[Fiddy]

I have been a huge Debbie Downer on the NHL series over the years. That's been noted on here plenty of times. Looking back I probably should have been a bit more constructive, but I'm not even sure that would have mattered in getting things changed for how I wanted things etc.

I think most of my frustrations come from them being so close over the years, a tweak here, a tweak there game play wise would be really well done. Then year after year things, obvious things just ignored. Well maybe not ignored but just not have the man power to fix things or it was very low on priority list for whatever reason.

NHL 09, 10, 14, and now 17 were the games I enjoyed the most offline franchise wise.

If they build on 17 into 18 with this revamped AI, this is huge for offline and even online.

Awesome both sides of the puck now how a skill stick.

My favorite thing to do in EASHL etc is set up my teammates, so glad I will be able to put passes where I want and use the boards easier.

Gameplay wise over 15 and 16 left me kind of sour, making me want again for EA to market the game as an arcade one with sim elements. This made me want them to bring back 3 on 3 arcade hockey. Fun, over the top, easy to pick up and play etc. Games over quickly..

Then boom, they bring it back within NHL 18. They have the arcade version online/offline and with a campaign type mode, fantastic. They also have the sim type mode of 3 on 3 online in EASHL, fantastic. My buddy and I were talking just last week how its only usually 2 or 3 of us playing and how great it would be to play 3 on 3 in EASHL. Cracks me up the average EASHL games are played with just 2.1 players per team. This kind of changes the game online. Even so for e-sports. Find 2 other buds and dominate 3 on 3.

CO-OP, this is great with all the options. I'm just hoping I can invite my buddy into my franchise and play on my team. This would be great, especially since there is No GM Connected Mode again. 64 ways to play CO-OP? This has to be in right?

Expansion will be fun to mess with, only for me adding a 32nd team. Nice to have these options.

All in all my game play expectations have softened and I'm not as nit picky or as die hard as I used to be. I just want some decent game play to tweak, adjust, and have fun with all while getting solid stats in a short time. From the looks of it we will have all kinds of options to do that in NHL 18. We shall see.