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NHL 17 News Post

NHL 17 Beta Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here!

  05:09 PM - July 27, 2016 by RaychelSnr

EA Sports today announced the arrival of the NHL 17 Beta, available now to NHL Insiders. So basically if you get the NHL Newsletter and if you signed up for the beta by July 7th, you can get it today -- a full 24 hours earlier than expected.

The Beta will be available to everyone else starting tomorrow and will last through August 4 and features several modes for you to get a kickstart on your upcoming season:
  • Hockey Ultimate Team: Build. Collect. Compete. The most played mode in EA SPORTS NHL gets even better! Introducing HUT Synergy, an all-new “Team Building” system designed to challenge the way you build and play as your Ultimate Team. Pair player strengths together to create synergy in your roster and grant perks across your lineups. The all-new HUT Dynamic Sets mechanic takes collecting to a new level that replicates the biggest real-world hockey moments. Collect sets to unlock rewards, including new thematic sets, to constantly build and improve your team. With Dynamic HUT Sets, if it happens hockey, it happens in NHL 17.
  • EA Sports Hockey League: Take your EA SPORTS Hockey League team to the next level and build your brand by completing games, and leveling up your player and team to unlock customization items. Give your uniform a unique look or use the all-new Arena Creator to build the home ice you’ve always wanted.
  • Online Versus: Play NHL 17 online in a one vs. one environment. Own Every Zone with more end-to-end control with authentic goalies featuring positional awareness and Reactionary Save Intelligence, all-new Net Battles for offensive and defensive zone play, and dozens of thrilling new goal celebrations.
EA Sports is seeking feedback and opinions from the community about your playtime with the Beta. Be sure to leave impressions and thoughts on what you are playing in the comments below!

Game: NHL 17Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS4 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 5 - View All
NHL 17 Videos
NHL 17 Vision Trailer Video
NHL 17 Vision Trailer NHL 17 Vision Trailer Video

Member Comments
# 141 iaxy @ 07/29/16 04:24 AM
So people observe that it plays a lot like NHL 16. Whilst I have a different opinion, I see exactly why they would feel that.

Whilst a much tightened game, NHL 17 looks almost identical to NHL 16. And that’s not exactly a compliment. For several years now EA have been recycling the same animations, camera angles, light conditions, reflections, etc. That doesn’t mean NHL 17 is a bad looking game. For someone who is picking this up for the first time, the presentation may look fresh, but for people who have played it since 2013 (I’ve played it since 2003), the game looks stale, tired and is in need of a major overhaul – graphically.

So let’s get the criticism out of the way first.
The animations (or lack of new ones) let this game down badly. I am tired of seeing the same robotic animations associated with shooting, passing, pass reception, pucks pickups from boards, etc.. It feels and looks jerky. It lacks fluidity. EA have done amazing strides forward with FIFA, why can’t they do it with NHL?!? You can’t have a stick fully extended in front of your body and generate a snap shot – this is against the law of physics and it also looks arcadish. How many years has this ridiculous animation been in the series – 5? 6? The chop puck is another horrendous looking animation recycled from last year. When reaching the puck near the boards, the animation looks silly to say the least. Regarding player models - the separation of limbs and upper / lower body is still robotic and jerky.
I only play on True Broadcast camera, but I honestly can’t begin to think how people who play up / down must feel like. It looks exactly the same as any NHL from the last 4,5 years. It’s just monotonous and stale for anyone who has played the series before.

So the question is – does it justify the purchase?

The graphics / animation topic aside, the game actually plays very well. EA have tightened the controls, the skating feels more realistic due to the addition of more weight and also different players feel different to maneuver. Heavy guys feel heavy and stocky, smaller guys and danglers feel lighter and agile. Puck physics have improved. There a lot more loose pucks and that’s a good thing. Hockey is a loose game. Defencemen feel better (easier) to control as they do not shift out of positions as easily as last year. Players hold the blue line better and go offside less often – a huge source of frustration with previous games. Momentum (inertia) has a bigger effect, which is a welcome addition. The variety of goals scored is much greater. Goalies feel and look better. Hitting feels more rewarding and actually serves a tactical purpose.
So gameplay wise, this game plays a decent game of hockey.
But to me the lack of new animations is a gamebreaker and I will not be purchasing this game.

