NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here - Extended to August 3

[metallidevils]

The last entry I have is NHL17 and this game feels identical. Except now there is commentary like ‘a special goal for special teams’.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by speels

Sorry, but I don't like the above statement for it's unfairness. Madden has 1 league and it is professional. So they are able to use a full scale of 0-100 for all the players in that league. Hockey, baseball, soccer and now even basketball all have very different levels of leagues that they have to address with only 1 ratings set. In football I can have a 4th string QB rated 45 and he will definitely play far worse than my starter, but in hockey I can't have a 45 rated 4th liner playing because I have 60 rated Junior players playing. So that means that hockey's professional league on has a rating variance of only say 72-100 to play in, which sucks. So the makers really only have 2 options. Make the amount of difference between each rating more extreme. So a 1 point difference might be more like a 5 point difference in the current system, or design a brand new rating system that adjusts based on the level that you are at. So a 99 in say the WHL translates to say a 75-80 in the NHL/AHL/ECHL. Sorry, but to compare the ratings straight to Madden always bugs me. I do agree with the rest though, I wish we could just choose what updates to install.

Fair enough but then maybe EA has to make sure there’s a wide gap between a 75OV compared to a 95OV.
As it is, there’s almost no discernible difference between a Tom Wilson and a Pat Kane.
Especially when playing against the CPU where every player plays like Kane.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[ChampIsHere42]

To me, it feels like every skates the exact same. Doesn't matter what their size is. Only difference is their top speed.

[Tengo Juego]

I haven't been able to get into a full 6s drop in game at all since the beta dropped. Either I get a looping faceoff and have to close app, or a hard freeze right as the game intro begins and the players are warming up.

Every other mode works just fine.


Edit: closed app and restarted and it just hard crashed my PS4. I've never had app or system crashes in this rapid of succession. Yikes.

[Blzer]

I don't get how to play this beta. It looks like it's only online play, yes when I get to the versus screen setting up the game, I'm never connecting with anybody else. It looks like couch play may be an option, as well as inviting friends... but no random matchmaking? No playing versus CPU?

I'm confused.

EDIT: Shhh, I found it.

[jyoung]

I played about a dozen EASHL club games last night, some in 3v3 mode, some in 6v6 mode, and some with/without human goalies, and my conclusion is that I would not recommend playing EASHL at all this year unless you have human goalies on both teams, because the AI goalies still let in all the same cheese shots that have been in the game for a decade, and in this YouTube/Twitch era where cheese spreads faster than California wildfires, everyone in the EASHL community knows how to abuse an AI goalie at will.

But when you have a human goalie in net on both ends of the ice, the game becomes much less predictable and a lot more exciting, at least, in the same way that watching the destruction derby scene in Jackass: The Movie is entertaining.



I like the limitations that EA has set for the three slots of equipable player traits/skills, and I'm glad that we can finally see all of the different classes' exact numerical attribute ratings instead of having nothing to judge on the character selection screen but some vague attribute bars of varying lengths.

But I definitely do not agree with EA's decision to let players change their height/weight, or their decision to let any of the forward classes play as a defenseman. Those two decisions have made it possible for cheesy 5'7" 160-pound player builds to dominate the 3v3 modes with their inhuman skating speed and tiny hitboxes, while 6v6 lineups that are full of 6'9" behemoths make it tough to find any open skating space in that cluttered and cramped version of EASHL.

If EA removed height/weight customization, prevented forwards from playing defense, and lowered the height cap to 6'6", I think all versions of the EASHL would become a lot more balanced. There are just some aspects of the mode's design that you can't let competitive players control unless you want cheese to takeover the game.

[jayman504]

I've logged several games in the beta...and this TOP GUN bs the cpu pulls off EVERY SINGLE TIME they are out of position but still manage to not only chase you down, but still bump you off the puck or magically suck it away from you is ridiculous. If a player have 4 strides on somebody in real life they aren't getting touched...

[handheldpictures]

Quote: Originally Posted by jayman504

I've logged several games in the beta...and this TOP GUN bs the cpu pulls off EVERY SINGLE TIME they are out of position but still manage to not only chase you down, but still bump you off the puck or magically suck it away from you is ridiculous. If a player have 4 strides on somebody in real life they aren't getting touched...

Agree 100%, but it appears to be the only way EA can figure out how to make-up for their pathetic ai. Have you ever noticed though that when the script kicks in for a team to score a goal, that suddenly the ai D doesn't have the turbo speed to catch up. It's still a mess in 19.