Big shout out to David Littman and the entire NHL 10 team after the fans voted the game this year's VGA Team Sports Game of the Year over the weekend.  The title was up against stiff competition beating out Madden NFL 10, FIFA 10, and NBA 2K10 while repeating as the Best Sports Game two years in a row.

Littman accepted the award with LA Kings President Luc Robitaille, who was welcomed into the Hall of Fame during last month's Induction Ceremony alongside his former teammates Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, and Brian Leetch.  On behalf of the team, I'd like to thank all the fans that voted and all hockey fans that continue to support hockey video games year in and year out.  We're hoping to get some thoughts from the team on the award win so keep an eye out for that this week.

A huge part of the win is due to the ever-growing number of teams and players taking part in the EA SPORTS Hockey League.  This year's new monthly-season format has provided a new way for hockey gamers to play with each other online and what's been great is to see new teams continue to be created and be competitive from month to month.

Let's take a closer look at the two teams that took home the October Season titles for their respective consoles:  PlayStation 3 Champs Olvi Hoki based in Finland and The Outstanding Gentlemen representing NE US on the XBOX 360.

Check out the In the Crease blog for the Q&A with the October Champs:  EA SPORTS Hockey League Update

We just finished the NHL 09 EASHL Championships. The Purple Cobraz (360 conference champs) beat the NHL Regulators (PS3 conference champs) to win the first ever EASHL Cup. Congrats to both teams for getting here. Both teams got to play NHL 10 also. It was a great experience to meet these guys and hear their feedback.

With the new monthly EASHL seasons there will be many more Champions instead of just two. Each month teams will be able to win trophies in either the Casual division or the Pro division. The EASHL Trophies are for the pro division for your club trophy room, but winning the casual division also gives you a trophy for your club trophy room. Like this year, we will be rewarding the top teams. The teams that win the most EASHL trophies (on each console) during the year will be eligible to either come to EA Canada or some other perks.

To see the EASHL Producer video, read the full entry in the new In The Crease blog:  Litty's NHL 10 EASHL Blog

Hey all, Litty here talking about some new modes in NHL 10.

Lately you have been reading about some of our new game modes…ok, not all of them are new. Some of them we used to have last generation like Fantasy Draft and Season/Play-off mode. I have been asked many times, “Why isn’t everything in the game already?”. Well, the answer is that when we started on this generation of platforms we built almost everything from scratch. It has taken us a few years to get everything back into the game with the quality that you expect. We could have just ported everything to the 360/PS3 from XBOX/PS2, but you would have NHL 06 with pretty graphics if we did that. We have worked extremely hard over the past 4 years to get the NHL series to the point where we are winning multiple awards each year. That doesn’t mean we are slowing down. In fact it inspires us to keep this Dynasty going.

I am going to talk about some of the modes, but I am saving more of the Be a GM stuff for Andy and Brian who is the Be a GM lead engineer. EASHL and Be a Pro info will also be coming within the next few weeks.

You have heard a lot about Battle for the Cup (click images above to expand). The reason we did it was so you can play a friend on the same TV and instead of just playing a game for bragging rights…why not play for the Stanley Cup? The fact that you can set up a series is also cool, as there are storylines that are tracked throughout the series. The games seem more intense when you can make your buddy sit through the new and improved Stanley Cup sequence after you beat him four straight.

Multi-player Season Mode is one of the most asked for features from our hardcore fans. It lets you either play with friends or control every team in the League so you can mimic real life. Yes, storylines, injuries, etc. carry over during play-off series just like in Battle for the Cup (and Be a GM and Play-off Mode). You can Fantasy Draft at the beginning or not. I have a season going here with a few guys and it is super fun making deals and trades with them. We have the new schedule with the Olympic break (and no, I am sorry you can’t play at the Olympics).

Another part of Season Mode (and Play-off mode) is that you can play a season with the AHL or our European Leagues. When playing as these Leagues you get the actual play-off set up and rules for each League.

Created teams can also be used in Season mode, as well as Be a GM, Battle for the Cup, and Play-off modes.

There are lots of new user and cpu sliders this year, all of which you can set up at the beginning of each of these modes. These modes are all off-line modes.

Play-off mode is also multi-user, so you can have up to 16 users playing together. If you choose to play Euro League play-offs you get their play-off trees, some of which are very different than the NHL.

If you are a person who likes to sim games, I am happy to say that our sim engine has been rewritten and you will see much more realistic stats and way more randomness.

I was simming through a Penguins season the other day and I won a game 9-2. I also lost a game 7-1. These were few and far between, but these scores were not possible in NHL 09. The CPU GMs also have new logic, so trading is tougher in any mode where you can trade within.

