NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

[Chad0034]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

Thanks, I’ll try this.

There are things about this game that are just so bad. They have alumni teams, support putting those alumni teams in season mode (why can’t they have a ‘replace all’ button...) but the commentators have absolutely no context as to who the players are, so someone like Gretzky scores his first goal of the season and the commentators talk about how it is his first ever goal and not much is expected of him offensively. Rinse and repeat this for every single player.

The commentary overall is the most barebones awful commentary I’ve ever heard in a sports game.

The fantasy draft, they show you stars instead of attribute ratings. It makes absolutely no sense.

yeah the commentary/presentation i do have to say, is the worst of any sports game i can remember.

Just totally takes away from the immersion of the actual sport when you watch it on the TV. When you score it just does an almost arcade presentation of GOAL. Just so confusing as to how something like that got into a SIMULATION game. smh

[Chad0034]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

I make sliders with CPU strategy adjustments at 0/6, then set them to the settings I believe capture real hockey better, and it definitely helps get a little more challenge out of the CPU AI, but I agree with you about the teammate AI. Why does your AI not want the puck? The CPU AI is very quick to react and sprint towards loose pucks but your AI just stands still and needs to be handheld to do anything.

They could not touch a single thing gameplay wise other than the AI and they'd have a massive improvement in terms of fun, enjoyable gameplay. The AI is light years behind the tech in this game. They can add whatever new animations or dekes they want, but until the AI is even semi-competent, this game really won't progress at all.

yeah honestly the engine of the game is solid. I love the skill stick and controls.

If you improved AI + presentation, it improves a TON. Mix that in with not allowing cross crease so frequently (AI should fix that) and we're good to go.

[badazzleroybrown]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

I feel all who purchased this game, me included deserve to get a face scan update of all the rookies that are in this years game when they add them to nhl 22 for my nhl 21 since we payed for a roster update. we supported you when you could not give us a complete game now you need to support us and say here you go thanks for buying it when we did nothing to it but slap on the name nhl 21. and furthermore I won't be buying it anymore until you release it on pc.

That's because there is nothing that excites me about your game anymore I get bored after playing it a couple hours at least on the pc there are people who will make the game play and look better. I just do not understand why you would not bring it to pc,Most of the players are from Europe that play in the NHL its more of a world game than a American one why not get everyone outside of the us excited to play your games on pc. I just think the creators in charge are afraid that game modders will make them look silly so they avoid it.

[The EVHL]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

yeah honestly the engine of the game is solid. I love the skill stick and controls.

If you improved AI + presentation, it improves a TON. Mix that in with not allowing cross crease so frequently (AI should fix that) and we're good to go.

100% agree. Like, I could totally look past things like board play (pretty outdated tech) if the AI were semi-competent at finding open ice and supporting the puck much better in the offensive zone. Also, please take away the special CPU AI boosts they get when it comes to skating. Make everything even and give me sliders to give the CPU a boost if need be. I hate how many things they can do that the user can't.

[mkharsh33]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

Cappy said in a tweet to expect a new roster update this week. Key new guys were noted.

No word if Tom Wilson's idiot rating is extremely elevated...

[MizzouRah]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

Something that I thought was cool.. Minnesota signed FA D Dustin Byfuglien and later in the season offered me a trade for 2 draft picks and a decent prospect as I'm assuming they couldn't sign him long term and are struggling to land a playoff spot.

I have a house rule where I can't sign a FA and then turn around and trade them for picks but it was nice to see the CPU do just that.

I accepted of course since we are searching for another cup run.

[SocialAssassin]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

Game has become borderline unplayable lately. The CPU defense swarm you like crazy, but the AI on your side can't contain the AI offense.

[The EVHL]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

Game has become borderline unplayable lately. The CPU defense swarm you like crazy, but the AI on your side can't contain the AI offense.

Your AI being totally dumb is such a huge frustration point. Like, as a D, I turn the wing up the boards into my wing and what does my wing do? Skates by and goes and stands in the corner I just left to "cover" for me rather than pinching the forward off, or at worst continuing to force him farther up the boards. This allows the CPU to cut to the middle or force a pass to the farside D as your weakside wing will surely be "collapsed" about 4 feet to the outside of the outside shoulder of the weakside D and 4 to 5 feet depth-wise away as well, basically giving the D the whole middle of the slot to walk down.

But the CPU team does not do this. They do pinch you off, they do force you up the boards, the weakside wing will anticipate the weakside D pass and pick it for breakaways. Why do they do all of these thins right, and my team is basically doing their impression of a toilet bowl flush and seemingly purposefully trying to get in the least helpful, most useless positions on the ice as possible? Then to top it off, they have literally ZERO urgency on loose pucks. CPU AI look like the Flash sprinting to any and every loose puck and my AI look like an unmanned bubble hockey team.

They're all AI, why are they so drastically different!? How is this considered a spot that's not worth updating in over a decade outside of CPU AI neutral zone improvements? it's really really bad and it is in desperate need of fixing, ASAP.

