IHF 12 vs IHF 14

[Miggoh]

Okay guys, a lot of people will be probably wondering if this game is worth 40 euros (versus 10 euros IHF 12), so I'll give a quick preview of what's changed.

Positive changes:

• Added French leagues and some other "Rest of the world" teams.
  
• Career mode (Be-a-pro) makes the player creation more worth your time.
  
• They added instant replays (don't get excited yet).
  
• A button is confirm and B is cancel. Every second menu no longer has different buttons.
  
• Game has now an announcer.
  
• Game has a few more stadiums and you can select the floor color.
  
• Updated rosters
  
• Loose balls and fumbles are now more likely to happen

Negative things in the game:

• Unlike IHF 12, this game has no soundtrack. Just some generic background sounds.
  
• STILL no online play. That's pretty bad for a 40 EUR game.
  
• I have heard some bad English narrators, but this one is by far the worst (they are actually German).
  
• Animations are still as twitchy as in IHF 12.
  
• League mode is still as worthless. No trades or any management at all. Just playing matches.
  
• In Career Mode you still play as the whole team. It doesn't make any difference gameplay wise.
  
• You can't change replay frequency. They happen when they happen. A lot of times you would like to see "lol, what happened there", but you can't.
  
• No V-sync (I have some cool screen tearing).
  
• Camera doesn't properly follow in counter attacks or long passes.
  
• The game still passes to who it wants every now and then (regardless of who you want to pass).
  
• When you get a free throw or similar, you have to manually pick up the ball and walk where you got the throw from (this is a good thing, if you wouldn't rather spend the match actually playing the game).
  
• Game has visually and gameplay wise almost nothing new from IHF 12 (really).
  
• League mode and career mode only track team standings. Individual player scores don't exist (except for your own player in career mode).

Bugs in the game:

• You can still abuse the infinite hold loop in defense. First grab the player and then shove him. Grab him again and shove. Keep doing this untill referee calls "passive play" or the opponent is out of bounds.
  
• Narrator hasn't been properly tested. Sometimes the narrator will say "Nice goal. The score is now..." and he doesn't say the score. Also, when opponent tackled me he said something like "He got booked there. He really earned that yellow card" even though no cards were given.
  
• Rapidly pressing the sprint key makes the dribble still go insane.
  
• Ball still sometimes teleports around, due to poor animations.

Notable gameplay tweaks:

• Penalty shots are twice as common.
  
• AI fumbles the ball and gets their passes interrupted a more often
  
• Game is a bit faster
  
• Game runs a bit more fluid.

Is it worth the price? I don't think so. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Uploading a gameplay video now...

[Miggoh]

And here's some gameplay:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243402293

[lucasjr5]

Thanks

[Double Flower]

This game is IHF 12 modded as 14.
When i saw the board on each replay, it appears 12 instead of 14.
Don´t waste money on this.
For people never had IHF 12 please make sure if there is some editor, because the 2º divisions don´t have any original logos and a few kits are empty and a few from last year.

Bigben you don´t have shame to get green money on the same game?

IHF 13 are in the stores in DVD, but is the same from IHF 12 and 14.

We need a editor, to add new leagues and teams, where is Portugal F.A.P. League?

All portuguese teams logos and players here: http://portal.fpa.pt/fap_portal/do?com=DS;1;geral.111;+PAGE%282000067%29++K-CATEGORIA%28298%29+K-CODIGO%28%29+RCNT%2820%29

We have 3º Divisions.

[GabrielPast]

Can you take a screenshot from the menu?

[Miggoh]

Which part exactly? The game has horizontal menus this time, so all the menu items don't fit on the screen like in '12.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243783418

[GabrielPast]

Thanks. wow the menu changed a lot

[Miggoh]

Yeah, the game is pretty much the same otherwise. Added career mode, removed that skill camp thingy.

[GabrielPast]

Yeah... I'd just buy this game if it was $15

[Double Flower]

Цитата допису Miggoh | No meatbuns, No life:

Which part exactly? The game has horizontal menus this time, so all the menu items don't fit on the screen like in '12.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243783418

Is only ingame. After you make a goal, the logo appears quick and i saw 12 instead of 14.

Update: It seems they fixed.

Have a look on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YHuggnnh2Q

Pause at 6:22, when i get the game in the first time, i saw 12 instead of 14.

[76561198126243090]

We want to post the developers point of view to this topic as well. Maybe as you know IHF Handball Challenge 12 was th first step for developing a Handball game for console and PC. After the release of HC 12 we asked our community at facebook and in our board what features they want to have in a new version of the game. we tried to comply with all wishes. For example we integrated a commentary whic was a big task for us, we added the spin shot, more defense options, more tactic options in the team menue, a new career mode and a completely new menue. In comparison to other sports games we had a very low budget and therefore had to concentrate on the most important improvements. Maybe you can consider in your reviews that the game is the second version of the series and not the 15th like other sports games. If you support us onwards we will have the chance to improve the series step by step.

[Miggoh]

Цитата допису neutrongames:

We want to post the developers point of view to this topic as well.

Yes, it is understandable that it's a small budget game and hence the development is slower than on AAA titles. However, your game will always be compared to other games in the same price category.

