ChineseCheckers

Yeah that's what i figured...I guess I'll wait to see if stats are kept for a player's entire career.

cnicholls44

So I was messing around in HUT tonight. I made to the final game and I was disconnected from the EA servers which caused me to lose my game and be kicked out of the tournament. EA sucks. What is their problem this year? All of their games have bugs.

jdpatri

I haven't experienced any NHL disconnects... yet.

HUT with disconnects would be a nightmare. If they don't have this worked out by the full release that's going to be trouble. Not only do you lose the game and tournament in HUT, you lose tokens for cancelling out of a game.

jdpatri

Two days.

jdpatri

Okay, who has a copy in hand?

Where are all the PS3ers for the EASHL?

cnicholls44

i hope to have my copy today, but amazon says it hasn't shipped yet. I guess I will find out when I get home.

jdpatri

I got mine from Amazon this afternoon. You should be good. Played my first HUT game with legion of scrubs. I got Gordie Howe in one of my free packs!

cnicholls44

no, didn't get it. I emailed them and they gave me some bullshit about how they sent me the email but I wasn't eligible because i ordered mine on aug 3rd. They said that it was not automatic, even though it stated in the email that it was and would arrive on 9/13. Not a happy camper.

nickdawgy

The stats are kept for an entire career, except it doesn't say the team name.

I like the game alot. It's very fluid, and tougher to score. I have scored on some real garbage goals which is fun to see.

The goalie reacting to traffic in front of the net is nice. My BAP player cross checked him and didn't get a penalty

nickdawgy

Do you have Prime? I'd complain regardless. Get a promo cert or something.

cnicholls44

yes, I have prime. I emailed them and they changed it from 2 day shipping to 1 day. woooooo

nickdawgy

Just got my first freeze. It was in BAP mode, at the end of the game. The screen went dark but I heard a bunch of passing as if it was showing highlights. Of course this happens after I had a great game, just like in NCAA.

What is it with EA and their bugs? This pisses me off so much I am gonna shelf this one for a few days and go back to Dead Island.

redrum

this arrived at my house today, first sports game I've purchased since the ps2 days

I'm excited

nickdawgy

I think they overdid the physics and their detection system. Basically I can beat on the goalie and occasionally I'll get the interference call. But I've also knocked the net off the moorings, and knocked it up in the air and across the ice.

I've also checked myself into the bench

jdpatri

Ps3 club up and running. Who needs invites? Bring anyone you can find. We only had 4 in the club last year. Which meant very limited games. No one was ever on at the same time.

jdpatri

AGHEGHGHGHG. I just wrote up an epic rant about this game only to have my stupid firewall at work hang up DVDTalk and when it hangs up a post it disappears. There's nothing more infuriating than having a computer eliminate an epic rant. I should have copied it before I hit POST.

Here is the summary.

I play HUT. I love HUT. But I need to bitch before I blow my gasket.

#1. FUCK EA AND YOUR STUPID COMEBACK AI. I play hut the "right" way. I grind out early wins with a suckass team of AHL/OHL/WHLers in order to buy packs, auction dudes that will get me coin and buy bargain players at auction. Mike Zigomanis is my only decent centerman and an AHL defenseman leads my team in scoring. It's a shitstorm but that's the way it goes. I can win easily against comparable teams... but when you're forcing me up against the Canucks and the Swedish National team I have to play conservative defense and pick my spots. I plan to win 1-0 or 2-1. My guys are slow, stupid and terrible shots. So it goes. That said.... YOU ARE NOT FUCKING ALLOWED TO SCORE ON A WRISTER FROM THE BLUE LINE WITH 5 SECONDS LEFT TO TIE OR WIN THE GAME.

#2. What the shit did you do to the faceoff system? As I said, Mike Zigomanis right? He's really the only guy on my team capable of winning a faceoff. If he's not on the ice I don't have a chance in hell and Ziggy only wins about 50-60% of his draws. Consider how many times someone else is out there? I went from winning 80-90% of my faceoffs last year to MAYBE 33% this year. You just don't realize how much possession time you get from faceoffs until it's gone. Again bad team, no faceoff wins, no fucking chance. I can't figure out the timing. It makes me rage. Bad teams need to win faceoffs in their own zone to prevent very good scoring chances off the draw.

