 The day is finally here….well one of them anyway. Today is the day that I can actually talk about what I saw and played at the EA Sports NHL 09 Community Event back in April. Those of us that attended weren’t allowed to talk about anything we say until now and I figured that people didn’t want to hear about random stuff about going to dinner and things like that. Today is different and lets get down to business…..
Let’s get some key things out of the way first. Those of us that attended the event were the first ones outside of the EA Canada studio to actually see and play the game. It was rather exciting; as I have never seen a game so early in it’s development cycle and actually get to play it. It was so early that there were still some NHL 08 menus up and sample text for other menu options. It was rather neat just to see the game in that state, but make no mistake, the game was highly playable and ran very smooth. The good thing is that the game feels exactly like NHL 08 with some key improvements in many areas. So the gamers will be able to pick the stick right up and feel very comfortable with the game.
Another thing that I wanted to mention, or have mentioned already over the last couple weeks, is that the dev team hears our complaints about the game. While we were at EA Canada we sat through a couple PowerPoint presentations outline some things that they were about to show us about the game. David Littman went right through a list of some of our biggest complaints and not only listed them, but also showed us stats on just how many forums those complaints were posted on and how many posts were made about them. They also read through a ton of reviews and outlined the positives and both negatives of the game that the community has been posting about. It was very impressive. They are well aware of the fact that the CPU shoots too many one-timers and are trying to tone it down and they are also well aware of the passive defense that plagued NHL 08, but we’ll get to that stuff later.
OK, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to some of the nitty gritty, shall we?
Some of the cool new gameplay features of the game are one-handed dekes, stick lifts, 360-degree poke check, new checking system, new goalie animations, and performance tracker. I’ll tackle these one-by-one…
One-handed Dekes
One of the first things they showed us when firing up the game is the new one-handed deke move you can pull off with your player. Basically, you kind of have to roll the stick to either the 5 o’clock or the 7 o’clock position in order to pull it off. The dev team watched the one-handed goal that Forsberg scored in the ’94 to try and get the animation correct as well. The cool thing about the move is that it’s attribute based and not every player can pull it off. You can also use the move to try and protect the puck. This move is going to take a little skill in order to perfect, which is something I like.
Stick Lifts
That’s right. You can now lift the stick of an opposing player with your stick by hitting the “A” button on the 360 controller. What I like about this is that if the puck is coming towards the opponent, you pretty much have a choice to either check him or lift his stick and make him miss the puck. However, sometimes you miss his stick and accidentally hit the opposing player with a nice slash to the face and potentially drawing a 5-minute major penalty! The downside is that they can’t implement the blood on the guys face in order to know for sure as to whether you get the 5-minute major or not. One other thing that they weren’t sure about, though, is whether or not players can get injured if they take that stick to the face. It is something we asked about, but they weren’t quite sure if they could get it in this year.
360-Degree Poke Check
This one is pretty self-explanatory. You can know swing your stick in a full 360-degree motion and rotate. The poke check will be more effective this year, but you have to be smart about it. You have to realize that the opponent will be able to get around you easier if you go to the poke check well a little too much. It’s that whole risk vs. reward thing that the dev team has really shown to have a strong grasp of with these features.
New Checking System
Fans rejoice, hip checks are now out of the game, which also means the “honing missile” checks are also out of the game! That’s not cool thing, though. The cool thing is that they are implementing the Endorphin physics engine to handle the checks. While it won’t be full “rag doll” type real time physics, there will still be 300-400 different types of checking animations in the game. Sure the checks might be pre-triggered, but from what I saw, the checking looked so very smooth and I saw a ton of variety. When we were there, they told us that they are still tuning the checking engine, though, so it will probably be even better than what we saw. A nice feature about the engine is that if you have some player hot-dogging up and down the ice and skating with their head down, you can really lay them out. It’s not going to be a common thing, but you really have to put yourself in position in order to really lay someone out.
Another cool new checking feature is that you can now nudge the R-Stick while in front of the net and disrupt the players that like to camp out there waiting for one-timers. That means that there’s actually battles for position in front of the net and you won’t feel so darned useless like in NHL 08 against guys just hanging out in front of your goalie. For a guy like myself that likes to goon it up a bit, I find this to be a very nice feature and a welcome addition. Again, it’s not over done and feels right. It will require a little practice, though.
New Goalie Animations
EA has added 50-75 new goalie animations into the game. They are working on putting the different goalie styles in the game and are adding more desperation type saves. One thing I did notice in NHL 09 is that the goalie will actually come out from the goal and play the puck if need be. I did see there were a couple times where it was a little dangerous and what I though was premature for him to come out from the net, but overall it was cool to see. A nice little added bonus with the goalies it that you will see them move their heads and try to look around screens if guys are standing in front of them. I thought it was a nice nuance to the game that if you’re not paying attention, that it might go unnoticed. It’s the little attention to details that I really like seeing in NHL 09.
