Is it the patch or is it us ?

Hi,
well, since the patch this game is a total mess. First what we've noticed is those FACTS:
- Hitting has been removed, it's impossible to hit players (even those at 5'5), even though my D's have 95+ checking are 6'2 220 lbs. Even those perfect timed hit have become innefective, and 9 times out of 10, the hitter
gets out of play while the guy "getting hit" simply bumps and continue on his way without challenge.
- Poke checks are only usable to get 2mins for tripping, the actual poke is now innefective
- Game play is faster, players are skating way faster than ever which give hell to defensive players.
- Passing has been significantly improved, they are more precise and has more speed, it's even harder now to intercept.
- Since we can't hit anymore, people are reducing their player size to minumum since they are not subject to get hit anymore.
- We see more and more "glitch" goals or at least goals that people try the same pattern over and over again (just liike in 09).
- They remove Team strategy. WTF !?!
- CPU are now the dumbest thing ever.

In other words, playing as a Defence is now the hardest thing ever since they cannot hit, cannot poke, cannot lift sticks, the only thing they can do now is backskate with the carrier by staying in the shot lane and hope for a turnover. Game flow is faster and passing is way more effective. Tell me then how is it possible to organize defense!?!?!? Simply put, the patch encourage again the glitchers and a arcade like game since players can skate at will in the offensive zone and have plenty of time to try their same identical goals all over and over again. Yes we are back like 09 and it's even worse now !

Please now don't come here and say I'm a whiner or tell me to learn the game because we play the same team since last year and we are one of the rare team that plays with cohesion, use D's to put puck on net and go for deflections and rebounds, dump and chase the puck especially when the blue line is blocked, make plenty of passes and vary the play all the time. Our motto has always been DEFENCE FIRST. For the last 2 years we've been within the top 200 teams and maintain our ranking. This year (prepatch) we've been able to dominate a lot of supposedly top teams and been able to shutdown those top players a lot just by playing a good defensive and position game. 9 games out of 10 we let 0 to 1 goal in, but since the patch all what we have been building as a team is worth nothing anymore.

Soon there will only be 5'5 150 lbs players that will dangle their way to their favorite glitch shot spot without any way to challenge and the games will come to who is the better dangler/glitcher. No system is required anymore, no teamplay or strategy is required (proof: they have removed strategy from the menu...)

I don't know what EA is thinking up there, but in any case we as a team have enough and will put the game on the shelf until EA realize their mistake and fix it.. Last year's innovative be a pro online has been quite a bumpy ride with all the online problems and cheating.. NHL10 was full of promises but again we are being deceived. We as a team have enough of this crap and will sit on the sideline for a while if not quit this game for good.

I'm sure there are a lot like me who are now quite pissed off right now. Calling this game NHL Hockey have now become a fraud.

Agree but at the same time my club is actually able to pull win streaks by playing legit. Players are faster but simply because the game is 2 month old and alot have legend card and ect.

Hitting is Horrible 100%
Poke check i agree i tend to use sweap stick to be better for some reason.
Glitch goals havent seen many my teams offense forecheck is very strong and backcheck so players dont get too much to settle for glitch goals unless its a powerplay.

Usually play 4 to 6 man games only so we dont experience DUMB AI players.

Hitting must be fixed. Someone needs to start a POLL on it lol

Well, at least if they would fix the hitting will allow a better way to organize Defense, smaller players will get smashed out of rink which will give them no choice to add weight onto them which will slow them a bit and allow a better cohesive Defense and therefore reduce glitches and one man show'ers and encourage cohesion and team system. But in the meantime we will discover other games and perhaps we will have a better time at it, who knows...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/04/2009 15:26:12

MAIN.Beeshop1022 wrote:
- They remove Team strategy. WTF !?!..............
(proof: they have removed strategy from the menu...)

In response to this, you may or may not have seen this, written by sk88z:

Understand that this was done to eliminate an in-game exploit and removing the pause menu during periods was the only way to eliminate this.

However, between periods you can still access the pause menu, look at stats, and make changes and adjustments as necessary. Thanks for understanding.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/04/2009 15:46:49

I disagree on a few things. Hitting in my opinion has been bad since this years installment was released. I don't think the patch has made it better or worse. I have been playing Defense last few days, and I'm set up as OD with high speed and moderate checking. You don't always wreck the guy, but seems easy to knock off path or off puck. My problem is, the ease in which the opponent can immediately take the puck back from you with little to no effort, and my puck control is fairly high. Passing IMO, has gotten worse since the patch, and computer passing has become abysmal, and it seems like no matter how well you cover the crease, majority of passes are getting through. I agree with poke check and stick lift. Both are useless 95% of time unless you like taking penalties 4 or 5 times a game. Agree with take on computer players, computers take WAY to many penalties, they bunch up at the offensive blue line(get in the way), they pass backwards, pass accuracy is terrible, when leading the breakout they slow at the blue line or swerve and take odd angles causing offsides, and they are absolutely terrible defensively. On the other hand, when you play someone with only 1 or 2 human players the computer AI is unbelievable. They are almost unbeatable. You cant get away from them, and they have about a 99.9999% stick lift accuracy and 100% success rate. Breakaway moves are too easy. Same breakaway deke scores every time.

Maybe they meant it's the only EASY way to eliminate exploits, since they coded the game they can do whatever and anything. But why remove the strategy altogether. They could have done 3 things even if they removed pause:
- Leave the option so that we can use it between periods
- Add the possibility to change it with D-pad within game action, same place where it is possible to change 1-2-2 etc.
- Add the possibility to set team strategy in the MY TEAM menu in the game menus so upon entering games
you at least use by default the strategy you want.

