NHL 12 Producer Blog #1
EA
Sports have posted their first NHL 12 Producer blog, discussing
goalies.
Gameplay
Producer Nate Ng here to kick off the first blog for NHL
12 with some goalie info. I just want to prefix the rest
of the info with a few things. This is by no means ALL the
new goalie info as things will change up until the game
gets into your hands. This is also not the last time we
will talk about goalies. If my blog doesn’t answer some
of the questions you have, post your questions here and
stay tuned! Without further ado, let’s dig into some goalie
info for NHL 12.
Goalie V-H Technique – what does V-H stand for? Well I’m
glad you asked. It stands for vertical-horizontal. It is
a technique used by goalies similar to the hug post. Goalie
V-H is something you see many NHL goalies do throughout
the game but something we’ve been missing in the title.
The purpose of this technique is to put goalies in better
position for passes behind the goal line and also allows
for them to more easily push off the post into butterfly.
How does this affect your goalie in NHL 12? From the goalie
V-H, you will be able to make saves, poke check, and cover
the puck. You will also be able to push off the post from
this stance and right into butterfly or into the desperation
saves.
Updated
goalie saves – Goalies are always a work in progress. The
thing with goalies is that we have to make them balanced.
Any tweaks to shooting or AI, and we have to rebalance goalies.
They are what one might call a house of cards. Tune a shot
this way, and you have the potential to unleash ‘always
goals’. Much like every other year, we go in and look at
all the saves we have in the game and try to tune goalie
behavior to allow for goal scoring, yet still have goalies
feel natural. We have also improved the puck tracking for
goalies this year. What this means for goalies is that they
will be better at fighting through the screens and battles
in front of the net, and be more agile when skaters are
pulling dekes on breakaways and in close.
Goalies
are LIVE – Yes, you read correctly. Skating hard to the
net, players will have the ability to crash the crease,
jostle for position in the crease, bump or even run the
goalie over. Don’t worry though goalies, we will call goalie
interference penalties. Have a pest in front of your net
that you want to clear out? We got you covered. Goalies
can shove back this year. Both AI goalies and user goalies
can and will clear out the front of their nets. For AI goalies,
it will be based on their ratings, and for user goalies
we will give you a button.
Goalie
behavior this year will also be affected by traits. A more
aggressive goalie will shove and fight to clear his crease.
A good puck handling goalie will be brave and come out and
challenge for loose pucks.
Goalie
fights – Goalies can fight! You asked for it, you got it!
When you run the goalie, you can expect a tough guy to stand
up for his goalie. At times, the goalie will stand up for
himself by dropping the gloves and there’ll also be times
where the opposing goalie will want a piece of the action
too. We saw it happen a couple times this year in the real
NHL…if it’s in the game, it’s gotta be in the game!
There
you have it folks, the first little teaser to goalies in
NHL 12.
