NHL '10/2k10

[Mr. X]

Trailer for NHL 10

NHL 10

The new fighting system and board play make me excited for what should be an even better game than 09 was. Now all we can hope for are the rumours that the developmental team are working on the online gameplay, which most of the worst parts of it are from glitcher fuck offs.

[alldaws1]

NHL 10 deserves its own thread, we shouldn't have to share with the inferior 2K series

The board play looks good but I'm not a fan of the first person fighting.

[Reddaye]

About time EA caught up and added some board play. Hopefully they fix the face off system too.

First person fighting doesn't do it for me at all. I'll just turn fighting off again like I did in 09, which is a shame.

[Cactus Drags]

As far as I can recall, no hockey game has ever gotten fighting right, so I at least welcome a fresh approach. On the online side of things, what they need is moderation. We need tools to report glitches and exploits (because no matter how much time and effort you put in, the cheesers WILL find a way to cheat), and also some method of naming and shaming cheats. I know if you mention a gamertag for someone that glitches on the EA forums, the topic gets closed and you get banned or warned. Unacceptable. Basically, I'd like to see something like the MS reputation meter, but more visible. Like, on the side/position select screen, your tag shows green for no problems, orange for occasional misuse or red for constant complaints. That way, we could avoid playing with complete fuckheads. Of course, any system is open to abuse, and some folk will undoubtedly try and screw over anyone who beats them, but anything has to be better than the glitching, cheesing exploit-fests we're suffering through at the moment.

[Gabriel]

The thing that has me really excited, is that the human controlled teams can suffer more injuries because of the CPU. Which means that roster management becomes an actually important tool, and it should be very rare that 80% of your lineup plays all 82 games.

I like playing the games, but the roster management is a huge thing I enjoy.

I'm also hoping that we can re-sign players during the season, to avoid the crazy rush of having to do it before July 1st... and that contracts, trades and waivers are all handled a little more realistically.

Another thing I don't like, is how all the players from the other leagues get dumped into the Free Agents pool when you start a dynasty. Guys like Chris Pronger shouldn't be sitting out a year because half of the Finnish League defensemen have been given contracts.

[Mr. X]

I also hope they allow players to resign guys during the season, and hopefully we eventually have the higher coaches/trainers/etc... which will affect how a team plays (user would be the GM).

As far as this new fighting system, at least EA wanting to improve on a part of the game that casual players look forward to, 09s system is a bit boring.

[alldaws1]

And unrealistic. How many times do you see one punch knockouts in the NHL? I know you can tie up but it's almost always a one punch thing.

[alldaws1]

The cover for NHL 10 has been revealed. Patrick Kane on it. Would have looked so much cooler if a) he wasn't chewing on his mouth guard and b) he was wearing the alternate black Chicago jersey. I do like the grungy style of the EA Sports covers this year though, makes a nice change from the fairly plain ones.

Third year in a row with a player wearing a red jersey? They need to make the next one different, say someone wearing a blue jersey. That says 'Rangers' on it

[Slogger]

Please, Next year they need a Finnish player who's name starts with a T and ends with an eemu

I don't mind the cover at all, But I agree the needed at Alt Blackhawks uni for the cover.

[alldaws1]

Everyone needs to be be practising for EASHL on NHL 10. I'm not sure if I can carry our team for another year.

I'm kidding, of course I can.

[Mr. X]

If by 'carry' you mean steal goals. I agree.

[Cactus Drags]

I lead the damn team in everything till you showed up, puckhog.

Also, where did Whisper go?

[Maxx]

I hit?

[Cactus Drags]

No, you brainchop.

[Cactus Drags]

Box blurb, courtesy of Gamestop:

New Battle for the Cup Mode: Experience the intensity of NHL playoff hockey. Play through injuries, intimidate rivals, and match lines as storylines carry across the entire series.

Build a Stanley Cup Champion: All-new GM mode lets you scout amateurs, put players on the trading block, hire staff, and earn experience points to become a legendary GM.

Battle on the Boards: Shield the puck with your body, kick-pass it to teammates, or pin your opponent against the boards with an all-new board play engine.

All-New First-Person Fighting: Change the momentum by trading blows with an NHL enforcer. Tug an opponent’s jersey to gain an advantage—before or after the whistle.

Become the Ultimate Pro: Improve your draft status by dominating the prospects game, then use new coaching tips, improved teammate AI, and detailed position instructions as you build the ultimate career.

