NHL 17 Impressions

[adayinthelife]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake19ny

Ah. I'm a strictly 90% offline gamer so that would explain a lot of the different things were seeing. That said though I still see a lot of posts by people saying the game is just like NHL 16 and a lot of posts saying it's totally different. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. I suspect as in past releases there will be several updates that make the game better for some and worse for others. EA added a bunch of things people asked for but wish they would have separate tuners for online and offline. I found last year when on liners complained about legit issues a tuner would come out and jack up offline play. Offliners would complain and get a tuner that jacked up online. I think it's impossible to perfectly tune the game for both types players in one single tuner because online is a totally different experience than offline.

It's true, and for the first couple years of "tuners", we always had the option to select which tuner we wanted when playing offline. However, in the past few years the tuner updates keep overwriting what was previously there, which I just cannot for the life of me understand.

It makes sense that everyone online has to be on the exact same version of the game, but I don't know why even offline players have to deal with the constant tweaks. It's unfortunate because 99% of the time I play offline, but then if a friend wants to play a quick game online, I can't because I don't want to download a tuner update if I've got the game playing well as is since I'm unable to switch back.

[SocialAssassin]

On the hardest setting, the computer is smashing me. Lost 12-1 to Tampa because every shot they took went in, got to every rebound and wouldn't let me touch the puck without being all over me and poke checking it away. Very frustrating.

[tjung0831]

Quote: Originally Posted by SocialAssassin

On the hardest setting, the computer is smashing me. Lost 12-1 to Tampa because every shot they took went in, got to every rebound and wouldn't let me touch the puck without being all over me and poke checking it away. Very frustrating.

Did you try any of the slider settings?

[Cardot]

Quote: Originally Posted by SocialAssassin

On the hardest setting, the computer is smashing me. Lost 12-1 to Tampa because every shot they took went in, got to every rebound and wouldn't let me touch the puck without being all over me and poke checking it away. Very frustrating.

Isn't that a good thing? Seems to me it would be worse if the hardest setting was too easy. I think all games should have a ridiculously difficult level, a super easy level, and then a bunch of levels/slider settings in between those two.....that way everyone can find their sweet spot.

[lunch pale gang]

So far, I'm absolutely loving the offline gameplay. The new sliders and the new 100 point system has finally allowed me to play True Broadcast with full 20 minute periods resulting in realistic stats. I've played three games so far and haven't noticed any stats that are out of whack like in years past (i.e sog's were always tremendously high, but so far not this year). I know that three games isn't a great sample size, but at least it's trending in the right direction.

As far as online play, specifically otp, I'm disappointed that we don't have private lobbies anymore. There's a group of us (30 or so) who meet up every Friday night, and have been doing so for the past seven years, to play otp. We would gather in a private lobby, two captains would step up and then start drafting. However, now with no otp lobbies and the ability to only invite six players to the dressing room, we can no longer do that. Now we have to create fake clubs, conduct our draft, each player has to join the club he/she was drafted to, play the game, drop out of the club, wait to be drafted again, rinse and repeat. Long story short, I would love to see private lobbies make a return!

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by tonedef407

For someone who hasn't played a NHL game in 5 or 6 years and is in his 30s, how is the learning curve?

Quote: Originally Posted by Chappy

I'd like to know too

If you know and like the sport, I don't think you'd have any trouble catching on. The skill stick is pretty intuitive if you're not already familiar with it from past games, and EA has built a rather comprehensive system to teach the controls and more (eg, shooting/passing lanes, where to aim shots, etc) during gameplay. While it might be obtrusive for experienced players, it's really quite slick and can be customized to show what you want or adapt as you progress.

Oh, and don't rush to raise the difficulty. The CPU can really punish mistakes on the higher levels and even leave you feeling a bit helpless at times. Usually this is when you get stuck in your zone with tired players or when the CPU plays more aggressively, as they change their team strategies based on game situations.

[Madwolf]

Only got 3 games on yesterday but I very much liked the gameplay. Had Markstrom in goal with Vancouver, and by limiting good shots I was able to keep save %s realistic, which was a good feeling.

The AI goalies stopped me a lot at first, but I started sniping them in game 3, so may be need to raise the sliders, but it's also preseason, so I've only faced 1 starter.

Still disappointed with Scouting. It's too genric and random.

[NYJin2011tm]

I'm liking the gameplay on 17 compared to previous years. I lost my first game 2-0 on full sim semi pro(I am no hockey expert) default sliders 5 min periods and didn't feel cheated. I actually out shot the cpu but am terrible with aiming when shooting. Thing I was happiest about was 5 total penalties(3 on me, 2 on cpu) on default sliders. Finally penalties!