Here is my list in no particular order:
- AI Goalies -- They are just too good. They stop chances that should be nearly sure goals 90+% of the time which is highly unrealistic. It turns the game into a low skill throw the puck at the net and hope kind of game play.
- AI hitting -- The AI is far too good at hitting and can knock you down at the drop of a hat even if you are 6'3" 225lbs with 85 balance and 13" skates. They shouldn't be pushovers but they shouldn't be able to hit like they do.
- AI passing -- The AI is terrible at passing when you call for it and can't complete a 5 or 10 foot pass at times. Pee wees can complete these passes. Much like they need to tone down the hitting they need to up the competency of short passing for the AI.
- AI decision making -- please stop the AI defense from walking right in front of the goal on defensive zone draws. This has been happening for years and no defender in any league does this.
- Hitting from behind while skating away from someone full speed -- this needs to go away, if I am skating full speed away from someone and they are slightly faster than me they should not be able to knock me down from behind. There is no physics model that supports that. Mind you this has happened to me playing grinder at 6'195lbs and 80 balance and 70 strength.
- Hitting in general -- hitting in general is way too effective and there are far too many teams that just run around like idiots and hit all game and never get penalized enough for it. And god forbid you give them the first goal the (non-existent according to EA) momentum plus intimidation means suddenly your team can't hit an empty net now. It needs to be toned down and more calls need to be made for illegal hits.
- Incidental contact -- With the new skating model people can skate right into opponents and stop their momentum with no call. While I don't think it should be called 100% of the time I do think interference needs to be called enough to dissuade people from doing this all the time. I don't mind some body contact while skating the same direction but when people meet from opposite directions I think there needs to be calls at least some of the time.
- Amount of low skill random goals -- even with human goalies the percentage of low skill pinball goals is way too high. I really think the game needs to reward skill more rather than rewarding slop like it does now. Over half the goals scored against us are just terrible low skill goals.
- Changing face off handedness right before puck drop -- This is a problem that has been around since the series started. How this hasn't been fixed by now I don't know. If you change your faceoff grip less than a second before the puck drops you should lose every time yet they reward cheating.
- Passing -- the passing in this version is really all over the place, it is muddy and imprecise even with high end passing. I preferred the cleaner passing of NHL 12.
When you combine the muddy passing, improved ability to knock down passes on defense (I like this), and the crazy AI goalies you end up with a lot of low skill luck goals. This is a general problem I have with game companies that do balance changes from year to year or even patch to patch. Every single one of them instead of just toning something down a little they go overboard and make whatever they were trying to fix totally useless. The one timer is a great example. Before it was probably 80% effective which was too high. What they should have done was get it to around 30% effectiveness like in real hockey. Instead they have made it less than 10% effective which renders it no better than any other shot (a lot of times worse) and not worth trying against the AI.
Anyway, I am sure a lot of you have other things you want fixed in the next version. Throw them in the comments so we can discuss them.
they need to add REAL Coaches/Staff,Gameface, new dekes,Detailed drafting, and they need to take a few pages from nba2k13, madden, and fifa. FIX the defensive AI.
ReplyDeleteThe first strides - From a standstill the first few strides in the new skating engine look terrible, players skate in place as if they are stuck in mud for a half second. I would like to see some explosiveness from the first few strides, possibly even a new attribute to really separate quick skaters and fast skaters.
ReplyDeleteSuperhero goalies on one end then the ugliest piece of crap, no skill, let in on the other end gets under my skin like nothing else. More realistic boardplay would also help immensely. Lastly, as you mentioned, the (Dr.Jekyl Mr. Hyde) AI hit system is ridiculously unfair.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually quite a good player and dominate most games that I play but at the end of the day all that counts are goals. I have noticed that because of these major flaws I sometimes resort to doing whatever I can do to get the most shots on goal (whether good ones or not) rather than playing more realistically and skillfully as I can do. At the end of the day who wants to lose right??
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on all these points. I'm in a small club of close friends so we typically play against AI goalies. When you combine the AI's ability to intercept cross-ice passes (which is a good thing) with the goalie's unbelievable skill, any cross-ice play that does get completed will not score. Then there is the fact that any time you skate anywhere near the goal the AI defense sucks you in and destroys you with a check. As a result most of the goals scored in NHL 13 are unimpressive and boring.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting old losing games in which we dominate time on attack and shots, but lose to a double deflection goal and a breakaway where the AI defense just lets a speedster on the other team skate by.
Momentum is another big issue. I've gotten pretty good at predicting when another team is about to score. Every loose puck bounces their way and they resist good checks and pokes. Then they get a little space, rip off a shot and score. My team had momentum last night and I escaped two defenders on the boards (I should have lost the puck). I said "I'm going to score", and then proceeded to slap in a goal.
I keep coming back though because every once in a while you have a game where everything comes together. Good puck movement, score on a high quality slapshot, make a nice passing play for a goal.
Yeah, all of what you say is true. We started just running with a human goalie all the time a couple of months back and the game is so much better. It still has problems but if you setup a good play and don't score it is at least a human stopping you. Finding a goalie can be hard but we were lucky to have a guy who likes to play it on our club plus a couple of others who will go if needed. Seriously try to find a goalie and the game will 10x better.
DeleteIt won't get rid of the stupid hitting and lack of calls but it just makes it a lot more fun.