Capture Multiple Championships: The coveted EA SPORTS Hockey League Cup is always up for grabs as new seasons start on a monthly basis online.

New Intimidation Tactics: Fore-check defenders, pressure the puck, and finish checks to force your opponent into mistakes, as players fatigue, bobble passes, and avoid collisions under threat of physical pressure.

All-New Post-Whistle Action: The action never stops! Antagonize opposing players, finish checks, retaliate for late shots on goal, draw penalties, and pick fights—all after the referee blows the whistle!

[Slogger]

Don't know if anyone else has seen this pic, But I am liking the idea of unlocking gear for your BAP.

[Reddaye]

Hopefully you can use the money your player earns through their contract to buy gear once it's unlocked for the store.

[Clawson]

I'm gonna get so many penalties with OLAS for running people over after the whistle.

[Gabriel]

Stole this from the IGN board.

Some awesome new notes, especially about the Be-A-GM mode. Still am hoping for the ability to re-sign players during their contract year, instead of having to wait... because that makes it so much easier to look over the roster and decide who can go, and make those moves at the deadline/draft, instead of having to wait until the season's end to do all your re-signing, and potentially losing a bunch of guys for absolutely nothing.

Well guys, as I said in the earlier thread, I got another chance to give NHL10 a hands on test drive, and this time, I was able to spend much, much more time with the game (and it appeared to be a slightly more advanced build.)

David Littman said the build that was showcased yesterday was 95 percent done (and the actual gameplay end of things was about 99 percent done.)

I was able to play four full games, and poked around and looked at a lot of the menus, new features, etc. so I have a lot more information and should be able to answer a lot more questions.

Let me just tell you a bunch of random stuff, and if anyone has any questions, I can try to answer.

- They have added a "season" mode, and it allows you to manage up to 30 teams. So if you want to try and mimic the NHL season exactly by making all the roster moves, you can now do that.

- The Fantasy Draft is in.

- Dynasty hasn't just been added to, it's been scrapped and replaced by a MUCH more detailed version called "Be A GM." This mode, quite simply, is awesome. It is a much more detailed, feature rich version of the old Dynasty Mode with a real focus on how you run your club and if you're able to keep your owner happy. Among the cool things here is the fact that EA has fixed a lot of the annoying loop holes that previously existed. In previous versions, you could sign five free agents then trade them off for draft picks or bundle them up for one big star player. You can still do that, but now it will really cost you. As a GM, you have a "reputation." If you do something shady like sign a free agent then quickly trade him, your reputation around the league - and most importantly with players and agents - takes a big hit. You will find that guys - including your own - don't want to sign with you or other GMs have no interest in trading with you. This also solves another little work-around. Previously you could trade a 79 overall guy for an 81 overall guy then swap him for an 83 then an 85, etc until you got a great player. Now trading for a guy then dumping him the same day will hurt your reputation. Also, if you try to "rip off" other GMs by offering stupid lop-sided trades, you will piss off the GMs and hurt your reputation.

Another way you are punished for being a shady GM is by literally losing "phone lines." All of your interactions with other teams are via Blackberry (and they actually have the rights to Blackberry, so a real blackberry pops up on your screen.) If you're a good GM with a good reputation, you can have as many as 5 different Blackberry's. This is useful around the draft or trade deadline day because you have five lines and can receive a ton of different offers. However, if you've got a lousy reputation, you will lose phone lines and, as a result, opportunites to improve and build your team.

You can start the Be A GM mode pre-draft, and a cool little feature thats included is the prospects game. You can actually play this game to get a look at the best draft eligible players in a game situation, or you can simply scout it. At the draft, much like the real one, there's a lot of wheeling and dealing. You can set your trade block, your wants and needs, and see if other teams come biting. You get "calls" on your Blackberry "It's St. Louis, they have the 11th pick. Answer or Ignore?" A lot of trades went down at the draft involving players and picks. The trade AI has been totally revamped. ****** teams like the Leafs and Islanders won't trade their young stars, period. They are rebuilding and will tell you so. Good luck trading for Luke Schenn. Another cool detail that adds realism is players worth actually fluctuates. At the beginning of the season, the trade value for an older veteran isn't too high. However, at the deadline, when his cap hit is small and there's teams looking for veteran leadership, his value goes up. Its worth hanging on to these guys an auctioning them at a higher price.

