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

[SocialAssassin]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

Does this game do anything in regards to tracking NHL records? In NHL 20 I broke Gretzky's playoff points record and Leach's goal record and I didn't get any recognition for it, which ticks me off.

[bcruise]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

Really liking how the AI seems more aware of where the player is, and it makes it easier to coordinate with them. I've seen this scenario many, many times already - with the opposing team on the rush and my controlled player (usually the center) chasing the puck carrier a step or two behind, my team's AI defenseman on that side will step up to challenge the puck carrier, often forcing him into the boards and causing a turnover. Even if he gets by the defenseman, the play is slowed up enough that I've overtaken both of them by that time, allowing me to cover for the defense. The thing is, it won't do this if there's nobody that is or will be in position to cover. So it's not giving up stupid breakaway chances because of this pinch. It almost never did this in 20 - the D-man would nearly always concede the zone even when you were flying in behind the play and could easily disrupt it if he did, well.... anything to slow down the rush. That's why it felt so end-to-end in '20 and previous titles.

I see this behavior to some extent on the forecheck and in the neutral zone too, and the result is a tighter-checking game overall and a more lively puck (due to it getting knocked off of sticks more often).

Note that none of what I said applies to online versus as the CPU is still as passive as ever on defense, and it's entirely by design - the devs want the players to switch and be active on the puck.

I haven't seen anything in the gameplay that's demonstrably worse than '20, although I will say that penalty kills still look like a fire drill, with it not being really clear what the AI is trying to cover, and where the player should be positioned. Also statistically the number of penalties still seems fine, but tripping is still by far the most common, with hooking right behind it. I think I've seen one slash and no body-to-body contact penalties yet.

It doesn't really feel like an entirely new game from strictly a gameplay standpoint, more like an ambitious title update. But gameplay isn't the only thing there is to this, and with the facelift that BaP got, I have a feeling it will be REALLY fun to play with the seemingly improved AI. I have about 5 hours left on my trial to play around in there.

[voodoo_magic]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

After some major adjustments to sliders, using something close to last years settings I'm happy with how it plays.
Like mentioned by others the subtle adjustments to the ai behavior has made it more challenging to get into the offensive zone and my ai team mates seem to get into better positions to keep the puck in. Last year I found they would stand and have their back to the play allowing the opp to instantly counter attack.

I've gotten thwarted on my rush up the ice, regrouped back in my zone and made another attempt with my ai decently aware of moving as a unit.
I've seen decent passing by cpu, not ping pong, but I have reduced the max pass speed and other cpu pass sliders so I think that helps. Yes, sometimes it's just too perfect and doesn't get mishandled like it should.
Seen much more board play slowing the pace down a bit.

Tried the trade deadline day and thought it was awesome, one of the best additions to a sports game in a while. Seeing a couple guys I was targeting get traded to someone else made it feel alive.

Any other year this may be good enough to buy. With next gen games, roster problems due to covid , you are only going to play 1 or 2 franchise years,or you feel it's not a big enough improvement to pay full price you could justify not getting it this year or at this time.

I wasn't going to get it. After having a chance to try it though I feel the game play changes and trade deadline are enough of an improvement to make the game fun to play for me.
I tried '20 a couple times while checking out '21 and definitely wouldn't want to play 3 or 4 more seasons of franchise mode in '20 anymore now that I've played '21.

[voodoo_magic]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

Has there been any improvements to the commentary?? It was INCREDIBLY bare bones in '20. I was not happy about Doc and Eddy being removed last year. It was getting old but it was at least authentic.

Sent from my XT1650 using Operation Sports mobile app

There doesn't seem to be much change in the few games I've played and I haven't seen anything about changes. This year understandably because of covid I highly doubt they did.

[hyacinth1]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

With FIFA looking unplayable this year I was thinking of picking up NHL instead. I haven’t played this series in depth for a long while, wondering how good the franchise mode/presentation/overall experience is for a casual hockey fan?

FIFA 21 for me is a copy/paste of FIFA20. But I am not surprised. EA is concentrating their efforts on next gen. Same goes with NHL21 .

All the EA 21 games are on ps4/xbox one are copy/paste.

[giantsharks]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

My impressions.

The Pros: T,he neutral zone play feels a lot better. More pressure from the defense, no skating back and forth by the CPU if they cant break in. The problem to me is they dont give you a lot of tools to break in the zone yourself and/or sustain zone pressure/forecheck.

the Cons: I am not trying to be overly negative but this game is a mess IMO. It has been a mess this entire console generation and it's mind blowing how little it has improved.

