Miguel Sanchez Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 18 minutes ago, RuMoore said: @Miguel Sanchez you played much NHL aside from UT? I enjoyed season mode and be a pro but after getting comfy on semi-pro I played an online Chels game and realised quickly I'm utter shite. I've spent the past week doing Chel. I've played thousands of games of Rocket League so I know how to play positionally in a 3v3 game. Nobody I get paired up with does. Skating down the wing with two players coming towards you, and me on the other side of the ice with nobody near me? Better try a loose puck deke and get knocked off and now I'm miles out of position. In saying that, I got to two finals in 3v3 tonight with a pair of Swedish guys. Lost both. I've not really tried any different player builds so I'm sure there's a meta I can take advantage of (and I'm only level 15 so there's more stuff to unlock), but I've been a defenseman and have the hang of most of the mechanics like stick play and blocking. I'm still useless offensively though, I've still not reached a point where I feel like I understand what my button inputs are doing. I've basically done the game totally backwards - HUT, then Chel, then once that's done I'll do BAP/Franchise Mode and actually learn how to play it properly. I think the biggest thing for Chel in either ones or threes is to just play conservatively and don't wildly throw yourself about all the time. I'll add you tomorrow and get you a game at the weekend. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 (edited) How are the NHL games? I've obviously done FIFA and have no interest in going back, done Madden in the past, and it was...fine. But getting really into ice hockey, as is my son, so wonder if it could scratch that itch of a pick-up-and-play sporting game without the obvious cynicism EAFC brings. I know they're both EA games, but is the approach any different? If their version of FUT is just as bad, is it worth getting to play the offline modes? Reading reviews, the main complaint seems to be that it isn't much of an upgrade, but given I've had no experience of the games previously, shouldn't be an issue. Think I get a 10 hour trial with EA Play so maybe give that a shot unless it's a complete mess. Edited February 1 by forameus 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 (edited) 3 hours ago, forameus said: How are the NHL games? I've obviously done FIFA and have no interest in going back, done Madden in the past, and it was...fine. But getting really into ice hockey, as is my son, so wonder if it could scratch that itch of a pick-up-and-play sporting game without the obvious cynicism EAFC brings. I know they're both EA games, but is the approach any different? If their version of FUT is just as bad, is it worth getting to play the offline modes? Reading reviews, the main complaint seems to be that it isn't much of an upgrade, but given I've had no experience of the games previously, shouldn't be an issue. Think I get a 10 hour trial with EA Play so maybe give that a shot unless it's a complete mess. The last one I had before this year's was 09, so I'm going in from scratch too. There are sound effects from 09 they're still using - players shouting things on the ice like man on or pass it here, that kind of thing. It was almost nostalgic. HUT is hideous, but this is the only experience I've had of it. The entire concept isn't for me, so I can't say how well it actually works in practice. Squad Battles doesn't seem a very viable way of getting packs because you need a good team to play at a decent difficulty level and if you don't have a good team and you're just learning the game it... won't work. The player base is going to be much smaller than FIFA as well, so I don't know what sort of effect that would have. The last time I played I used the simplified controls (one button for pass, shoot and hit) but this time I've used the default and I think I've got the hang of it by now. Playing in HUT as a whole team is a bit frustrating (trying to do tactical stuff or make line changes is a nightmare) but if you do the 3v3 rush mode, or you go into Chel (which I think is the equivalent of Volta in FIFA) and do 1v1 or 3v3 and you just control your player, you actually start to recognise what your inputs do. Like I said above I'm still kind of at a point where scoring is just something that happens, rather than something that I do consciously knowing how my button presses are actually affecting things. Defensively I think I have the hang of things, offensively there are still things I'd like to do better. I might be really dumb and missing it but if there was a tutorial/training mode or something where you had all the controls explained to you it would really help. As far as I know there's just a practice mode where you can pick one guy and go up against a goalie which is fine since there's no pressure, but not fine since you don't know what you're doing. I think if you're just getting into the sport and league, if you play on easier difficulties and don't get too worried about all the fancy stuff, it's a very good way of learning and being interested in it. The presentation (graphics, soundtrack, commentary, factual details, aesthetic) is hideous, but the gameplay is pretty solid. If you have a ten hour trial you'll easily be able to decide if it's for you or not. Obviously all of this comes with the caveat of me being a long-time NHL fan and completionist who wants to platinum the game because it has Cale Makar on the box. Edited February 1 by Miguel Sanchez 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNU_Linux Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Embracer strikes again 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellaboz Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 That Deus Ex is still one of my favourite games of all time. An absolute classic and it's still pretty fun to play. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodhull Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 26 minutes ago, GNU_Linux said: Embracer strikes again They are such a disaster. Good chance that studio would be getting shut completely if they weren’t co-developing Fable for Microsoft. