Ok, let me start out by saying I've really enjoyed the last two NHL titles, 10 and 09. The game has definitely been heading in a great direction. This past year I know that EA put some emphasis on "atmosphere" and creating a game that "felt" like real hockey. I believe that if EA builds upon this, it will put NHL 11 over the top.

So basically, this is a thread about what I would like to see added to the NHL series in the way of Presentation and Atmosphere:

1. Movement after Whistles:

I know this sounds small, but it makes a big difference as far as feel and realism are concerned. When play stops that's when most players (you and me playing the NHL game, not players in the game) take a deep breath, sit back and start "soaking in" the game we're playing. We begin to notice subtleties and nuances that we don't normally pay attention to during gameplay. With that being said, let's do this by situational examples:

a. Goalie covers puck for faceoff:

Often times in NHL 10 the goalies stay on the ground with their hands on the puck. Or just stand up and run through the same animation over and over again. Here are some better scenarios:
- Have the goalie get up and flip the puck to the referee then proceed to fiddle with his equipment or sweep the ice in front of him or something of that effect.
- Utilize the other usually dormant skaters by having a defensmen or two come over and consult with the goaltender about strategy.
- Have skaters move around in a meaningful manner; gather for next faceoff, go to the bench for a change, etc. rather then just skating aimlessly around the rink.
-Follow this up with a relevant cut scene. For example, if there is a line change, have the cut scene reflect that, or again, if the goalie decides to adjust his gear, have the cut scene on him, with his statistics on the year, or something similar.

Here are a few examples of what I had in mind:





b. After a Goal (Not the cut scene)

This is an area that I feel could really use some work. The cut scenes that come after are fine, but it's the few moments getting to that cut scene which are sometimes quite painful. Having the skaters simply raise their hands in place, takes away from the emotional rush of scoring a goal and distracts from the following cut scene. Here are some improvements I'd like to see:

- Have players actually be aware of where they are on the ice, for example; if a player scores close to the goal, he should avoid running into the goal before he celebrates. Pretty simple.
- In a real game 99 times out of 100 players celebrate together. This ties into players being aware of where they are on the ice at the time of a goal. Have them come together and celebrate, maybe even pan in with the camera.
- Often times the player who scores the goal will skate past the bench and give a round of fist bumps. Having this in either in the cut scene or the post goal celebration would be great.

c. After a Penalty is Taken

This would mostly involve cut scenes.
- Have the coach get involved. Typically in a real game the camera will pan to the coach to get his reaction, and often times the coach will want an explanation from the referee.
-Captains of both teams will sometimes dialogue with the referee who made the call.
-Statistics can play a big role here; have the players PIMs on the year, or if he's taken a lot of penalties, display it and have the commentators make note of it.


2. Players Bench and Coach Realism

I think this is an area that if given attention would add a HUGE amount of realism to the NHL series. Up until now our bench players and coaches have sat totally dormant. Here is where I believe we could take a page from 2k sports. In their NBA games, the teams have a very enthusiastic, aware, players bench and coaches. Players react to what happens on the court, and when nothing is happening they are moving and living, not just staring ahead lifelessly.

Here is a good example from NBA 2k9 where you can see the coaches and players on the bench reacting to what is going on in the game:




Here are some of my ideas:
- Actually have the right number of players and coaches on the bench: Assistants, trainers, backup goalie, etc.
- Like the video, have reactions from the coach in both cut scenes and gameplay.
- Give the bench players some measure of movement and awareness of what's going on on the ice during gameplay (not just cut scenes). Have them talk to one another and actually watch what's going on in the game.
- Give them reaction to the game. If their team scores, the entire bench should be up cheering, and getting ready for the first bump (should EA choose to implement it =) ), same goes for the coach.
- Have line changes actually cause players to have to move in a realistic way, to get on and off the bench.

