Worst AI ever!

[Millionaires85]

As much as I like this game and play it to death, this game just has horrible AI. I have witnessed these awful plays to occur countless times..

A) There's a delayed icing and all my guy has to do is touch the puck. He skates right by it, so does the next guy... and the next guy.... and the next guy.... wiat yat the 5th guy managed to touch it!!! w00t!

B) I'm pressuring in front of the net and the goalie is down.... the puck is right in front of the wide open net... my player is right by it wide open and just needs to blow on the puck..... Nah he'll just stand there and wait for the opposing team to regain possession.. no point in scoring a goal.

C) YES! I have a 3 on 0 with just one minute to go... I lure the goalie to the right and I'm ready to pass to my winger. I hold left on my Analog stick and press X to pass it.... straight in front of me into the boards.. Yipee!

D) Oh my i have a 2 on 0.... woo hoo! Yes I've got the goalie down and out.... oh no my own player skates in front of me for no apparent reason and blocks a sure goal..... Now thats hockey!

E) My goalie makes a terrific save, and is surrounded by teammates to pass to. So i hold right and press X to pass it to where 3 of my teamates are.... he throws it away from all of them to an opposing winger and he easily picks a corner and scores..... good job goalie!

F) ucking retarted steals is this topic. My player is one on one with another player... he cuts across but wait the puck kinda went near the defending players stick and well it magically teleports to his stick like there's a magnet on it.... he didnt even have to poke check or anything... I call this the 'TRACTOR BEAM' steal, woo hoo!

This is just a FEW examples trust me of how lousy the AI is. Players do not move if they dont have the puck in the defensive end, they just stand there with a stick up there ***. I'd love to hear your guys' encounters with this "great" AI.. i mean Pee Wee's have more hockey sense then these guys.

[Bigry]

I have to agree with some of those comments. I love this game as well. It is the best hockey i have played yet ( I did not play 2k3). But I have encountered some ridiculous things that occur. Many of which you have mentioned. My favorite though is when Gary Thornton pronounces the name of the Tom Poti as Potty. I hav never heard his name pronounced this way.

[Layre]

Yes I have had the same happenings as you have. For the longest while I thought it was my new controller I bought.

I noticed that when attempting to pass to my winger for a "seemingly" easy goal, he just wiffs one straight ahead into the boards.

I have also noticed how easy it is (or seems) that the AI can claim the puck off of one of my skaters with little to no effort (your "tractor beam").

Those things said, along with the bugs that we have almost always encountered (eg. injury report screen). Kind of makes one question whether Sega or anyone actually tested this stuff. I love this game, I have been an avid EA Sports gamer for 10 years (started with the first EA Sports hockey, the one that came with the hefty report/stats book).

And even with the problems, this game still stands on top. When I sometimes switch to EA 2004 it's hard to play since the look, the sounds and the play is very unreal compared to 2K4.

The best we can hope for is that Sega or someone reads these posts and fixes the stuff for the next round, 2K5.

[slickdtc]

Yes I have had the same happenings as you have. For the longest while I thought it was my new controller I bought.

I noticed that when attempting to pass to my winger for a "seemingly" easy goal, he just wiffs one straight ahead into the boards.

I have also noticed how easy it is (or seems) that the AI can claim the puck off of one of my skaters with little to no effort (your "tractor beam").

Those things said, along with the bugs that we have almost always encountered (eg. injury report screen). Kind of makes one question whether Sega or anyone actually tested this stuff. I love this game, I have been an avid EA Sports gamer for 10 years (started with the first EA Sports hockey, the one that came with the hefty report/stats book).

And even with the problems, this game still stands on top. When I sometimes switch to EA 2004 it's hard to play since the look, the sounds and the play is very unreal compared to 2K4.

The best we can hope for is that Sega or someone reads these posts and fixes the stuff for the next round, 2K5.

Wow, your posts are excellent. So this is your first year with the Sega/ESPN NHL game?

You know what you are talking about. You obviously know your hockey. I'm glad to see we have some intelligent people here.

[OrangeAndBlack]

Spezza's name is pronounced..Spizza...yet the arena announcer correctly says it Spezza....who the hell is Spizza?? The commentary in this game sucks period...I always turn it off....oohh...Spizza witht he big shoulder...what a shoulder hit by Spizza....Now that's the way to use the shoulder....gimme a break....who the hell tested this game...I could use a better job, sign me up!

