NHL 15 News Post

NHL 15 Screenshots - American Airlines Center & Rogers Arena

10:06 PM - July 12, 2014 by Steve_OS

EA Sports will be releasing NHL 15 screenshots from every NHL arena over the next few months. Today they have released screenshots of American Airlines Center and Rogers Arena.

Quote:


	The power of the next-gen consoles finally allows the NHL franchise to capture every detail of an NHL arena. Unique arena elements such as 19,000+ seat capacities, dynamic lighting, player entrance tunnels and much more are all captured with a level of detail not possible on the previous generation. This summer, NHL 15 will make home games will truly feel like home.

Previously released arena screenshots:

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Member Comments

# 1 denniscvd @ 07/12/14 10:10 PM

By now we know United Center won't be in there since they've basically released every playoff team's stadium by now

# 2 Madwolf @ 07/12/14 10:28 PM

The Rog looks awesome!

# 3 Morry83 @ 07/12/14 11:45 PM

The AAC looks great, but it's WAY to dark. It's a real bright arena.

# 4 PhillyGuy11826 @ 07/13/14 01:24 AM

Rogers Arena looks incredible. But that shouldn't come as a shock.

Quote:

Originally Posted by denniscvd


	By now we know United Center won't be in there since they've basically released every playoff team's stadium by now

Of the 10 that have been released the Canucks are the only non-playoff team that have been released.

Chicago, Columbus, Montreal, Philadelphia, St. Louis, & Tampa Bay are the ones that haven't been shown. Three major hockey cities are on that list so don't hang your head low just yet.

Also if they continue releasing two every Saturday, then we'll see new arenas every Saturday until 9/20. haha

# 5 canucksss @ 07/13/14 03:57 AM

I just hope that NHL 15 will truly feel and PLAY like NHL game.

# 6 BaylorBearBryant @ 07/13/14 09:56 AM

AAC looks great. It is a little dark like it was mentioned, but other than that, pretty spot on.

# 7 csamuelsvt @ 07/13/14 12:17 PM

I believe some parts are dark due to the framerate.

# 8 mt8732 @ 07/13/14 12:50 PM

Yea the lighting for all these arenas is the same. Looks like a laker game at staples. At a blue jackets game the whole place is lit up even the nosebleeds. If its frame rate then use lower res crowd for upper deck or something

# 9 bigwill33 @ 07/13/14 01:31 PM

Exactly, there is no point in rendering 19000 fans if 14000 of them are in pitch black and can't be seen anyway. The beautiful banners and artistic designs that make these arenas unique are lost in the drab lighting effects. They spent all that time on these beautiful arenas, finally, only to blindfold nearly 1/3 to 1/2 of their work.

# 10 spidertour02 @ 07/13/14 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	Exactly, there is no point in rendering 19000 fans if 14000 of them are in pitch black and can't be seen anyway. The beautiful banners and artistic designs that make these arenas unique are lost in the drab lighting effects. They spent all that time on these beautiful arenas, finally, only to blindfold nearly 1/3 to 1/2 of their work.

I highly doubt that the quality of the crowd in the nosebleeds is the same as the quality of the crowd right against the glass. The reason it's dark in the upper areas of every arena is so that they can hide the lower-quality models of the crowd and save CPU resources.

# 11 hawley088 @ 07/13/14 02:39 PM

you guys realize how often you will see the upper areas of these arenas when actually playing the game right? hardly ever

# 12 hogfanhw81 @ 07/13/14 04:00 PM

Too many fans in the AAC! They rarely (if ever) sell out. Seriously though as others stated it looks spot on.

# 13 bigwill33 @ 07/13/14 04:04 PM

It may in fact be due to framerate concerns/issues, but until EA and their NHL producers come out and confirm it to be the case then it is simply all speculation by us.

EA are the ones touting the 19,000 fans. They are the ones releasing these pics, and only these pics. There is nothing more we can do other than point out what is good and bad in them. We don't have a clue as to why anything is the way it is yet and speculating is just unfair at this point. Unless it comes from someone who worked on the game it is not fact.

