NHL 16: Article Breakdown from EA GameChanger who PLAYED the Game

[Jet Sufferer]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

While everyone at OS is flipping out over the absurd lack of player editing in the game, I finally have some questions about NHL 16 for our corespondent: How different did the overall game play to you? Did you pick up the controller and immediately know how to score again? Is '16 just '15 with new modes or did they actually make the game play differently? Were goaltenders touched at all? Still make way too many glove saves and warp from side to side and post to post with no real push or slide? Can we still skate end-to-end against the CPU with no real pressure in the neutral zone again? Are the boards clear for lanes all of the time again to pass out of the zone? Are players constantly falling all over the ice over every little contact made again? Can every player check anyone once again, no matter who they are? This is especially important with EASHL because OTP in '15 was a complete mess with players on the ice at all times. We needed incidental contact for years and then they went overboard with it and just have players flopping everywhere, looks nothing like a real hockey game. Real hockey has contact and players bump off and absorb hits. Is passing still awful? No ability to bank passes or use the boards to chip or bank clears out of the zone, still? Is passing in from the defensive zone still way too accurate and passing in the offensive zone still way too inaccurate? Did they finally map the controls differently so that we can change lines and still poke check? Not being able to hit R1/RB to perform one of 3 acts of defense in the game because we had the line change option up is absurd. Is goalie passing still way unreal because they feel the need to cater to the arcade crowd that hates whistles and stoppages in play? Are we still automatically forced to fight because of a big hit? Do all players still fight like last year? Do players straddle the blue line again to attempt to avoid being offside? Did they fix or address the phantom and wonky goaltender interference calls? Did they add any new penalties or change the way the others were occurring at all? Can we finally cycle? Can we chip the puck up the boards to gain the zone and then skate the long way around the defender that tries to run legal interference... you know, like how we see it happen dozens of times in each and every playoff game? Has board play been addressed or is it the same suction bs that it has been for half a decade now? Can the CPU still magically kick a puck from the end boards for a scoring chance in the slot? Is there any punishment in OTP for quitting a game early (like having to wait until that game that the player just left actually finishes before being able to jump into another game)? Is there any punishment for going out of position all game in OTP, continually going offside or just being an a-hole? Any changes to the amount of pauses in OTP/EASHL/Online? Why is there a need to have 3 or 4 pauses per team, per game, that last 45 seconds each? Can we call a timeout that refreshes your players in EASHL, finally? Any chance of being able to watch a game online or scout an opponent? Any way to see a team's record, rank, history, dnf %, etc. before accepting a game against them in any online mode? Did they add a way to tie-up an opponent in front of the net back into the game, but not in a way that was stupid and just was unrealistic suction that was nearly impossible to roll off of? Do goalies kick out real rebound chances, the kind in which a player sitting on the doorstep can take several cracks at to try and bury? And the kind that the d must just try and sweep to the corner to avoid being scored on? Can we hold a player's stick up during a stick lift or finally pin their stick down to tie-up a man during a loose puck scramble or oncoming pass attempt? Is the OTP menu and team selection still awful? Has it been changed at all or is it still just a mess where we wait for someone to finally come along and pick defense and have people that just sit in the middle for 3 minutes before everyone just backs out with 3 seconds left? Any talk of allowing us to import our own logos or faces into the game? Does anyone at EA even think of these things or think that these are real issues that plague this series? These are the issues that made this game unplayable to me. Player editing can only do so much to make players have separation in their styles and abilities, but if the game still plays like garbage on the ice because of how it is programmed (and has been for years now) then it is a waste of time and money to me, again.

Can OS give me like an allotment of say 25 thumbs up votes per day so I can use like 24 or 25 thumbs up votes on this post?

[Vikes1]

Yep, Bigwill pretty much nailed things again. Imo, Bigwill would have made one heck of a, Gamechanger. He speaks for many i believe.

[TDKing]

Imo nothing is going to change until we get a new guy in charge of the nhl team over at ea or hopefully 2k gets back in the game. So as long as Rammer is there I wouldn't expect to much to change his priorties are not the same as ours.

[Therion7]

Quote: Originally Posted by TDKing

Imo nothing is going to change until we get a new guy in charge of the nhl team over at ea or hopefully 2k gets back in the game. So as long as Rammer is there I wouldn't expect to much to change his priorties are not the same as ours.

In Rammer's defence here, I have no doubt he's been given a timeframe and a budget and been told to focus on the cash cows and unfortunately for sim players that's online.

Edit Player not making the cut again is damning proof that for profit-driven EA executives, actually having to put in bare bones offline content is nothing more than an inconvenience.

[ricky24]

With no grading system eashl is going to be a cherry pickers heaven.

[SMU420Stone]

When was the last time you got good and angry about EASHL? Do you want to?