3. Presentation by Statistics and Information

Especially in single player modes this is significant. During a season (in any mode, season, be GM, etc), you look to accomplish things for your players, and having that displayed during a game is terrific. Even cutting to a scene where you have a good scoring line, take Anaheim's Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf, and Correy Perry for example; often during a broadcast they will cut away from the rink shot, and fill the screen with pictures of the three players and their statistics, either for the year, or for a certain number of games during a hot streak. Here is an example using two goaltenders stats for a particular game:


Some quick ideas:
- Have a screen pop up like the one above for a top scoring line, be it to illustrate stats for the year, point streaks over several games, or just the dominance of a particular line in one game.
- Bring back milestones, and have a cut scene displaying the particular player and the milestone they are looking to get to. Have commentary as well.
- Have team stats like powerplay percentage and team ranking on the year, same for penalty kill, and winning percentage when leading after 2, 3 periods.

4. The Crowd

I think EA took a massive step in the right direction with the crowd this past year, however it could definitely be improved upon.

- Like in the NBA 2k series, have people actually getting up and walking out of the arena. In a real game you can almost always spot a few people leaving to get a hot dog, use the bathroom or whatever they might be doing.
- Have people talking to one another, not just staring at the game.
- Have variety when a celebrating a home team goal - This looks good in 10, but having more variables, and more variety here would give it a huge boost.


These are just some initial thoughts. Presentation is something I really look to in a game for realism, and I feel that if the developers give it some attention this year it could improve the game a great deal. My hope is that a lot of people will read this thread and add to it. As I think of things I will continue to add to the original post. Again feel free to add and post examples. Maybe we can get this to be our giant presentation thread haha. Thanks guys!

great post!!! i agree with everything you said, I totally agree with the after the whistle...its the worst when you score a goal and your player celebrates by skating directly into the boards. also when you score a goal, the cut scene only shows the players involved on the goal (example: only the goal scorer and players that assisted the goal are shown celebrating, so the max is 3 players gathering) I have really wanted to see 5 players celebrating together on an unassisted goal. Another great point is the benches, having an active bench throughout the game would give a great feel of realism, and like you said make a seat for every player, none of this sitting on top of another guy and then disappearing. Also I would love to see a wider range of penalties called (example: too many men, minor and double minor high sticking calls, charing, goalie interference, clipping, diving, spearing, slue footing, and maybe even a couple attempt to injures) these calls are all just as big as tripping or hooking, I would love to see them implemented, and maybe also add a linesmen on the ice for a bit more realistic feel. Like Ive said before it would also be nice to see every teams arena have a different look / feel to it, so you dont get the sense that your playing in the same arena just with a different teams logo on the ice.

One more thing to add.

Have both refs and linesmen out on the ice. seriously. I have never seen an NHL game where one official can call offsides, icing, goals, penalties, break up fights, watch for too many men, call high sticks and hand passes, and watch the crap that goes on behind the play.

xbox.ZAB19 wrote:One more thing to add.

Have both refs and linesmen out on the ice. seriously. I have never seen an NHL game where one official can call offsides, icing, goals, penalties, break up fights, watch for too many men, call high sticks and hand passes, and watch the crap that goes on behind the play.

That's another thing about 2k's NBA games. They do have all the officials on the court.



Here you can see two. One in the forefront, and another in the basket area. Also note a fan walking up the stairs, and another one getting ready to sit down. You can also see several cameramen on the floor of the court taking pictures. Great atmosphere.

not to mention the court and the arena actually look real. Some of the Stadiums in NHL 10 are terrible looking.

xbox.ZAB19 wrote:not to mention the court and the arena actually look real. Some of the Stadiums in NHL 10 are terrible looking.

I agree. Feel free to post some real pictures and point out examples where the arenas could be improved. I'd like to add a section to the original post that's just about arenas, but feel free to add some input of your own.

Good thread - I just have to say, whenever I see pics and vids of NBA 2k, I just melt.. it looks so good - I may have to rent it and try it out.

Some good ideas!

