for my real impressions:
THE GAME
-graphics got a nice touch up, ice looks way better, material the jerseys are made out of looks great and the lighting off the helmets is noticeably better. The faces seem a lot better except EA goofed and 90% of the guys in the demo have scary looking blue eyes.
-skating, what more needs to be said? It's at least 1,000,000 X better than last year. Love how players have "weight" now. How momentum matters. As long as that video is true and easy backskate goals are tuned I don't see it being exploited. Players don't seem to absorb hits these year as much and the poke check is super effective so if people think they are gonna waltz and twirl down the slot into the crease backwards, they have another thing coming.
-love every single one of the little new moves I've found
the chop is nice new option that works really good in the corners and up near the blue line chopping and chasing. It works better at the blueline than poking because you can chop and go around the guy in one motion whereas in NHL12 if you poked the puck past someone a lot of times you would end up running into him and not be able to get past.
the fake shot has at least 2 new variations, it becomes like a fake cross crease pass if you are moving fast enough and if you try it while backwards it gives a cool little fake drop pass that I can see myself getting people to bite on
the 45 degree moves are cool and if strength is tuned right, the power forward builds might be really effective crashing into the crease using this. It's a nice change of pace move that you can loose puck deke off and throw good defensemen some unexpected combos of moves to get by him
-passing is better because you can't magically throw the puck through guys as easy now. I haven't been able to test well enough if the super fast cross crease passes get thru and can be handled easily, but I would imagine so since they still didn't return to NHL11 passing where you were penalized for holding down the pass power too long which resulted in a bobble or miss. This needs to be back this year in one of the big patches. Moop is correct, the sauce has been improved, it actually lifts now everytime so it won't get hit by a stick on the ice of a lazy defender.
-goalies seem beatable still. Everyone that has played this can see how much better they play the cross-crease. I've gotten a ton of 5 hole goals already aiming there on purpose which is cool. Some of the some 1 on 1 moves still work from last year, but more than anything the game looks like it might reward you for finding the 1 spot the goalie leaves open. I expect good results from people who actually take a second and read the goalie this year rather than hold up and to a corner everytime.
CLUB STUFF
-one thing that stands out is the dump and chase is gonna be real effective this year. The offensive player especially if you aim the dump well and know where its going will get there almost everytime against the above average defensemen, especially early on in EASHL before players get used to the skating engine. We are gonna need to do a good bit dumping in NHL13.
The defensemen now have two big disadvantages on the dump and chase. The first is that it takes a significant amount of time to transition to a turn now when the puck goes over your head, and secondly, your momentum can cause you skate past or to the side of the puck and miss it completely if you get too eager and go after the puck too fast. It was pretty jarring the first time I ran into this going to retrieve one. As a d-man you gotta be real careful now with worrying about not going into a full stride at medium length distances or you lose your precision.
-forechecking is the other big one. Clubs are gonna be relentless because of how loose the puck can be and how effective the poke check is. There isnt a whole lot of skill needed now to effectively poke check where in NHL12 it has its nuances that you have to master to be good at it, swim will co-sign that as he learned from the bottom up. We will need to be even more aggressive on the forecheck that ever and use this change in the game to our advantage.
-seems like tipped pucks work a bit better so we should probably look into improving in that area too. Setting better screens and d-man making better decisions on how to shoot at the net (just throw high wristers, rather than bomb slapshots) to get these dirty goals.
im excited, looks like it plays a significantly better game of hockey which should in turn make this coming season of clubs the least frustrating and most enjoyable by far to this point.