NHL 18 Gameplay Trailer: Creative Attack Dekes, Defensive Skill Stick, Creative AI

[johnnyg713]

Quote: Originally Posted by Peter_OS

Color me unimpressed. They should just call it NHL All Star Game 18. Not enough here to warrant a full price.* The entire game engine and animations needs an overhaul imo. This is times where I wished we have competition for hockey. I can only imagine if 2K was still around what game they would have had for us by now. sigh..

I don't the point in your last comment. Why bring up 2k when they have no desire to make an NHL game. It's obvious NHL was and would have always be the better game.

[bwiggy33]

Quote: Originally Posted by AdamJones113

Bwiggy back on the forum! Couldn't agree more. I hope the new AI will be a true improvement on the current AI, and I think it will be a step forward in terms of what it's trying to accomplish. I have even more hope for the defensive skill stick, and I think it'll be really good for human players. Let's see if the AI is creative enough to take full advantage of it; looked good in the trailer, but so what. Ah goalies. Here's hoping, once again, for continued improvements and variations. Won't complain about them though if EA really makes a hit with these touted improvements instead of focusing on goalies. It's a marathon, not a sprint on these consoles.

I'm back, but I always check the forums . I've just kind of stopped talking as I got tedious saying the same things haha. I'm sure we all do from time to time.

[Gosens6]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnyg713

I don't the point in your last comment. Why bring up 2k when they have no desire to make an NHL game. It's obvious NHL was and would have always be the better game.

In a lot of people’s opinions (mine included) The NHL 2K series was vastly superior to the EA NHL series for MANY many years.


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[bwiggy33]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnyg713

I don't the point in your last comment. Why bring up 2k when they have no desire to make an NHL game. It's obvious NHL was and would have always be the better game.

I agree EA NHL was the better game as far as sales. I disagree that EA NHL would have always been the better game. We can't say that at all. Around 2014 there were many people who started to finally complain about aspects of the EA game that needed help. Goalies, neutral zone pressure, AI breakdowns, I can go on. Back in 2010 nobody complained about EA NHL like they do now. The controls and overall fun of EA NHL ruined any chances that NHL 2k had. EA NHL was still fresh then. 2k had it's issues but a true hockey fan could see the positives from that game and how a slider set could completely overhaul a game that out of the box was a mess. In many cases this wasn't seen by people a year or two years down the line because more and more people started to get sick of EA NHL each year, and by that time 2k was out.

With that said, who knows where NHL 2k could be right now. As I said, around 2014 is when people who never used to complain about EA NHL, started to finally complain about the issues and the fact EA did nothing to address them. EA still hasn't addressed the big issues by the way. So who knows, if 2k had kept making the game maybe a lot of people would have switched over to 2k by this point and it would be flip flopped of 2010. I actually believe that both games would have been much better by now because the competition may have actually pushed EA to fix it's glaring issues.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by bwiggy33

I agree EA NHL was the better game as far as sales. I disagree that EA NHL would have always been the better game. We can't say that at all. Around 2014 there were many people who started to finally complain about aspects of the EA game that needed help. Goalies, neutral zone pressure, AI breakdowns, I can go on. Back in 2010 nobody complained about EA NHL like they do now. The controls and overall fun of EA NHL ruined any chances that NHL 2k had. EA NHL was still fresh then. 2k had it's issues but a true hockey fan could see the positives from that game and how a slider set could completely overhaul a game that out of the box was a mess. In many cases this wasn't seen by people a year or two years down the line because more and more people started to get sick of EA NHL each year, and by that time 2k was out. With that said, who knows where NHL 2k could be right now. As I said, around 2014 is when people who never used to complain about EA NHL, started to finally complain about the issues and the fact EA did nothing to address them. EA still hasn't addressed the big issues by the way. So who knows, if 2k had kept making the game maybe a lot of people would have switched over to 2k by this point and it would be flip flopped of 2010. I actually believe that both games would have been much better by now because the competition may have actually pushed EA to fix it's glaring issues.

From my personal opinion, EA always looked better in terms of actual on ice movement from what I saw back when 2K was pumping out sports games. I just never could get into the 2K animations. But, I loved that EA had pressure.

Because, in my opinion, the game really started to suffer in terms of stagnation and becoming what a lot of people saw as essentially a patch every year when EA started to focus on the online modes like HUT, and lost their competition. Without competition, there's no one across the hall forcing you to innovate and try new and daring things.

EA slowly seemed to lose focus on the offline crowd, and things like innovations in franchise mode only seemed to come around because of things that happened for online play first. As someone that just never was a fan of online play it was frustrating. The AI in game seemed to never really progress with the player control, and flashy offense always took front seat to more sound defensive controls. It looks like they're finally addressing the defensive side with the stick, but even assuming that the controls all work as intended, the AI has to be better or it won't matter. I will just do a better job of cutting off passing lanes while my AI teammates stand around reading board advertisements.

All in all, it's impossible to guess what 2K would be bringing to the table, especially seeing how they couldn't compete with other game series, like The Show...but they also really stepped up and seized the market in the NBA, which would be an amazing thing for the NHL series to have their customization options, something many have asked for for a long time.

[Christian9]

I've always wondered (truly, and not in an abrasive way), how Rammer still has a job?! There seems to be a huge lack of leadership, information, direction,... I could go on and on. Just has baffled me for quite a while now.

And if he is not the problem, even getting some new blood in would likely be welcoming.

Just my opinion...


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[13whitebread]

I never was a big fan of the 2K series and I think it was the skill stick that killed the 2K series. I can only imagine if it was like the NBA2K series how great that would be for us hockey fans. I wish we had someone as articulate as Sim Nation Da Czar for the hockey series.

[GetThePuckOut]

Quote: Originally Posted by Christian9

I've always wondered (truly, and not in an abrasive way), how Rammer still has a job?! There seems to be a huge lack of leadership, information, direction,... I could go on and on. Just has baffled me for quite a while now. And if he is not the problem, even getting some new blood in would likely be welcoming. Just my opinion... Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

agree! its like "Gary Bettman"....