My positives:

+ Much better skating
+ Shots have a zip to them. The speed feel realistic
+ Passes are quicker
+ Breakaways are more frequent and feel / look better.
+ Players hold the blue line better
+ It’s easier to play D as D-men do not glide wildly as they did last year
+ Much better puck physics
+ Camera shakes when there is a goal - at least on True Broadcast (although this may get old quickly)
+ Different players feel different to control
+ Greater variety of goals
+ There’s more penalties
+ The goalies have received some love and if there are any new animations – that’s where they are.
+ If I am not imagining this, I think I saw the crowd progressively rising from their chairs as I built up one particular attack. The crowd and goalies are probably the only new things I’ve seen in the graphics / animation department.

Negatives:

-Stale animations for passing, shooting, and general stick handling make this game look old and tired (big issue for me)
-Jerky movements
-Whilst the skating feels better, it still looks robotic and tired – it just lacks fluidity when changing direction
-Maneuvering when close to the boards looks horrendous. And so does the chop animation
-Stale presentation (EA need to introduce some new camera angles, new ice reflections, new light)
-Stale player models - same old as the last 2-3 years. Little separation between upper and lower body, limbs, etc.
-Online it's just the same cheese. You can still get disposessed by players trailing behind you without any contact actually occurring
-Player clustering is still an issue – with no real physics present in the pile ups
 
# 142 shogunofharlem3 @ 07/29/16 08:38 AM
Played 5 or 6 games last night. I thought it played very well. Similar to 16 but I felt like if you were in position to break up a play you could actually do it. Which was nice. I also found it much easier when playing defense to keep the puck carrier to the outside, which was also nice.

That being said, my absolute favorite thing so far. The 3rd game I played was a 6v6 and we had great chemistry. I mentioned that 17 allows drop in teams to stick together for the next game. We did, for 3 more games. We went 4-0. Had some great laughs and we really were starting to play hockey.

Love that feature. Great addition.
 
# 143 bonannogiovanni @ 07/29/16 08:43 AM
my PS4 codes:

FDN6EQN2JQ63

F3CPE8NRJQMQ

Happy gaming!
 
# 144 seasprite @ 07/29/16 09:32 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pappy Knuckles
I've only played online so far and I'm enjoying it. I'm not a fan of the sport, but I enjoyed 16. NHL 17 feels pretty good and I think I'm going to grab it at launch. Here's a goal I scored online earlier. I'm a pretty awful player, so this one felt good.



Great goal.................that defense was horrible lol
 
# 145 djhallberg38 @ 07/29/16 09:42 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moose Factory
Already saw three huge deal breakers for me:

1. Can't adjust play time of offline HUT seasons, it's set to 5 minute periods. With delays, goals celebrations, replays, it's like 25 minutes all together. Who has that kind of time for one match? I'm married with kids.

2. Not many new face scans. How many years has Thomas Hertl been playing? Come on. Joel Ward? It's annoying to try to play a season with your favorite team when half of them have generic faces. How many more years before we can actually get a close to full league representation of these players?

3. No GameFace in create a pro, just 200+ generic faces that all look terrible. Come on! Even NBA Live had a face scan app! That worked!

But HEY those mascots look great, and I'm glad we can change the color of the seat cushions in the stadiums, thanks... NO BUY this year : (
I am with you on the deal breakers. I will add a few of my own.

-Line celebrations: If I see any 2 player only post goal line celebrations, I am going to lose it. This is the most basic part of hockey. Player scores a goal and the whole line on the ice comes together to celebrate. How is it that the developer team was able to have this in NHL '11, but it has been absent since? What could possibly be more important to conveying realism or an immersive atmosphere, than including what actually occurs after every team scores a goal? I cannot believe how much this irritates me.

-In game season stats: Another annoyance that has been conveniently omitted in the Next Gen versions, has been the inclusion of showing how many goals, assists, etc. a player has after a goal has been scored. I hope this has been addressed. How can you not show this info? Madden shows it after every play!! All we need, is to show after a goal. EA stop wasting time on useless crap, like mascots, over the top individual celebrations,etc., and focus on creating a realistic NHL atmosphere that goes with your simulation style game play.
 
# 146 Money99 @ 07/29/16 10:17 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by djhallberg38
I am with you on the deal breakers. I will add a few of my own.

-Line celebrations: If I see any 2 player only post goal line celebrations, I am going to lose it. This is the most basic part of hockey. Player scores a goal and the whole line on the ice comes together to celebrate. How is it that the developer team was able to have this in NHL '11, but it has been absent since? What could possibly be more important to conveying realism or an immersive atmosphere, than including what actually occurs after every team scores a goal? I cannot believe how much this irritates me.