So what is your game being compared to?

Pro Evolution Soccer 14, 39,99€ Absolutely amazing graphics, smooth gameplay and deep game modes.

NBA 2K14, 29,99€ Series I haven't played since 2012, but it's apparently very decent. 2014 didn't have too many new features from 2013, but it's also 1/4 cheaper than IHF 14.

So, where does the price tag come from? Last part in the series was 9,99€, does it have new features worth thirty euros?

New commentary - Yes, this is a nice update indeed. It's not properly tested though. If you watch the video on the second post of this thread, you can notice for example when opponent scores from 3-1 to 3-2 (@2:31), the announcer says: "Now they are leading again, but it's really close. It can turn around in a heartbeat" even though they are still one goal behind. And this is just an example, there are lots of more things like this.

New menu - Can't be really counted as a feature. This is a new game IHF 14, not a patch to IHF 12.

New Career mode - This is probably the biggest addition and the best one. It's not exactly too deep though. Why do you still play as the whole team? I thought the point in modes like this was to experience the team sport as an individual. You should only be controlling your own player. Otherwise it's just league mode where you have one player in your team with customized name.

The main reason people upgrade from NHL 13 to NHL 14, is the online scene. Most of the people will always be playing the newest part of the series. IHF doesn't have that. There isn't too much reason to upgrade from 12 to 14. It's a good game, but the price is just too high for an indie game.

Why is the price so high? You can see a company called Plug in Digital in the publishers section of the game. So what do these guys do? BIGBEN interactive is the publisher, right? An indie company I work for received an email from Plug in Digital's partner not too long ago. They were offering us PR, consulting and distribution.

PR you can easily do by yourself. Distribution platforms like Steam and Desura usually give you pretty good instuctions on what you need. What kind of PR has Plug in Digital done so far? They went on IHF 12's forum which another publisher (which is a pretty underhanded move by itself) and posted this:

Цитата допису Plug In Digital:

hey there this game is more than 2 years old.
New version will be available in 2 weeks on Steam (with latest teams, official players).
this new game has been developped by a new studio and is published by a new publisher.

While I would expect a company that makes their living out of PR to have better punctuation, I can't get over the fact that they more or less lied before the release. A game by new studio? I was looking forward to a completely new game, but it's was still made by Neutron Games (don't have anything against you guys, was just surprised by the fact). Even if the business entity was changed or the studio was registered as a company, that doesn't mean the game was developed by a new studio. That's just misleading.

BIGBEN Interactive most likely used Plug In Digital as a lever to Steam (to avoid Greenlight process), but when you have two companies that are in it just for the money, then ofcourse the game will be too expensive.

Bottom line: There isn't enough new content in IHF 14 to make people upgrade from IHF 12 for the current price. What makes the game cost 30 euros more when it's more or less the same game as IHF 12?

[gombicek]

I don't have the game so I will comment only from what I saw on the video. So to be honest, the commentary is awfull. Graphics is outdated. As I didn't play it I can comment on gameplay. And yeah I know that you don't have budget like EA games, 2k Sports or Konami, so it's understandable that the game doesn't have cutting edge graphics or commentary but than you should consider pricing it accordingly. Or rather the publisher should. I think that almost 40 euros is bit too much. And I don't mean it like you did a bad job, you did a great job bringing a new sports game for pc and consoles. But comparing it to other sports games, I know it's not entirely fair because those evolved over the years, than it falls a little bit short.

Цитата допису neutrongames:

We want to post the developers point of view to this topic as well. Maybe as you know IHF Handball Challenge 12 was th first step for developing a Handball game for console and PC. After the release of HC 12 we asked our community at facebook and in our board what features they want to have in a new version of the game. we tried to comply with all wishes. For example we integrated a commentary whic was a big task for us, we added the spin shot, more defense options, more tactic options in the team menue, a new career mode and a completely new menue. In comparison to other sports games we had a very low budget and therefore had to concentrate on the most important improvements. Maybe you can consider in your reviews that the game is the second version of the series and not the 15th like other sports games. If you support us onwards we will have the chance to improve the series step by step.

[Double Flower]

Цитата допису neutrongames:

We want to post the developers point of view to this topic as well. Maybe as you know IHF Handball Challenge 12 was th first step for developing a Handball game for console and PC. After the release of HC 12 we asked our community at facebook and in our board what features they want to have in a new version of the game. we tried to comply with all wishes. For example we integrated a commentary whic was a big task for us, we added the spin shot, more defense options, more tactic options in the team menue, a new career mode and a completely new menue. In comparison to other sports games we had a very low budget and therefore had to concentrate on the most important improvements. Maybe you can consider in your reviews that the game is the second version of the series and not the 15th like other sports games. If you support us onwards we will have the chance to improve the series step by step.

Agreed! Make sure if it's possible Andebol from Portugal with all 3º Divisions.

[taytothief]

That commentary is criminal. Better off without commentary if you're going to try and release ♥♥♥♥ like that. Have you no ears? How did you think it was ok to let that go?

[heime2003]

from screen shots , ihf 14 looks identical to ihf 12