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

[jake19ny]

Everyone of course is entitled to their own opinion but I am a little surprised by the high praises. While there are some improvements and the skating looks and feels different the 5 on 5 simply doesn’t play much different or should I say better than it has in years past. Still too many of the same issues year after year. My guess is the joy of the new skating will wear off as soon as the legacy issues become unbearable. Still want to try it offline.

[catcher_0_3]

1) Ones is awesome. Just a great feel and a great mode. Love the customization options there.

2) I did get loaded into a one’s game, but it didn’t put me on the ice and the 3rd guy wasn’t even listed on the scoreboard, so it was literally just one guy skating by himself. It counted it as a loss for me of course.

3) Fog of War is a feature I’ve been wanting for literally any sports game. This just about pushes me to signing off on the game assuming no game breaking features arrise.

[mkharsh33]

The problem with this beta is it's revealing what's been the problem for years...

- little differentiation in player abilities
- the speed "catch-up" that AI skaters have that shouldn't
- player attributes just seem like they don't mean much

Imagine playing Madden where the 4th string QB played like Tom Brady... Sorry, I'm just not seeing it. EA should just walk away. I'm not being uber-critical, it's just a sad fact they don't create as much differentiation in player attributes as needed. So now it's going to be a ton of slider tweaks again, and more game tuners that will screw up those sliders - and I'm willing to bet that within a month of the release the game will be flawed because of all the back-and-forth tweaking, along with the roster updates they put out that seem to change the gamplay as well.

[Rell826]

A few of the glowing reviews on Twitter are coming from streamers who are paid by EA to shill their product.

Play for yourself and draw your own opinion.

[iaxy]

Has anyone noticed the funny glitch where before every face off, the players' jerseys wave simultaneously? It could be just on the True Broadcast camera (which is the one I play on), but it happens before every face off

[Fiddy]

Random thoughts at work, sorry in advance it will be all over the place. Lol

Skating so far very solid. Nice change of pace from what we have been used to.

Player models being slimmer, goes well with the skating. I’ve seen some hits miss because of player models being skinny or possibly because of how agility is working along with that.

Skin tones are terrible, something needs done as ASAP about these.

Data base of player names still terrible. They say all kinds of ridiculous stuff but no names like “Dustin” etc. Comical.

Doc and Edzo with some new lines, but after a month I’ll turn them off yet again and just listen to the on ice action.

Menus, way too many menus and sub menus. They don’t look bad but sheesh way too many.

No new strategies or anything for teams. No way to save strats for EASHL teams. Sigh.

You can use forwards on defense and defense as forwards in EASHL and OTP etc. Not sure how I feel about this.

EASHL I love being able to change height and weight of player builds. Plus each build has a max and min height and weight wise. That’s good.

The EASHL Fifa like attributes for player builds gives us some customization and a nice change of pace again. The traits are going to be like the plus 3’s and 5’s of years ago. Not sure how much they will effect ratings we shall see. But I love having all these options again.

The equipment on EASHL is dumb. Keep it pro stuff only and have the causal things for OTP and ones.

I had a blast with 1’s in the short time i had with it. Nice change of pace again from the typical action. With the 3’s last year and 1’s this year EA seems to be embracing the arcade side of the game finally.

EASHL CPU AI seems better. But still meh.

Love the player heads moving with the action.

Love all the tripping penalties. Stop spamming the button and play better positionally.

Using the Left Trigger as a d method close to a player with the puck seemed to help bump them off with a auto poke or something at times. Am I nuts here?

Same shots go in. Same moves work. Is what it is. Got to take away the slot and just not give up those chances.

Can’t wait to add my sliders to the game because I feel like what I have in place with make how this game feels even better. For sure getting 2 full seasons in this year. Hopefully we see some solid player differences. Not holding my breathe but the traits could play a big role.

Goalies still need a ton of work. Maybe next year? They do seem to cover the posts better.

As of now that’s about it lol. Only had like 2 hours of play because of going to the Mets and Pirates game last night and now working next few days. Meh.

All in all this seems like a solid step in right direction. If you skipped out on the last two years, pick this up. If you did pick up last few years, pick it up again. Worth it IMO. Maybe not worth 60 bones, but what game really is anymore?

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by mkharsh33

The problem with this beta is it's revealing what's been the problem for years... - little differentiation in player abilities - the speed "catch-up" that AI skaters have that shouldn't - player attributes just seem like they don't mean much Imagine playing Madden where the 4th string QB played like Tom Brady... Sorry, I'm just not seeing it. EA should just walk away. I'm not being uber-critical, it's just a sad fact they don't create as much differentiation in player attributes as needed. So now it's going to be a ton of slider tweaks again, and more game tuners that will screw up those sliders - and I'm willing to bet that within a month of the release the game will be flawed because of all the back-and-forth tweaking, along with the roster updates they put out that seem to change the gamplay as well.

Those three bullet-points are exactly why I've been disappointed in this series for quite some time.
I'm disappointed hearing that it's still an issue despite the fact every year EA touts better player separation.
Until I see a 4th line scrub rated in the 60's while an elite player is in the 90's, I refuse to believe them.

EDIT: mkharsh, your post could be copied and pasted every year and nobody would know which version you were referring too.
Man, I really hope the creators of Super Mega Baseball make a hockey game.

[Fiddy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

Those three bullet-points are exactly why I've been disappointed in this series for quite some time. I'm disappointed hearing that it's still an issue despite the fact every year EA touts better player separation. Until I see a 4th line scrub rated in the 60's while an elite player is in the 90's, I refuse to believe them. EDIT: mkharsh, your post could be copied and pasted every year and nobody would know which version you were referring too. Man, I really hope the creators of Super Mega Baseball make a hockey game.

You could copy and paste all our complaints from 07 until now and most would be the same.

The biggest thing for me is the speed catch up by the CPU from behind. It has to stop and I don’t know why they don’t fix or nerf it.

Last few years I’m stepped away from my hardcore mentality and just accepted EA’s series as an arcade game with sim elements even though they don’t market it that way. It’s not worth our effort in being pissed about our complaints since 07 and until now because nothing has been done and nothing will.

I do wish we had a super mega hockey or another game like 2K again to give us options.