-In game season stats: Another annoyance that has been conveniently omitted in the Next Gen versions, has been the inclusion of showing how many goals, assists, etc. a player has after a goal has been scored. I hope this has been addressed. How can you not show this info? Madden shows it after every play!! All we need, is to show after a goal. EA stop wasting time on useless crap, like mascots, over the top individual celebrations,etc., and focus on creating a realistic NHL atmosphere that goes with your simulation style game play.
I thought I had read that this was fixed?
Might be wrong though.

Count me as someone who wants a 5-man hug too. It's time that was fixed.

Saying that, I'm still liking what I've been reading regarding the gameplay.
I'll reserve judgement when I hear more impressions of real NHL games vs the CPU, not just HUT.
 
# 147 Madwolf @ 07/29/16 10:58 AM
I'm not sure how you can gripe about atmosphere and then complain about wasting time on mascots.

Honestly I think the environment was night and day better from 15 to 16.
 
# 148 SocialAssassin @ 07/29/16 11:24 AM
Only played one period. Something about the skating just felt........clunky?

Beyond that, I do enjoy that players take passes in stride now and don't stop then accelerate again like they used to in old games. I still wish we could icon pass though. Why is this feature not in the game?
 
# 149 Btk0817 @ 07/29/16 11:29 AM
Hey guys! Hope everyone is having a goodtime playing. Was hoping someone has an extra NHL17 ps4 beta code? Would love to play this weekend! Thanks for your help. And my username on here is the same Username on PS4!
 
# 150 Rhudey @ 07/29/16 11:54 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madwolf
I'm not sure how you can gripe about atmosphere and then complain about wasting time on mascots.

Honestly I think the environment was night and day better from 15 to 16.
Maybe because mascots are the least important aspect of "atmosphere". How many NHL games have you watched and actually even noticed a mascot at the game? Crowd noise/reaction, stadium sounds, etc. create atmosphere, not mascots. Creating mascots was probably the biggest waste of time this franchise has ever seen.
 
# 151 Moose Factory @ 07/29/16 12:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhudey
Maybe because mascots are the least important aspect of "atmosphere". How many NHL games have you watched and actually even noticed a mascot at the game? Crowd noise/reaction, stadium sounds, etc. create atmosphere, not mascots. Creating mascots was probably the biggest waste of time this franchise has ever seen.
Actually I'd add that the NHL 94 anniversary mode in NHL 14 was the biggest waste of time this franchise has ever seen. Basically arcade settings with blue ice.

I think this dev team needs to take a long vacation and play nothing but MLB The Show and NBA2K franchises and take copious notes on how to handle a sports franchise.
 
# 152 actionhank @ 07/29/16 12:44 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pappy Knuckles
I've only played online so far and I'm enjoying it. I'm not a fan of the sport, but I enjoyed 16. NHL 17 feels pretty good and I think I'm going to grab it at launch. Here's a goal I scored online earlier. I'm a pretty awful player, so this one felt good.

The AI in that video makes my heart hurt...really hope the defenders aren't that awful by release time.

Edit: I should clarify what's obnoxious about this. The 100% passive AI on defense still continues. You can see it best when Lehtera is guarding him as he's cutting across towards the front of the net...he just skates behind him trying to catch up for that cross check animation, instead of holding his stick out in front of him to angle the player away from the net, and force him to go behind it or risk getting the puck knocked off of his stick. Lehtera's actually in pretty good position.

On top of that, Shattenkirk running into Backes and knocking them both out of position to guard the shooter instead of covering the strong side of the net seems a bit goofy itself.

Sad to see it doesn't look like the AI spent too much time in class over the summer.

Double Edit: I threw together some images real quick. It's hard to tell who was playing which position, since they are on the PP, and it's hard to know who's supposed to be back on D, but judging by things, I'm guessing Backes might be the "defender" out there.

So here's where things get goofy first of all. Even ignoring that the player controlling Tarasenko takes him on a goofy route, there's a few ways the AI could have handled things a bit better.



When they're skating in, it's essentially a 5 on 2...there shouldn't be a scoring chance. The player skates in, and Shattenkirk is in perfect position, with Tarasenko trailing the shooter. The blue arrow from Shattenkirk shows where he could have gone to put pressure on the puck carrier, and follow him up the boards, with Lehtera covering the middle and the high boards to seal him off. Backes smartly skates straight to the weak side of the net, where he eventually engages the Sabres player that skates in to set up shop. I think the biggest mess up is that instead of Shattenkirk keeping pressure (once again, an AI player gets within stick distance, but just stands without actually trying to poke check). Still, it should be relatively easy to cover. Backes has the back door shooter covered, and there are still 3 guys near the puck carrier, with Tarasenko guarding the player near the blue line.

