NHL 24 Gameplay Video - Edmonton Oilers vs. Vegas Golden Knights (Superstar Difficulty)

[Sparkles]

It's quite impressive how disinterested I've become with this franchise more than any other. Like I just can't put into words how much further each year gets from a true simulated hockey game. Who is their target audience again? Twitch streamers that overreact to every goal and try to hit stick everyone they're defending ?? I just don't get it. Truly the clearest example of half-a$$ed production, with tik tok makeup over it. It's getting exhausting

I truly hope their sales keep declining, forcing them to shut down the franchise. It's getting embarrassing at this point

[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by VeNOM3099

I can assure you: It's NOT... Game runs at the same "ludicrous" speeds by default. The game was obviously tweaked for the video to make it look more tame, or running on default FULL SIM presets. It still looks too fast to me. Skating still looks floaty, rotation of the players on the ice still looks completely off. Don't even get me started on the goalies... That first goal? Where the goalie flops around and makes back to back saves, only to not even move when he takes the puck behind and around the net and attempts a sliding blocking butterfly save when he gets the wrap around? ... *sigh* Why didn't the goalie FLOP or dive to make a save there? Why didn't he go spread eagle or, i don't know, MOVE WITH AN URGENCY TO DO HIS FUSHLUGGINAH JOB AND SAVE THE PUCK!!! I'm not disputing the fact that it was probably going to be a goal anyways. I'm disputing the fact that the goalie does NOTHING while he moves to the other side for 2 whole seconds, and when he does move, he does the WRONG save animation (what goalie in the NHL or even in the MINOR LEAGUES, goes for a sliding butterfly save attempt when going from one post to the other???) Sister Mary-Francis... I can't. And they had to pick NASHER to narrate the vid... God! I couldn't stand more than 3 and a half minutes of his innane, over-hyped drivel. Ugh!

The skating in this series is horrid...I actually think this new team made it worse in 23...Instead of having the game play at a real life speed, they simply removed any sort of agility. I can powerturn in NHL 2k10 better than I can in this game, all because they were unable to solve the LT abuse issue via their readily available sliders...and they didn't "solve" that issue because they didn't even try!! Slow the game down to real life speeds?? noooo, just break agility!! Problem solved!! LT is GONE!!

Looking past the speed issue, the AI is just completely uninterested in defense still. The "scrambles" look awful. Not only are the goalies doing a Hasek with 17 red bulls in him impression, but the defense just stands around!! No block shots, not diving pokes, no desperation pokes, checks, collapsing, etc...just the two D mindlessly standing around because they're programming has flip-flopped their assignment 400 times in .5 seconds so they end up just standing around while the center goes and covers a corner and the wings stand still with the offensive team's D watching the show down low!

There was another rush with Nasher on defense where he properly was covering the puck carrier. The puck carrier stopped and retreated up the boards and eventually to the slot because the back pressure AI forward who was first back in the zone took a path directly to the strong-side corner (where Nasher was) to "cover" for the D (The D was human...because the human was "out of position" according to the AI...you know, cause following your assignment is "bad" and standing still in a spot is "good" defense) which not only allowed the puck carrier a free rush to the slot, but also left the defensive team down in numbers because now instead of the puck carrier gaining a step on his man, the AI also moved a defensive guy into the corner the puck has already left to simply stand there and cover nothing...I'm not a programmer, but what in the world is so hard about making the AI either understand the defensive zone is man-to-man or at worst program the AI to simply hard collapse to the slot by default before trying to initiate any puck/assignment pressure!?

That's the biggest "fun factor" problem with this series. It's comically easy to get good shots off, so the devs make goalie reactions robotic and force you to score glitch goals or rebounds rather than having the AI do the simplest of things which would be literally standing still in the "home base" area and blocking shots...I mean, I would take that 11/10 days over whatever their current programming defines "positioning" as in the defensive zone. No matter the sliders, you can generate a slot shot by simply doing an up the boards escape with the puck carrier even when outnumbered by the defense...It's 2024, can we please get AI that don't actively skate themselves OUT OF THE PLAY for LITERALLY NO REASON!?

I hate to beat this dead horse, but I still keep going back to a less than perfect game because the in-zone play is so chaotic and provides a real sense of pressure, panic, and "earned" goals and that game is NHL Hitz Pro. It's ugly, the goalie physics don't make sense all of the time, there's a ton of warping, there's not a good "first shot goal" balance, but my goodness is the zone chaotic!! The CPU block shots TO A FAULT, they're diving, they're desperate, they're constantly checking open guys LEADING TO PENALTIES, they ICE THE PUCK when tired, it's honestly amazing. This is a game from 2003!!! How can a game from 2003 do a stellar job at capturing in-zone hockey and we can even get the AI pylons to at least stand in the most dangerous spot on the ice in 2024?? HOW!??

Then presentation...WE HAVE A CIRCLE ON THE ICE THAT CANT BE TURNED OFF DURING GAMEPLAY!!! LOLLLLL....I mean, we have animated boards!! Why is the pressure meter not on the boards!? WHY IS IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ICE WITHOUT A TOGGLE!? We have goal "tunnels" if you will!?? With uninterested zombies in the back?? We score a goal and get a .2 second later complete swipe transition to the goal "tunnel" lol!? How does this garbage pass the discussion table let alone actually be given the green light for implementation!? THEN that actually passed QA!? HOW!?

I'm honestly disgusted by both 23 and 24. I know NHL has always been a ****** catering game (because real hockey isn't fun, right guys?) but these last two attempts have been disgusting. I'm so incredibly done with this series. Going to try and get a 2k10 emulation going this weekend. I'm done. You can't even try justifying putting a ridiculous pressure circle IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ICE with a straight face, can you? That's the line. I've finally found it. AI aren't even serviceable, looked past it. Physics are wonky, looked past it. Goalies aren't even sniffing 2k8's shorts, used global attributes and sliders to mitigate and looked past it. Presentation package since post-NBC days (19) hasn't been visually appealing, looked past it. Even animated boards and the garbage goal "tunnel" could probably get looked past...but I refuse to give even the slightest amount of legitimacy to a "sim" game that feels it's acceptable to put a meter on the game surface...Could you imagine FIFA doing this? Could you imagine Madden putting the momentum meter as a watermark on the field? I mean, those games aren't even the "gold standard" of realism but even they wouldn't think to stoop this low.

I don't see this series ever recovering from this for me. I'm done.

[iaxy]

It is clear that EA have focused on the arcade gaming fan.

So no word on whether the icons can be turned off?

And I am confuses as to why he did not show the new side camera. He had a whole game to showcase the new features...

[da_centa_fielda]

This is probably the first year that every sports game has me really interested.

[Fiddy]

It's crazy to me to see all this "arcade" talk. LOL

This is the same game since NHL 07, nothing sim overall on any of them, just some sim elements here and there. Thats all NHL 24 is, new features that are arcade base to make it feel a bit more "sim" in certain areas of the game.

They 100% need to figure out how to add a toggle so we can turn all the meters off for sure though.

[capnlarge]

This doesn't look that appealing in video form but I hear a lot of positivity from people who have actually played it. I dunno. I found the goal celebrations really jarring, like a PS2 era sudden cutscene, rather than a smooth transition

[HeadCoach2.0]

So it's 100% confirmed that the circle on the ice can't be removed??

[MTLExpos4Ever]

Seems to me that the main benefit is that you'll now save $70 instead of $60 when you don't buy it.