jdpatri

Other than that bastard Claude Giroux being on the cover, time to get excited about NHL 13. Based on all that I've read, the developers have spent a lot of time this off season on computer AI, improved skating and a "complete presentation overhaul."

Here's a link to EA's propoganda.

http://www.easports.com/nhl/feature/hockey-iq

New features:

EA Hockey IQ (improved computer controlled AI, both teammates and opponent)
True Skating Performance (another year of skating technicalities that we get to learn)
More Athletic Goalies (goalies improve every season)
GM Connected (online GM modes like the ones in place for Madden/NCAA!)
NHL Moments Live (relive great NHL moments and bunk them up)

Stanley Cup Edition bonuses:

Stanley Cup® HUT Packs—Make history with an exclusive Stanley Cup® themed Hockey Ultimate Team packs featuring a selection of five randomly-picked player items from the Western and Eastern Conference Champions.

Play Like a Legend—Take your game to the next level with the Gold Jumbo Hockey Ultimate Team Pack featuring an exclusive Wayne Gretzky Hockey Ultimate Team legend item.

Light the Lamp—Control the puck and fire off wristshots and one-timers like never before with the CCM Boost Pack featuring the all-new CCM RBZ hockey stick.

Look Like a Pro—From sweaters, hats, and t-shirts to collectables for the gameroom, house, or office, enjoy a 10% discount on a one-time purchase at shop.nhl.com.

DEMO OUT AUGUST 21st.

I'll be looking to form an online GM League. So PS3ers interested, let me know. Our regular EASHL teams have been poorly attended, so I probably won't start one this year unless people want to join.

nickdawgy

As a Kings fan, and longtime NHL fan, I am looking forward to playing the demo as the Kings

How is the special SC edition looking? Anything good?

jdpatri

The Special Edition is only special if A) You don't want Claude Giroux on your cover and B) if you play a lot of Ultimate Team. The bonuses are geared toward juicing your HUT with free packs, hall of fame packs. There are also some bonuses for your EASHL player.

I spend most of my team in HUT, actually, so I'm probably going to go with the Stanley Cup edition. It should eliminate a lot of grinding early on to get packs. On the other hand, I hate spending the extra cash on nothing but virtual benefits. So. Lame. Just depends on how much I want to get an early edge in HUT.

Details: http://www.trueachievements.com/n885...n-detailed.htm

cnicholls44

count me in.

jdpatri

Consider me shocked.

jdpatri

Amazon added a $15 pre-order credit for purchases of both NHL13 and the NHL13 Stanley Cup edition.

By the way, the digital pre-order bonuses:

GameStop/EB Games: Players will receive 1 Gold Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) pack per week for 16 weeks (September – December 2012).

Best Buy/Future Shop: Players will receive in-game Reebok 20K package. The package includes in-game gloves, stick, skates and a boost to enhance a Be a Pro and EASHL player.

Amazon.com/Amazon.ca: Players will receive in-game BAUER gloves, stick, skates and boost to enhance a Be a Pro and EASHL player.

Origin: Receive in-game Goalie boost to enhance a Be a Pro and EASHL goalie.

cruzness

I genereally suck at hockey games. Convince me that I need to pick this game up.

shumway

My last hockey game was probably NHL '96 or so and I wasn't even good at that. With as advanced as they have become today, I can't imagine being able to play this.

jdpatri

The thing with the NHL online mode, EASHL, is that you don't have to be good to have fun with it. As long as you have some experienced guys on your team you can figure it out enough to be useful. (In EASHL you play, essentially, in a locked-on third-person mode with your teammates, always controlling your particular created player.)

Plus, between nic and I, we can pretty much teach you anything you need to know. We can play online games w/ chat and teach you the basics. All pretty easy to learn.

But like any of these games, once you get past the basics there's a bit of a learning curve for the stick handling skills and advanced scoring. But I think NHL is still the most accessible of the EA sports games.

nickdawgy

Amazon is the way to go.

jdpatri

Just a note:

Amazon is not yet guaranteeing release day delivery for the Stanley Cup edition. They told me it had something to do with not being knowing how many they'd get. Whatevs. I ordered it anyway. Honestly, the reason I don't just cancel and order the regular edition at this point is Giroux on the cover. I just can't do it.

jdpatri

Demo Tuesday, people.

astrochimp

It is up!

jdpatri

I could turn on my 360 for the first time in six months to download the demo... but.... nah.

jdpatri

Holy hell, this new skating system is, uh, testing my patience.

jdpatri

More observations...

Load times are super fast! Hope this also applies to the full game.

The music f'in blows. There's usually some decent stuff on the NHL games, but this is shit.

shumway

R2 and I were discussing this last night during our NCAA match and the dominoes go something like this. If Cruz commits to picking this up, then I will pick it up. If Cruz and I pick it up, then R2 will pick it up. At that point you've already got a group of 5 counting Nic.

cruzness

I am downloading the demo andI will check it out since I've been threatening to pick this up for a couple of years.

jdpatri

I already have a few regulars from prior seasons as well. If everyone does a GM League we've got at least 10. Just get it, ****monkeys.

jdpatri

Word of warning. Since you haven't played the NHL games in the last couple of years, you might find it useful to watch the Skating Tutorial in the demo. It's not hard to skate around in circles but the tutorial helps clarify things a bit.

jdpatri

Goalie AI and movement fluidity is a big step forward. The desperation saves are brilliant.

flashburn

I didn't play '12, but the skating doesn't seem any different to me. The animations are definitely better, but it felt the same. Not sure I'll bother picking it up, since I don't care about multiplayer, and it seems like not much has changed.

jdpatri

I bet if you played an '12 or '11 and then immediately played '13 you'd notice a huge difference. You tend to forget the differences.

The skating is MUCH different from any prior NHL game. It's much more RL physics-based. Going straight ahead gains more speed (and a player's jump/acceleration is more more relevant now that every player doesn't almost instantaneously reach full speed.) and the faster you skate forward the less mobility you have. I was playing the demo last night and tried to do a sharp cut with a less-than-agile player and he lost an edge and fell into the goalie. A player's skill set influences his play on ice much more than in past years. For the first time in many iterations, I have a learning curve with an NHL game. This is the first dramatic leap for regular gamers in a long time.

flashburn

Fair enough. It did feel pretty good, I just couldn't tell a difference. But yeah, it's been a couple years since I've played NHL '11, and I only played the '12 demo briefly. Maybe I'll give it another shot, or maybe I'm just done with hockey games.

cruzness

Downloaded the demo overnight and played around with it a bit this morning before I went to work. I think I kinda like it.

Jumped into the freeskate to kinda check out the controls for a few minutes. Very responsive and fluid. scored 4 times on 40+ shots (one was a really nice wraparound coming from behind the net).

Next I jumped into the demo game. I only won one faceoff and they outshot me 2:1 but I did score twice, kept them from scoring and got used to the passing and checking.

Then I checked out the videos including the tutorial you mentioned. Had a couple of good things I hadn't figured out
The game is way different than the last one I played (09?) And since you are saying that the game has been revamped I won't feel too far behind the curve. I'm leaning towards picking it up. May try to play some more of the demo to convince me.