(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); ou’ve been asking about Hardcore mode and we’ve got Rammer to go in-depth with the new Game Styles and Litty has provided a couple of videos to show some of the different styles. He played all the games in the videos using all different game styles (from casual to hardcore) and all different levels (from rookie to superstar), just like you will be able to do when the demo hits soon.

Do you really think you’re Hardcore? Well this year we’ve added a game style just for you. We’ve even called the Game Style ‘Hardcore’ (there are also three other game styles that I’ll elaborate more on a little later). Before I get into the details of Hardcore Mode, let me back up a little bit to pre-production of NHL 10 which was the phase in the project where we tried to determine all the features that we wanted to add and figure out how we can squeeze it all into one year. It’s at this time that we collaborate the ideas that we have with the ideas that the community has suggested through the various forums to form the feature set. We decided that this was the year we were going to give our hardcore users the gameplay experience that they’ve been asking.


When playing in Hardcore Mode, the first thing you’re going to notice is that the gameplay is slightly slower but that there is greater differentiation between the high and low end players. All the attributes are that much more important in this mode as player’s strengths and weaknesses are really accentuated. If you try deking back and forth on a breakaway with a 4th liner, there’s a good chance that the puck is going to roll off his stick. There’s a reason those guys shoot the puck every chance they get as opposed to trying to make a cute play or score a pretty goal. By the same token, if you try doing loose puck dekes or tight turns with a less skilled player, don’t be surprised if you lose control of the puck. More than ever you have to play real hockey, recognize who you have on the ice and play to the strengths and weaknesses of the players. This is why it was so important for us to nail the dump and chase as an effective style of play in this year’s game. When you have that 3rd or 4th line on the ice, keep it simple just like the real players do.

Another thing you’re going to notice right away is that players accelerate much slower in certain situation as momentum plays a bigger part in the skating. Good luck trying to start and stop as an effective offensive weapon. Not only is this less effective but the reason players don’t do this in real life is because it burns a great amount of energy (the drills I hated most growing up were the starts and stops to end practice!), so you can expect your players to fatigue much faster if you try this. Fatigue in general plays a much bigger factor in Hardcore Mode as your players definitely fatigue at a faster rate and recover slower so you are forced to use your 3rd and 4th lines effectively. Keep that in mind when building your team in Be A GM.

We’ve also completely removed all checking assistance in this mode so you have to be more selective about your hits and line the players up correctly. Also, going back to the ratings for a second, don’t try throwing big hits with non-hitters because you will be unsuccessful. You really have to be aware of what players you have on the ice and conversely, be aware of who the other team has on the ice so if you see a non-hitter stepping up to throw a hit and your puck carrier is a bigger guy, you can play the advantage and know that he’s not going to knock you over.



The one other major point that I want to mention for Hardcore Mode is that it defaults to our Precision Passing system where there is no pass assist at all (similar to saucer passes) so the puck will go exactly where your left stick is aiming. You can also control the power of your pass by how long you hold down the right trigger to power up your pass. The pass is made on the release of the right trigger in Precision Passing so the longer you hold down the Right Trigger, the harder the pass is going be. A quick tap is great for feathering passes in to open space and allowing your teammate to skate onto the pass much like a through ball in soccer. Because you have complete control of the pass direction, you can now do bank passes to yourself or bank passes to your teammates to get around opposing players that are taking away the direct pass. This is a great way to spring your teammates through the neutral zone as a perfect bank pass will leave the defender behind the play. One last thing with the passing is the play in the offensive zone as you can rim passes to your teammates and set up the cycle. Between cycling, rim passes and boardplay, the set up game in the offensive zone has really changed. I should mention that you can also do the rim passes in the defensive zone or anywhere on the ice but when you get a dump and chase, to boardplay, to a cycle using a rim pass, to creating a scoring chance and then burying it…well we can talk about uses in the defensive end another time!

The one other point I want to make about Hardcore Mode will probably save you a goal or two when you first buy the game. From the moment you pass the puck out with the goalie, the puck will be live and anybody (including the other team) can pick it up so be careful. This takes a little getting used as your instincts often make you pass the puck out right away.

The great thing about what we’ve done this year is that we’ve exposed much of what I talk about above to you the user to customize via sliders so if you think the game is a little too slow, change the slider. If you think the checking is a little too tough, change the slider. There are separate sliders for the user team and the cpu team so you can tweak your experience to get it exactly how you want it.

I want to mention that there are also three other Game Styles that you can choose from. ‘Normal’ is what online will be which still has much of the Hardcore characteristics but not be quite as Hardcore. ‘Default’ is just that, the default setting that ships with the game although you will notice that there is still less pass assistance than NHL09 and pass speed will be slower. Checking as well will have less assistance than the default settings from 09. And then there’s ‘Casual’ which is great for newcomers to the series as there is lots of pass assistance, lots of checking assistance, the game speed is faster and is tailored more for up and down rush hockey.

In general, all the factors I mentioned above for Hardcore Mode, scale down as you move down through the Game Styles so when you’re playing online with the Normal Game Style, you still have almost total control of your pass direction (but not speed) so you can bank passes to teammates and to yourself and the ratings of players is still a very important part of the experience. Fatigue is also a big part of the gameplay so you’ll be forced to use your 3rd and 4th lines and checking has minimal assistance so you really need to line up your checks (or play conservative and not hit as much). There is some ‘no puck’ after the goalie makes a pass out and the game speed is slightly faster than Hardcore.

I guess the one question you might have is what this means with regards to Skill Level. Well, skill level remains unchanged as we still have all four options (Rookie, Pro, All-Star and Superstar). The addition of Game Styles has allowed us to expose and package some of the other things that skill level used to account for under the hood which gives a much refined meaning to skill level as now it simply means how good the AI is. You can mix and match skill levels and game style as you please to really customize your experience and if you make a change to a slider, the new slider set can be saved as your ‘favorite’ so you don’t need to tweak the sliders every time you boot the game. A great way to learn the new Precision Passing is to play on a lower skill level with a Casual or Default Game Style and turn passing assistance ‘off’ to enable the Precision Passing.

Try out the different game styles in the demo and when the full game launches, here’s my challenge to you that we’ve been trying here in the office with very little success (we’re about 2 for 400): Beat the Centennial Montreal Canadians with Team Japan on Superstar using the Hardcore Game Style.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCx_jdN6oQ"]YouTube - NHL 10 - Game Styles[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf_H_mSdJf8"]YouTube - NHL 10 More on Game Styles[/ame]

lol nice shoulda added some pictures

sounds sick but the whole skate and control the puck yea doesnt work to well with me but if it would i would deffintaly buy this game

I love NHL 09 best sports game i've ever played hands down, can't wait for this one.