I wish I could post new topics already. I was sure I had an account here but apparently not as I just had to create one. I'm very curious as to EA's market research about EASHL. All of the positives in making all of the skaters pre-set seems to me (and other people throughout the thread) the lazy way around implementing matchmaking/coding measures to fix the mode.

Firstly, I don't know who you all are playing with/against to have trouble with 68 rated 6'9" grinders. The most annoying thing for me when I played EASHL was as soon as you crossed the opposing blue line everyone would lay their body down and swing their stick. If you find a good club or play in a league you won't have the issues mentioned with game breaking tactics. No one wants to play like a spastic. Unattractive hockey is easy enough to identify and counter. This sounds like a problem almost exclusive to drop in games. Drop in games should be avoided like the Black Plague, played only when you're hard up. This is true in NHL and FIFA imo.

I agree with the micro transactions being out, but the EASHL was always advertised as a league for your virtual pro. Now your virtual pro will begin his career just short of stardom and end his career in the same way, never reaching that 90 mark. I think everyone being the same speed is dumb as rocks, but that's fine as it's only my opinion. I never did grind to legend 3 and I'm fine with that. I had a great time playing between the pipes especially. If I let a goal in I didn't blame player ratings or glitch goals. I blamed my own reaction time and/or the positioning of the defenders.

The old EASHL had a classification system in the way of cards. Pro 1 2 3, legend 1 2 blahblahblah. This suggests that a matchmaking system was/is MORE than viable and should've been easy to implement in theory. I could see a new developer not having the resources to do it properly but this is EA we're talking about here. They're not exactly hurting for a hot meal.

I think that people should be at a disadvantage for not playing EASHL religiously compared to those who live in that mode. That's just work ethic/reward. It doesn't make sense to me to say that it's a level playing field now. That's not hockey, that's not the NHL/AHL/CHL/OHL ect ect. Grinding is and should be rewarded. Again, matchmaking based on your rank would solve this issue.

The whole holding the puck at an awkward angle and being able to ride out any check is a gameplay flaw and should be addressed as such along with the rest of them, but at the same time I always thought that to be EA's way of (failing at) animating the way a player can sometimes ride a check out. Also, bigger bodies should be able to cream tiny guys and retain the puck a lot. They shouldn't be able to catch them though. That's life.

Those saying it's better for/aimed at eSports is another void argument. FIFA and their accomplishment system is soaring with so many different (GOOD, skilled, competitive) leagues it'll make your head spin. Yes for the past few years it's always been the same 100 guys at the top but that's the fun of it, trying to join or dethrone them in the rankings. Also you can't say that the community is way down and then say you're aiming at eSports. Imo anyway.

Maybe capping stats for Grinder and Playmaker ect types? FIFA and 2K did it quite well as was mentioned earlier. PFs won't be draining 7 3balls a game. Your CDM will often put the ball into Row Z when he's open infront of net. Capping stats and invisible but sensible handicaps seem to be the most fair and accepted way to deal with this. A 6'9" Grinder, while being a tank, should have the hands of a drunk dentist.

Needless to say I'm absolutely gutted about this EASHL that I've been waiting a year or two for. I've just typed out a novel for God's sake. It feels like EA are giving out participation ribbons to everyone instead of rewarding the winners.

No offence to anyone is meant in this post, but I'm yet to see a sound argument for pulling the guts out of my favorite game mode. If I could make a post about EASHL opinions I would so we all could have a sound discussion about it, but I can't. Guess I'll be sticking to FIFA and it's accomplishment system again this year, even though I'm less skilled there than in NHL. I really wanted to strap on the pads again this year and get to know my posts again. Too bad


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[canucksss]

NZ pressure anyone? Or we just have to deliberately dump the puck? Because in the past, there's no NZ pressure at all in BaGM, even during the playoffs, no difference from regular games except towel waving and the decal on ice saying Stanley Cup Playoff.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by canucksss

NZ pressure anyone? Or we just have to deliberately dump the puck? Because in the past, there's no NZ pressure at all in BaGM, even during the playoffs, no difference from regular games except towel waving and the decal on ice saying Stanley Cup Playoff.

Ah, the good ol' "Dump Just Because They Do In Hockey". I know it's early, but I'm already losing faith in NHL16. It's going to take a lot of positive user reviews to even get me considering NHL16 at this point. They haven't announced anything that sounds that monumental (the player emotion aspect of Be a GM sounds nice, but it could easily turn into a micromanagement annoyance when I have a 4th line player expecting 1st line minutes) and it doesn't really sound like much outside of EASHL is changing.

I'm going to keep following it, but EA dropped the ball pretty hard with NHL15, and I don't see a lot of positive signs that they've picked it back up. As always, i really hope I'm wrong. I'm just not impressed with the progress EA's made.