I'd like to re-imagine my stance on what was a huge turnoff for me, regarding EA Sports hockey games (for the PC, at least) starting with, hoooooah, 2001 or so.
Jonsey is going to throw up some shit about hockey games suck because you can shoot 50 times and it'll go in randomly 1 out of the 50 times.
It wasn't this, in so as much as there was no way to control the other team's goalie and no way to map the 2-axis plane of the goalie's net to the controls of a PC gamepad.
Ideally, the best way to handle shooting on a net in a hockey game would be the following:
1) Hit the "shoot" button.
2) The game pauses.
3) The game brings up the current position of the net and the goalie.
4) You click, using the mouse, where you'd like your shot to go.
5) The game resumes. Your shot is then calculated for accuracy based on the skill of the skater you're controlling, his current position and speed, the presence of any defenders around him, whether he's at home or on the road, and a thousand other things.
6) The goalie - CPU controlled - then reacts accordingly, based on how good he is.
Of course, the obvious drawback is that this is not fast-paced, nor exciting. It made me sick just writing it. So adjustments gotta be made.
You have discussed the new control scheme that has the right analog pad be a sort of control mechanism for directing the shot. That's good! I can see how that could be useful. Unfortunately, the issue is that any innovation an EA Sports game has will go through a rollercoaster-shaped cycle, as EA Sports management will attempt to intentionally break shit so they can add it next year. The developers over there could easily get the analog-pad directional shooting perfected in three revisions. Easy! But come on, I wouldn't even wager that being able to shoot that way will be
present in NHL 2010. They could remove it completely. That's their track record.
But let's not talk about how things might be, let's talk about how things are. I hate NHL 09 and always will because there is no "speed burst" function. We had to fight for that, you know. It wasn't in Hat Trick. It wasn't in bubble hockey. If you are playing Air Hockey - hopefully against a girl - and you attempt a "speed burst," well, that directly translates into throwing the paddle at her. You may accomplish your immediate objective (a burst in speed) but latter ones will have you alone, confused, and quietly masturbating alone as secondary objectives fail.
We had to fight for speed burst.
So I just want to be clear on why I do or do not hate NHL 09. I do hate it, and the two previous games that lack speed burst. It could easily, EASILY be something management would let you toggle on or off. But it's not, and that arrogance really makes me not want to play their games, not when there are thousands of other ones begging for my time.
BUT! My point here is that I can accept that goal scoring in NHL 09 was improved from where it was in NHL 2001 or so. I can accept that.
I'd like to re-imagine my stance on what was a huge turnoff for me, regarding EA Sports hockey games (for the PC, at least) starting with, hoooooah, 2001 or so.
[quote]Jonsey is going to throw up some shit about hockey games suck because you can shoot 50 times and it'll go in randomly 1 out of the 50 times.[/quote]
It wasn't this, in so as much as there was no way to control the other team's goalie and no way to map the 2-axis plane of the goalie's net to the controls of a PC gamepad.
Ideally, the best way to handle shooting on a net in a hockey game would be the following:
1) Hit the "shoot" button.
2) The game pauses.
3) The game brings up the current position of the net and the goalie.
4) You click, using the mouse, where you'd like your shot to go.
5) The game resumes. Your shot is then calculated for accuracy based on the skill of the skater you're controlling, his current position and speed, the presence of any defenders around him, whether he's at home or on the road, and a thousand other things.
6) The goalie - CPU controlled - then reacts accordingly, based on how good he is.
Of course, the obvious drawback is that this is not fast-paced, nor exciting. It made me sick just writing it. So adjustments gotta be made.
You have discussed the new control scheme that has the right analog pad be a sort of control mechanism for directing the shot. That's good! I can see how that could be useful. Unfortunately, the issue is that any innovation an EA Sports game has will go through a rollercoaster-shaped cycle, as EA Sports management will attempt to intentionally break shit so they can add it next year. The developers over there could easily get the analog-pad directional shooting perfected in three revisions. Easy! But come on, I wouldn't even wager that being able to shoot that way will be [i]present[/i] in NHL 2010. They could remove it completely. That's their track record.
But let's not talk about how things might be, let's talk about how things are. I hate NHL 09 and always will because there is no "speed burst" function. We had to fight for that, you know. It wasn't in Hat Trick. It wasn't in bubble hockey. If you are playing Air Hockey - hopefully against a girl - and you attempt a "speed burst," well, that directly translates into throwing the paddle at her. You may accomplish your immediate objective (a burst in speed) but latter ones will have you alone, confused, and quietly masturbating alone as secondary objectives fail.
We had to fight for speed burst.
So I just want to be clear on why I do or do not hate NHL 09. I do hate it, and the two previous games that lack speed burst. It could easily, EASILY be something management would let you toggle on or off. But it's not, and that arrogance really makes me not want to play their games, not when there are thousands of other ones begging for my time.
BUT! My point here is that I can accept that goal scoring in NHL 09 was improved from where it was in NHL 2001 or so. I can accept that.