One of the best sports game around, complete in every aspect and with some nice surprises like the GM Connected feature that we'd like to see it carried in other titles too.
I'm a big fan of hockey, I didn't get that much in NHL 12, I got this Game Yesterday. I't is the best NHL game to date till NHL 14. The New Physics engine and New skating engine is amazing. I will play this game till I get GTA 5 or COD advanced Warfare
My love/infatuation with hockey and EA's NHL games continued when I bought this game, I saw the trailers and was tortured for months till it's release. I wanted soooooo bad to get this game and I did, it drives me crazy at times but there's moments I find myself screaming at an awesome goal I've scored.
The HUT mode is a wonderful thing where you open packs of cards and try to build your ultimate team, I find myself playing that mode more and more just trying to build my favorite team (GO BRUINS) but the other players make it nearly impossible to buy your favorite players so it leaves you hoping you pick up that goalie who's 10,000 pucks in a HUT pack.
The graphics are amazing and my favorite mode is the winter classic just to see the snow fall on the open ice rink as you skate past defenders and head towards the net trying to deke out the goalie and make him flail to try and stop your momentum.
The online is fun with friends but if you're meeting random people they sometimes use glitches to help their team win.
The BE A PRO mode is back and improved once again as you try your hand at becoming an NHL legend, I just wish they had the game face importer like madden 13 does so you could feel like it's really you battling your way to the top.
PICK THIS GAME UP!
Another step forward in the evolution of the NHL brand from EA, although the increasingly complex control system brings also some flaws for the arcade fans. Plenty of options and game modes make NHL 13 the most expansive chapter so far.
The more I played NHL 13, the more I wondered how much previous installments were partially burdened with some drive to recapture the halcyon days of videogame hockey in the mid-90's. This new, genuine attempt at real ice skating physics makes NHL 13 the most worthwhile hockey in years.
In the case of the good, the bad, and the ugly, NHL 13 has it all. It's not award-winning but it's still plenty of fun to go around. Just don't trade in those NHL 12 copies just yet. If complete roster updates and fancy new game modes don't have you jumping for joy, you're plenty fine sticking with '12.
This game is absolutely AMAZING! It is a must buy for all hockey games out there, and a real big improvement from NHL 12. For people who say that they can't spend 60$ on the game are just haters. It is well worth the 60$. MUST BUY!!!
I am fan of ice hockey and I love to watch it. Last year NHL 12 was totally same like 11,10 etc.. From this year there are some changes, but for this price its not worth it. The new movements from goaltender are good, but its enough? I guess so not. What I like in this year is skating, seems like real. But .. when you hit player, he is going sooooo far from you, like if he has wings ... yep its ea sports. Online game is better than against cpu. So far, its still better than 12 and finally, you can recognize players, faces are good!
The game is good. But the fact that I have to pay 60$ a year for incremental updates is kind of dumb. They need to change a lot more and really make it a true sequel. So far the game is good, but feels a lot like NHL 12. They did do some tweaking with multiplayer though for the better. Overall this game gets a 7.
I'm surprised so many people here who claim to know hockey can enjoy this game. The clear difference in ability between the A.I. team and the teammates on my team was enough to ruin this game for me alone. There is no logic to the physics/hitting. You can take a bigger player with all the momentum in the world into a small player on the other team and not only fail to knock him down, but watch your player go down instead. The opposite is true for the AI, which can knock down any of your players regardless of size difference or the momentum being carried by the hitter.
Another huge problem for me was the passing. Passes are extremely difficult to complete, even when the receiver of the pass is wide open. The passes just don't seem to go where you want them to go. In addition, the poke check has been made to be WAY too powerful. You can't come within 10 feet of an opposing AI defenseman without him swooping in and knocking the puck away with the poke check or just knocking your man out. And if you try to make the quick pass, like I said, its usually not getting through. On the flip side, you will watch with frustration as the opposing team AI executes its passes almost flawlessly.
There is no logic to the goal-scoring. I can get stoned on 5 breakaways on a row and then throw a wrist shot in from the point with no traffic and have it go in. Odd-man rushes rarely result in goals even if passes are succesfully executed. The goal outcomes often have no bearing on who outplayed who in the game, its hard to feel any sense of accomplishment for scoring or preventing goals when they seem to just go in by random luck. I had many games where I would outshoot the AI by a 4-1 margin but the score would always stay even. I could hold the AI to 10-15 shots for an entire game but they would still score 2-3 goals just from throwing the puck at the net as soon as they got into my zone. I know things like this can happen in hockey but when you thoroughly outplay the AI in every game, improve from game to game, and the scores don't reflect that, it starts to become frustrating and unrewarding.
Overall I'd give this game a 4/10, positives being the graphics, presentation and fluidity of gameplay. My biggest problems were the disparity in ability between the user's players and the A.I.'s players, the completely screwed-up hitting, the over-powered poke check, lack of ability to execute passes, and the unrewarding and nonsensical goal-scoring.
This game is by far the worst game of NHL released since NHL 09. There is so many new things in this game such as anticipation A.I. or the true performance skating. This all is a great idea but so poorly executed. The anticipation A.I. is not what it says it is. It doesn't anticipate what is going happen but it knows whats going to happen. Ever pass for a one timer and it gets blocked? Guess what the goalie knew you pressed RT and in which direction. He's already set up for the shot on the receivers end. How about just the new teammate A.I. Probably the worst thing implemented into this game right next to true-performance skating. The computer on your team is absolutely ****. How about battling for position? Another smart idea but once again a poor way of making it fit with the game. Countless times there will be an empty net waiting for someone to poke it in. Your closest guy, he's battling for position for some unknown reason. You switch to him, and guess what, he's still battling for position. By the time you get control of him your opportunity has already been lost. True-performance skating by far ruined this game the most. Yeah it was a great idea, absolutely great but once again poorly executed. Being able to skate faster after striding for so long is cool. But then if your max speed and go to turn, You have to make this rink width and a half turn that is not realistic at all. This ruined skating all together, most of the time when i pick up the puck in the neutral zone and go to skate, my player is super slow and i get players have to accelerate but this is just over-exaggerating on how much acceleration you need to get up to a decent speed. Then comes hitting and passing in this game, hitting was perfect the way it was in NHL 12 but for some reason they messed it up in NHL 13, Every. Single. Play. There is a HUGE hit and thats not realistic at all. I dont know how many goals i scored where i got labeled seconds after i shot the puck. Which brings up another problem, no matter what the game mode, online versus, GM Connected, or Be A GM Mode. A shot is a shot, numerous times, i would take a shot or pass it for that matter but I got checked or bumped which canceled either one. I dont know about this but you can get checked and still take a shot or pass it. Thats why its a sport, its physical. Passing is again terrible. Passing through a defenseman? Forget about it, dont even bother, RT or RB (saucer pass) that will get blocked 10 out of 10 times. Then theres the little things wrong with this game like a slapshot thats saved by the goalie blocker (stick side) and is rebounded into the air, You cannot and i repeat cannot grab it out of mid-air, you must wait for the puck to come back down to try to regain control. These are the things that are wrong with this game, I will say Hockey Ultimate Team is amazing. I most likely will get NHL 14 but I hope so much that this major problems will be resolved
SummaryNHL 13 promises to deliver a revamped gameplay experience that accurately captures the speed, creativity and strategy of today’s NHL headlined by all-new True Performance Skating, and supported by EA SPORTS Hockey I.Q. NHL 13 also promises to deliver new experiences that connect hockey fans to their friends and the real world of hockey w...