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

[BrianMcNulty11]

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

I love the zero tolerance on poke spamming. People need to play actual, positional defense now and that's a good thing. I've played about a dozen games and the gameplay is more engaging and fun than it's been maybe since last gen. I'm also playing Ones a lot more than I expected to. The contrast between Ones and 5v5 is a nice change of pace. My goal this year was to go into playing all the seasonal sports titles with an open mind and just have fun. Take them for what they are, anyway. I think I just don't nitpick as much as I get older perhaps.


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[brandon27]

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

Well, here's my two cents on this one...

The skating feels much better. No doubt about that. Sadly though, to me, it seems as if the AI players still don't suffer the same motion, and change of direction effects. It's hard to tell since you can only play online versus, but the CPU controlled players seem to just move in and out of stops and breaks much easier.

I have no idea how anyone plays online. It's just a constant poke check, stick lift fest, with tripping call after tripping call with the odd slashing thrown in.

Compound that with the number of quitters. My gosh... I just played against someone who took about 8 tripping calls in a row. I scored a PP goal, and right out of the faceoff another tripping call, followed by the quit.

That leads me to this... shame on EA for not providing a way to play against the AI solo. I get it, it's an online beta, not a demo. But, come on.

I had one game of the 3 I've played full of lag from the 2nd period on. That was painful, but I finished it. Next two games with both quits from the other player as the penalties piled up.

Long story short... skating, much improved for the human player. AI, to me doesn't suffer the same effects, but it's maybe just hard to tell in an online game with all the player switching.

Other than that, goalies are sloppy. I watched Jimmy Howard flopping around over a loose puck in his own crease... botched a pass, tried to flop and fall backwards on it, missed it completely, then he morphed back to an upright position trying to get his stick on the puck and puts it into his own net... It was just painful to watch. There was no fluid motion, just a weird, painful comedy of flopping and morphing.

Hard to tell when you can only play online. At least for me as an offline player. So I'll reserve full judgement until the EA access release of the full game before I make my decision. Seems improved in some ways, but Stamkos to me, still felt alot like Jonathon Ericsson.

[Fiddy]

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

Guys can play this vs the AI as a trail. It’s called EA Access. Pay 5 bucks and get 10 hours worth of a trial. If you like what’s you see then you can buy it.

[onlybygrace]

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

Guys can play this vs the AI as a trail. It’s called EA Access. Pay 5 bucks and get 10 hours worth of a trial. If you like what’s you see then you can buy it.

Is it the same as online with the absurd rate of tripping calls?

[DJ NEO]

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

So... there is no momentum in "today's Nhl" they say? People can RUN above the ice like a chicken without heads I see.

Seriously tho, it will be interesting (and entertaining some way) to see some bigger players like Chara in shoes of McDavid, that inspired their motion capture.

[metallidevils]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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.

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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]

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

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]

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

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.

[jake19ny]

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

IVe been saying for quite some time now. Offline is dead. They simply don’t care because they cannot make anymore money once they sell the game.
It’s all about online and making money in HUT. It’s why there is no player differential at all. They want everyone to have an even team and hope that people buy packs looking to get that 99 player only to find out his 99 speed is no faster than the 85 card with 82 speed. The poke spammers will cry and the penalties will get nerfed.
So once again EA will release a gane that offline plays just like the last 4 releases with little to no improvements. Will still have the same bugs and glitches...Still no roster share I’m sure. Last year we got 3s and mascot creator this year we got 1s and snazzy toques to wear.....unreal and embarrassing that this game is the only representation for the NHL.....

[rangers9911]

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

Played for about an hour. I like the new animations and skating. However, playing against all humans is just poke check and massive hits city because everyone just wants to run and gun.

I will echo that I am strictly an offline player so, I don't really care what 3's and hut stuff they put in. As jake said, offline is dead. No extra money to be had = no spiffy new things.