There are multiple things that make this game unplayable for me; Skating, passing, AI, and animations. The skating is just so slip slidy (I know thats weird way to say but thats what comes to mind). There is no such thing as momentum in this game, you are almost instantly at full speed when you skate from a full stop. WHen trying to establish play in the offensive zone or play defense, its just absolute chaos. Not the good chaos that is organized and beautiful like real hockey, the kind where its just guys constantly running into each other and even with sliders, its a mess. No type of systems or organizations even being attempted, i dont really know what to say other than it feels like a jumbled mess.

Passing is and always have been insane. The passes the CPU makes in certain situations that is tape to tape (even with sliders) makes this one of the most frustrating aspects of the game. The amount of times i see a cpu player whip a pass with a wonky animation from the corner to a guy cutting down the middle is just so maddening. The passes are unrealistic and the animations for the passing looks so bad.

AI I wont go to deep into because its just the same as always to me. The neutral zone feels better but there are so many other problems that I cant really enjoy the improved neutral zone.

Presentation: Is the worst in any sports game. The amount of guys that look nothing like their counter part is astounding. The jerseys look terrible, the logos and numbers are elongated and look flat. The celebrations are clunky and odd and the crowd falls silent moments after a goal. Same celebrations as every year and really it doesnt feel any different to play as Sidney Crosby or Andrew Shaw. During the Stanley Cup celebration, the crowd is dead silent minus a few yells, How is this in the game? The presentation in this game is absolutely abysmal.

[[Icy]]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

What about be a pro? has it finally been improved or is it just about playing one game after another with not much else to do? I saw the promo video about the improvements but... are they as good as they sounded ?

[SocialAssassin]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

So, the rosters are crap, but you can, if you wanna take the time, move the draft picks from this year to your AHL team, once you choose their affiliation, they're with your squad at the start of franchise.

[SocialAssassin]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

I noticed that, but it lists them as undrafted free agents which is kind of annoying. I don't see anyway to edit their draft info in rosters before starting the franchise.

You can't, I tried. It is what it is until there's a roster patch.

[Therebelyell626]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

And it looks like there is something wrong with the import of these players into franchise. I have tried loading a new franchise 3 times and Quinton Byfield has come in with Top 6 potential twice and Top 9 potential once. Lafreniere came in as high elite twice and top 6 once. So it is not importing their potentials correctly. And of course this is no way to change their potential once a franchise has started.

Looks like I will just do BAP until a roster is patched with the drafted players from this year.

This is happening with other players to. Not just the 2020 draft class. For some reason potentials are loading up funny

[sawicki]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

FIFA 21 for me is a copy/paste of FIFA20. But I am not surprised. EA is concentrating their efforts on next gen. Same goes with NHL21 .

All the EA 21 games are on ps4/xbox one are copy/paste.

Ea has been doing this with nhl since 2009, lol

[knich1]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

I must say I am enjoying the game out of the box with no slider adjustments, except I reduce* Game Speed to 0.*
As always I play on True Broadcast camera and even at speed at 0 - this is a tad too fast, but I can live with it.

I can definitely see an improved positioning by skaters - on both offence and defence. It just feels and looks better, and more importantly, it leads to a more authentic and intuitive experience, with momentum now playing a more prominent role.*
That said, it is very, very similar to 20 and frankly feeling quite stale.*The presentation looks exactly the same. I didn't really expect anything else for current gen, but it would have been nice to improve some animations. Which brings me to the "new" chip, bank, etc. Let's face it - this is just EA recycling the same animations, but giving them another name and putting them in a different context. They don't look particularly good and they don't really add up much to your arsenal.*
My biggest grip remains the inability to pull back the True Broadcast camera angle. It has always been too zoomed in.* For arenas like Boston, it is OK as the view angle there is further out, but for other arenas like The United Centre i Chicago it is just too close to the ice making it impossible to see large portions of the ice.*
I just don't understand why EA does not make the True Broadcast camera customizeable with a zoom option. You can clearly see from some cut scenes that they can pull back the zoom - but why not give us that same view for gameplay?

you can slow game down more if you reduce player acceleration and skating speed.

[knich1]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

My impressions.

The Pros: T,he neutral zone play feels a lot better. More pressure from the defense, no skating back and forth by the CPU if they cant break in. The problem to me is they dont give you a lot of tools to break in the zone yourself and/or sustain zone pressure/forecheck.

the Cons: I am not trying to be overly negative but this game is a mess IMO. It has been a mess this entire console generation and it's mind blowing how little it has improved.