I would like to add:
Fighting - There seems to be no real reason most of the time. I want to see the CPU get involved after a team mate gets laid out from a big hit or is injured from a slash, someone going after a star player,etc.

Atmosphere - Have the crowd boo top players from other teams or if you have a bad rep in the league for dirty hits and injuring players.

Highlights from around the league. Plays of the week or from the scoring leaders.

Areans that get packed when you are hot but if you are in the basement fans leave the game early or some don't even show up.

Have the announcers talk about player injuries and the impact on the team. Also talking about where the team sits in the standings, will they make the playoffs, other teams trying to make a spot, etc.

Have announcers talk about trades in the league, maybe add rumors (this team needs a d-man and so and so could be a good fit).

Have announcers talk about rookies and players that are sent to the minors, also coaches or GM's that get fired and the team impact.

xbox.DROG1602 wrote:Some good ideas!

I would like to add:
Fighting - There seems to be no real reason most of the time. I want to see the CPU get involved after a team mate gets laid out from a big hit or is injured from a slash, someone going after a star player,etc.

Atmosphere - Have the crowd boo top players from other teams or if you have a bad rep in the league for dirty hits and injuring players.

Highlights from around the league. Plays of the week or from the scoring leaders.

Areans that get packed when you are hot but if you are in the basement fans leave the game early or some don't even show up.

Have the announcers talk about player injuries and the impact on the team. Also talking about where the team sits in the standings, will they make the playoffs, other teams trying to make a spot, etc.

Have announcers talk about trades in the league, maybe add rumors (this team needs a d-man and so and so could be a good fit).

Have announcers talk about rookies and players that are sent to the minors, also coaches or GM's that get fired and the team impact.

I think we should elaborate on the idea of a scoreboard AND how they implemented blackberry's into 2010's game. We could have during the game two things:

1. A stat tracker on your phone similar to the following,


2. A stat ticker, kindof like the versus, or espn ticker that pops up every once in awhile to update the game.



Even something simple in the corner, like the following picture, would add tremendous realism to any game you play...especially during some type of season mode:

good post man.

I think for NHL11, EA needs to step back, and work on all of the "little things" that make hockey what it is. If EA could just get the presentation improved, (and fix the problems of NHL10).....NHL11 could be simply AMAZING.

cem_ea_id.EliteStatus412 wrote:good post man.

I think for NHL11, EA needs to step back, and work on all of the "little things" that make hockey what it is. If EA could just get the presentation improved, (and fix the problems of NHL10).....NHL11 could be simply AMAZING.

i agree they did some great things but now i think it's good enough to start working on the little things

Good write up. The best ive seen on here latley.

I like the goalie ideas.

done

Why is it that the MOD's are so quick to shut down a thread that might threaten the integrity of the Dev. team, but we can have 20 separate threads of people talking about constructive criticism and ideas for NHL10 or NHL11? For the love of god, read through at least a few pages of this forum and you'll quickly find a half dozen or more other links covering the same topics.... why don't we all just start our own impressions and criticism thread... That way we don't have to bother posting our thoughts on someone elses thread...

I agree with all of this. As I just posted on the lame cup celebration thread, this type of presentation stuff is not difficult to implement, it doesn't take any technological breakthrough, it's just plain laziness on the part of the developers. Presentation is so important to me that I can overlook the minor (in my opinion) flaws regarding gameplay if they would just give me a more immersive atmosphere in which to play in. I've been playing the NHL series since the early 90's and it always frustrates me when EA takes out aspects of the game from a previous version which were a step in the right direction. You would think that they would take what made the game great and just continue to build upon it. I really don't get it. I have seen previous versions where the presentation was superior to what we have now. If the development of the presentation had followed a natural progression from year to year I can only dream about what we would have right now. But alas, it doesn't. It always seems to be two steps forward, one step back. I mean we're not talking AI improvements here, just cut scenes, statistics and graphics. But I suppose the implementation of any of this ultimately cuts into the bottom line, and that is always priority number 1.