Hey guys. This is Gurn Sumal, one of the producers on NHL 11 and I’m going to be doing a weekly blog for the next month about the goalie equipment in our game. Like many of you, I am a HUGE gear guy. Luckily, our artists are big gear guys as well which means we’re able to squeeze in a few extra sets of equipment. Being a goalie myself, I made it a priority to implement as many sets of equipment as possible and so this year we have a total of 32 different sets in the game. If you’re wondering how we’re able to put this much equipment in for the goalies as compared to what we put in for skaters, it’s all based on memory used in game. For goalies, there are only ever four goalies in the rink at any one time as opposed to 36 different skaters. We have to account for every single skater and goalie potentially having a different piece of equipment, which can add up quickly. The more equipment we have to load, the longer our load times are and once in the game it will affect the framerate. Not to mention, when you play online and all the equipment information has to be shared so everyone is seeing the same thing. Back to the gear, one of the biggest changes to the goalie equipment this year is that we’ve increased the amount of recolorable zones to nine (for sets that are complex). This also includes the older equipment that has been in the game in previous years like the Bauer X: 60 or the Vaughn V3 sets. Even with 9 zones some of the equipment may still be a little off due to the sheer amount of customization that a specific set may have but we’ve tried to make it as close to real life as possible. So why not add more zones for more authenticity? See the paragraph above on load times, memory and framerate! So with all that being said, let’s get to the good stuff and talk about the sets that are in the game. This week I will be starting with the Vaughn goalie sets, as Vaughn is one of the more popular goalie brands around. Vaughn has a total of 8 sets in the game which are: • V3’s (Updated to support Tribal Graphics) • V4’s (Supports Tribal Graphics) • Epics • SLW’s • Velocity icebergs (new design) • 7700’s (Price Graphics) • Pulse(Updated to support Top “pulses” to be colored) • Velocity(updated to support Michael Neuvirth’s Set) Nicklas Backstrom of the Minnesota wild in his V3 pads Steve Mason in his V4’s Habs goalie Carey Price in his all White EPICS Calder Finalist Jimmy Howard in his Icebergs My favorite set up of the bunch, Kari Lehtonen in his SLW’s (His Atlanta set was better ) Two time Calder Cup winner Michal Neuvirth in his Vaughn Velocity pads Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes in his Half Pulse half Epic set up Tyler Plante of the Amerks in his Vaughn Pulse set up Hope you enjoyed the 1st edition of my gear blog that will be running until the game launches. Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for your latest NHL 11 news and videos. -Gurn