Next EASHL Night

With the NHL 09 patch (details here) now out I wanted to arrange for another EASHL night. Hopefully Club Pasta Padre can string together a couple more wins. So meet up in the the dressing room beginning at 8et/5pt on Friday night. If you would like to join in and need an invite to the club (360) go ahead and leave your gamertag in the comments and I’ll get that out before start time. I’m looking at recording at least one of the games and posting it up on the site over the weekend.

EASHL Friday Night

So NHL 09’s EASHL is a big success. No surprise there given the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the feature. Over 10,000 teams have been created and over 50,000 users involved which are very significant numbers considering how NHL games don’t sell all that much (relatively speaking) and then you’re cutting into that with only those who play online. Expectations have been exceeded to where EA is adding servers to deal with the load and working on an issues that have arisen.

What I find most interesting is how this is a mode that can reel in people who normally wouldn’t have played an NHL game or who have little knowledge of the sport to begin with. I’m one example of that and I know several others who have been drawn into this game due to the mode alone.

In addition to all that mention has been made of a patch being worked on for the game. No specifics yet on what the patch will entail. I do hope they take some of the minor suggestions that would make EASHL more enjoyable (locking in colors to positions, forcing dark vs white jerseys) and other things such as a way to shoot a loose puck instead of checking an opposing player standing nearby.

So the next get together for the Pasta Padre club will be Friday night at 9ET/6PT. I’m really hoping for at least one win out of the evening. We got some goals last time but just couldn’t pull any of the games out.

EASHL Tonight

Anyone who’d like to take part in some Pasta Padre EASHL action can hop on tonight at about 6PT/9ET. I’ll probably be on for a couple hours and I have some more invites to send out this afternoon as well. It was fun on Tuesday night despite not coming away with a win.

One discussion that was had during the games on Tuesday regarded a few quick improvements that could be made to make the mode better. Hopefully they’ll be able to patch these in or fix them server side because they are simple but would go a long way. Those are forcing dark vs white jerseys (several times now we’ve gotten into the game only to realize we were playing white on white or dark on dark) as well as locking in the colored pyramids by position. Right now that is random so even if you play LW every game the color changes from game to game which can be confusing.

Also wanted to mention that a Pasta Padre club has been set up on the PS3. While I’m not heading this up (Drebo87 is) if you leave your PSN name in the comments he’ll send you an invite.

First EASHL Night

While the structure of the EASHL allows for the opportunity to play with club-mates at any time, I thought it would be a good idea to put together a time for a larger number of players to meet up. Potentially several games for the Pasta Padre club could be played simultaneously if there are more than just the handful that can get into one game.

The first organized effort will be Tuesday night at 6PT/9ET with plans to play at least a few games. I’ll probably look to set up the next one for Friday night. Just head into the dressing room and games will commence from there. Continue to leave your gamertags if you would like to be a part of the club. I have a few more to send out later today plus any requests that come in. Remember you have to have played the game for the invite to be sent and then you accept it by entering the player HUB. Currently 37/50 slots are taken.

First EASHL Videos

I went ahead and recorded videos of some of the games. Joining me (#31) was Will Kinsler aka Raczilla of EA Sports (#29), Damon Peterson of Madden Planet (#16), and Vince Waller aka Nix who helps me with the site (#5). I’ll have more to put up over the next few days but wanted to get at least a full game for everyone to watch now. I’ve also got two highlights from EASW with the only goal I’ve scored and an assist to Rac for his goal. Both came in the same game within the span of about two minutes and we haven’t scored other than those instances.

Despite none of us being hockey fans we had a blast. You’ll see that each player has a different colored indicator above their head. We found that the purple and blue could be a little tough to distinguish but they are sufficient other than that. Also the camera makes it difficult to keep track of the action or find the puck at times. But regardless of those things it was just flat out fun. Make sure to check out my initial impressions from last night as well as continue leaving gamertags if you’d like to join the club.

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EASHL Is Incredible

After spending all night playing EASHL in NHL 09 it is clear that this is one of if not the best feature a sports game has ever offered. I sat down in the early evening and didn’t expect to play for very long. Six hours later I was still online. It was probably the most fun I’ve had playing a video game in years. It easily topped the Online Team Play experience from the 08 games thanks in part to having the games count and having your own self to play for.

When the game starts up you create your player which you can edit later. But that is your identity when playing in the EASHL. Your name is on the back of the jersey and you’re gaining attribute points to distribute. As a member of a club you have access to the “Dressing Room” where you meet up with teammates. From there you head into games against other clubs. You can choose any position to play, you aren’t locked into what you had set for your player. In this mode you are controlling just yourself on the ice and are assessed based on performance for your particular position. This means if you get a penalty you’re literally watching the action from the box. At the end of the game you’re graded on your performance. You’ll carry a grade along with your stats which are tracked for numerous categories. All club games count towards the club’s record and placement within the ranking system. Performance wise there was no lag even in the biggest game that was participated in which totaled nine users involved.

If you’d like to join club Pasta Padre (Xbox 360) than leave a comment with your gamertag. Please only those who will be actively playing on a regular basis. The club isn’t about winning but just about having fun. I decided this even before losing seven straight games (current record: 2-9). We can especially use people who know how to score goals. When I get a chance I’ll send out club invites.  Please know that an invite can only be sent to gamertags that have played NHL 09. You accept an invite by pulling up your player HUB from within the game.

I went ahead and recorded videos of some of the games. I’ll be posting a few of them on Saturday morning/afternoon.