This mode also has accomplishments can be met that are worth points you can use to improve your staff so you get better medical, better scouting reports, better more accurate trade rumors from around the league, etc. Very, very cool.

- For the Be A Pro fans, there's now a proshop where you can buy new equipment for your player that will give him attribute boosts, much like Tiger Woods.

- Much much more of the games features can be toggled on/off in order to crank up the realism for better players. You can now pick the "style" and if you choose hardcore, its a much tougher game and all sorts of things are now in your control. You can turn off "auto skate back" you can turn off "penalties after the whistle" you can even turn off the clock slown down that happens during powerplays.

- The Swiss National League has been added.

- The New Road to the Cup mode has a lot more then just towels for the fans, as I reported earlier. You can now set up ANY length series for the Cup. It's a good party mode, and it has really cool story telling in it. The announcers - and fans - have a memory of the series. If Justin Williams highsticked Saku Koivu and he's out for the rest of the series, Williams will get booed by the fans in the next game(s.) The announcers will also be aware of the incident and talk about it. When you start the next game, the "story" will be about Williams taking out Koivu. The question is... will you retaliate? Very cool.

- Speaking of injuries ... If a guy gets punched out or a puck in the face, he can return with a black eye. If a guy gets his jaw broken, he can return with a jaw protector on his helmet. Injuries that happen in game now give you an on-screen update about the injured player (during the game) and you can decide if he should hit the showers, stay on the bench, or play hurt. Cool stuff.

- The level of detail in the goaltenders is remarkable. I already talked about the slew of new animations before, but I've noticed some other cool stuff. If you play with a goalie that handles the puck well (Brodeur, Turco) he will be very active with playing the puck. Always jumping out to corral dump ins, skating out to play a puck that drifts into the zone. If the goalie doesnt have those skills, he doesn't. If you play with Tim Thomas, expect to see an unorthodox style. He could be on the ice, on his ass in the splits, while Brodeur will stand up a lot more. The animations are specific to the actual style the real-life goalie plays. Very detailed and the animations are great.

- If you get hooked or knocked down and your a skilled player, its possible to retain possession while on your knees and even shoot (I hit the crossbar wtih Lecavalier from my knees, drew a penalty shot then hit the damn cross bar again.)

- This one almost seems too good to be true, but I played a few full games and watched several more and I'm here to tell you the money-shot one-timer goal..... is dead. Obviously you can still score with one timers but not nearly with the frequency you could before. And you can one time loose pucks which is awesome. I scored three goals with Matt D'Agostini in three different games all loose puck one timers that he wired. Sweeet.

- It's gonna take a lot of people some time to realize that the game is different and they will likely take A LOT of penalties at first. (obviously penalty frequency can be toggled) but there's a lot of scrums now that can easily lead to fights or penalties. I face-washed a guy and got a Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty, so its quite detailed. A cool little animation exists where if you have the option to drop your gloves (it asks you, and tells you who the combatants are) and you don't drop them your guy will be wiggling his gloves as if to say "you wanna go? You wanna go?" There's a another cool animation if you drop a guy in a fight where your guy tumbles down on top of him the winner of the fight pulls a punch as if he's gonna drill the guy while he's turtled. He never does fire the punch though!

- The highest compliment I can give the new board play feature is that it feels totally organic to the game and not like something that was "added in." In fact, it feels like it was always there, but it really adds a wrinkle of realism. If you get tied up, you can try to kick the puck to your teammate, but, because its kicking, its not moving fast and be intercepted. Your fourth line slugs that never played in any other version of NHL, are really quite useful now because they can go out there and grind out a shift where there hits and pinning of guys actually intimidates and wears down your opponent. Ditto for big defenseman. I watched Hal Gill totally dominate Brian Gionta along the boards in one shift. (The rosters were pre-free agency.) It was really cool to see, Gill just neutralized and Gionta couldn't overpower Gill. But be aware of the puck, if the player kicks it away and you still hit him or pin him, it can be an interference penalty.

- The demo, which has no release date, will be different in terms of what you get to do then previous versions. Littman said it's a "very cool demo." Not a lot of info there!

- None of the new features for the EAHL or Be A Pro were revealed, they will be announced in 2 or 3 weeks.

That's all I can remember right now, guys.

Cheers

FR

[Ruki]

Wow, that actually sounds pretty damn awesome. Maybe I will get it...