NHL 15 Video, Screenshots & Blog Featuring the Superstar Skill Stick

[nddurst]

This all but confirmed my biggest concern. Every defender shown being deked around in the video were all basically just skating backwards, staring at the puck. No type of stick checking, no use of the arms/body, nothing. It's apparent that defense has largely ignored. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.

It's great to include offensive skill stick moves, but when the defense has been left impotent it's not going to result in a good balance of gameplay.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by nddurst

This all but confirmed my biggest concern. Every defender shown being deked around in the video were all basically just skating backwards, staring at the puck. No type of stick checking, no use of the arms/body, nothing. It's apparent that defense has largely ignored. Hopefully I'm proven wrong. It's great to include offensive skill stick moves, but when the defense has been left impotent it's not going to result in a good balance of gameplay.

I'm usually a half-empty type guy when it comes to EA's hockey series, but in this case, what you saw was a result of the team wanting to showcase the skill stick - so that's probably why the dmen looked like Brendan Smith.

Hopefully dmen are given more tools as well, but for this video, I think the point was to showcase mainly the offensive tools at ones disposal.

[nddurst]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

I'm usually a half-empty type guy when it comes to EA's hockey series, but in this case, what you saw was a result of the team wanting to showcase the skill stick - so that's probably why the dmen looked like Brendan Smith. Hopefully dmen are given more tools as well, but for this video, I think the point was to showcase mainly the offensive tools at ones disposal.

Haha. Brendan Smith. How'd you know I was a Wings fan?

You might be correct about this video. However, I've yet to see anything encouraging about defensive tools from any of the videos/trailers so far. I hope I'm wrong.

[jyoung]

So still no defensive skill stick? The game's current stick checking system could really benefit from a fuller range of control using the right joystick.

As it currently is in NHL 14, you're basically at the mercy of animation roulette whenever you poke check or stick lift, as your stick could end up going in any direction, which often leads to unnecessary tripping and slashing penalties.

Putting body checking on the right joystick is a waste, since you don't need any kind of user direction input to throw a hit.

[bigwill33]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnyg713

This game is shaping up to be sports game of the year.

Based off of what? The combined 2 mins of real gameplay footage that has been seen or the fluff and repetitive interviews that are out there?

I'll wait for the demo to see if it's anything more than a port with some graphical upgrades and shoddy AI and glitch fest to score again. If you can get any discernible info that clears up the questions surrounding this series from these hype trailers then you are a better detective than I could ever be.

[bigwill33]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

Didn't basically same thing happen last year too(not just for NHL,but also other games like Madden,NBA,MLB and stuff?)

It did, even for The Show. It seems to be the new way of marketing for the next gen sports games.

And why wouldn't it be? There are hardly any games out for these systems and no competition for any sports other than the NBA franchises. So they can release nothing until around release and still sell their products cause if you like the sport you are stuck with limited options.

Bad for us, the consumers, great for EA, 2k, and SCEA.

[bigwill33]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

So still no defensive skill stick? The game's current stick checking system could really benefit from a fuller range of control using the right joystick. As it currently is in NHL 14, you're basically at the mercy of animation roulette whenever you poke check or stick lift, as your stick could end up going in any direction, which often leads to unnecessary tripping and slashing penalties. Putting body checking on the right joystick is a waste, since you don't need any kind of user direction input to throw a hit.

Not to mention that in years past of this game the defender could not play the puck on a loose puck deke animation because the puck was not truly loose. No telling if this has been improved yet.

Nothing like watching some kid spamming the one touch dekes while you are positioned perfectly on d and watch as he gets positioning on your player because the puck is tied to his animation that you cannot seem to disrupt in any realistic manner.

[Aggies7]

Video looks awesome but as I have stated before hard to make a comment as everything is shown in slow motion. Still no game speed videos.

Don't get me wrong what was shown was great but I have my doubts it will look like that in real speed.