Then it moves to my next image.

Blue is the route the players should have taken to provide coverage, orange it the puck carrier's eventual path, and yellow is where Lehtera's player could have easily held his stick to apply coverage and likely force the player behind the net
Lehtera stops in the middle, which isn't bad, as he's covering the pass...but instead of trying to stay between the shooter and the slot, he stops, poke checks while standing, and then has to skate almost behind the puck carrier, instead of making a straight line back to the net to seal off the slot. Meanwhile, Shattenkirk has peeled off of pressuring the puck carrier, skated over and taken Backes and himself out of the play, as Backes is bumped off coverage, and Shattenkirk isn't facing the play, and has his stick completely tied up in an effort to shove the Sabres player.
 
# 153 Ownal0t @ 07/29/16 01:00 PM
things i picked up on,

- From playing offline seasons on HUT , its a bit unsettling that i can still score my cheap goals from 16.
- i ran my first game without a goal horn as the islanders, and i noticed the Yes! YES ! YES! chants after goals. then in my 2nd game when i turned on the goal horn, they yes yes yes chants would go away all to together now till the end of the game for the salute to the crowd

- CAN I PLEASE MUTE THAT FAINT MENU SOUND THAT NEVER STFUS. I play with a headset and its super annoying now
 
# 154 videobastard @ 07/29/16 01:11 PM
Enjoying playing the different modes but the commentary presentation is boring. The nhl is the type of sports game were the action is going on at a high rate and the commentary is too dull in its delivery.
 
# 155 SontaranChief @ 07/29/16 01:20 PM
Hey does anyone possibly have one extra PS4 code? Would greatly appreciate it, or being pointed in the direction of where to possibly find one. Thanks for your itme
 
# 156 Ownal0t @ 07/29/16 01:28 PM

******** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">
How is this not goalie interference. (the ref actually counted this) everyone quit or the game glitched out afterwards

not sure how to embed twitter videos
 
# 157 bad_philanthropy @ 07/29/16 02:04 PM
Played some single player HUT. While I don't like the general tuning, the changes to skating, pivoting, and vision control are more apparent to me there.

-There seems to be more small animations for foot movement to make movement seem more fluid and realistic.

-The AI also seems to do a better job in the the offensive zone moving off of the puck, and then setting up in an attacking posture relative to the puck carrier.

-Short passes feel ten times better.

-Puck chop seems op. The puck can be rimming around the boards at high speed and you can puck chop the puck in the opposite direction with ease.

-More AI back check, and I generally really like how the AI sets up defensively.

-AI doesn't get pulled out of position as easily when cycling. You really have to be more varied offensively it seems.

-Like I said, I don't like the general tuning, but I like some of the apparent improvements, and am encouraged to fool around with the new sliders.

-Overall it's not a revolution at all, but it is an improvement over 16 in some subtle, but important ways.

-Do wish there were more/better custom logos for CAT. Of course, import logo would be ideal, and I absolutely cannot believe they introduced this feature without, at least, a basic import option.
 
# 158 speedtrucker @ 07/29/16 02:28 PM
Played roughly 8 games with my EASHL 4 mates. So much of the play felt more polished, more weighty, tighter except 1 thing...

The goalies are horrendous in EASHL now, AI goalies. We had 1 game have less than 4 goals a tightly played 1-2 OT loss. Every other match was 6-5, 4-7, 5-6, 5-7... We had a match finish with 3 players having hat tricks and another with my average squadmate finish with 6 goals... As a power forward.

It basically seems to be drive-by goals going back across the goalie cannot be stopped.

We had fun outside of the comic score lines.
 
# 159 Formula1Racing @ 07/29/16 03:27 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SontaranChief
Hey does anyone possibly have one extra PS4 code? Would greatly appreciate it, or being pointed in the direction of where to possibly find one. Thanks for your itme
Tried to PM you a code but you are not receiving PM mail...hate to post it here due to someone snatching it up.
 
# 160 thedudedominick @ 07/29/16 04:10 PM
Only one major complaint from me. I play pretty much exclusively EASHL.


Hustle is overpowered. The AI Defense just gets skated right by every time for an easy cross crease goal for the other team. I've hated the hustle option since it's inception, but this year it seems to make even more of a difference. There's just no penalty in EASHL for people using it constantly.
 


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