NHL 16 Trial Available Now For EA Access Subscribers, Get 10 Hours of Gamplay

[speedtrucker]

has anyone been able to start the download through the Smartglass or xbox.com?

Smartglass does not give me the option to download, just says "play on Xbox" and then attempts to find my XB1, which won't happen since I'm at work.

Xbox.com keeps erroring when trying to start the download.

[HypoLuxa13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gerg04

Hopefully this is the year I can get into Be A GM and actually enjoy playing the cpu. In the past its always been win by a lot or lose by a lot, never an in-between. Time will tell. But in my 1st three games I really enjoyed playing and the game felt fresh and way more "alive" over 15'.

I picked up NHL 15 late in the season at a steep discount, and I DID find some pretty good offline/single player game play after drastically adjusting sliders and settings. I know exactly what you mean by the win by/lose by a lot at the default difficulty and slider settings. I spent a good 20 games or so working on the sliders until I was getting more realistic feeling hockey, and more realistic shot and goal numbers.

There was still some frustrating things regarding AI and such, but it was much more enjoyable after working on the sliders for a while.

[brandon27]

I got a game in this morning, me as the Wings, playing host to Toronto. I easily picked up the win in this one.

Saw again, just some general gameplay improvements that have me saying yeah, I'll pick this up still. It's a big enough improvement over NHL15.

There's still plenty of issues I have though that may make me change my mind as I play through the trial.

In this Det/Tor game, I dump it into their zone, Phaneuf gains control of the puck, and I press him into the boards in the corner to the right of the net. A second player of mine comes to help, and the puck all of the sudden is kicked backwards out of the pile by Phaneuf to a teammate who is between the blue line, and the face off circle on the LEFT side of the ice. and It's a rocket too. That's completely ridiculous to me that stuff like that happens in this game still.

One of their goals, again, deep in my zone, the rocket passing begins, they're guys are flying, mine are standing still as they burry a one timer with a wide open man out front. The same garbage goals I've seen from the CPU over the years where you just feel cheated.

There's still far too many times for my liking where I feel like the CPU players have no effects of speed, acceleration, physics, they just have total speed and total control at all times. Now, I love the way my controlled players skate. It feels good. It feels natural. However, the weight, and momentum that I feel as the player, and I see my guys skating with, seems like it's completely missing at times with the CPU Players.

I've only played 2.5 games now, but those two issues have always been big issues for me, and it seems they are still present.



Finally saw the CPU get a penalty. Hooking. I hand the slider cranked up to full as well for CPU penalties. That's the first I've seen in limited action.

I've still got 8.5 hours or so left on my trial, so lots of hockey still to be played over the weekend.

At times, I'm in love with the game and it feels great, looks great etc. etc. Then there's the boneheaded things that happen that just don't feel or look right and I'm left wondering if I should still pick this up or not.

[jaiman]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

So the Blackhawks' actual organist has a small sound clip in the game now that plays alongside a "Let's go Hawks!" chant. You can hear it at 1:23 of this video: It's a nice touch, but this clip barely plays much at all during games (mostly just on center ice faceoffs). The organ and crowd should be much more active throughout the game. Has anyone heard real chants and organ music for any other teams besides Chicago? I'll have to try out a few more arenas today.

Cool! Saw some nice gameplay in there too. The CPU and your teammates did some nice things. I saw some cases of neutral zone pressure. A dump in that took a weird redirect off a stanchion. Your first goal was nice too. A good drive to the net by your CPU teammate.

A few things I hate to see:

- Why do sticks and parts of players still disappear into the boards? I thought for sure this was going to be fixed.

- The jerseys still flow way too much into the 'wind'. And they seem to be very flat. The crest, numbers, and nameplates look like stickers. Did look like a cheap jersey that I would buy for my men's league team. Everything else looks so good, which makes the jerseys stick out that much more.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by brandon27

There's still plenty of issues I have though that may make me change my mind as I play through the trial. In this Det/Tor game, I dump it into their zone, Phaneuf gains control of the puck, and I press him into the boards in the corner to the right of the net. A second player of mine comes to help, and the puck all of the sudden is kicked backwards out of the pile by Phaneuf to a teammate who is between the blue line, and the face off circle on the LEFT side of the ice. and It's a rocket too. That's completely ridiculous to me that stuff like that happens in this game still. One of their goals, again, deep in my zone, the rocket passing begins, they're guys are flying, mine are standing still as they burry a one timer with a wide open man out front. The same garbage goals I've seen from the CPU over the years where you just feel cheated. There's still far too many times for my liking where I feel like the CPU players have no effects of speed, acceleration, physics, they just have total speed and total control at all times. Now, I love the way my controlled players skate. It feels good. It feels natural. However, the weight, and momentum that I feel as the player, and I see my guys skating with, seems like it's completely missing at times with the CPU Players. I've only played 2.5 games now, but those two issues have always been big issues for me, and it seems they are still present.

That is very discouraging to read.
It's probably my #1 complaint about this series.

[MizzouRah]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gerg04

Played the opening game TB vs Chi. All-star, Hardcore, all visual aids off. Small indicator size, small puck size, small shadow (authentic is just too small). Dropped the game -speed down a couple notches. I never really play against the cpu, but I actually enjoyed this. It was a battle and I had to work for everything. Won 2-1 on a penalty shot in OT, talk about a thriller. Passes are not automatic. Especially if you're skating left from center towards the boards with a right handed player and try to make a long breakout pass to the right all the way across the rink, it's just not accurate at all. Players don't automatically receive every pass like magnets now and the breakups are really nice. Deflections are well done and the puck is way more loose which I love. Then I played 2 games of versus. Went into OT on the first and it was great to see 3v3 and penalties being correctly 4v3. My gripe about online, and I'm 99% an online vs/EASHL player (legit btw, no cheese, I play as real hockey as I can) is that it's just too fast. The game and skating is so much better slowed down which you can't do online. Don't get me wrong, the physics and skating and puck are really well done. It's just the overall speed of the game is too quick. That and for whatever reason the cpu is dumbed down in vs, which does change the dynamic. Hopefully this is the year I can get into Be A GM and actually enjoy playing the cpu. In the past its always been win by a lot or lose by a lot, never an in-between. Time will tell. But in my 1st three games I really enjoyed playing and the game felt fresh and way more "alive" over 15'.

Agree with everything. I'm going to try with speed down 1 click as when I tried this during a game, it was real choppy. With 8 minute periods, way too many shots due to the frantic speed of the game.

[Woody19]

Does anyone know if I can buy the game online and just continue playing after the ten hours are up? Or do I still have to wait until the official release date? Thanks!

[BL8001]

Watching that vid.

One thing, the CPU does a lot of this, and it's what I want to do...

When they bring it in to the offensive zone they are able to come to a quick stop. They do it constantly and it's very effective.

So they skate towards the corner than stop and flick a pass somewhere for the shot.

I can't come to that same type of a quick stop.

You can see in the vid how the blackhawks keep using the wilds "userness" against them by quick stopping.

The closest I can come to stopping quick is holding LT and reversing direction but it is nowhere as clean as the cpu's quick stops.