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NHL 12 demo impressions roundup, plus a digital goalie fight between Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo

Boston Bruins v Vancouver Canucks - Game Seven

during Game Seven of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Arena on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Bruce Bennett

While I’ve only had the chance to mess around with EA Sports’ NHL 12 demo for about an hour or so, many others have been able to pour over the preview and provide painstaking accounts of their likes and dislikes with the far-from-finished product. The demo’s been available since August 23 (on both Xbox Live and Playstation Network) so I feel like people have had enough time to give it a shot and digest some of the changes.

Demos tend to leave me a little bit flat since you only get a little taste of what a full game will feel like, but others managed to pinpoint differences both big and small. Here’s a little gallery of some of the more prominent bits of feedback about the demo. Feel free to provide your own thoughts and/or links in the comments.

Doug Miller at Kukla’s Korner went in-depth with his impressions a day after the demo was released, with high praise for most of the changes made by EA. Miller seemed most impressed with the game’s artificial intelligence (or in layman’s terms, the way computer players operated).
This year, there are a combination of several key things, which combined, all go a very long way into making NHL 12 feel very new and refreshing. With the new full contact physics, full balance control, anticipation AI, combined with some new, more realistic puck physics, make NHL 12 feel like a vast improvement across the board in general gameplay when compared to NHL 11.

Andrew Dyce of Game Rant provides a more concise but well-written account of some of the changes, keying in on many of the same things Miller did. Dyce does a great job of explaining how different it feels to shoot in the game and how the puck seems to do a better job of behaving in ways that resemble the real-life game.

Where past games equated a slap shot to a gun being fired, traveling off a stick faster than the eye could see, NHL 12 goes in a very different direction. Sticks are no longer puck-cannons, as they must first cradle, then fire the projectiles more accurately. the shots themselves no longer seem like merely a game mechanism, but an exercise of the game’s physics engine. As a result, the stick seems far more active and responsive to player inputs, especially when in close to the net.

Once the puck leaves the blade though, it becomes subject to the laws of physics in a way that we have yet to see. The puck isn’t being blasted at the goalie, but simply being directed toward the net, with deflections and bounces occurring far more frequently. It’s hard to describe, but players familiar with past games will notice the difference immediately.


Dan at “All U Need” provided a lengthy breakdown of the demo that was mostly positive as well. While he thought that dekes and some of the hitting felt a bit off, he raved about the improved passing, physics, tweaked graphics and the general feeling that one-timers just felt good.
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Ultimately, it seems like the demo is generating a lot of praise, but the $60 question will be: are the changes worth it - particularly for people who already own NHL 11? I generally tend to get a lot of value out of sports games since online competition usually provides something new (and often infuriating), but in following with the tradition of year-to-year sports game updates, the tweaks are a bit on the subtle side.

There might not be a ton of updates now that the legends have been revealed and the demos have been released, but we’ll keep an eye on things and provide a review of the game once it releases. In the mean time, enjoy two more videos of the game.

First, the demo trailer via Game Rant.
[vodpod id=Video.15331988&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

Lastly, the slightly awkward looking but irresistible goalie fight between Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas (H/T to Puck Daddy).
[vodpod id=Video.15331994&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

Now that’s what I don’t call pumping someone’s tires.