Fall marks the arrival of many things I love. Pumpkin Spice lattes, long sleeve plaid shirts, and the beginning of the NHL season. Well guess what jerks! You probably ain’t getting any hockey. So you I you want to be involved in the world’s fastest sport while drinking pumpkin spice lattes and wearing a sweet long sleeved plaid shirt you should march down to your local electronic game distribution house and pick up NHL 13. If no one else is going to win Lord Stanley’s Cup it might as well be you.
I have played ever incarnation of the EA NHL franchise since 1994. The systems on which I played them have all come and gone but the excitement for the new release has never left. I’ve had my hands on NHL 13 for about a week now and I have to admit that EA has set the bar insanely high with this release. I have made a quick write up concerning the bad, the good, and the indifferent of Electronic Art’s latest puck fueled offering.
The Bad
Heaven forbid EA release a title without one thing going wrong. Last year it was the near game breaking bug that caused NHL 12 to freeze at the beginning of every third period of an online versus match. This is an issue that to my knowledge, they NEVER addressed. Gamers were forced to do a manual install and deletion of certain files just to get the game to run properly.
This year, the major boner occurred with the Game Stop pre-order codes. These codes allowed you access to one Gold Pack of player’s cards every week, for 13 weeks. This is a huge deal. The Hockey Ultimate Team feature is very popular amongst online players and to not have your bases covered for such a huge incentive is just lame. It’s been out for nearly 8 days my STILL doesn’t work (white people problem). EA addressed the issue on their forums on launch day. No information other than “Yeah we know” has come to light.
A small glitch that’s affecting a few players is what’s being called the “Attack Glitch”. When a player is behind the net at the same time a player is within the crease, a small striped box appears in the attack zone. It’s nothing that stops the flow of play it’s just damn distracting. I’m going to wait until Friday to see if an update gets put out that fixes this. If not, I will return my copy for a new one and see if that solves the problem.
The Good
Last year’s game was all about puck control. Using your analog stick to direct all things stick handling, pushed the game to a whole new level. This year is all about speed. By pushing down on the left analog stick, you now control the speed of your skater. NOT ALL PLAYERS ARE CREATED EQUAL! If the opposing team’s attacker is a speed freak then he is going to blow past the slower defense. However, this also makes him susceptible to poke checks and being knocked off balance. You definitely sacrifice control for speed. If you give the analog stick a quick push your player will make a quick sprint and pick up the pace of his sprint for the first few strides. If you hold the stick down longer, the player hit’s a mad dash into the attack. There’s no more stopping on a dime and instead the player can make a quick turn back towards the play. Depending on your speed, prior to your change in direction, determines how sharp of a turn you can make. If you’re hauling ass and you try to pop a 90 degree cut, your player will mostly likely spin out and fall over like someone doing a dizzy bat relay. This goes for players with and without the puck. It’s a big step for the game to make and it does it very smooth and effectively.
Aside from the ability to sprint EA has raised the bar with how goalies react within the game. The franchise has always wanted their goalie animations to look fluid and realistic. Unfortunately the emphasis on appearance caused the goalies to be super predictable. It used to be very easy to skate the puck down one side, allow the goalie to make the move toward you, and then quickly fire it back across for a one-timer. NHL 13 offers goalies that are soo self aware that I now thoroughly believe SKYNET will be the death of us all. Goalies no longer appear to be on a track and instead seem to be making their own decisions based on where the puck is, how many attackers are in their line of site, and how is the puck being played in the attack zone. You can get a goalie out of position, but it’s going to take some time and creativity to really sneak one by them.
The puck is more alive now than it ever has been. Handling a piece of 1×3 rubber on a frozen plane of water isn’t easy in real life and it’s not easy here. The puck will take crazy bounces, hit dead spots in the boards, and get misdirected just like it would if you were really out there trying to beat Iceland in the Goodwill Junior Games. That’s a D2: The Mighty Ducks Are Back reference. Quack….Quack….Quack. Gordon Bombay. Charlie Conway.
My favorite addition to NHL 13 is the ability to play the puck off of the goalie’s pads. Previous games had the goalies giving up few rebounds. Most likely a shot would get caught with the glove, or directed off to the side of the net and away from the play. In NHL 13 you have the ability to take a hard, low shot directly at the goalies pads and because of the adjustments to how the puck moves, you can position yourself and your teammates to drive the rebound home. This works great in a 2 on 1 situation where you can’t make a pass. Direct a slap shot to the low, far side pad and hope your other attacker is there to get it. It doesn’t sound like a huge deal to people unfamiliar with hockey. To those in the know, this is a real strategy that teams utilize all the time and one that I always hoped EA would incorporate.
The Indifferent
The hits are more realistic. Unless your player is tearing ass across the rink and lands a blindside check, you’re not going to get the rag doll slams that you would have last year. Hitting is a big part of the game sure, but it’s more about gaining position than destroying a dude against the glass. NHL 13 does a good job of making sure not every check looks like a career ender. It doesn’t add or take away from the game play it’s just a neat adjustment.
I don’t know if it’s something I just never noticed or if it’s something the developers fixed but all the arenas look more true to life. I’ve spent many a nights in the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and when the game displays the arenas in in-game cut scenes you can definitely see the attention they paid to making the game as realistic as possible.
Like I mentioned before, these yearly installments are the only reason I own a console. Other games are merely time killers or things I play between long stints of me yelling at my TV because I out shot some 12 year old 35 – 10 and they still beat me 1-0. My neighbors have twice banged on the floor because they don’t seem to understand that I play for keeps. They have ZERO room to talk. Every time some first person shooter comes out my apartment building sounds like a Gaddafi sponsored BBQ. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go lace up.
Gamertag – Patrick 3009 . PLEASE add me and play me. All my friends play Madden or Call of Doodie.