NHL 13 Patch Coming Next Week

EA Sports has announced that the first post-release patch for NHL 13 is scheduled to release early next week. The expansive update includes fixes and enhancements to just about every mode of the game along with numerous changes to gameplay and presentation. Continue on to check out the full list of changes to expect with the upcoming patch! 

Gameplay Updates

· Separated ability for backwards to forwards pivot for ‘with puck’ and ‘without puck’ and made it quicker to pivot without the puck.

· Poke checking – fixed bug causing players to always miss to the same side of the puck.

· Goalies will be more aware of shots right off a faceoff in the offensive zone.

· Goalies will have a harder time dealing with screens.

· Ability to tune shooting back against the grain so it can be less accurate/effective than shooting with your weight behind the shot and moving towards your shooting direction.

· Ability for players to be more susceptible to lose the puck when getting hit while skating backwards with the puck at speed.

· Prevented desperation shots from knocking the puck away from the goalie minimizing the strategy of diving at the goalie to knock the puck loose.

· Fixed shootout logic in GM Connected to include both locked and unlocked users.

· Allowed BAP games to resume from sim in middle of a shift (fixed crash when sim intervening).

· Fixed goals screening goalie stat.

· Goalie has a better chance of squaring up to shots from far out.

· Improved orientation of off-puck players in one-timer situations.

· Improved AI behavior against a back skating puck carrier.

· Fixed hit power sliders so only the hitter’s slider value matters.

· Fixed AI players occasionally standing around looking at the puck when resuming from simulation in BAP.

· Fixed BAP being taken off the ice after a short shift that results in a stoppage.

· Fixed rapidly spinning players in BAP when resuming from simulation.

· Ability to tune players puck control coming out of a 45 glide deke.

· Ability to tune CPU pass error on long passes.

· Improved puck hop behavior when it hits the boards.

· Pokechecking effectiveness range tweaked. Players with better stick checking skill will stand out more compared to players with lover ratings in that category.

· Tuned goalies and shooting accuracy to ensure shots in the slot/middle of the ice are more effective than shots from sharp angles.

Presentation and Graphics

· NEW – Added unique (green) Reebok 20K EA Sport branded skates and stick to the RBK pre-order pack (XBOX).

· NEW – Added unique (blue) Reebok 20K EA Sport branded skates and stick to the RBK pre-order pack (PS3).

· NEW -2012 Winter Classic Jerseys (PHI / NYR) now selectable in regular game modes.

· Reduces frame rate jitter on the Xbox 360 as experienced by a number of players in all game modes but was most noticeable in OTP/EASHL (XBOX).

· Replay Wipe timing fixed.

· Commentary for replays won’t continue if a replay has been skipped.

· Action Tracker post effects (barrel distortion on net cam) is working correctly.

· Tampereen Ilves home/away jerseys now displays correct logo.

· Dynamic board ads added to Toronto’s stadium.

· Snow on players/goaltender/environment now fades out more smoothly/realistically.

· Flag holders in the Winter Classic stadium now stand correctly at all corners of the flag.

· Lulea HF center ice logo now displaying correctly.

· Transition wipes should no longer hold on white frame longer than necessary.

· Boston jumbotron no longer white; has proper textures (PS3).

· Rare occurrence of skate spray not lining up correctly now fixed inside of the Action Tracker.

· Shuffling of NIS’ has been improved. Less chance to see same NIS inside of the same game.

· Goalie stick mirroring has been corrected. Blade will now be pointing in the right direction during shootout NIS’.

· NHL Moments Live snow build up on ice will now work correctly.

· Calgary Flames now have proper logos on helmet for both Home/Away.

· Prevented replay speech from playing over top a fight or if goof off is skipped.

Hockey Ultimate Team

· NEW – implement training duration item so training items can last for multiple games.

· Addressed an issue where some users were not getting Puck rewards for playing games and would sometimes get a Loss for actually winning games.

· Fixed an issue where players would continue to receive the Happy Hour bonus if they never disconnect from the EA servers and continued to play HUT games.

· Fixed an issue where after playing a game against the Team of the Week or a team from the Leaderboards screen, the wrong roster would be downloaded for all of the teams in the EAUHL 24/7 league when playing a Single Player game.

· Item Pack Art EASST Player Premium Pack art now shows Promo and not Deal.

· Fixed an issue where players would see an error message with missing text when bidding on the same item over and over until while being out bided by another player.

· Applied training boosts are no longer used up for players in the user’s Scratched Roster.

· If user has a Stanley Cup edition item in their starting lineup, they are no longer able to add that same player from the New Items screen, thus resulting in them having 2 of the same players in their lineup.

· Fixed an issue where users are not getting wins for opponent DNFs when playing Online Tournaments against the same opponent twice.

· Fixed a crash that occurred when a player enters the Watch list and highlights a sold (green outline) item.

· Online Tournament opponent searches now check for player skill level and team star rating.

· Fixed the crash issue when applying Consumable items to some of the players in the New Items screen.

· Addressed an issue where spamming in and out of a challenge team game will cause a blank lineup screen to appear.

· Fixed an issue where users would advance through tournament rounds by entering the tournament tree and then playing through a regular non-tournament game (online and offline).

Be A GM

· Addressed an issue where players that should not be considered waiver eligible were being listed as waiver eligible.

· Fixed a rare crash that could occur when proposing a trade to a CPU team.

Be A Pro

· Tuned off season player growth effect on the BAP player EXP Growth.

· Fixed an issue where the player’s BAP team would not sign FA’s or RFA’s to contracts.

GM Connected

· New – Trade messaging has been added to the mode.

· Speed up Hub loading times.

· Improved responsiveness when scrolling through the Main Menu to reduce accidently scrolling past the option players want to select.

· Improved scrolling when selecting a team on the trade player and select team screen.

· Users should no longer be able to adjust the gameplay sliders during a CPU game.

· Improved responsiveness of league search screens.

· Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause a crash when bringing up the player list on the Trade Player screen.

· Fixed an issue of occasional crash while backing out of the mailbox screen.

· Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash while loading into the GM Connected HUB.

· Fixed a rare crash that could occur when proposing a trade to a CPU team.

Online Team Play / EASHL

· Addressed an issue where team members from different regions could not match up together in a club practice and the matchmaking would fail as a result.

· Fixed PS3 microphone fluctuations when not set in HQ mode.

· Resolved an issue with EASHL matchmaking where it was returning the captain’s versus skill level instead of the club’s skill level. This will improve the accuracy of matchmaking.

· Addressed an issue where Hockey Shop Boosts were being unequipped to the player’s EASHL Pro upon reboot of their console.