EA Sports recently had a community day for NHL 09. The timing is especially encouraging considering the game won’t release until September. By bringing in the community for feedback and suggestions at such an early point in development it allows for the team to potentially act on what they hear for 09.

The first time EA really did this was last year with NBA Live 08. That one was held over three months ahead of release and there were positive results in the final product that could possibly be attributed to the event. Here NHL 09 is about five months away from release so there is even more opportunity that the game could be affected thanks to the direct thoughts of the community. Understandably game details out of the event are under embargo but sites were still free to discuss their thoughts on it in general such as over at 5WG.

Here is short recap video of the event from Inside Xbox which can be found on the 360 dashboard. You can watch the video by continuing on.

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EA Sports has sent over a document detailing all the player rating changes made in the latest roster update for NHL 08. Continue on to view the details of what players had their ratings go up and which went down.

An update has also been applied that increases the capacity of Online Team Play. An additional three slots have been added on each side bringing it to six on six. That exceeds the total of 10 users involved through OTP currently found in NBA Live 08 and FIFA 08. Now every player on the ice can be controlled invididually. Having all players user controlled has worked very well in NBA Live and should here as well. Unexpected yet fantastic news there.

New: EA has informed me that they have reduced the OTP down to four on four and it will remain that way for 08. That is still an extra slot for each side but really doesn’t add much to the experience that was already available. Not nearly as cool as having every player on the ice under user control.

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After the recent success of the New Years Day Winter Classic which was played outdoors between the Penguins and Sabres, the sport (at least temporarily) is back in the consciousness of general sports fans and more casual hockey fans. The ratings for that game represented the biggest viewing audience since 1996 and was played in front of over 70,000 fans. It was made into an event, and it seems likely that the NHL will be taking advantage of that interest and introduce them on a more regular basis in the future.

So this would seem to be a perfect opportunity to capitalize on outdoor hockey. Played out in the elements with more simplified controls and gameplay along with the arcade edge. Have only a couple players on the ice at a given time to keep the pace and excitement up. There could be venues to be played at such as open stadiums, lakes and ponds.

As highly touted as NHL 08 has been, sales expectedly pale in comparison to other sports. When you look at hockey games the appeal tends to be limited to hardcore hockey fans. However having experienced the popularity of hockey gaming in the 90s the interest has always been there just not in the package of the intensely simulation style games that both EA and 2K release right now.

So what do you think? Vote in the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.

EA has released the following statement to update on certain issues that have arisen since the release of NHL 08. Specifically the disconnects that occur before the start of online games and the tracking of losses in Dynasty mode.

The NHL game development team have diagnosed a problem with online user disconnects while trying to connect to a percentage of Online Team Play, Versus, and Online Shootout game modes. EA will be working to deliver a solution to this problem and will communicate this to our online community as soon as we can. We realize this is a huge inconvenience as online play is a big part of the game. Please be assured that we are working on a patch as quickly as possible. In the meantime, if you find that you are disconnected from the server while entering an online game mode, we recommend that you reset your hardware before attempting to enter another online game mode to increase your chances of success. We are also aware of an issue how losses are tracked in Dynasty Mode. We are working towards addressing this issue as well.

The online play with NHL 08 has represented a positive push forward. The disconnect issue hasn’t been as widespread of a problem as those recently faced by the NCAA Football, Nascar, Tiger Woods, and Madden releases. Outside of that the online performance and options outshine all previous releases from EA.

What is most encouraging is how they have actively sought out feedback on NHL 08’s online performance and been genuinely concerned and active in attempting to provide the experience that people expect. The level of communication and news of a patch is a great development.

The code used to unlock all of the RBK Edge jerseys in NHL 08 has been revealed. To enter the code in the game, from the menu go to MY NHL 08 and then from there RBK EDGE.

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I used Play Now to get in my first online game with NHL 08 and captured it broken down into three videos by period.

Overall the game played very smooth, very close if not identical to offline. I'll need to get some more games in (including the co-op) to make any determination as to ultimately how good the performance is but that is certainly encouraging. Other EA titles over the past few months did not start off this well. 

As far as I can tell there is no way to change the difficulty setting online even in unranked games. The options are gametype (ranked vs unranked), max DNF, skill level, private session (yes or no), game speed (slow vs medium vs fast), period length (5 vs 10 vs 15 vs 20), rules (NHL vs International vs custom vs off), injuries, fighting, and penalties.

Online modes include Versus Play (standard game with one on one or multiple people on a single console), Online Shootout, Online Team Play (up to 6 different 360's connected into one game for 3 vs 3), and Online Leagues.

Continue on to watch the videos. The pace was a little more frantic as would likely be expected in a user vs user game. I also noticed more hits and penalties which is probably tied to the reckless abandon with which the game was played.

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Here is a full game with the CPU vs CPU displaying Superstar difficulty. It should give an idea of how the AI plays on this setting. This is an AHL matchup as the Toronto Marlies visit the Rockford IceHogs. If you watch anything make sure you watch the 3rd period and OT. Continue on to view the videos.

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Below are the AHL team ratings from NHL 08 listed by OFF-DEF-GOA. Also videos of a full game broken down by period with the Lake Erie Monsters @ Peoria Rivermen played on All-Star difficulty.

Albany River Rats (76-75-73) - Binghamton Senators (76-72-72) - Bridgeport Sound Tigers (78-73-70) - Chicago Wolves (79-75-73) - Grand Rapids Griffins (77-75-73) - Hamilton Bulldogs (79-75-72) - Hartford Wolfpack (77-74-75) - Hershey Bears (78-76-73) - Houston Aeros (79-73-72) - Iowa Stars (79-73-70) - Lake Erie Monsters (76-75-69) - Lowell Devils (76-74-71) - Manchester Monarchs (77-73-70) - Mantoba Moose (77-73-73) - Milwaukee Admirals (77-76-69) - Norfolk Admirals (77-73-73) - Peoria Rivermen (78-74-72) - Philadelphia Phantoms (77-75-72) - Portland Pirates (77-74-72) - Providence Bruins (77-75-71) - Quad City Flames (78-74-71) - Rochester Americans (77-73-71) - Rockford IceHogs (78-74-71) - San Antonio Rampage (78-74-74) - Springfield Falcons (77-73-73) - Syracuse Crunch (78-74-70) - Toronto Marlies (77-75-73) - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (78-74-74) - Worcester Sharks (75-74-71)

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The previous two games were played on Pro, so I pushed this one up to All-Star. As a novice it was considerably tougher. I got out-shot by a wide margin and couldn't win a single faceoff. Overall the AI was much more aggressive as you'll see. I'll leave the analyzing of the video to everyone out there. This game features the Colorado Avalanche @ the St. Louis Blues and again is broken down by period into three videos.

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Here are the team ratings and top rated players by overall in NHL 08. For the teams it is displayed as OFF, DEF, GOA. For players the top three are listed. In cases where there is more than one player rated the same as others in the top three, only the one/s listed the highest as sorted are displayed.

Anaheim (85-91-88): Chris Pronger (96), Scott Niedermayer (96), Teemu Selanne (90) 

Atlanta (85-81-81): Marian Hossa (90), Ilya Kovalchuk (90), Vyacheslav Kostov (86)

Boston (83-83-84): Zdeno Chara (89), Patrice Bergeron (87), Manny Fernandez (86)

Buffalo (84-85-86) : Ryan Miller (90), Jaroslav Spacek (86), Teppo Numminen (85) 

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