I know you really want more info on EASHL, the Pro Shop, and Be a Pro, but those will be coming…have patience. We also think our demo is cool, so we will be making a video about that too in the next few weeks.

-Litty

Are you ready for more NHL gameplay videos with your host David Littman?  We're well aware that the hockey community can't get enough of these raw gameplay clips describing the new enhancements for NHL 10, so Litty spent this afternoon playing the game and looking for stuff to share with our fans.  Some of these enhancements have been talked about before while for others so there should be no surprises...or have they???

Sean here to talk about some of the many gameplay refinements in NHL10.  Before I get into it,  I know you’re all dying to see some under produced, raw gameplay footage and I can tell you that we’ve got some clips to post.  Litty has been capturing clips from the games that he’s been playing and we’re extremely excited to share them with you.  I also want to thank everyone that has been following NHL10 on Twitter.  We love hearing all the feedback and suggestions so keep it coming!

Now to the refinements…

One thing I really want to emphasize is that more than ever, this year we concentrated on making hockey.  By that I mean that the focus was on all the little things that make hockey what it is from extreme displays of skill such as deking on your knees and shooting to bad bounces leading to goals.

The first thing I want to talk about is the goalies in NHL10.  We literally had one programmer and one animator working on goalies all year around.  We know that there were some holes in the goalie last year so my challenge to our guys was to make a perfect goalie.  I wanted to ensure that our goalies had the ability to save anything shot at them.  Once we had that, we could then start to give back goals in a controlled manner and ensure that we weren’t creating any ‘always goals’.  I gotta give the guys credit, they added over 150 new goalie animations including saves from the butt, new kick saves, reach backs and swipe-aways just to name a few which made the goalies extremely effective and much more dynamic. 

Once we had the goalies to a state that we liked, we brought in some of the top EASHL players in the Vancouver area to try and find holes.  The first thing they did was try all the exploit goals from 09 which were unsuccessful but they did find a couple situations where the goalies could still be improved.  We took that feedback and made the final tweaks.  I should mention that I’m also extremely pleased with our additions for user controlled goalies which I’ll speak about at a later date.  I will say that people who play goalie in the EASHL are going to be very happy with the improvements we’ve made.  The guys in the office are having blast playing as goalie.

With better goalies, the play in the slot was a huge area of emphasis for us.  I wanted the ability to one-time loose pucks, especially on rebounds without throwing a check.  We now have that and we’ve also captured a part of hockey that I’ve never felt in a video game before which is intentionally shooting for rebounds.  Guys in the NHL do this all the time. They just shoot the puck off the goalie’s pads so that their teammate will have a chance at the rebound.  You can do that this year in our game and I have to say that it’s really satisfying when you do it intentionally and score.

A new feature that we’ve added this year is what we’re calling Precision Passing.  In a nutshell, Precision Passing allows you to have total control of the direction AND the speed of your pass.  Your pass will go exactly where you’re left analog is aiming and the speed is controlled by how long you hold down the RT (or R2 for PS3).  A quick tap will do a short pass and holding it down will lead to a harder pass.  The key is that all passes are untargeted meaning that you can pass the puck into space and let your teammates skate onto the puck.  You can also do things like banking passes off the boards to get around defenders or bank it to yourself.

On offense, we’ve added new moves that I’m pretty excited about.  If you take down a star player on a breakaway, there’s a chance that he’ll end up on his knees with the ability to deke and shoot.  We’ve also added bat-ins so if the puck is in the air, players will try to bat the puck into the net or the defensive team will try to bat it out of harm’s way.  There is also a new fake shot that can be done by pressing R3.  This  is a great way to try to get the D-man to bite and go down or to freeze the goalie.  One of my personal favorite ways to score right now is going leg kick to backhand high (like Crosby) but remember my paragraph about goalies above…well this move has also led to some unbelievable desperation saves which are almost just as exciting to me.

Defensive AI was another big focus for us this year as we tried to make the defense more dynamic and less predictable.  I think one of the first things you’ll notice when you play the demo (Yes, I said demo; No I don’t have a release date; But, I can guarantee that you’re going to be VERY surprised when you find out what’s in the demo) is that the D-men don’t always back right in on their goalie but rather try to stand you up more at the blue line or pinch you off earlier if you try to go wide.  They also have better awareness of their positioning in the defensive zone so that you can’t dance them back and forth then go around them.  The addition of boardplay has added a whole new dynamic to the defense as well as it gives the ai one more option against the boards.  It allows them to contain players without over committing and getting beat.

That’s enough from me…check out the gameplay clips!