NHL 18 Beta Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here!

[Josam27o7]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake19ny

Agreed and I love the comparison to FIFA. Like Hockey it's a game of constant motion and FIFA does a great job. I always felt you had to work really hard to get that good scoring chance and a goal felt really rewarding. Very rarely do you get that rewarding feeling from a goal in the NHL series. Many feel cheap, forced, or accidental. Also in FIFA your AI teammates seem to actual know what they are supposed to be doing and what their roll is.....another thing you never feel in the NHL series.

Wow. You look at FIFA way too highly. The core problem w/ fifa that ruins it is how poorly its movement physics represent the sport. It gives everything an unrealistic feeling. This is the area nhl is better than fifa, nhl's movement physics are a closer representation of the sport.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josam27o7

How have you been experimenting?

Same method used by this guy.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8adB1DwoCRs

[Josam27o7]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

Same method used by this guy. Spoiler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8adB1DwoCRs

Thanks, bro. Yeh I saw this too, I watched his video and thoughts. I thought maybe you figured how to do a player lock in a 5v5 match to see the cpu.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josam27o7

Thanks, bro. Yeh I saw this too, I watched his video and thoughts. I thought maybe you figured how to do a player lock in a 5v5 match to see the cpu.

I wish! Would have been nice. It's interesting how, when you put it on hardcore sim, the AI is basically at war with itself trying to constantly pull off tricks the settings won't let it do based on attributes, speed, and general difficulty.

[jake19ny]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josam27o7

Wow. You look at FIFA way too highly. The core problem w/ fifa that ruins it is how poorly its movement physics represent the sport. It gives everything an unrealistic feeling. This is the area nhl is better than fifa, nhl's movement physics are a closer representation of the sport.

Don't get me wrong I'm not holding FIFA up as a great game and I'm a casual Soccer game player at best so my opinion would not be worth a whole lot. I'm merely saying in regards to AI of the CPU and your CPU teammates that FIFA is, in my opinion far superior to NHL. Both games have big time movement physics issues and I think sometimes we also expect a little to much in that area from a video game. All in all I think we all just want the best representation possible of the sport we love. I think NHL 14 may have been the last release that felt like a decent step forward since then it's been wash, rinse, repeat. I also think everyone expected a bigger step up on next gen then we were given. I've been playing this series since it's very first release on SEGA genesis and I can count only 5 releases that seemed like an advancement in the sport.

1) Origibal release (SEGA Genesis)
2) NHL 94 (SEGA Genesis)
3) NHL 2004 (PC)
4) NHL 2009 (PC)
5) NHL 2014 (PS3)

Anyone who was lucky enough to enjoy those PC versions knows that in addition to those great releases was an even better modding community.

[Josam27o7]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake19ny

Don't get me wrong I'm not holding FIFA up as a great game and I'm a casual Soccer game player at best so my opinion would not be worth a whole lot. I'm merely saying in regards to AI of the CPU and your CPU teammates that FIFA is, in my opinion far superior to NHL. Both games have big time movement physics issues and I think sometimes we also expect a little to much in that area from a video game. All in all I think we all just want the best representation possible of the sport we love. I think NHL 14 may have been the last release that felt like a decent step forward since then it's been wash, rinse, repeat. I also think everyone expected a bigger step up on next gen then we were given. I've been playing this series since it's very first release on SEGA genesis and I can count only 5 releases that seemed like an advancement in the sport. 1) Origibal release (SEGA Genesis) 2) NHL 94 (SEGA Genesis) 3) NHL 2004 (PC) 4) NHL 2009 (PC) 5) NHL 2014 (PS3) Anyone who was lucky enough to enjoy those PC versions knows that in addition to those great releases was an even better modding community.

Jake, could you explain exactly why NHL 09 was better than NHL 10?

[Josam27o7]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

I wish! Would have been nice. It's interesting how, when you put it on hardcore sim, the AI is basically at war with itself trying to constantly pull off tricks the settings won't let it do based on attributes, speed, and general difficulty.

Probably bc for 3s EA has heightened AI tendency for tricks. I'm not worried about this for the full release 5v5s.

Played more 3s vs the CPU. And I am pleasantly surprised by the AIs behavior. It's definitely the best the AI has ever been in the series. Bodes well for the 5v5 main game.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josam27o7

Probably bc for 3s EA has heightened AI tendency for tricks. I'm not worried about this for the full release 5v5s. Played more 3s vs the CPU. And I am pleasantly surprised by the AIs behavior. It's definitely the best the AI has ever been in the series. Bodes well for the 5v5 main game.

Agreed. It's far from as dynamic as I'd like it to be, but it's a huge upgrade. Hopefully they can keep improving it in title updates and tuners throughout the release cycle. I'd still like to see a bit less urgency from the cpu at times. Too often still it will make a quick pass or move the puck when the correct play is to evade (either with a smaller skating movement or a simple stop), and either use the quickly created space to skate the puck or play it to someone else through a better quality outlet.