[Layre]

My biggest problems with the game are:

1) Puny manual - why must I go to the web page and download the PDFs? Why can they not be with the game? That I found to suck hard - having to force the customer to download PDFs to understand all the functions in the game is plain wrong.

2) Roster updates should have been made available at the start of the season - since I believe this game was shipped a week or so before the exhibition games started.

3) While I can accept the other short-comings and bugs we've already mentioned, I simply CANNOT stand having the line change menus (for both my team and the other players team) on the screen while I'm trying to play. That I find is most abundantly annoying. Have I missed some button that turns them off? If not - there should be - or at least, have them close when the puck drops. I have tried to turn off the line change/strategy of the away team (in the options) when I play my team's home game but that did nothing.

Those are my biggest problems to date. The third one may not be a "glitch" but more or less pilot error (on my part) for not knowing the button or options to limit or close them.

[OrangeAndBlack]

Could someone please post the link to the game manual thats in PDF format?

Thanks!

[OrangeAndBlack]

K I found it...

http://www.espnvideogames.com/nhl/

[Layre]

Whoops - my bad.

I thought I was posting in the "Worst AI Ever" thread - I apologize for that one.

[Layre]

Whoops again - boy am I on the goofystick today I tell ya'.
Make that the "Biggest beef" thread - not the worst ai thread.
Slap, slap slap <bangs head on desk> - back to bed for me.

[nickels]

2) Roster updates should have been made available at the start of the season - since I believe this game was shipped a week or so before the exhibition games started.

They need the rookies to touch the ice first or the update would be useless.

[Layre]

>> They need the rookies to touch the ice first or the update would be useless.

The actual rosters for each team solidify once the season actually starts. Doesn't matter who or what the line ups are - at the very least the exact players on the team is known at that point. Then, after about 3 months, after the teams have had a chance to cycle their players, another update should be published - that would have more up-to-date stats. However the initial one would have all the correct players, signed and unsigned.

[1994CUP]

the ai isnt bad in this game. your settings are probably set up in a way that lets u go on 3 on 0's one minute into the game. Try raising the difficulty of the defense if you havnet done this already. and also your game speed is probably way too high. i noticed that lots of people play with high game speed which makes the game way less realistic because you could skate to the other side of the rink in 2 seconds and go on a breakaway becasue nobody could stop those fast players.

[1994CUP]

yea i think its hillarious when gary thorne pronounces poti "potty". i just crack up. the funny thing is i have never heard him say it that way in real life so why would he say it like that in the game

[Millionaires85]

All these horrible AI incidents I've seen throughout Online play and Offline play on ever practical setting there is, the AI is just that lousy.

[Prowler24x]

for me, i was playing in pro with the gameplay settings for human at default (5) and the computers all at 6 or 7, then i put the computers up to 10, and left mine the same, then in the first 2 minutes they had 4 goals, then i put mine up to 10, then i won 12-0, seems like the higher your settings are the dumber they get

[Newell13]

Overskating on rebounds too, when the puck bounces off the goalie yet the players seem to still crash towards the net.

Passing!!! Arghh! I need icons. I'll be on a 2-0 and I'll pass it for the one timer and where does the puck go? He passes it straight to the goalie!! Grr. And sometimes passing it to the defensemen when Im attacking and they let it go all the way back into my own zone.

Goalie passing is bad. Sometimes when he skates out of the crease behind the net and ill try to pass it left or right and wont pass but keeps the puck at his stick just waiting for it to be poked away into the goal. And trying to shoot it around the boards is pretty weak and can lead to some pretty cheesy goals.

The timing of the CPU line changes can get annoying. I mean there will be a turnover in the nuetral zone and all of a sudden I seem to need a defensive change (I know you can manually do it but changing lines in-game is way too hap hazardous).

It seems as though sometimes you can speed burst right between both defensemen without being touched or poke checked. I mean come on!

Not necessiarly an AI problem, but when your attacking and trying to shoot a reboud so im pressing the square button to shoot, but instead he get's locked into the "Shoot loose puck/one timer" animation where he just stands there waiting for the puck to trickle to his stick before he shoots it, rather than going after the puck to shoot it. He eventually gets checked before anything happends.

Another thing about shooting, how you player somehow NEEDS to establish possession of the puck on a rebound. I mean the net is wide open and the guy is just playing with the puck and by the time he shoots the wrister he's either poked checked or the goalie get's back on net.

Just shoot the thing i dont care how ugly it is. I want to see sticks flailing all over the place going for the puck. All it takes is a little tap on a rebound not an accurate well placed, thought out wrister.