Player Faces need to get more attention

[kmdoom]

On a personal level, the reason I buy these games every year is because I enjoy playing games with my favorite teams and players. I understand not everyone feels the same way, but I don't think there's any argument to be had when I say that the amount of players who do not resemble themselves in this series is overwhelming to say the least.

I challenge you guys to find a single NHL team that has all of their key players represented with their actual likenesses. I guarantee you will not succeed, and I find that really dissapointing. Having cyber faces is an important part of the depth and realism in sports gaming, and it seems that the NHL developers are the only ones who have not realized this.

Click to read more...

 

[HockeySauce]

I'll settle for EA sports getting the ethnicity of players right.

Brandon Saad isn't black.

 

[ThePsychicSaw]

um everything needs more attention, this is one of the most lazily developed game I've ever seen.

BETA through and through

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

The supers realistic faces is definitely the reason NHL 94 is the most celebrated hockey game of all time...

 

[Gary320]

I dont have a problem with not many cyberfaces, but as mentioned above, I really wish they would adjust the generic faces a bit so that atleast they look a bit like the actual player. Maybe even leave it open for us to change.

Wouldn't it be great if they allowed us to change the facial hair/hair of any players too?
Geez.

 

[ChibiPooky]

You know what would be a crazy idea? Just improve GameFace slightly and have all the players import theirs. But yeah, probably too time-consuming and expensive, and would require that professional hockey players have webcams.

 

[kmdoom]

You know what would be a crazy idea? Just improve GameFace slightly and have all the players import theirs. But yeah, probably too time-consuming and expensive, and would require that professional hockey players have webcams.

I might be reading your comment the wrong way, but I think this is a great idea. EA should give us the opportunity to add the faces of any player we'd like to using Gameface; we create the faces on their site and then they give us a way to import them into the game. With a roster share feature, I'd be absolutely set for offline modes

The supers realistic faces is definitely the reason NHL 94 is the most celebrated hockey game of all time...

You realize these types of comments help no one in the long run, right? Sure, it's fun to leave snide remarks and criticize someone on how they enjoy playing, but if everyone thought like you EA's hockey would have no substance or life to it at all. There's a reason we've got more than one team of developers working on the several facets of the game- there's more to a great series than raw gameplay.

 

[kmdoom]

I should probably mention why I started this thread in the first place.

Every year the NHLPA posts an article about their annual Rookie Showcase. This summer was the first time I'd even heard about the event, and after reading up on it I found out that EA Sports had been in attendance to let the guys play NHL 14. But EA also went because they were there to take 3D photographs of the 20 or so guys in attendance so that their cyber faces could be created and added for the release.

Well, it's been nearly a month now, and almost none of the guys who were present to be scanned have their real faces in the game. To make matters worse, EA has repeated this routine of taking photos of the players but not adding their cybers for 3 years in a row. As I said in the OP this series has been sub par in this department for years, so this was all a shock for me. I organized a list of the 62 players who should all have their real faces represented in NHL 14... I cringed at how much talent there is on this list, I would've loved to have these guys cybers show up in my BAGM modes.

List of every player who has taken scans at the last 3 rookie showcases (organized by year):

2011

EA Sports also had a station set-up, a room where they took head scan pictures of the players from all angles. These images will be used to make the video game versions of the players for next year's NHL '13.

http://www.nhlpa.com/news/2011-rookie-showcase-underway

Greg Nemisz
Justin Faulk
John Moore
Marcus Kruger
Brendan Smith
Aaron Palushaj
Ryan Ellis
Blake Geoffrion
Adam Henrique
Adam Larsson
Ryan Strome
Tim Erixon
David Rundblad
Simon Despres
Jake Allen
Carter Ashton
Jussi Rynnas
Cody Eakin
Carl Klingberg

2012

EA Sports will also be taking head scans of the rookies to be used in their upcoming NHL 13 video game.

http://www.nhlpa.com/news/2012-nhlpa-rookie-showcase-features-30-nhl-prospects

Tyson Barrie
Nathan Beaulieu
Beau Bennett
Jack Campbell
Charlie Coyle
Emerson Etem
Dougie Hamilton
Quinton Howden
Tomas Jurco
Jared Knight
Leo Komarov
Chris Kreider
Scott Laughton
Ryan Murphy
Brock Nelson
Jamie Oleksiak
Griffin Reinhart
Morgan Rielly
Jaden Schwartz
Reilly Smith
Ryan Spooner
Jarred Tinordi
Tyler Toffoli
Mark Visentin
Austin Watson
(Devan Dubnyk)

2013

EA Sports also had a room set up in which the players got to try out the unreleased NHL 14 video game. When they could be dragged away from playing, the players also posed for three-dimensional headshots that will be used for the 2015 edition of the game.

http://www.nhlpa.com/news/the-2013-nhlpa-rookie-showcase-day-1

Malcolm Subban
Petr Mrazek
Jon Merrill
Dylan McIlrath
Boone Jenner
Tomas Hertl
Ty Rattie
Tom Wilson
Tanner Pearson
Christian Thomas
Adam Clendening
Mark Mcneill
Matt Puempel
Derrick Poulliot
Bo Horvat
Tyler Biggs

 

[Engebretson]

Ryan Suter actually looks like Ryan Suter this year. Progress!