#3. TEAMMATE AI. Why are you all fucktards? Go get the loose puck. If I'm tied up on the draw that means you go get the puck. If the puck is loose, go get the fucking puck. I think EA raised the importance of AGGRESSION and DEF/OFF AWARENESS but this means that it's just another strike against an early-on HUT team with no talent. Now these guys just stand there and watch. They're poor hockey players not statues.

All this has made me dislike my favorite mode in my favorite game. I'm struggling on PRO against the best teams but wipe the floor with comparable teams. Last year I won most of my games on All-Star but now I can't even survive the third tournament. It got so bad that during a bout of late night restlessness, instead of playing HUT I went on EASHL and since nobody from the club was on I played a couple of drop-in games. And I HATE drop-in games because inevitable you end up playing games against a team of knuckle-draggin spamtards.

astrochimp

I feel your pain jdpatri. That's been my biggest issue with EA sports games and why i don't buy them that much anymore.

jdpatri

There are just so many new, detailed-oriented things to like about this game that it infuriates me that their other adjustments have killed EASHL and HUT for me so far. I like the changes to Be a Pro. I like some of the minor tweaks on Be a GM.

And while I'm on topic something has to be done about the but-bump spamming on EASHL. The hip check worked last year. Why did we need to overpower it this year to the point that you can go flying into someone head first with a flying cross-check? Oh yeah and if you're playing EASHL, just go ahead and hip check anyone with or without the puck because it's rarely (if ever) called as interference. And the people that get most pissed about it? Yeah, the guys that do it ALL THE TIME. Shocker.

jdpatri

Where the hell is everyone? I've played 10 or 12 drop-in games because none of you knob-jobbers has been online. The Chews haven't even played one game. One game!?!

Anyway. More thoughts on '12 since I've spent a ton more time with it.

I'll scale back some of my comments from earlier. Most of them still apply however.

I've ground out some decent NHLers with HUT and took advantage of some pack deals this week. I now have a top line of Paajarvi, Bailey and Tootoo with a top D pairing of Carle and Wiz and Craig Anderson in goal (bought at auction). I just bought Martin/Michalek d-pairing at auction. I'm reserving Iginla and the lot of my cheaply purchased upgrade players (88-90 Potential) for when I need to compete in higher tournaments and online.

I rolled through the Pro tournies without trouble once I employed a decent goalie (by the way, you really need a decent backup because fatigue plays a roll this season). If you need a scoring spam, wrap around the back of the net and aim far post. This works on PRO with regularity. I'm still trying to score anything but garbage goals in All-Star.

Also played some online HUT. I split the four games and only once ran into a guy that was definitively better... and he was largely just a dangler with a superpowered top line. I generally take a defensive approach to these online guys. They like to spam the around the net/far post goal so I camp my boosted D (cheap D upgrades are easy to come by) around the net and stick/poke check. This clearly frustrates them because they have trouble scoring any other way.

Rob V

great post... I wish the original would have made it.

cnicholls44

organize a night when we can all play. I am online a lot in the evenings, I never see you on. Some people work dammit.

LorenzoL

I just recently got a copy of this game on the PS3 and was wondering if any of you are still playing this?

This is my first hockey game since the early days on the Sega Genesis so I need practice but I wouldn't mind playing online with people from this board.

jdpatri

I still play every once in a while. If you want to play one night this week, say Tuesday, I can probably get a few games in.

LorenzoL

Tuesday sounds good. What time is good for you? I'm in an EST zone.

jdpatri

I'll usually jump on around 8:30-9pm. What do you want to play? Do you want to do some online EASHL stuff or just do some head-to-head? I can give you a few tips and tricks in H2H though I might be a bit rusty at some of the more douchey stuff.