Hey all,
First let me thank the devs for filling the hole that was left by EHM. I played EHM from the freeware days and each subsequent release, and I can say without a doubt that hockey sims are my favorite games to play. I cannot wait to try the full version of this...
I have not had the time I want to play the beta but one thing stood out at me in the short time that I did.... there seems to be no game rating statistic... forgive me if it's there and I missed it, I've spent most of the time browsing the game data and customization options (one of my favorite parts... hello NHL-Europa Champions League!
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Anyway... one of my favorite parts of EHM was the game rating feature. As I'm sure you're all very aware, each player was rated 3-10 (at least, 3 was the lowest I ever saw) for each game played. This, to me, was the most important statistic in the entire game, and one of the most important for any hockey sim.
Hockey cannot be as statistically broken down and analyzed as baseball. No knock on baseball, but almost everything that happens in baseball can be represented by a statistic. The same cannot be said for hockey.
There's no stat for "keep in's at blueline" for defenseman, or "won puck in corner" for a forward. Sometimes the only way to tell how well a player played is to actually have watched the game. The game rating was how you "watched" the game in EHM.
I remember so many times in EHM having to decide between a few players for roster spots and it coming down to average game rating. Even the things that CAN be broken down into stats do not tell the whole story, and nor will (or should) the player attributes. That is why a game rating stat is so crucial in my opinion.
I will post further thoughts on the game this week after I've played it a bunch... I am very impressed so far, and if the customization is anything like in OOTP the replay value will be unmatched.
Thanks again!!!