Ok so here it is, the long awaited details behind the major changes to the game we all know and love. Let's start with the physics.

My first impression of the physics engine was one of awe. The demostration alone was jaw dropping. The physics surely will make the game fun and unpredictable. (Trueleader's vision of laying out a streaking forward will be a reality). Newton's first law states "Every body will persist in its state of rest or of uniform motion (constant velocity) in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it", this illustrated by the demo of Patrick Kane skating up the wing (about 6 feet away from the boards) and Duncan Keith coming across and taking out the fleet footed winger, into the boards and into the partition. Kane's decimation reminded me of the pointless yet entertaining Flash Game BONELESS GIRL. Bouncing off the boards in front of the bench, the end of the glass and spilling onto the ice like ragdoll. The only thing missing was his mouthpiece flying into the bench. So let's talk about what that means.

The new physics engine effects skaters, the puck and their environment. The object with the most FORCE will win the battle. As in reality, a skater going north-south, will easily be knocked down by a skater travelling east-west. You may ask about a head-on collision... that depends on who will have the most force. (Size and speed will matter). As a hitter, you can carry someone 5-10 feet if you have enough momentum, and a hit 5-10 feet into the boards is certainly satisfying. But they aren't all big hits, most hits in fact will be glances and nudges... as in real hockey, but the difference is, now, depending on the force of the hit, where and how you are hit, you will be able to maintain control of the puck. So if someone clips one of your legs.. you will be able to control the puck, pass the puck, shoot the puck all while you fall to one knee.. or your rear end... you'll also be able to make efforts at the puck FROM your rear end. This all holds true to real life hockey, no 2 hits are exactly the same.



Faceoffs, I like to think of them as an elaborate game of rock, paper, scissors. If your opponent is going to knock if forward, your best defense.. to tie him up. If you think he'll win it back... knock his stick away. There are so many different way a faceoff can be won, and we finally have that brought into our game. LA Kings, Faceoff specialist, Jarret Stoll was brought in to do consulting for the added faceoff elements. See the video: http://kings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=731&id=72037



Broken Sticks, as broken sticks came off as being a bit of a novelty, it certainly is now part of today's NHL game. As the gamespot exclusive article explains, it won't happen every game and frequency will be adjustable via tuner/slider. There are 3 spots a stick can break, Blade, lower shaft and upper shaft. Sticks can be broken from slashes, the act of shooting and (thanks to my suggestion) blocking a shot with your stick. You can also lose your stick after a monster hit, and will have to make a choice between going to pick it up or going to the bench for a new one. Your teammate can also offer his stick to you and you can take it (beware as it will keep the handedness and you could end up playing with an off handed stick - curve faces your backhand).



New Dekes, The effectiveness of dekes has been turned up, to match the effectiveness of the physical game. Your player will now maintain control of the puck a lot better and even while being hit. One of the biggest issues was the "protect puck" which in NHL10 was a static gliding position either left or right. Now the play will protect the puck while maintaining his skating and the distance he is able to protect it will depend on his turn radius. The sharper the turn, the farther you can protect it... Skating forward while "protecting the puck" will be no more fruitful than a standard right-analog deke. As for the loose puck dekes, skaters will no longer be loosing the puck as control has been turned way up. Want to do "the Pavel Bure goal?" off the skate? You can! Want to toedrag behind you and bank it off your skate? You can! Want to stutter step? You can! Want to Jump over a sprawled defender as you chip the puck over him? You can! The deking, although similar is a lot more controlled. But beware... you are still 100% vulnerable to being demolished.. remember no animations.. PHYSICS!

Feel free to post any Questions you may have!

Peace out, more to come as info is released!
53 Comments

Who will be the First Overall pick? Taylor Hall? Tyler Seguin? or YOU?


Taylor Hall


Tyler Seguin

With the first of MANY exciting announcements for NHL11 being an agreement between EA Sports, the CHL and its players, it adds an element of realism that proves that the NHL dev team is at the top of its class and with each progressive year, moves the NHL series up the ranks among the best sports games in the world.

As released by Andy Agostini, the CHL will be part of ALL known game modes. Be-a-GM, Be-a-pro, Play Now, Online Vs etc.

So you can be the GM that drafts 1st overall, or play in the Memorial Cup Tournament and see... with the Edmonton Oilers draft Hall or Seguin..... Or YOU??

The rest you already know, and more specifics will be released when allowed. But know this.. when EA adds something, the reason it takes a long time, is because the want to make sure it's done right.

You can be sure that, the CHL addition is made to be authentic. You Junior Hockey enthusiasts will be happy. When you notice the fine details are correct, you'll see that a lot of time went into doing this right.

more to come...

-Jordan Patricio
14 Comments

NHL11's first official Screen Shot, showing broken sticks and a New (undisclosed) Physics Engine

May 21st, 2010 - Jordan Patricio, www.OperationSports.com/eashl/
http://twitter.com/14Vicodin

So this is the second edition to the EA Sports Experience known as NHL11 Community Day.

The day began @ Burnaby 8-Rinks. I met Rammer (Sean Ramjagsingh) at the rink early. I got to see the surprise early... brand new Bauer Vapour X:40 one piece composite sticks for each of us, a set of Bauer Vapour X:60 Gloves and either a home or away "EA Sports NHL11 Jersey". One package for each of the 14 representatives.


