NHL 13

 Xbox 360
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 89 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 48 out of 89
  2. Mixed: 22 out of 89
  3. Negative: 19 out of 89
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  1. dontblink
    Mar 1, 2013
    4
    This game is by far the worst game of NHL released since NHL 09. There is so many new things in this game such as anticipation A.I. or the true performance skating. This all is a great idea but so poorly executed. The anticipation A.I. is not what it says it is. It doesn't anticipate what is going happen but it knows whats going to happen. Ever pass for a one timer and it gets blocked?This game is by far the worst game of NHL released since NHL 09. There is so many new things in this game such as anticipation A.I. or the true performance skating. This all is a great idea but so poorly executed. The anticipation A.I. is not what it says it is. It doesn't anticipate what is going happen but it knows whats going to happen. Ever pass for a one timer and it gets blocked? Guess what the goalie knew you pressed RT and in which direction. He's already set up for the shot on the receivers end. How about just the new teammate A.I. Probably the worst thing implemented into this game right next to true-performance skating. The computer on your team is absolutely retarded. How about battling for position? Another smart idea but once again a poor way of making it fit with the game. Countless times there will be an empty net waiting for someone to poke it in. Your closest guy, he's battling for position for some unknown reason. You switch to him, and guess what, he's still battling for position. By the time you get control of him your opportunity has already been lost. True-performance skating by far ruined this game the most. Yeah it was a great idea, absolutely great but once again poorly executed. Being able to skate faster after striding for so long is cool. But then if your max speed and go to turn, You have to make this rink width and a half turn that is not realistic at all. This ruined skating all together, most of the time when i pick up the puck in the neutral zone and go to skate, my player is super slow and i get players have to accelerate but this is just over-exaggerating on how much acceleration you need to get up to a decent speed. Then comes hitting and passing in this game, hitting was perfect the way it was in NHL 12 but for some reason they messed it up in NHL 13, Every. Single. Play. There is a HUGE hit and thats not realistic at all. I dont know how many goals i scored where i got labeled seconds after i shot the puck. Which brings up another problem, no matter what the game mode, online versus, GM Connected, or Be A GM Mode. A shot is a shot, numerous times, i would take a shot or pass it for that matter but I got checked or bumped which canceled either one. I dont know about this but you can get checked and still take a shot or pass it. Thats why its a sport, its physical. Passing is again terrible. Passing through a defenseman? Forget about it, dont even bother, RT or RB (saucer pass) that will get blocked 10 out of 10 times. Then theres the little things wrong with this game like a slapshot thats saved by the goalie blocker (stick side) and is rebounded into the air, You cannot and i repeat cannot grab it out of mid-air, you must wait for the puck to come back down to try to regain control. These are the things that are wrong with this game, I will say Hockey Ultimate Team is amazing. I most likely will get NHL 14 but I hope so much that this major problems will be resolved… Expand
  2. ncgriff
    Feb 7, 2013
    0
    Worst game ever made. They physics are complete crap, the goalies are random as hell. NHL 12 is 20 times better, and I am not exaggerating. EA is a complete joke. Only buy it if you like to get gauged in the eyes.
  3. Mattyice
    Oct 5, 2012
    2
    Being a previous owner of NHL 12, I will absolutely not buy this game. After playing the demo, the game was EXACTLY THE SAME as NHL 12. No new format, no new gameplay, no new...anything. Also, the fact that there will likely not be an NHL season, there will be no new rosters. For previous owners of the games, do not buy! For new owners, buy NHL 12. You'll be happy you did.
  4. TheFlyingV
    Oct 3, 2012
    1
    NHL 13 looks pretty, and that's about all it has going for it.
    Most of the game modes are broken. Be A GM introduced a new "GM Brain" that likes to send star players through waivers, and put any old but still serviceable player is on the trade block. Be-A-Pro still is basically the same game mode that it was when it was introduced and now features your team's GM not signing any of your    NHL 13 looks pretty, and that's about all it has going for it.
    Most of the game modes are broken. Be A GM introduced a new "GM Brain" that likes to send star players through waivers, and put any old but still serviceable player is on the trade block. Be-A-Pro still is basically the same game mode that it was when it was introduced and now features your team's GM not signing any of your team's free agents rendering the mode useless after a year or two, that is if you can stand the tedious 82 game season. Hockey Ultimate team has been redone and is worse off. The only players that are worthwhile are NHLers as training cards only last one game. Not to mention the only way to actually make pucks in HUT is to buy and sell cards, as packs are 99% garbage. NHL moments live is cool...for about five minutes You will recreate several legend based moments as the legend plopped on the current roster of the team. The Winter Classic is still only available in its own stand-alone mode and hasn't been integrated into things like Be-A-GM. Not to mention the Flyers and Rangers uniforms from the 2012 Winter Classic are only available in that mode. The All-Star Game hasn't been updated to reflect its current formant. There are no new retro NHL jerseys. Create a Team has essentially been the same since this gen started, excluding new logos. Several areas haven't been redone to account for Atlanta moving to Winnipeg (Winnipeg shows up between Anaheim and Boston for retirements in Be-A-GM, the color pallet for Winnipeg in custom gear is Atlanta colors)Many arenas are missing their actual name or are filled with fans who need to be updated to reflect uniform changes. The Legends selection is terrible compared to last year. The rosters are terribly out of date and haven't been updated since the game came out except for one junior player who tweeted about how he wasn't in the game. The player ratings are not even close to reality and also likley contributes to unrealistic simming results. Not to mention there is no roster sharing feature to fix these problems, it probably wouldn't help as you're not even allowed to change the players preferred number anymore. The game play reminds me of NHL 3v3 arcade, especially when it comes the the CPU. The CPU can send any player flying by delivering a crushing body check whether they are behind your play or standing still next to your player. The goalies couldn't play their way out of a paper bag. These are made worse by turning the difficulty. None of my HUT goalies have a save percentage higher that .890%. The new skating engine is a good addition in theory, but as usual the AI cheats and can back skate as fast as Mason Raymond or turn as you're skating by and beat you to the puck. I've experienced more freezing with NHL 13 then any other game on the Xbox 360.
    In-between the lockout and the mess that is NHL13, this is a tough year for hockey.    … Expand
  5. Jimbro84
    Nov 6, 2012
    0
    This game is so overrated I have to give it a 0 to lower its score. Here are my main critics. Number 1: Settings = Headaches
    You have to set them for each game modes!
    And you can't avoid that because they don't make sense. (everything is too slow and you can dominate a game and yet loose because the AI doesn't shoot enough or your goalie sucks too much, depending how you see it).    This game is so overrated I have to give it a 0 to lower its score. Here are my main critics. Number 1: Settings = Headaches
    You have to set them for each game modes!
    And you can't avoid that because they don't make sense. (everything is too slow and you can dominate a game and yet loose because the AI doesn't shoot enough or your goalie sucks too much, depending how you see it). Anyways, you will likely spend hours in the settings if you want the game to be serious. Number 2: You can't play GM mode with your own player. At least, I haven't figured out how. In other words, if you create a custom player, he can't play in your team if you want to control all players. You have to play with him (or his position) only, which is stupid. Number 3: One timers are almost inexistent. For some reason, even if you lower the interceptions of the AI to 0, even if you raise the one timers accuracy to the maximum, one way or the other you will not be able to pass in front of the net to another player for a goal. It's way better just to keep the puck for yourself.

