NHL 13
NHL 13 Reviews
I have never written a review of a game in my entire life. But having bought and played this game I feel obligated to write a detailed review to help consumers make an informed decision about this game. Game. I can't believe I am going to fault a game for being a game. But here I go nonetheless. Anyone familiar with this series knows that there isn't really a happy medium difficulty. "Pro Difficulty" is far too easy and "All-Star Difficulty" is way too hard. And it's not harder because the computer is smarter. It is harder because the computer can skate faster and steal the puck without performing an action (something the player must do to steal the puck i.e poke-check, stick-lift, etc). The AI aggressively pursues the puck carrier and forces a turn over. It's not positional hockey... it's like an NHL team playing a pee-wee team. So how can we fix this? I know! We'll give the AI a sprint capability. The new skating engine is actually pretty amazing. It does a great job of putting you in the skates of an NHL player. Your control is immensely improved and it all feels exhilarating rushing on offense. This would all play so amazingly well if the AI skaters skated backward slower than you can "sprint" forward. Finally (in theory) you could skate faster than the AI (if only during the rush) and no longer feel dogged by faster skaters with super-human puck stealing capability. Except this is plainly not the case. Playing the AI on "Pro difficulty" is roughly the same as playing NHL 11 or 12 on "All star". The AI will take the puck from you if you get within 25 feet of him. Sprint or no sprint. If you skate near a AI player you will lose the puck. Are you Crosby or Ovenchkin? Guess what - against the AI it doesn't matter at all. Are you a super-human custom player creation with the best speed, acceleration and agility in the game? Still - it does not matter. However - most, if not all, veteran EA NHL player know how to play the (non-hockey) hockey to beat the super-human AI. You just have to abandon all pretense that you're simulating a hockey game and play some Blades of Steel hockey and you'll win. If you do play these games you've most likely experienced the San Francisco Rush style comeback of your AI opponent. (for those who don't get the reference, it's a racing game that automatically speeds you or your opponent up to keep the race close). It's happened a lot in the last 4 or so EA NHL games. It is especially obvious in the final 2 or so minutes of a game. But this time it makes a return by intentionally keeping the entire game close. I played 10 straight games and took the lead 10 straight times and watched the computer overwhelm my AI controlled team and score 4-5 cheap goals. I could deal with this in years past because it felt like MY AI players were at least trying. But seriously - it's like your AI is trying to throw the game. I tried to create a super-human goaltender to see if it would help. Nope. My dynamo seemingly was in on it too. We're talking about the Winnipeg Jets coming back on the defending Stanley Cup champ LA Kings.... 10 times. It's no accident and it completely and utterly takes you out of it. My biggest question for EA is this: Why aren't my teammates operating on the same level as the AI opponent? The is the best looking hockey GAME ever made. This is one of the best controlling hockey GAMES ever made. This is the most feature rich hockey GAME ever made. But the gameplay (this "interpretation" of the game of hockey) is fundamentally broken almost beyond repair. Don't say I didn't warn you. I didn't even mention the standing still knock down body checks. (A 5'8 165lb leveled my player created 6'4 240lb defensemen three times in a row in the corner.) The bottom line is that somehow while EA was trying to create the most realistic hockey simulation ever they managed to create of the world's worst hockey games. Buy it and tell me you don't agree. UPDATE I'm never going to say that it's acceptable for a company to release a truly unfinished product. So I will not give EA a pass for doing that in this case. I stand by the original 2/5 star from this review. But in the case of EA, I will give them props for heavily patching this game to be a little more playable. The biggest thing they have improved is the seemingly exploitable cheap goals from the top of the slot. For anyone who plays hockey they'll know shooting from the top of the face off circle is a high goal area. But it is EXTREMELY hard to get positioned for a good shot there. So the AI was scoring realistically from this area, it's just that the AI was able to maneuver into this position regularly and easily. So for the most part, playing smart positional defense will now minimize this exploit. I am know able to rush past defenders with fast skaters and have them turn and chase me toward the net. This is the realistic skating situation they advertised. Because when I speed up enough to make them turn, I am unable to cut in to the net. I can carry the puck past the defenders but either have to take a bad angle shot or carry it into the corner. Much more like real hockey and I'm assuming what they were going for with the whole skating engine. What still remains and is in desperate need of a fix is the standing still body check. For a game that advertises physics the skater vs skater interactions are still laughably bad. The rubber banding has been improved (thanks for the term Fox!) but every once in a while you can see your team and opponent AI decide it's time to make it closer. It's far less prevalent and closing out a close game is the exciting prospect it should have been all along. The skating boost helps to heighten the drama of these situations and provide a desperation that was lacking in previous NHL games. NHL 14 for the next generation consoles has a real opportunity to build on this rough transitional game. My development list for 14 goes like this: 1. Fix the hitting/player interaction physics. Give it the same level of thought you did skating. This doesn't mean record new animations and call it progress. I don't care how it looks, I care how it feels! 2. Refine the pinning/puck cycling system. Real hockey is a game of getting the puck down low and cycling it around the boards to maintain possession. Pinning is the right idea, but expand expand expand. 3. It's time for an NHL game to have an true open Beta. Look, I know you guys are Canadians and almost for sure have seen a fair deal of hockey in your time. But I played this game for like 2 days and could have given you your patch notes 3 months before the game came out. 4. New commentators, new presentation. Time to go after TSN (espn) or CBC and get some real commentators and TV graphics.. this is my NHL 13 reviews
NHL 13 Specs
- Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
- ASIN: B007FTE33O
- Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches ; 4 ounces
- Media: Video Game
- Release Date: September 11, 2012
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
- #1 in Video Games > Xbox 360 > Games > Sports > Hockey
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