Other than that, Charlie Coyle is blonde and Jason Pominville looks like about 20 other guys I've seen in the game and has these light blue eyes that make it look like he doesn't have pupils.

 

[DatsyukToZetterberg]

I could care less what the players look so long as they have the right hands for the players & they fix the actual issues in the game. Getting the real faces into the game is just above improving the crowd.

I had a friend on xbox who felt that the players with real faces were gifted with this magical ability to make them better. He took it so far that he refused to play any player that didn't have a "real face". Needless to say it is/was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of.

 

[kmdoom]

I could care less what the players look so long as they have the right hands for the players & they fix the actual issues in the game. Getting the real faces into the game is just above improving the crowd.

I had a friend on xbox who felt that the players with real faces were gifted with this magical ability to make them better. He took it so far that he refused to play any player that didn't have a "real face". Needless to say it is/was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of.

skunkapemothmen/ Dr. Real Face?

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

I might be reading your comment the wrong way, but I think this is a great idea. EA should give us the opportunity to add the faces of any player we'd like to using Gameface; we create the faces on their site and then they give us a way to import them into the game. With a roster share feature, I'd be absolutely set for offline modes



You realize these types of comments help no one in the long run, right? Sure, it's fun to leave snide remarks and criticize someone on how they enjoy playing, but if everyone thought like you EA's hockey would have no substance or life to it at all. There's a reason we've got more than one team of developers working on the several facets of the game- there's more to a great series than raw gameplay.

keep copy and pasting this response.... fact is wasting time on a meaningless detail when lots of other issue NEED to be resolved is stupid and shouldnt be a priority.

 

[DatsyukToZetterberg]

skunkapemothmen/ Dr. Real Face?

That would be the fella. He's an ok guy he just has some weird philosophies when it comes to the NHL game.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Taking scans of player's faces would be to time consuming. Not every player is going to fly to Vancouver to get their faces scanned to be used to replicate their faces in the game.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

Taking scans of player's faces would be to time consuming. Not every player is going to fly to Vancouver to get their faces scanned to be used to replicate their faces in the game.

but but but if Drew Shore's eye color isnt correct it was a waste of my $60 because its now so unrealistic.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

but but but if Drew Shore's eye color isnt correct it was a waste of my $60 because its now so unrealistic.

Haha

 

[kmdoom]

That would be the fella. He's an ok guy he just gas some weird philosophies when it comes to the NHL game.

Yeah we're good friends on Xbox. Trust me I believe a lot of what he says... He told me the same thing about players with new faces getting a boost one day. I thought he was joking but on that same day we played a HUT game and I'm pretty sure Voracek got a hat trick

 

[kmdoom]

Taking scans of player's faces would be to time consuming. Not every player is going to fly to Vancouver to get their faces scanned to be used to replicate their faces in the game.

There's a few problems with what you're saying. Players don't have to come to EA's studio in Burnaby for them to have a real face. The camera equipment is mobile, and besides the visual arts team can create them on their own using pictures from Google. However, scans produce the best results.

The whole process isn't really that time consuming; an individual players scan takes 3-5 minutes. The tough part is sending out the equipment somewhere and finding time in a teams schedule to get them to sit in the camera booth. But because you missed the post where I said this before- EA has already scanned well over 70 players at the last 3 NHLPA Rookie Showcases. 62 of those players (a list of those guys is not too far above this post) simply have not been included.

 

[DatsyukToZetterberg]

Yeah we're good friends on Xbox. Trust me I believe a lot of what he says... He told me the same thing about players with new faces getting a boost one day. I thought he was joking but on that same day we played a HUT game and I'm pretty sure Voracek got a hat trick

The thing is that the superstar players all get "real faces" so of course you would be more likely to score with them their attributes are higher then the average player who doesn't get a real face. It's like the Ancient Alien show, you can't prove that there weren't aliens there so we can say that they were. Nobody can prove that it doesn't work but you could take a team of "Non-Real Faces" & beat some with a team full of "Real Faces".

 

[Lyndon Slewidge]

No they don't, the faces are decent and there are sooo many better options for them to spend their time working on.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

No they don't, the faces are decent and there are sooo many better options for them to spend their time working on.

BUT REAL FANS DEMAND BETTER FACES! Game play is secondary.

 

[kmdoom]

No they don't, the faces are decent and there are sooo many better options for them to spend their time working on.

I'm curious to know what you feel the developers should be working on? I know I would have liked to see them update arena and crowd detail, but it seems with EA's new Ignite engine that things like that will be really improved with the new consoles.

 

[David71]

in nhl 11/12 duncan keith looks werid.

 

[ScottStevens]

I agree gameplay should come first, but my fave player: Robert Klinkhammer always annoys me. They made him darker skinned and dark haired in game, but got his picture right...