    Number 4: You can't create a custom team. Well yes you can but the name has to be in capital letters (?) and you can't write your own name!! WTF? You have to choose in what's available and of course, they can't let you choose the name of a former team (ex: Whalers, Nordiques, etc.). Finally, the logos that you can pick are just ridiculous. So no, you can't create a custom team.    … Expand
  6. thegrave
    Nov 14, 2012
    0
    I love this game because I love Hockey. However, being abused by EA is so grossly upsetting that I can't in good conscious recommend this game nor give it a good review.
    There are so many bugs in this game its insane. Furthermore the customer support is extremely lacking and unacceptable. Many of us in the HUT side of the game have not received packs we paid $$$ for and in turn over    I love this game because I love Hockey. However, being abused by EA is so grossly upsetting that I can't in good conscious recommend this game nor give it a good review.
    There are so many bugs in this game its insane. Furthermore the customer support is extremely lacking and unacceptable. Many of us in the HUT side of the game have not received packs we paid $$$ for and in turn over the past month nothing has been done to make restitution. Its funny however, because it appears that there is no bugs that ever give away packs for free on accident.
    The pull rate is also extremely degrading to ones sense of well being as well. As you can rip 12000 MS points and get virtually nothing.
    I hope the NHL licence is sold so that we have an option of what company to go with as far as Hockey is concerned.
    I will admit I have fun playing this game because it is Hockey, but it is truly unfair how EA treats its customers. I can't see how they aren't going to get sued for taking so many peoples' money and not giving them anything in return. By my definition that is usually perceived as theft.
    They have also managed to hack apart different play settings as well such as removing GM connected from HUT so that people have to spend the maximum amount of $$$ to have a chance.
    How much more greedy can these game companies get?
    We already have to pay an extra $25 for most games to get the entire thing.
    I truly believe these games should be advertised as starter packs or intro packs of the game, because the $60 price tag doesn't include the whole game.    … Expand
  7. K_Phil
    Sep 18, 2012
    4
    NHL 13 is a step backward for EA this year. No matter how you customize it, the new player momentum engine makes you feel like you
  8. gover151
    Jan 25, 2013
    3
    Being a huge hockey fan I can appreciate the gameplay and realism, with how the goals are scored and such but this game is still extremely frustrating to play. The realism, skating, gameplay etc is better than ever but still some major flaws.

