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

[ODogg]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One & PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

Why aren’t they? Video games will always be made for and marketed to the younger audience.




Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

I haven't tried it yet but from what I've read the skating is slower, more accurate to reality and more unpredictable. None of those things skew to a younger market if that is the case.

I hope to check it out tonight.

[Splitter77]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One & PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

will we ever see a game when we can tell the difference between which goalie is in net??
Did they even touch the goalies in NHL 19??

[jyoung]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One & PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

I played 5 games of online versus last night, and while I'm not ready to declare that figure skating is officially dead, it's definitely a lot tougher to turn 6v6 matches into something that resembles Scott Hamilton's Spring Skating Spectacular.

This is the first EA NHL game that I've played since the skill stick was introduced where I didn't feel like I was capable of wiggling past all 5 defenders with a single skater every time that the puck touched my stick.

In this online versus match, you can see my Nashville Predators skaters are repeatedly failing to maneuver past the San Jose Sharks defenders, using the same left stick wiggles and bursts that would have lead to easy breakaways and odd-man rushes in previous NHL games:

<iframe width="540" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIINKAghHss" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I think "left stick try hards" like myself are going to have to switch over to the dump & chase and cycle styles of offense this year, because the one-man skate show seems like it's gone out of business in NHL 19.

This is a change that I welcome, and one that I've been asking for the developers to make since NHL 08, but I hope that your AI teammates this year are finally smart enough to execute those two offensive strategies, because in previous NHL games, the CPU would not put themselves in the proper places to receive dump/cycle passes around the boards, which is the main reason that I gave up trying to run that style of offense in the past, and just learned to use what works best in most EA NHL games: puck-hogging and showboating.

[GlennN]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

- Not enough difference between players types. They all look and skate the same. I was able to throw a devastaing hit with Patrick Kane. Come on...

Ugh. Since offline franchise is all I play, without differentiation of players, there is no point to carefully building a roster. Do other folks agree the players all feel the same?

[jake19ny]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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.

[TDKing]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

I really like the new skating and that's about it. Why do they refuse to create real player differentiation? Why are drop in games now a costume party? So not enough difference in players and no online franchise and still no option to play shorter seasons in offline franchise makes this another pass for me or sale price purchase.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

[giantsharks]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

I don't know how i feel about this game so far. The skating engine is great, I am not quite seeing the skating differences between small and larger players.

I am strictly an offline player who plays franchise, that being said, Ones is so much fun and I can see myself playing a lot of that.

I am happy to see the game finally feels a little different, dont know if it's a big enough difference to enjoy playing offline full team games.

Skating and collisions feel so much better and if they can concentrate on two more things next year, it would be great. I think passing and shooting needs to be reworked. Shooting animations have always been a little wonky to me.

[speels]

Re: NHL 19 Open Beta Available Now on Both Xbox One &amp; PS4, Post Your Impressions Here

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

[Bold]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.[/Bold] 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.

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.