but with a fantasy draft. I will be doing a regular one when the season begins

lol! Well that's one hell of a team you managed to draft, mate!

Goalies are much better. D is much better. Teammate AI is much better. Weird bounces are great. Odd deflections off the goalie are great. I got Henrik to backheel the puck off a Doughty slap shot last night - it was waved off! Kicking motion! Best finish I've ever seen, Dubnyk was
nowhere near it.

I like BAP. Simming is great. In-game tasks are great. Legendary milestones are great. Playing a full CHL season is great. Playing for the Vancouver Giants is great.

I like BAGM. Trading is harder. Chemistry is important. Player types are important. Building your farm team is important.

I like it.

I gotta agree with Azzy. There is just something about the feel of the game that makes it so much better. I love how the players respond to hits and off target passes.

One thing I know people are bound to complain about but I think is a very good touch is if you fire a pass to a player who is not positioned correctly, ie. isn't facing the goal and is on his backhand at an awkward angle, he WILL miss the net if you try to one time it. I have had so many shots go way way wide where in previous games it would have at least made the goalie move for it. Again just one of those things that makes the players movements feel a little more authentic.

Yeah, that's one of my initial observations...the shots spray about all over the place! Makes it much more realistic and removes the total deadliness of a slap shot which you got even with the "shot accuracy" slider set at zero.

Anyway, I've just placed my order so I've now got a few days to go back and finish my season mode in NHL 11!

Just need to get yourself an xbox now eh?

lol! Alas, I've ordered it for the PS3! That's the one thing I would like - to play people I (sort of) know rather than random 13 year olds from Slovakia and Finland...

not got my copy yet, but from the comments from you guys it is certainly worth a buy.

how is the soundtrack? thats what nobody has commented on yet!!!

rugby-leafhockeyrocker wrote:

how is the soundtrack? thats what nobody has commented on yet!!!

Heavy American rock in the main. The music has never been my cup of tea in this series but there were a handful of cool tunes in 11 I thought. You're much more likely to hear better music in a real arena!

each to their own, i quite like the heavy american rock stuff. Good to know that is still the norm

The menu music mysteriously froze after 2 games, and didn't come back on...but it was very good, and for the first time since NHL 09 I won't be adding my own playlist to it. ELO all the way

One thing I don't like though - the new font. It's crap. And a glitch I found is that when you're in BAGM mode, on the Roster Moves screen, and press 'x' to go to 'edit lines', it takes you to your farm team lines - not just when you're on your farm team section, but also when you're on your NHL team section.

Just the two gripes though (in addition to the comments I made about the demo).

One thing for those going out to buy it today. There is a known problem with the online passes not activating. If you get a failure message check this site for updates. They have a temporary workaround at the moment.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7518771.page

My copy is waiting for me at home on my return from Suomi... looking forward to playing EASHL with NYR and BlairGrylls again.