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMoore Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 19 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said: I've spent the past week doing Chel. I've played thousands of games of Rocket League so I know how to play positionally in a 3v3 game. Nobody I get paired up with does. Skating down the wing with two players coming towards you, and me on the other side of the ice with nobody near me? Better try a loose puck deke and get knocked off and now I'm miles out of position. In saying that, I got to two finals in 3v3 tonight with a pair of Swedish guys. Lost both. I've not really tried any different player builds so I'm sure there's a meta I can take advantage of (and I'm only level 15 so there's more stuff to unlock), but I've been a defenseman and have the hang of most of the mechanics like stick play and blocking. I'm still useless offensively though, I've still not reached a point where I feel like I understand what my button inputs are doing. I've basically done the game totally backwards - HUT, then Chel, then once that's done I'll do BAP/Franchise Mode and actually learn how to play it properly. I think the biggest thing for Chel in either ones or threes is to just play conservatively and don't wildly throw yourself about all the time. I'll add you tomorrow and get you a game at the weekend. I think the issue I'm having is probably due to going an attacker, I'm fine with keeping a good formation and not wildly chasing things but everyone else is amazing at 1vs1s and that's my biggest weakness, I can score when in possession and get some good snapshots away but I have no clue how to beat the keeper in a conventional 1 vs 1 which everyone else can do very well. I used to play Fifa be a pro at a high level so reckon I can get good after practice but by god the matchmaking is long. Took me like 20 minutes waiting time to play 2 games and both games felt very short. Aye I'm up for a few games but please don't have high expectations! 8 hours ago, forameus said: How are the NHL games? I've obviously done FIFA and have no interest in going back, done Madden in the past, and it was...fine. But getting really into ice hockey, as is my son, so wonder if it could scratch that itch of a pick-up-and-play sporting game without the obvious cynicism EAFC brings. I know they're both EA games, but is the approach any different? If their version of FUT is just as bad, is it worth getting to play the offline modes? Reading reviews, the main complaint seems to be that it isn't much of an upgrade, but given I've had no experience of the games previously, shouldn't be an issue. Think I get a 10 hour trial with EA Play so maybe give that a shot unless it's a complete mess. As someone that had never played any NHL games and only got into hockey this past year its a really fun game. Miguel is probably right about interfaces and specifics but just pure amateur gameplay is enjoyable, the one thing I'd warn is there's no tutorial mode so you need to just play games to get good, i didn't even know what icing or offsides were so it took me a while to get alright at the game. I have no clue about the Ultimate Team because I avoid it like the plague but there's plenty to do offline, if you want to play more than one season don't do season mode you'll need to do franchise mode, I learned this the hard way. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 20 minutes ago, RuMoore said: I think the issue I'm having is probably due to going an attacker, I'm fine with keeping a good formation and not wildly chasing things but everyone else is amazing at 1vs1s and that's my biggest weakness, I can score when in possession and get some good snapshots away but I have no clue how to beat the keeper in a conventional 1 vs 1 which everyone else can do very well. I used to play Fifa be a pro at a high level so reckon I can get good after practice but by god the matchmaking is long. Took me like 20 minutes waiting time to play 2 games and both games felt very short. Aye I'm up for a few games but please don't have high expectations! Oh I'm fucked if I know how to do that either. The higher the level of your player the more abilities you can unlock and there's one where you can do dangles, but my muscle memory just seems to kick in from 09 and I try and go from forehand to backhand and nothing happens. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMoore Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 27 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said: Oh I'm fucked if I know how to do that either. The higher the level of your player the more abilities you can unlock and there's one where you can do dangles, but my muscle memory just seems to kick in from 09 and I try and go from forehand to backhand and nothing happens. I'm intrigued to see what the older games were like now, I think you advised me to use the old controls but I went for the dual stick and think I can do it quite well now but half the time I forget to actually aim my shots because I'm pretty sure it's left stick which you obviously use to move and more time im focussing on that as opposed to the shot. I usually find myself hitting it straight into the gloves and then when I actually concentrate and consciously aim with the left stick it goes in. Just tried a normal online game and was losing 4-0 by the start of the second period so sacked it off for the night. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 14 minutes ago, RuMoore said: I'm intrigued to see what the older games were like now, I think you advised me to use the old controls but I went for the dual stick and think I can do it quite well now but half the time I forget to actually aim my shots because I'm pretty sure it's left stick which you obviously use to move and more time im focussing on that as opposed to the shot. I usually find myself hitting it straight into the gloves and then when I actually concentrate and consciously aim with the left stick it goes in. Just tried a normal online game and was losing 4-0 by the start of the second period so sacked it off for the night. By older games I mean the NHL 94 controls as they're called in-game. 08 was the first game on PS3 and I think they started using the skill stick then. I had 06, 07 and 09, 09 was the first year of Be a Pro so there was more reason to have refined individual controls I suppose. NHL 94 was rereleased I think along with 19, for the 25th anniversary of it. Because the NHL doesn't like money or people caring about it you could only play this if you got one of the special editions of the regular game. I don't know why they don't keep that in the games even as an extra mode, but oh well. I also won my first Threes tournament earlier. It's amazing what happens when you're paired with a guy who will pass every now and then 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 I gave it a go on the trial last night, and...have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm absolutely shite at the game, sitting it at the lowest possible difficulty with the screen looking a mess with all the assists, but it's really good fun. Plenty of stuff to do offline to stop me going online and getting all the enjoyment stomped out of me. I cannot get the hang of defending at all (probably just as much to do with mashing R2 from muscle memory given that was sprint in FIFA), but starting to work things out going forward. