As an avid player of NHL 09 (we play 2-4 games everyday in the office) I have noticed some problems with the game as well as some things that need to be improved. While we do love this game like no other, with some improvements NHL10 (or NHL2010… whatever they decide to call it) can easily be the best NHL ever…
Here are 10 of my suggestions:
1. Individual player game stats. I am not talking about Luongo’s game stats, but stats for the physical player playing the game. It would be great to know how many assists or hits each individual player gets during the game. It would be great for bragging rights, etc. Think about the comments that Bond on N64 used to make about each player… something like that after each game. This is mainly for multiplayer - both on and offline.
2. User selectable player colours for the icons above player heads. This should be a no brainer. Depending on the tv quality it can sometimes be hard to tell apart certain colours like blue and purple. Why not add more colours or make them user selectable? Why not automatically keep similar colours off the same teams? Why not include patterns for players that have a hard time telling apart the colours or even for colour blind players? This would be an easy fix and would certainly cut down on in game confusion.
3. Shooting and hitting with the same joystick works, except when you expect to get a pass and it instead goes to someone else. This very often results in a cross check rather than a shot being taken which means a stupid penalty. Either the game needs to compensate for this or the control needs to be changed. I vote for the first option.
4. Better goal tending AI. There have been so many occasions where the puck will bounce off a goalie and have him stand there and watch a goal get scored rather than dropping on the puck and covering it up. The goalie does stupid things over and over again. He might not realise that a puck is on his shoulder or back and can easily kick pucks in. I think there should be a major overhaul as to how the goal reacts to action around the net in order to make it more realistic. It is also pretty easy to get some cheap goals in through wrap arounds that would normally be saved.
5. Deflections. Sometimes goals will get scored through impossible deflections that rocket the puck into the net. A shot could be taken from near the blue line but if it hits the right player its angle might change drastically resulting in a goal that doesn’t make sense.
6. More action after the whistle has blown. Some of the best hits happen in the few seconds after a play has been called dead. This is significantly improved over 2008 and should continue to evolve into 2010. Its great fun to take cheap hits after the whistle has blown and it would be neat to see this improved. Brawls or fights or even penalties for post whisle actions would make things more interesting.
7. Fighting. Right now quickly alternating the dodge and punch buttons means one punch knockouts. While the fights are fun, they are very far from being realistic. This could easily be improved. Again, to go along with the last point, it would be cool to have multiple players fighting at the same time.
8. Updates to commentary and soundtrack. I know these two are big things that EA will continue to use to get us to buy next versions of the game, but I’ve really noticed that the same commentary gets used quite frequently. It would be nice to see an update to the commentary and soundtracks halfway through the virtual season, even if it meant releasing it as DLC.
9. Local offline games should mimic the roster updates of online games. There is no reason why playing online means updated rosters while playing locally offline means being stuck with outdated team configurations. Again, I understand this as a strategy to get players to buy next years update, but teams should be kept current for the whole hockey season.
10. The last point I want to address is rumble on the PS3. I know the 360 players have it, but there is no reason why 2010 should not have rumble as well. I played 2008 a few times at a friends house and feeling the rumble on big hits really added to the fun.
