By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Date Posted: September 26, 2011
Print Edition: September 21, 2011
Monday, September 12th was the release date for NHL 12, a new game for PS3 and Xbox 360. There was a launch party and midnight sale at the Cambie location of Best Buy. Alex Burrows was on scene autographing limited edition covers, and EA staff was on hand as well, interacting with the fans and making sure the event went off without a hitch. Sean “Rammer” Ramjagsingh, a producer for the game, spoke with The Cascade about the new game and some of the features.
So tell us about NHL 12.
It’s the most authentic game we’ve ever made. It’s about the little details; we have over 300 player assignments, so the more and more you play, the more depth you’re going to see in the game. There are three big things that are really going to change the way the game is played. First, player motivation – so anticipation in the eyes, so players thinking for themselves on the ice. Playing with a guy like Ovechkin, he’s going to start to break out of the zone, take chances. This is both on offence and on defence, so guys like Zetterberg and Datsyuk will take chances as well, read the play better. Next is our full contact physics engine, so making sure the size and strength matter. If you’re playing with a guy like Chara, it’s going to feel very different than playing with a guy like St-Louis. Just really trying to capture the strength of the big strong players in the NHL, and capture the speed of the smaller guys too. Also, dynamic goalies. Our goalies are live for the first time ever, so you can pop them, hit them, call penalties around them, and you can also fight with the goalies.
How were you able to make such advances with this game?
Lots of really, really smart people. We have an incredible team back in the studio in Burnaby. The good thing about our team is that we’re all hockey fans; we all live hockey, we all breathe hockey, we all play hockey ourselves, and most importantly is we’re all fans of the game as well, we make it a game that we would want to play ourselves.
The Legends feature of this game is a big selling point for some fans. How were they chosen?
We started off with the big three: we knew we wanted Gretzky, we knew we wanted Lemieux, we knew we wanted Howe. After that it was a lot of good heavy debate about who the guys should be.
Did anyone not make the list that you really wanted to see?
The guys that I want to see are probably a little too close removed from the NHL. So, a guy like Forsberg, I’d love to see him there. But I mean, you could play with him in the game last year, so we’ll just have to see what the future looks like and maybe we’ll add more of the guys that I want to see.
So the Legends feature is something you’re planning to continue?
First of all we’ll take the feedback from the fans, see if they like it, and then go from there.What to take away from this? It sounds like EA has put out another fan-driven, quality game. Judging from the line-ups at the playing stations at the launch party, the gameplay is great. Copies are available now and retail price is $59.99.