[tcnumba10]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

I haven’t been playing for weeks and what turned me off was the lack of variety of goals, and the opposing CPU team was not aggressive/creative enough even on the hardest difficulty.

Almost 90% of my goals scored against the CPU team were one timers but in real life a lot of the goals scored are more random. Even with sliders I was not able to duplicate the goals you would see in real life which turned me off from the game. If you wanted to see more random goals, you would have to turned down the difficulty to PRO or lower which was not ideal since the CPU team would be too easy to play against and they did not look to score at all.

[The EVHL]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

I haven’t been playing for weeks and what turned me off was the lack of variety of goals, and the opposing CPU team was not aggressive/creative enough even on the hardest difficulty.

Almost 90% of my goals scored against the CPU team were one timers but in real life a lot of the goals scored are more random. Even with sliders I was not able to duplicate the goals you would see in real life which turned me off from the game. If you wanted to see more random goals, you would have to turned down the difficulty to PRO or lower which was not ideal since the CPU team would be too easy to play against and they did not look to score at all.

There is a way to create more dynamic goals, but it requires global attribute edits to goalies. All of my goalies for my esport league are 6'4" and like 60 OVR or something. Glove/Blocker high at minimum (36), rebound control at 50, most other stats around the 90 area. This is on All-Star and I see first shot goals, squeaker goals through 6/7 holes, and using screen effect at 100, screen persistence at 85, and deflection reaction time at 0, I see a much better variety of goals.

Link to the set if you're interested so you can take bits and pieces for your own set: https://forums.ea.com/en/nhl/discuss...rience-sliders

That thread also has videos of my instagram channel where I post the realistic goals I see from my games.

[tcnumba10]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

There is a way to create more dynamic goals, but it requires global attribute edits to goalies. All of my goalies for my esport league are 6'4" and like 60 OVR or something. Glove/Blocker high at minimum (36), rebound control at 50, most other stats around the 90 area. This is on All-Star and I see first shot goals, squeaker goals through 6/7 holes, and using screen effect at 100, screen persistence at 85, and deflection reaction time at 0, I see a much better variety of goals.

Link to the set if you're interested so you can take bits and pieces for your own set: https://forums.ea.com/en/nhl/discuss...rience-sliders

That thread also has videos of my instagram channel where I post the realistic goals I see from my games.

Seems a lot of work if you have to edit every goalie before starting the Franchise mode. There are positives and negatives to sliders and player attributes but the biggest negative is that the developers become lazy since they know the users will fix their mistakes when we have the ability to do so.

[The EVHL]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

Seems a lot of work if you have to edit every goalie before starting the Franchise mode. There are positives and negatives to sliders and player attributes but the biggest negative is that the developers become lazy since they know the users will fix their mistakes when we have the ability to do so.

Definitely a lot of work that will also be ruined by prospects in franchise mode lol. That's why I just run my own league via Play Now. Limiting my play to a static structure like Franchise mode just doesn't make for enjoyable gameplay.

[MizzouRah]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

It will be interesting to see their approach for NHL 22 on next gen. To me, this franchise is in a lull and a complete new direction is needed. I have nothing against Rammer and team but we need fresh innovative ideas from a new team.

[The EVHL]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

It will be interesting to see their approach for NHL 22 on next gen. To me, this franchise is in a lull and a complete new direction is needed. I have nothing against Rammer and team but we need fresh innovative ideas from a new team.

The hybrid approach is really bad. Lots of room for sim hockey in this game with the right sliders, but online/default sliders are anything but sim. AI offline has seemingly been abandoned for years. They already have the arcade modes in the game, start making the non-arcade modes more sim rather than this hybrid approach where everything is clunky and frustrating.

[VeNOM3099]

Re: NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

The hybrid approach is really bad. Lots of room for sim hockey in this game with the right sliders, but online/default sliders are anything but sim. AI offline has seemingly been abandoned for years. They already have the arcade modes in the game, start making the non-arcade modes more sim rather than this hybrid approach where everything is clunky and frustrating.

The problem with EA's brand of hockey (or any other sports for that matter) is that it's very superficial. The AI is so terrible with and without the puck, it's painful. It's as if their programmers watched nothing but 5 minute highlight clips on NHL.com and made a game. I mean it's action packed, sure. But every thing that makes hockey, y'know... HOCKEY... Is missing. Where are the teams vying for possession in each other's zone? Where are the fights for the puck along the boards, in the corners, in front of the net? Where are the PP or PK plays? Where are the blocked shots? Missed shots? Shots stopped by the goalies?

They've reduced offense to just shooting on net, defense is about hitting people and goalies are basically Goldberg from The Mighty Ducks movie tied to the posts: as long as you shoot on their chest or limbs, they'll make a save. It's pitiful.

I don't expect anything out of NHL 22 other than the game being dumb down even further. They're not interested in making a game that challenges the player's knowledge or skill. On top of it they're gonna be working with the new Frostbite Engine?

It's gonna be NHL 15 on PS4/XB1 all over again...