NHL Franchise Feature - HUT / EAUHL

18-May-2011

In this week’s NHL Franchise Feature we look at a feature introduced in NHL 11 that has totally changed the way hockey gamers play NHL with the  Hockey Ultimate Team game mode.  Along with HUT, the EA SPORTS Ultimate Hockey League (EAUHL) was built and currently holds over 100,000 teams vying for virtual Season Trophies and EAUHL Championships.

The idea of Hockey Ultimate Team and came about with understanding that it was important that gamers have the ability to create their own team and collect players that they wanted to play with.

“The main thing we wanted to create was a kind of franchise mode for people who play online,” says Producer Andy Agostini. “With the ability to train players into superstars, manage a salary cap and build team chemistry, you’d be able to give your team every advantage when it faces other teams in the EAUHL.  We believe we’ve provided that.”

Following in the footsteps of the FIFA and Madden franchises, the NHL’s version of Ultimate Team is similar yet has a unique flavor that separates itself from the others with the implementation of monthly seasons, playoffs, and real-world prizing.

“After seeing the success of Football Ultimate Team we had always been interested in the idea of Hockey Ultimate Team,” continues Agostini.  ”When we decided to build the feature in NHL 11 we went and spoke with the FIFA developers to discuss how they made this great feature.  After that discussion we decided create the feature but with a hockey spin to it.”

Scott Vanderspek, GM of team BLACKOUT on the XBOX 360, found himself on top of the Leaderboards as the Overall EAUHL Champion last fall.  ”HUT is a very exciting game mode which is sort of a cross between the Be a GM mode and Online Versus Play,” stated Vanderspek who also earned a trip to the Winter Classic this past January with his Season Championship.  ”Players who enjoy customizing their team to best suit their style of play, as well as the intense competition involved in online play, will love this game mode.”

“Another great aspect of Hockey Ultimate Team is the ability to play a variety of different teams which contrasts with traditional Versus play in that the majority of your opponents will choose from a select number of elite teams in the NHL which can become quite repetitive,” says Vanderspek.

“The idea of creating a team and managing it so that you can put the players you want on the ice and proving that they can win was one that drew us to the feature,” says Agostini.  ”Fantasy Sports are built on this model and fans think they can build a better team than the general managers and coaches of their favorite teams.”

As with many new game modes, there’s usually room for improvements and it’s usually our top players that provide some of the best feedback.

“One area that I would like to see improvements in is with the reduction in the amount of certain popular players,” states Vanderspek.  ”Playing online, it seems as though at least half of your opponents tend to have a Taylor Hall or Jordan Eberle.  I find this strange seeing as the odds of seeing a Crosby, Malkin or Ovechkin are so low.”

Sounds like every GM in the NHL to me, who wouldn’t want more Crosbys, Malkins or Oveckins!  But I get your drift, and luckily Agostini and the rest of the team are confident that there will be plenty of improvements that current and new HUT fans will be sure to appreciate.

“We are always trying to improve the modes we create,” says Agostini.  ”Hockey Ultimate Team will be something we’re looking at this year as well.”

NHL Franchise Feature - OTP / EASHL

NHL Franchise Feature - Be A Pro

NHL  Franchise Feature - The Skill Stick

Look out for the first NHL 12 screenshot on the EA SPORTS NHL Facebook Fanpage this week and the first NHL 12 Feature Reveal video on IGN.com next week!

Pacquaio vs Mosley: The Fight Night Verdict

In the final sim we conducted with ESPN last week, we matched-up Manny Pacquiao against his May 7th opponent, Shane Mosley, in what's sure to be the fight of the year for Pacquiao's WBO Welterweight Championship.  Both fighters love a good fight and don't expect to see either running from an opportunity to exchange punches in the middle of the ring.

Leading up to the fight, Showtime released a few behind the scenes looks at the two boxers as they readied themselves for the fight to be held in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.  Check out the first 3 episodes below and look out for the 4th episode airing Friday night on Showtime and repeating on CBS this Saturday prior to the fight.

Fight Camp 360 - Pacquiao vs Mosley

As we did with the previous 3 Pacquiao sims, check out the official EA SPORTS simulation of the Pacquiao-Mosley fight along with a brief analysis from EA SPORTS’ Alain Quinto and Aaron Boulding.

Shane Mosley

Welterweight | 46-6-1 (39 KOs)

At his physical peak, Mosley – considered in some circles to be the world's top fighter only a few years ago – possessed a combination of power and speed that few fighters at any weight could match. He dismantled both Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas twice, and even in his losses to Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright, Mosley gave as good as he got. A good counterpuncher with a dangerous right hand, he fights with a style that could be troublesome for Pacquiao. But at age 39, does a step-slower Mosley have even a puncher's chance against Manny?

Quinto:  A few years ago we had a community event up here in Canada for Fight Night Round 4 and Shane Mosley was an invited guest to the studio to talk about his involvement in the game. I was very impressed with how well spoken he was and with the positive attitude he had about his career.  During a conversation he was having with some of the other community members it had come up that I was a big fan of fellow countryman Manny Pacquiao which immediately became a question of whether or not he would stand a chance against the reigning pound-for-pound champ.  He told me that he’d fight him anytime, anywhere. Knowing his career stats to that point, I was just as confident that he would give Pac-Man a great fight and had a good chance at defeating the Fighting Pride of the Phillipines. 

But that was three years ago.  Since then, Mosley has gone further past his prime and though he’s shown a few flashes of his glory years of the late 90’s, he’s not as fast as he once was. Although he still packs a mean one-punch looping right hook along with the heart of a lion, he doesn’t stand much of a chance against a boxer that just keeps getting better with every fight he’s had since he was a teenager. 

Manny Pacquiao is a much better fighter.  He’s faster than Mosley, he has the lasting power to go well into the late rounds of fights, and he has the backing of millions of followers whether they be countrymen who love him religiously or boxing fans who know a great fighter when they see one.  As the simulation predicts, Shane Mosley will get knocked out for the first time in his career and though I was only slightly confident that Pacman could do so a few years back, this week it’s without a doubt that I believe this fight will not go past nine rounds. 

Boulding: 

I’ve run this fight a few times myself in Fight Night Champion and not to be condescending but there are very few paths to victory for Shane Mosley. Manny Pacquiao has a lot of room for error in this fight because he can take a devastating punch, learn from it and quickly recalculate to erase any mistakes. We saw that on display in Dallas against Antonio Margarito. I’ve always felt that Pacquiao’s greatest attribute is his boxing toolkit that allows him to go get whatever he needs –defense, footwork, a jab—to address a problem that an opponent presents. And this is where Mosley is between a rock and an anvil.

At this point, Mosley’s right hook is like a utility bill --it brings power and you know it’s coming. He would need to catch Pacquiao with a flurry or three, put enough power in them and then hope Pacquiao is having an off day where punches actually hurt him. Meanwhile Mosley has to have a gameplan to withstand the punishment that he knows is going to be coming from Pacquiao. More than one fighter of this generation has tried to limit the shots they take from Pacquiao by slipping, retreating and covering up once he starts firing and it’s never worked. Margarito tried staying still and standing his ground against Pacquiao onslaughts and that turned ugly, literally
.