Opinions on the good and bad are fair, especially when it is all you have to go on. But a hall of fame play-by-play broadcaster once told me that speculation from anyone other than a pure expert is unfair to anyone and everyone else involved because it is not derived from truth. Meaning, in this instance, unless we know for certain the framerate is affected by the lighting it is not just to presume that is the case. But what we can say for certain is that in our opinion it is too dark compared to real life in most of these arena shots.

# 14 Morry83 @ 07/13/14 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hogfanhw81


	Too many fans in the AAC! They rarely (if ever) sell out. Seriously though as others stated it looks spot on.

Ohhh, get outta here. Have you even been to a Stars game recently?

# 15 bigwill33 @ 07/13/14 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpectralThundr


	EA, Take Two, or any other publisher would never come out and say "We did this because frame rate" It would piss off MS and Sony who are considered partners in some sense of the word. I think people forget that we as gamers are spoiled with the access we have to previews, information, direct forums to the developers and all the gaming news sites that have sprung up with the internet and social media getting to the point it's at. You aren't entitled to know every single reason a design decision was made be it for NHL or any other game. Which is why I say people come off as entitled these days, personally I'm old enough to remember pre internet entirely where the only information you got was either from one of the few monthly publications at the time, most of which are no longer even published due to how much the industry and how we access information has changed in recent years. Seriously, people honestly don't know how good they have it now.

It's not being spoiled, it is called marketing. And it advanced rapidly in the last decade due to competition.

Back in the 1990's you would get a double-sided postcard in the mail from EA with 2 or 3 screen shots from the game and a number to order it from along with the release date.

With the rise of the internet and competition coming into play companies began interacting and reaching out to the communities. Fan sites were abundant, I should know, I worked at one of the biggest for over a decade. What ended up occurring was more transparency than ever. Feedback was obtained making for better products. No longer were the companies guessing on what directions to take their franchises, now they had solid proof on what consumers wanted.

Taking it one step further, game developers employed people to interact with the communities (something I am also very familiar with). They still do this to an extent, as most of you know. During these interactions it was a race and a war to get your information out that you wanted and keep other things tight to your chest so that the competition can't steal your ideas. Non-disclosure agreements are very common in this industry. However, betas of the games were often given out and over the course of the early to mid 2000's there was usually ample amounts of media to find leading up to the release of a sports game.

This is no longer the case, however. Competition has died off and monopolies are common. There are still some of the behind-the-scenes dealings and interactions occurring, sure, but not anything like before. Budgets are streamlined now as a result. Having no competition means you can pick where to spend your budget more easily. The thinking appears to be that with only one game on the market per sport that there is not much of a reason to release anything other than hype trailers and a few of the very best screen grabs.

So, I wouldn't call it entitled at all. I would call it more of a scaling back from the gaming companies, simply because they can. And please never confuse progression for entitlement again. By your logic people that drive anywhere feel entitled because decades ago we all traveled by horseback or walked and got scurvy on the Oregon Trail. When progression is made there shouldn't be such long periods of mediocracy or recessions. When these things occur there is a problem with the overall system and you are not bettering yourself as a company, person, society or what have you.

# 16 bigwill33 @ 07/13/14 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpectralThundr


	Budgets are streamlined because the costs of making games is completely out of control and it IS entitled to expect EA to come out and say "The bowls in the arenas are darker because we want it to play at 60FPS" That has nothing to do with marketing at all. There's a huge difference between the two. No publisher is going to do that, NONE of them. Expecting them to hand deliver every design decision and why is a ridiculous request.

No designer would throw the system under the bus, but what you are saying is pure speculation. You cannot keep playing that card and simply win an argument by default because you cannot or will not be proven wrong because we cannot get a definitive answer. Maybe in your mind you can, but in reality the arenas are darker in the game than at their real life counterparts. No matter what reason you claim for that to be a result of it is just speculation.

And even with said speculation it begs the question "why was it done this way?" All that can be given to that is more speculation at this time. So, why not just let people say "hey, that arena is too dark for my taste" instead of getting all bent out of shape every time you see it? It is not ignorant on their part it is an opinion. It is not like people are buying a Kia and asking "where is all the horsepower they show on the commercial?". EA is touting being able to do things that have never been done before in a game and from what we have been shown they are doing them far below a standard that is of the highest quality that we have experienced elsewhere or have hoped for, or even have been promised by what is being touted here.