Performance Tracker
Basically, the game tracks every aspect of your performance as you play. It’s kind of like the VIP system that 2K has been using in their games. It tracks all of your user stats and tendencies, it also provides you with a summary of your performance tracker and it also rates your performance depending on what position you play. It makes sure you play the position right and really goes pretty deep into tracking your every move. Overall, though, it teaches people the game of hockey and how it’s played and naturally the people that know the game of hockey already will probably score pretty well in the performance tracker.
One other thing of note is that there’s now a “dump” button, which was “RB”, I think, on the 360 controller where you can actually dump the puck in the zone. Gone are the days of having to line up some sort of slap shot in order to perform some kind of dump and chase in the offensive zone.
EA really seems to be preaching the teaching aspect of the game and trying to make the game a little more accessible to people. In doing so, we have a new control scheme and it is labeled “NHL 94”. Yep, it gives you the minimal control scheme like we had in NHL ’94 on the Sega Genesis. It’s actually quite fun to play and brings back some memories and it really does simplify the game for some of the more casual fans out there. They also give you on the fly feedback when your playing the game to kind of tell what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong and can improve on.
On top of the AHL in this year’s game, they’ve also expanded the European leagues to have the Russian Elite, German Elite, Czech Elite leagues on top of the Swedish tourney schedule and the Finnish tourney schedule. I’m not quite sure if the announcers pronounce the players names in the game, though, and at the time we saw the game, they just put in the Russian League logos but not the teams themselves.
Be a Pro
It’s already been mentioned, but one of the big features this year is the “Be a Pro” feature. Here’s how it works, you create a player when boot the game up for the first time. You obviously create your name, but you also choose through the audio database as to how the announcers will say your name. You do get to pick what organization that you want to play for, but you start on the 3rd line of the AHL affiliate! However, if you are a goalie, you are the starter on the AHL squad as it’s no fun to just sit there and watch the games.
When you hit the ice with your player you play from a really nice 3rd person camera and as you skate around during the game, there will be a position arrow showing you where you need to be on the ice. As you come back to the bench after your shift is over, you get instant feedback of how your shift went. Things like how often you were in position and if you got your other teammates involved and what not. It should also be mentioned that while you are in the bench, the camera view goes to first person as if you are really sitting on the bench in real life. Again, it’s the little things that count. Anyway, while you are on the bench you will see your energy bar and if it gets to a point where you think you are rested enough, you can ask the coach to get back on the ice. However, if you play too much it will lower your team score attribute for your player. The way you actually play the game with your pro affects your player’s attributes as well. You also start out with an amateur hockey card of your player and as you progress the better cards you can make of yourself.
Upon taking the ice before the game, the camera follows you from the deep in the tunnel during the introductions and follows you out on the ice. The music is muffle as you are in the tunnel and gets louder as you come out onto the ice. It’s a really neat effect and I think it makes you get into the game more. More so, if your Pro happens to be one of the 3 stars of the game, the camera will follow your guy back onto the ice for his “curtain call” so to speak. Conversely, if you are out of position and a goal is scored on your team, the announcers will decide to show how bad you messed up while commenting on it.
The goal of Be A Pro is to work your player up from the AHL all the way to the Hall of Fame. While you are up in the NHL, however, if you don’t perform up to your teams liking, they can and will ship you back down to the AHL and they can also trade you if need be. So, no matter what team you start off on, there’s no guarantee that you will finish your career there. And speaking of the Hall of Fame, the dev team actually wants you to play your games, so they were saying that you should be able to get to the Hall of Fame if you play well in about 200 full games or so. They understand that it takes more than that in real life, but they want you to experience the game and understand that very few people have the time to play like 800 games in a 10-year career or whatever. That’s kind of intense and I know that I would never even come close to playing that many games.
You do have the option to start the mode as a current pro, but why not just make a guy of yourself in order to really get the full experience?
It’s already been announced but online leagues with full stat tracking are in the game this year. I can’t quite remember, but I think the stats will be feature on the new EASPORTSWORLD.com website as well. Also online is that you will now be able to play a full 6 on 6 online game with your friends or other people.
Here are some other quick hitters that you can expect in NHL 09 - Added graphic overlay for goals over the course of a season
- Exciting new intro to the game. The arenas look awesome during the intros, by the way.
- 60 fps on both the 360 and the PS3
- Custom soundtracks. Set all arena music per team including goal horns and what not. Set intro music as well. Still looking to work online, but might only work locally. Music will muffle while inside of tunnel.
- Upload highlights to EASportsWorld.com
- Intelligence Training by the Experts (basically records the games producers as they play their games at their desk and they pick from the best moments to put in the game)
- New fighting system. However, I never actually saw it in action, so I cannot comment on it.
Overall, NHL 09 is lining itself up to be the head of the NHL class again. The constant year-to-year improvements aren’t slowing down at all and NHL 09 is no different. As I’ve stated before, it’s the little things that count now and EA has really been paying attention to the little things. NHL 09 is going to be the deepest hockey game to date. Hand down.
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