I gotta say, NHL 13's skating engine is so realistic. There is a lot of things I like about the game, and it's definitely a step in the right direction... but I have to say... these goalies are unreal. Don't get me wrong, I don't lose often, so I don't care about that, but it get's kind of frustrating when you have 30 shots on net (a lot of quality ones), your opponent has 10 shots, and the game is 1-0 and you are losing. If my opponent picks Boston or LA, I know I'm fucked. The side to side movement is so unrealistic it's not even funny, I don't know how many one timers they have stopped, and breakaways seem like they are impossible to deke the goaltender so I literally just started shooting 5 hole and have gotten better results (not good, but I honestly don't think I've had a single goal with the goaltender biting on a deke, unless it's manually controlled, so any results are better than that).
Other than the goaltending, I think the game is pretty damn good. I like the fact that it's a lot harder to wind up for a one-timer and takes precision and good timing -- even just taking a slapshot, you can't just wind up with your back turned anymore or anything like that for shooting in general, you'll whiff the puck or completely miss the net if it's an awkward shooting position (wrist, backhand or slapshot). They also improved stick-checking greatly and that was an area that was sorely lacking in the previous couple games. The body checks really have taken into account the physics of the collision, combined with the hitting ability of the player so I think they did a great job there too. One thing I can complain about with the physicality of the game is that there can be collisions without even trying to hit anyone -- which is great and realistic but rarely do they call interference. In fact, I don't think I've seen any other calls other than tripping. Of course the skating engine is scary how accurate they are getting it to real life. It's harder to get use to, but so realistic that it's just amazing to play.
But seriously, they need to fix that shit with the goaltenders. I have played games where the shot chart shows all my shots are coming in the slot, off one timers and breakaways, some of the shots that come from the point are screens or looking for a rebound, and the goaltender stops all 30 of them. Yet, they'll have 10 shots all from the outside and one of them will go in. I get that goaltenders like Quick and Thomas are going to perform better than someone like Crawford, but when you are exploiting a team for poor defense I would think that the quality of the shots would eventually overwhelm the talent in net.