    -Puck control, I can steam roll one of there players with a body check ut they still get up and get the puck before mu defender can, yet if I go    Being a huge hockey fan I can appreciate the gameplay and realism, with how the goals are scored and such but this game is still extremely frustrating to play. The realism, skating, gameplay etc is better than ever but still some major flaws.

    -Puck control, I can steam roll one of there players with a body check ut they still get up and get the puck before mu defender can, yet if I go anywhere near there players they take the puck away
    -Loose pucks, same issue, can't seem to get the puck no matter how much closer I am than they are
    -One timers, I guess they tried to fix the glitch from last year with it being so easy to score on one timers, however not it is pretty much impossible to score on a legitimate one timer no matter how good the set up is. -Passing, the CPU can seem to make unreal passes all night long, intercept all mine and any pass I seem to make in there end gets intercepted.
    -Even with all this I would love the game except for this one thing that has been pissing me off for ever in the EA games, when the CPU wants to score/win, it does, I have had games where I dominatem outshooting them quite badly and still lose, just outshot Edmonton 33 - 9 and lost 1-0, one playoff game I had I outshot Carolina 43-5 and lost 3-1. Totally retarded how you can dominate and still lose and get scored on.
    -Last but not least is the trade expectations of the CPU, it went from making easy trades in 12 to having to drastically overpay to get anyone decent in 13, not realistic at all.    … Expand
  9. greene_8
    Jul 20, 2013
    4
    I'm surprised so many people here who claim to know hockey can enjoy this game. The clear difference in ability between the A.I. team and the teammates on my team was enough to ruin this game for me alone. There is no logic to the physics/hitting. You can take a bigger player with all the momentum in the world into a small player on the other team and not only fail to knock him down,I'm surprised so many people here who claim to know hockey can enjoy this game. The clear difference in ability between the A.I. team and the teammates on my team was enough to ruin this game for me alone. There is no logic to the physics/hitting. You can take a bigger player with all the momentum in the world into a small player on the other team and not only fail to knock him down, but watch your player go down instead. The opposite is true for the AI, which can knock down any of your players regardless of size difference or the momentum being carried by the hitter.
    Another huge problem for me was the passing. Passes are extremely difficult to complete, even when the receiver of the pass is wide open. The passes just don't seem to go where you want them to go. In addition, the poke check has been made to be WAY too powerful. You can't come within 10 feet of an opposing AI defenseman without him swooping in and knocking the puck away with the poke check or just knocking your man out. And if you try to make the quick pass, like I said, its usually not getting through. On the flip side, you will watch with frustration as the opposing team AI executes its passes almost flawlessly.
    There is no logic to the goal-scoring. I can get stoned on 5 breakaways on a row and then throw a wrist shot in from the point with no traffic and have it go in. Odd-man rushes rarely result in goals even if passes are succesfully executed. The goal outcomes often have no bearing on who outplayed who in the game, its hard to feel any sense of accomplishment for scoring or preventing goals when they seem to just go in by random luck. I had many games where I would outshoot the AI by a 4-1 margin but the score would always stay even. I could hold the AI to 10-15 shots for an entire game but they would still score 2-3 goals just from throwing the puck at the net as soon as they got into my zone. I know things like this can happen in hockey but when you thoroughly outplay the AI in every game, improve from game to game, and the scores don't reflect that, it starts to become frustrating and unrewarding.
    Overall I'd give this game a 4/10, positives being the graphics, presentation and fluidity of gameplay. My biggest problems were the disparity in ability between the user's players and the A.I.'s players, the completely screwed-up hitting, the over-powered poke check, lack of ability to execute passes, and the unrewarding and nonsensical goal-scoring.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

34
#34 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2012
68
#68 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 44 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 44
  3. Negative: 0 out of 44
  1. Hyper Magazine
    Jan 24, 2013
    70
    It's the ability to check opponents that is the real highlight of the violence. [Feb 2013, p.80]
  2. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Nov 16, 2012
    80
    Still strong, but starting to show its age. [Dec 2012, p.103]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Oct 29, 2012
    90
    Finally the major changes come to the ice-hockey simulation and we have got quite a lot of improvements after last year's stagnation. [Oct 2012]
See all critic reviews »