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaspianChris Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 The consequence of thinking that replacing the Monaco track with the one at Shanghai will resulting an incident free race on F1 23 Lap 3 we have a RED FLAG because of whatever the hell these clowns started doing 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 After going cold turkey a few years ago I'm back on the hard stuff. That's right. Stardew Valley is back on the menu boys. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMoore Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 10 hours ago, forameus said: I gave it a go on the trial last night, and...have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm absolutely shite at the game, sitting it at the lowest possible difficulty with the screen looking a mess with all the assists, but it's really good fun. Plenty of stuff to do offline to stop me going online and getting all the enjoyment stomped out of me. I cannot get the hang of defending at all (probably just as much to do with mashing R2 from muscle memory given that was sprint in FIFA), but starting to work things out going forward. It took me far too long to realise tackling was bashing into folk, spamming r1 usually works too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 The last time I played an NHL, I really enjoyed it, although I kept ending up in fights as I was just skating around trying to smash people when my team was defending 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jives Miguel Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 23 hours ago, well fan for life said: After going cold turkey a few years ago I'm back on the hard stuff. That's right. Stardew Valley is back on the menu boys. One of my most shameful moments in gaming is hitting a laptop in a rage (and corrupting the HDD) after dying in the mines on Stardew Valley. Should be impossible to get angry at such a peaceful, tranquil game, but not for yer man here 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 18 hours ago, RuMoore said: It took me far too long to realise tackling was bashing into folk, spamming r1 usually works too. Yeah, it's quite an odd control scheme, at least compared to something like FIFA, but quite intuitive once you get the hang of what you're doing. I've accidentally done some decent body checks, and imagine it'll get extremely satisfying when you can start timing them right. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 On 28/01/2024 at 14:34, BFTD said: The top row are the things that modern devs do as a hobby now while spending 80+ hours a week doing the bottom row for EA. Talk about ubermensch. Realised the other day that about 90% of the games I play are either one-man Dev output, or very small Indie titles, and it's been that way for about 5 years. The only AAA title I've been remotely interested in recently was Elden Ring, and before that the release of New World back in 2021, which was obviously an absolute turkey right from the day of launch. I haven't even bothered with FM since 2018 because I got sick fed up of every single release being not much more that a half-arsed patch of the previous title. For some reason "completable" games just don't hold any interest for me, so I've no urge whatsoever to go spending £40-£50 on a AAA that probably has 80 hours of content in it. I used to love MMO's, but that genre has completely died on it's arse with the advent of lootboxes, DLC, pay-to-win microtransactions, etc, so about the only thing that holds any interest for me now are really niche indi or sandbox stuff with more or less infinite replayability and/or open-ended gameplay. I've put about 20 hours into Enshrouded so far and this looks promising for an Early Access release. I'm at something like 1200 hours on Wartales, 500 hours on Stardew Valley, similar on Starsector, probably about 1000 hours on Kenshi, and at one point in my life was putting about 40 hours per week into Eve before I realised that was dangerous and bad for my mental health, same with World of Tanks which I consciously quit in 2018 and have deliberately avoided ever since. I can't understand pricing games at £50 or £60 on release day when they have maybe 100 hours of content for a completionist, when Starsector could be had for £5 and plays for thousands of hours. Must be the shiny bells and whistles and hype, because for all the plaudits, I've sunk serious hours into Elden Ring and I can't see where it's in any way markedly superior to loads of similarly huge, but less heralded and far less expensive games, yet it's hailed as a watershed and has a massive global fanbase whereas a lot of the indi stuff is practically invisible by comparison. Obviously the marketing plays a huge role, but I genuinely don't understand how something can be sold for 10x the price with only a fraction of the content. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Khaki Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 On 02/02/2024 at 14:32, well fan for life said: After going cold turkey a few years ago I'm back on the hard stuff. That's right. Stardew Valley is back on the menu boys. Likewise. Currently in Summer Year 2 and stocking up on Spicy Eel for Skull Cavern. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) GOG is currently down due to unknown issues - they're now claiming it's planned maintenance, but it absolutely wasn't yesterday when it first started, so I'm wondering if they've had an 'intrusion event'. The website's back up now, but you can't buy anything or download your existing games, and you can't log into GOG Galaxy. These things happen, but it's annoying me that I'm getting an error message when I try to play The Sinking City, a game that I've already downloaded and should be working (according to GOG themselves). I hadn't realised quite how much GOG has drifted from the old 'DRM-free' model, but it's a glimpse into the future chaos when one of these services finally dies. Meanwhile, the pirate copy that I downloaded years ago sits smugly on a burned disc, waiting for me to come crawling back. Edit: looks like we're back in, although I'm not sure how to answer this: Edited February 9 by BFTD 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.