NHL 11 - Oh, the physics!

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Scott_Arm

Legend
Decided to open my annual NHL thread where I will be the only participant. This thread will die faster than a fat kid at a cannibal convention. But for anyone for an anyone with an interest in gameplay physics, check out the video below.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-gameplay-nhl-11/701574

It isn't quite backbreaker, but those hits look awesome. I'm excited for this years game. They said they brought over the talent from Fight Night Round 4 to totally revamp their physics, so it's nice to know EA is starting to leverage internal talent across teams. I'm still not sure why they don't have one independent engine/tech team that works on one engine for use in all their sports titles.
 
Seeing Burrows in that vid is making me seriously sad there is no more hockey until September.

How long to do roster updates apply for each game - does NHL 2010 still get roster updates or do you have to buy the new version for that?

Cheers
 
The last roster update for NHL10 is probably out. I never play offline, so I don't follow them. I pretty much exclusively play EASHL with my be a pro skater.
 
Are you from Saskatoon? I'm from Regina. :D

I'm a big sports fan, but the last sports game I've actually played a lot of, was NHL 94 (best hockey game ever! :)). Dunno why, but I don't buy sports games that often anymore.
 
I'm just amazed that people have responded to my post about the NHL series.

Here's an outline of some of the other new features not mentioned in the vid:

-goal celebrations like in FIFA. Basically after a goal you press one of the face buttons to do a celebration.
-Rumours say they may have redone the stat system to be more like FIFA. Essentially you pick a position for your pro, and that gives him his baseline stats. Then you perform accomplishments during games to unlock small stat boosts that apply to your pro online and offline. For example, scoring a particular type of goal in a game might give you +1 wrist shot, or completing x number of passes in one game might give you +1 passing. That's just a rumour, and not confirmed.
-Customized camera views from FIFA will be in the game.
-Practice mode online. This is another rumour but would be great for EASHL teams, or people that participate in VHL.

I'm hoping for some changes to fighting to make it more useful and more fun.
 
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Not a hockey fan either but this game looks awesome.

What happens with the broken blades, do they stay there indefinitely or do they magically disappear after a while? Can you throw them at your opponents? ;)
 
I'm not sure what it was but I wasn't feeling that video even the full speed cover athlete video left something to be desired, for me.
 
NavNucST3 said:
I'm not sure what it was but I wasn't feeling that video even the full speed cover athlete video left something to be desired, for me.
Click to expand...

Really? This is the biggest change since they added the skill stick, and probably the biggest change in the series as long as I've played it. NHL is finally getting some next-gen love. I'm one of the few people that's played Power Forward in EASHL all year, so I'm pretty excited for the hitting.

As far as I'm concerned, the only other things they need to fix are:
-remove speed wraps (also known as the A-wrap) glitch
-remove self board play. Defenders should be able to push puck carriers into the boards, but puck carriers should not be able to press themselves into the boards. They should only be able to use the "protect the puck" move.
-Show how many points your team wins or loses after each game in EASHL like they do in the FIFA Pro Club mode.
-Show how height and weight alter your stats, like they do in FIFA.
-no hidden stats. currently there are several invisible attributes like offensive and defensive awareness that affect your players ability.

Bonuses:
-make fighting better
-prevent players from continually lying on the ice either through short-term injuries (hobbled skater) or a timer that only allows you to lie down for a few seconds at a time.
 
Glad to see them finally use this technology (though they showed the Fight Night physics engine when at the 2005 E3 when the PS3 was announced?) but I prefer the zoomed-out overhead camera angle when playing online games.

So the hits won't look as dramatic as in these rink level camera angles.

The checking in the NHL series have always been over the top, especially with defenders able to warp to catch up to offensive players possessing the puck, who can't burst. You wonder if the hits may be more arcadey, with greater collisions to make the hits look more dramatic -- ragdoll action to make players fly into the boards or something.

Plus you had offensive players who can't check in real life make big hits too. What you hope from a physics engine is more realism, that a smaller, lighter player doesn't take down bigger player like he's flinging a crash-test dummy.

That's especially an issue in Madden where you have 190 pound cornerbacks making big hits on 240 pound running backs when in real life, they'd have to try to hit the bigger player low or risk getting trucked.

So if anything, a realistic physics engine should reduce the number of dramatic hits and checks, not increase them. But video games being what they are, I'm not sure real-time physics will necessarily bring more realism.

Plus will EA really abandon their investments in mo-cap animations? Sounds like EA will blend the hits with the mo-cap animations they've accumulated over the years? For instance, where will the shooting animations come from, the physics engine or the old mo-cap animations?
 
wco81 said:
Plus will EA really abandon their investments in mo-cap animations? Sounds like EA will blend the hits with the mo-cap animations they've accumulated over the years? For instance, where will the shooting animations come from, the physics engine or the old mo-cap animations?
Click to expand...

Motion capture and more realistic physics simulations aren't mutually exclusive. You don't need any physics simulations when you're trying to recreate the movements of any particular player. But once that hockey stick hits the puck or a body hits another body, that's when the physics comes into play.

I suppose you could blend some physics with motion capture when doing transitions between movements or other places where it might make sense. But for titles with big name stars, recreating the movements of actual stars through mo-cap makes a lot of sense.

Regards,
SB
 
If you want to see what the games are like when the top teams play:


That's 6 vs 6, full teams, for the 2010 Xbox 360 championship in the EASHL. EASHL is a game mode, which is basically a league built into the game, where you can have your own club, like a built in clan system. You have your own persistent player, with customizable stats and player type, and it keeps track of all your metrics for league play. I can almost play at that level of those top teams, but those guys are a little too intense for me.
 
Don't want to really start a new thread but saw some videos of Gamebreakers for the first time (apparently they put out a major patch or will).

It's interesting, obviously the most dynamic part of their presentation is the hits and tackles. Do real-time physics necessarily imply that the user has way more control over the kind of animation you get? Can you for instance decide to hit high or low in real-time or you just move your guy towards the ball carrier and press a button and the result you get is calculated or determined some other way?

If you assume that these developers don't have any mocap assets (like EA does) so they can't blend mocap and real-time animations like NHL11 may be doing, how do they get the fairly refined looking tackle animations?

Does the physics modeling take into account the direction, velocity, mass of the players involved to determine what kind of result and animation should be constructed?

You certainly don't get ragdoll effects in Gamebreakers but still more dramatic than Madden, more a sense of the collision.
 
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