Those reasons given is to me lazy B.S. and it prooves that they won't even put some effort to improve the game in THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Don't tell me it's a lack of budget, I think with the 10$ raise plus all the boosts people have bought, they make a LOT of money this year.. But hey, where do you think it all goes again... share holders and owners... way to go EA !

cem_ea_id.mngump wrote:I disagree on a few things. Hitting in my opinion has been bad since this years installment was released. I don't think the patch has made it better or worse. I have been playing Defense last few days, and I'm set up as OD with high speed and moderate checking. You don't always wreck the guy, but seems easy to knock off path or off puck. My problem is, the ease in which the opponent can immediately take the puck back from you with little to no effort, and my puck control is fairly high. Passing IMO, has gotten worse since the patch, and computer passing has become abysmal, and it seems like no matter how well you cover the crease, majority of passes are getting through. I agree with poke check and stick lift. Both are useless 75% of time unless you like taking penalties 4 or 5 times a game. Agree with take on computer players, computers take WAY to many penalties, they bunch up at the offensive blue line(get in the way), they pass backwards, pass accuracy is terrible, when leading the breakout they slow at the blue line or swerve and take odd angles causing offsides, and they are absolutely terrible defensively. On the other hand, when you play someone with only 1 or 2 human players the computer AI is unbelievable. They are almost unbeatable. You cant get away from them, and they have about a 99.9999% stick lift accuracy and 100% success rate.

Well before patch, the only effective way to have success in D was to hit players, especially in front of the net and to block the blue line.. In the end I really care not about the hit, but jeez give D's some room for success, either with pokes, positionning or lift, and some hitting for crying out loud.. Now since the patch there is no way to be effective in D. Maybe your team is not in the top ones, but when you are ranked top 200, you get to play against very strong people whose life revolves around playing this game, they know every inch of every exploit and if you don't have defensive tools you are as good as dead. Anyways, this game is going up the shelves and will remain until this game becomes a real hockey game, plain and simple.

MAIN.Beeshop1022 wrote:

Those reasons given is to me lazy B.S. and it prooves that they won't even put some effort to improve the game in THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Don't tell me it's a lack of budget, I think with the 10$ raise plus all the boosts people have bought, they make a LOT of money this year.. But hey, where do you think it all goes again... share holders and owners... way to go EA !

Well let's be realistic here, EA is much bigger than just the NHL series. Of course they are going to spend as little as possible in order to make more money. Isn't that any business model? Isn't that what free enterpise is all about? Turning a profit. It's not like we all bought into a software company and gained the rights to tell them how and what to do with their product. Even though they like constructive feed back on their product, doesn't mean they're saying "Hey, you tell us exactly what to make and we'll make it, who cares what we think". In my mind, that's EA's big problem. They created this feeding frenzy by trying to alter their orignal program based on feedback from these forums, and all they end up doing is making things worse and creating an entirely new list of problems. EA should make the game, release patches only to repair or get rid of bugs, and that's it. I thought the game was better before the patch, despite it's original flaws. If there were no possibility of getting these games altered after the fact through consumer feed back, few would be on these forums b*tching about it....

I agree with everything you said except for the poke check. Actually, now that I think about it, it's only the automatic poke check that is much more effective.

Improvements I noticed on D:

- intercepting the puck as been improved
- deflecting the loose puck away in front of the net has been improved
- I can now finally pass block the cross crease pass when I'm near the net.

------------------------------------------

Things that are worse on D:

- When I try and hit someone I am now out of position while my opponent gets a slight bump (I too have my checking up with 6'3" 225 lbs) --> When I try and hit someone when they are trying a cross crease I get a penalty unless it's the moment the puck gets there. Hitting is no longer viable.

- I can't pin people behind the net who are trying the wrap around anymore (makes it more realistic diminishing the power of the pin, but nevertheless a tool I had pre patch)

- The curve shot seems to be gaining in popularity again. I know I know, don't let them shoot it, but even the best NHL teams allow 20 shots a game and try and force all the shots to the outside. If we attack the outside we leave holes on the inside for the ever effective cross crease (leads up to next point) or someone who does the curve shot in close because this year it can be done from almost anywhere.
--> How come the curve shot is still there? People are winding up shots while they are perpendicular to the net and then seem to rotate their bodies and stick 120 degrees and shoot. I fail to see that shot when I go to games.

- Passing seems to be improved and therefore cross crease seems more effective. The goalie doesn't keep his paddle on the ice so the 5-hole is wide open for any loose puck that eventually trickles through. Despite me standing right beside the player in position to intercept the pass it goes through my skates onto the offensive players one handed backhand which seems to always go 5-hole but somehow hit the top of the netting.

----------------------------------------

I agree with bishop ....

The last settings online it was good but now IT'S A JOKE
The gameplay is verry bad online now ..... SO BAD

MAIN.Beeshop1022 wrote:Hi,
well, since the patch this game is a total mess. First what we've noticed is those FACTS:

- Poke checks are only usable to get 2mins for tripping, the actual poke is now innefective

I completely disagree with this fact. I haven't had one issue with penalties and poke checks.

I pay attention to when I am using it and have become quite adept at using the poke check.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/04/2009 18:43:23

ok, figured it out, sorry! wrong persona

Electronic Arts

Highlighted Game

NHL™ 10