In NHL 09 there were two attributes called Offensive Awareness (OA) and Defensive Awareness (DA) and they varied by skater type. They were mostly ignored and no one was quite sure what they did for the longest time. As it turns out OA gave you better passing vision and DA allowed you to get your stick on more pucks defensively as they were passed (EA Sports forum). I liked to run with DA higher on whatever build I was playing to be able to defend better.
When NHL 10 came out these two attributes were no longer listed. Did they remove them or just hide them? After playing nearly 700 games of NHL 10 I can tell you with some certainty they hid them. I find it easiest to notice when trying to pass or watching others try to pass with defensive verses offensive defensemen. Even with the exact same passing attribute the defensive defenseman can struggle to connect with forwards up ice. It can still be done just there are more passes that go off target. I suspect this is due to the hidden OA attribute. In 09 there were 20 points difference between the two.
The other thing I notice is how different skater types feel to play especially power forward and defensive defenseman. I can have the exact same agility as another build and it feels slower to turn and react. This leads me to suspect there are other hidden attributes that are specific to each skater type.
While I appreciate more delineation between the player types so they don't all play exactly the same and there is not one killer build (say hello dangler from NHL 09) I also very much like to have all the data in front of me so I can make rational decisions. Having the hidden attributes in there muddies up the decision making process and I think that hurts the game overall.
No comments:
Post a Comment