I don't understand why you are an EA apologist and jump on anyone that simply points out an opinion. I hate to see what might happen when the game drops and it would be complete garbage again in terms of gameplay. Because what would you say then? If it is your opinion that the game is good that is great for you. That is one thing, but you are making excuse after excuse for a lackluster product and it is growing old with the community here, like myself, that wishes to be heard in the small hope that this series can return to the glory that it once was or once was on par to become. I can see why you are former member that was once asked to no longer be a part of this community that had to come back under a different persona.

# 17 canucksss @ 07/13/14 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	EA are the ones touting the 19,000 fans. They are the ones releasing these pics, and only these pics.

If EA keep on boasting about the effort that they put to give us 19,000 fans and yet release these kind of pics....where is the proof of their effort? You know, if EA stop stressing that they put an effort to give us these 19,000 fans we will not have this "bitching" around about the darkness of the nosebleed sections.

We need proof...if a claim has no substantial proofs then trash it.

# 18 BaylorBearBryant @ 07/13/14 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morry83


	Ohhh, get outta here. Have you even been to a Stars game recently?

Apparently he has not. Place was PACKED when I last went. Even in the upper deck.

# 19 bigwill33 @ 07/13/14 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpectralThundr


	If you had come out and said "it's too dark for my taste" that would have been fine, and no one would have really cared. That hasn't been what people have said though. They've instead make snarky "Why are they trumping up new crowds when it's too dark to see the upper bowls?" That's not even remotely the same and I'm sure you know that. I actually am not a former member. I'm a long time lurker who just got sick of the constant negative about everything in regards to this title. Constructive criticism is one thing, I think most developers welcome that sort of thing. OS in recent years has gone so far to the opposite end of the spectrum however it's comical that I could probably list off users by name who I know will go out of their way to be negative every year around this time in regards to NHL. The Show guys trumped up 1000 different people in the stands as well, and then they retracted that and it became around 150 actual people in the stands and that the system in that case, the PS4 could theoretically do 1000. And to be honest? I am not sure on that. The Show already has noticeable chug often enough as it is, especially on screen swipes and presentation transitions. We're still very early in this console cycle, the optimizations and tricks developers often figure out will come to make games play a lot smoother, but we are no where near that point yet this early in. Again this is where opinion differs, I don't think NHL is lackluster at all. It has smooth online play, online team play, HUT, a solid GM mode that certainly has it's issues but it's functional, single seasons, playoff modes, be a pro, hell it likely has just about more modes than any other sports title on the market. It's getting an entire presentation overhaul said to be on par with the pinnacle of sports game presentation in NBA2k as well. It got a very solid fluid skating engine last year that totally changed how the game plays and feels. If that's considered lackluster either your standards for what you expect are through the roof and likely unrealistic for a yearly sports title that has 10 months on average to go from design to gold master. So to me when people parade their little NHL 10.5 comments, or whatever, yes I eye roll, because it's a ridiculous statement to make.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...-gameplay.html

Here is my reasoning behind why I feel most of everything you named there is lacking or behind where it needs to be for a video game in the year 2014.

And regardless of how people come across in getting their points and opinions on the table does matter and negativity is sometimes unjust and unwarranted but in EA's case, in particular with EA Vancouver, it may certainly be just in some people's minds. To a large portion of their consumers this game has come up short year after year since around 2010 after coming out of the gate flying on the "next gen" consoles.

Every game has its flaws, it is the ones that make the modes you speak of relatively unplayable, or at the very least unrealistic, that can ruin a game. The NHL series has become the poster child for this with its bastardization representation of the world's best game, in my mind.

# 20 13whitebread @ 07/13/14 07:00 PM

Everybody is speculating way to much. I know we have no gameplay to critique and everybody has the right but I will leave my criticism for a gameplay video if any. I am still pumped for the release really missing hockey know and for the first time in years more changes this go around more than any year. I did briefly play the show on my new ps4 and it was ok but I certainly don't see what all the fuss is about the game it was it's ok

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