@fonkey how so?

Ya, 3 tiers for leagues sounds good too. Wonder how that will work.

I know nothing about hockey. Should I try to learn the rules or should I just learn them as I play when the game comes out?

Just learn what icing/offsides is, everything else seems pretty self explanatory as you're playing.

demo is pretty solid so far.

I'm liking the demo so far.

Having never played NHL 10, I'm looking for some advice on how often I should be using the Y button for the play against the boards? Both in their zone and in my own. One thing I've noticed in the jump from 09 to 11 is that stick lift is wayyyy less effective. Seems that way to me anyways. And that use to my primary tool to be aggressive on the forecheck in 09, now I'm just starting to get the hang of this boards thing with the Y button.

Instead of 40-50 options to get past a person you have 2 a deke left or right.

Instead of 3 types of crossing, through balls or normal passes you have a normal pass or a dump into the zone.

Instead of 3 types of shots you have a wrister or a slapshot with aiming being a total joke in terms of easiness.

Plus the size of the pitch/rink just cause it to feel so restrictive and unfreeflowing.

Just to reiterate, I'd probably choose nhl11 over madden or something but it just pales in comparison to fifa imo.

Besides the first one that pretty much just seems like hockey in general.

why the **** are you comparing hockey with soccer?

hes a ritard

Anyone else agree with this? I'm getting familiar with the game speed now, I still think it's slower than '10. It certainly isn't "2x quicker," though.

I played the demo for a good hour-plus today. Line changes are called out and top down faceoffs are only at center ice. I have not played with any of the settings. I'm starting to wonder if we're playing the same thing.

Trolls ITT ldo

I'm playing the NHL 11 demo on ps3 u might be playing NHL 01 on n64 check bro....

My face-offs views change even when its an icing I get top down view sometimes.... And I just compared both games with the speed at the same setting and it's a helluva lot quicker
AGAIN just what I have been noticing so far

No clue what that guy is talking about... game seems about 2X slower than 10'.

QFT

Fighting is the same that never changed.

Played ot.... Celebration video was good
The Stanley cup clip took forever

So what are the pre-order deals on this, if anything?

nothing special so far. prob like $10 or 20 gift card from walmart/amazon

this game is frustrating as a goalie. In 7 online games I have given up 1 goal on a first shot. Once a guy came in a blasted a shot top corner that I was out of position on. The rest are garbage rebounds and the impossible to stop pass across the crease from the corner 2 feet in front of me to the far post: slam dunk.

Is there a way to stop that pass as a goalie without completely giving up the short side?

defensemen play the pass goalie plays the shot

ldo

i played hockey from age 5 to 20, and still play pick up and watch a lot of NHL, so I know the game pretty well. The problem is right now on OTP, you get maybe 3 guys on a team, i'm the goalie, they are forwards, so the D are computer operated ******s.

I try to not let it get to frustrating, but when it's the same goal 3 times in one game it's annoying. I will keep practicing so I can be the best I can be when 11 comes out. I hope whatever guys I play with can stop that cross ice pass.

When the one timer comes from the circles I have time to move across and play the shot like Hiller does, so those aren't too bad, it's the ones I don't even have a chance to move before it's in the net that are unpossible to stop.

yeah i understand. otp is prob the most frustrating thing in the history of video games.

as soon as hawk moves back in to school(which may be today) we will be starting up practicing so you will have 2 solid defensemen who will hopefully make your life much easier

Hip:

The CPU D-men in NHL 11 seem to be much better at stopping that cross crease pass. Occasionally it can still be pulled off if you set up in the zone and pull them out of position, but it seems pretty much impossible just streaking down the wing.

Hip, I'm excited to play a game with you, me, and blotkis on the backline. Not sure if you'll consider it an improvement but we were a pretty good tandem at the end of last year.

Just played a few demo games (one CHI-PHI period, a few ultimate team periods):

- Most annoying thing: board play is turrrible. I haven't played since NHL 09 so I missed out on whatever last year's version of it was, but I constantly found myself skating behind the net or w/e with a CPU defender chasing me and then all of a sudden, even though he's behind me, I find myself magically sucked into the boards with the CPU holding me against it from my weakside shoulder. Seriously? IRL you turn and skate away from that. In the game it's like a magical force gluing you to the wall and stopping your mobility. Gross.

- CPU doesn't play aggressively on the blue line, never once had trouble skating across, kinda annoying

- CPU teammates seem to be braindead sometimes about where they should be positioned. After I cycle and skate a little I might have found myself a position where I've isolated one d-man between me and the goalie and I'm looking for support on the other side of the net so I can pass over for an ez tap-in, and my fellow offensive player over there is mindlessly skating away from the net like he doesn't know WTF is going on. COME ON DUDE!


Ultimate team seems ok but also seems like glorified fantasy draft mode (except you don't do the drafting) with powerups. I had a sick d-corps (Doughty, MDZ, Lydman, Myers, Subban, some scrub) and meh offense (Getzlaf/Backstrom were good, other than that the best players were Filppula/Dupuis/Cooke/Hall) with Rask in net. Despite my team being mostly defensively-minded I was able to put a lot of pressure on the Flyers, Blackhawks, and eventually Team Canada. Not sure if that's a good thing for a game I haven't played in two years.

If I buy this game it would pretty much just be for EASHL I think.