My EA Swag nicely laid out when I got home

Not only that, we were lucky enough to have Jim Playfair of the AHL Abbotsford Heat come by, learn about what we're doing with the game and have him put us through a professional level 2 hour practice.

It was tough, starting with skating drills, with and without the puck... moving on to 2 man drills.. cycling in the corner and how to work a 2-on-1. He was candid, honest and just an easy going guy. After already being worked, we had a 1 hour scrimmage. It was OTP esque, with the community reps and the Dev team in mixed teams. I ended the game with 1 Goal (Snap shot One timer) and finished +3 (final score was 5-4 i think). I think I we drew quite a crowd in the stands. I'll post a video of the day once www.gamingangels.com is done editing their video.


Jim Playfair and Sean Ramjagsingh during the Q&A

From there, we headed back to EA Studios, hit the showers, grabbed lunch and had a Q&A session with Jim. We asked about his coaching experiences, his thoughts about player developement, recalls to the NHL, Coaching systems, player preparation.. everything we could think of and he was open an honest. Everything down to his "fun experience" with Iron Mike Keenan.


Mandy Paez of Gamertag Radio... not concerned about her girlish figure (sorry mandy bad pic of you mid chew)

Jim had to take his son to a Minor Hockey Game and when our Q&A was done it was a short de-breif on the 2nd build, with some of the fixes and suggestions and then dinner. Once dinner was done, it was back to the hardcore nitty gritty playtesting.

Of course I can't reveal any of the features but what I can confirm is, Andy Agostini was in Brandon, Manitoba to take part in the official announcement of the agreement between EA Sports and the CHL. (Official Press Release and SOME details I will post on Sunday @ 12pm PST - We community reps agreed to run the story at the same time)


Kim Walker of Gamingangels.com and Jake Reardon Community Manager of XBox Canada

I spent some time asking about the main requests we all want, and I can say that we didn't get EVERY we wanted.. but we will be very impressed about how much they listened to us. I can say that Jason Rupert spent countless hours reviewing our, EA official and other series related forums going through our requests and trying to address them. We will be very happy.

One final note, I have asked to return on a regular basis to ensure the goaltending tuning is up to par. Yesterday and Today I was testing the Alpha and Beta stages of the game... there were still many holes and bugs. I know for a fact that they plan again to spend a lot more time tuning. I'm not sure if I'll have the time to go weekly or even bi-weekly. They have agreed to bring me back, but how often I can help is still unsure based on my schedule and theirs. But I want to keep my hands in the mix to make sure you are all blown away by the fixes, new features and replay value of the game.


Ayaz Karim of thebreakaway.net...Blown Away?

I want to send a personal thanks to AQ, Litty, Rammer, Rupes, Gurn, Nate and the rest of the NHL Dev team. Special thanks to representatives of Bauer for donating the composite stick and gloves. Thanks to Daryl Sutter, Jim Playfair and the staff of the Calgary Flames and Abbotsford Heat.

And a big big thanks to each and everyone of the other community reps. Meeting each of you was a pleasure. But more specific to the people I was with the most....

To Steve Shaulis - I was great to meet you in person, we'll continue to work together to make OS and OS/EASHL THE place for online NHL coverage

To Mandy Paez - I hope what I showed you was helpful. I really enjoyed sitting with you, teaching and de-bugging at the same time. Your shoes were so cute... weird... but cute!

To Kim Walker - I wish you the best of luck. I hope you had a great experience and if we both get what we want, I hope to be working with you again sometime down the road.

To Dave Wales - Bure's cousin, haha yeah you beat me 1-0, but like i told you.. i'm and EASHLer, i can't shoot down!!!

I didn't take many photos, I let those with Cameras take them, Over the next 2 days, we are all sharing the photos, so once that is done I'll post the photos. Until then, these are the pics I took with my phone.
22 Comments

All I can say is WOW....

From the game itself, to the people involved, it so far has been nothing short of spectacular. Starting with a meet & greet last night, it has certainly been something to be very very excited about.

Of course, the exact details of the game itself, the changes, the added features etc. i cannot reveal, but what I can say is this.

For the last 4 years, EA has been using its limited resources (relatively small Dev Team) to slowly built toward a game that they felt was a product that they can claim to be the THE best sports game. Since NHL07, the platform was slowly built on, tweaked, tuned and has made significant progress year-over-year. It wasn't until NHL10 the success of NHL10, that the Devs felt that they could finally stop addressing what THEY felt as needed for the game, and could finally address what WE wanted for the game.

So it's on that note, that I can happily say, that MOST (not all) of the issues that WE felt needed changing have been considered, addressed and exceeded.

I cannot confirm the details at this point, they will be released when I am informed to do so... but I can honestly say, I am more excited about this game, than I have been for ANY previous NHL title.

The one thing I CAN confirm... is...

New Physics Engine.

Don't ask me, I can't say anymore, so let that stew in your mind...
There is PLENTY of time left for development... and further feedback is welcome.

Your Community Rep,

Jordan Patricio
27 Comments