NHL 19 Trial For EA Access Subscribers Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

[Money99]

I know I'm starting to sound like an EA spokesman, but I just had another great game.
1-0 win against the Hawks as the Blues.
The CPU took 5 penalties to my 2.
Kane was dangerous the entire game. In fact, with less than 4 minutes left in the game he lugged the puck through the neutral zone at which point I took the right-dman and decided to attack him. He completed a nifty little deke to put the puck between my feet and off he went on a partial breakway.
Luckily, my left-dman was covering for my faux-pas and cut off the angle so Kane had little to shoot at. Allen did the rest.

I was so happy to see that I won as many puck battles as lost.
And I have to take back my initial claim that the new skating engine doesn't make a difference. How wrong I was.
Early in the game, I corralled a loose puck in my end with Tarasenko and a Hawk coming in to forecheck. I performed a quick little move going one way, then the other, and the Hawk went flying away from me, giving me a long lane of open ice to carry the puck out of the zone.
I don't recall that ever happening in previous versions. They stuck to you like glue.
Saying that, when I tried a similar move with a slow-footed player against a defender with quick feet, the result was entirely different with me getting pushed back into my zone and on occasion losing the puck.

My one and only goal was off a terrific Tarasenko rush, blowing past a dman and firing the puck under the crossbar.
I had a multitude of other chances but Crawford and the Hawks D prevented me from converning on any rebounds or chances.

Each game I play seems to be better than the last.

[bad_philanthropy]

Saw a couple of small things I liked while fooling around with some QMJHL teams earlier.

I love the the awareness of my AI teammate here, and the movement he makes off the puck to make a scoring play happen. Amazing stuff. Great timing and awareness, which has been a huge issue in the past. The new skating animations make it look pretty decent too. Second part of the clip shows me getting the puck and absolutely blowing by the Cape Breton defense. This is on superstar default attribute effect adjustment. So there definitely is speed separation.



Second video shows how competent the AI can be on the forecheck and how you can set up defensive plays and forechecks dynamically. Here I set up the pursuit of the puck, and switch off to set up my other checker to take away the cross ice outlet I'm sure the cpu is spying here. My AI forechecker does a great job getting in, and making an aggressive play taking away the lane behind the goal, and indeed wins a battle for possession. No BS passes or spinning out of trouble by the cpu here. The video also shows how much better 50/50 puck battles are. No way my player wins the puck there in years past.

[phillyfan23]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

Does anyone know if they changed the mechanic for tipped pucks? I'm setting up and shooting for a tip, but my player never seems to attempt to tip the. Also not seeing tipped goals in general form me or the cpu. Thoughts?

This is a product of what I think is the biggest AI flaw in this game: Cpu dmen do not shoot nearly enough from the point and badly overpass the puck. It was absolutely perfect in NHL 17 but went bad in 18/19 resulting in less point shot goals and also Cpu deflections as you mentioned.

On my side, i have felt no difference in tipped goals...scored plenty of them so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[RoyalBoyle78]

After playing more and more this weekend and finally getting some games in, This is by far the BEST NHL game to date. I love the new skating feels natural and no longer stiff and robotic. Im enjoy the game so much right now, cant wait to start my Isles franchise.I think the game is beautiful IMO. The crowd and the commentary is still pretty damn good IMO still.

The more I play Ill be back to give more impressions.

[kerosene31]

I was skeptical after my 10 hour trial to buy, but I broke down and did.

I've been playing Be a pro, simulation settings (except for 10 min periods) and all star difficulty.

I have to admit, there do seem to be some improvements to the AI, especially teammate AI. Don't get me wrong, there's still a ton they could completely overhaul, but I'm still getting, fun, enjoyable games. I feel I'm rewarded more on the offensive side. My CPU teammates seem a lot less likely to give me a "suicide pass" which was a big gripe in the past. I'm naturally more of a passing/setup kind of player and I'm finally rewarded for that a lot more now.

On the defensive side, the new skating engine helps a ton. As a center, I leave on the "who to cover arrows" and they still jump around frantically (no, cover the point man, no, cover the guy down low in the opposite corner, NO! Guy in front! No, point man. However with a little smart positioning I'm able to cover pretty well. The "skate right through me and score" seems to be improved. I'm not even using the poke check yet, just getting body position.

There's still some weird bounces with the puck, but not as bad as past games. The CPU still is awful at going back for pucks on dump ins. Anytime the other team dumps the puck in I have to sprint in and help as asking the CPU D to clear the zone without standing around waiting to get board pinned is a bit too much.

I'm trying to stay balanced in my impressions. On one hand I'm glad to see these small improvements that go a long way. On the other hand, this stuff is 5 years overdue, but I don't want to go too negative. I bought the full game and honestly I am not regretting it and even enjoying it. (full disclosure, I got it with the EA Access discount so I think it was $53.99 or something). Be a pro is probably the only mode I'll play (unless my friends get an EASHL team going again). I think I'll get my money's worth out of it. I was going to wait for a Black Friday sale in November, but honestly my 10 hour trial kind of hooked me in.

[Money99]

Had another very satisfying game last night playing as the Bolts vs Sens (all teams randomly picked).
I was down 2-0 with 9+ minutes to go when Stamkos took a feed from Kucherov near the right faceoff dot and wired a wrister over the goalies right-shoulder.
A few minutes later, Johnson received a nice pass from Palat in the high slot and evened the score.
OT comes and with seconds remaining, Kucherov passes to Stamkos near the blue line and with time ticking down, and the goalie leaning one way, I fire a slapshot topshelf for the game winner.

Matt Duschese, Bobby Ryan and Erik Karlsson were all dangerous the entire evening. Especially Duschesne who danced around defenders, setup wingers and was a general nuisance in my zone.
Hedman was a force for me. Won nearly every puck battle, easily muscled forwards off teh puck and with his skating, could lug the puck out of the zone.

What I really noticed was that with anyone but Stamkos, trying to get a shot on net, or an accurate one from more than a few feet out was useless. Controlling a sniper like him is so satisfying because I feel like I'm legit dangerous from anywhere on the ice.
What this does is make me want to control the puck with a player like Kucherov to create space and draw defenders from Stamkos.
I don't ever remember feeling like this was something I needed to do in past NHL games. Or at the very least, it wasn't as pronounced (But I didn't play a lot of NHL16>NHL18 so maybe it was like this).

I can't wait for the season opening rosters to be released so I can start a Season mode and dance between different teams throughout the year.

BTW, I also had more PP's than the CPU for the 2nd time in a row; 6-3.
And I heard some commentary I hadn't recognized before. After back-to-back PP's for me, Doc said something like "They can rent out the ice on the other half for public skating. They haven't used it much this game", lol.

[mrsaito]

I'm liking this game a lot. While you could call me a 'casual' player I have been playing hockey games since 1993. I have a simulation mindset (MLB The Show is my favorite game) but my stick skills are average at best.

I'm strictly an offline payer. Playing on pro level I have found myself saying "damn this is a good game of hockey" several times a game. One tangible thing I can share is that in 17 and 18 I had sliders set to get competitive realistic results with respect to final score but I was always getting out-shot 75 to 30 by the CPU. It made for a bit of a weird gaming experience.

In 19 the shots on goal are even and at realistic levels but the scores are still the same (competitive + realistic). If you like hockey I think you'll be pleased.

[MizzouRah]

I saw one go through the goalies pads, so that bug has still not been squashed.

That being said, games seem to be very low scoring so far for me in play now games. Don't get me wrong, I love the improved goalies but scoring seems low in my brief test games.