There are multiple things that make this game unplayable for me; Skating, passing, AI, and animations. The skating is just so slip slidy (I know thats weird way to say but thats what comes to mind). There is no such thing as momentum in this game, you are almost instantly at full speed when you skate from a full stop. WHen trying to establish play in the offensive zone or play defense, its just absolute chaos. Not the good chaos that is organized and beautiful like real hockey, the kind where its just guys constantly running into each other and even with sliders, its a mess. No type of systems or organizations even being attempted, i dont really know what to say other than it feels like a jumbled mess.

Passing is and always have been insane. The passes the CPU makes in certain situations that is tape to tape (even with sliders) makes this one of the most frustrating aspects of the game. The amount of times i see a cpu player whip a pass with a wonky animation from the corner to a guy cutting down the middle is just so maddening. The passes are unrealistic and the animations for the passing looks so bad.

AI I wont go to deep into because its just the same as always to me. The neutral zone feels better but there are so many other problems that I cant really enjoy the improved neutral zone.

Presentation: Is the worst in any sports game. The amount of guys that look nothing like their counter part is astounding. The jerseys look terrible, the logos and numbers are elongated and look flat. The celebrations are clunky and odd and the crowd falls silent moments after a goal. Same celebrations as every year and really it doesnt feel any different to play as Sidney Crosby or Andrew Shaw. During the Stanley Cup celebration, the crowd is dead silent minus a few yells, How is this in the game? The presentation in this game is absolutely abysmal.

I had similar issues playing the game OOB. Have a look at post 108 and see if sliders help. I am having much more enjoyable and more of an NHL experience than with the default sliders and doing this with 15 min periods.

I went from no buy with default sliders to a buy.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...post2050236057

[The EVHL]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

I get a big "Madden" vibe from this game. What I mean is, it looks like they made the default game an even faster product to make it easier to pickup and play. Seems like a very arcade-driven direction on default sliders.

Checking:
Second, what the heck did they do to the hitting? While it looks great and smooth when it works, the consistency is extremely lacking even with sliders in my experience so far (about 6 hours of messing with sliders and playing in play now). I just feel like I'm seeing a ton of hits, especially along the boards, where hits are either not registering or they're so tiny that they do absolutely nothing.

They need to allow for checks along the wall to literally stop an attacker still. You see it all the time in the NHL where someone checks a carrier into the boards (and not a huge hit I should add) and pretty much pins him there, forcing the carrier out of the play and ensure that the carrier has to retreat to escape the contact. That's a perfectly executed body check and there are so many times in this game where that should be the result, but something with the physics breaks/gets confused and the carrier ends up just skating though the checkers and the boards.

Isn't that why the new slip deke was made? I figured that would actually force a skill gap but it looks like literally skating forward will also allow you to avoid checks at times due to a inconsistent physics engine.

Sliders:
For my slider-making friends out there, looks like the sliders are still broken too. Games just play fundamentally different without touching a slider which has been an issue for years.

Skating:
The pivots on-puck seem worse than 20 as far as going in the direction you wish to go. I notice it the most when passing across the blueline and am attempting to open up with the receiver to take a shot on net. It's not terrible, but it seems slightly worse than 20.

The AI simply can't transition to keep up with wingers hustling on the outside. Major slider adjustments were made to the "back skating" slider to avoid constant defensive breakdowns on literally nothing.

The agility and acceleration are at simply ridiculous levels OOTB. It's comical and very familiar to Madden's speed which you unfortunately can't change so plus to NHL there.

Offensive AI:
The neutral zone is better. Pretty impressed with how noticeably better it is. I played 20 immediately after playing 21 for a few hours and it's a night and day difference. Props to Ben and his team there.

In-zone AI play is still atrocious. The overload results in your players NOT wanting to drive the net in any capacity. I mean, usually there is a "slot player, but he's more of a screen/tip guy with his positioning which makes him not a great threat for a pass off the side boards. The guy on the side boards, even if you start moving him to the net followed by passing it low, (you know, how an Overload works) will immediately stop and retreat back to the boards effectively killing any offensive progress. Also, love watching the eventual side boards guy literally skate backwards into the boards rather than keep his attacking position in the middle/slightly-off middle slot when I'm retrieving the puck in the corner. This way, he can intercept the pass that I want to reach my defenseman and also be in a position to do absolutely nothing even if he doesn't intercept the pass! Been like this for 7-8 years, so not surprising.

Behind the net allows for a good cycle game, but makes passing to the defensemen useless as neither play in-front will actually move to a screening/tip position so the offense is very one-dimensional. Also, their default shooting position is usually covered and they refuse to get lower/higher to force defensive decisions when you do have the puck established behind the net, so again, very one-dimensional.

Crash the net seems to really make the rush play fun. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually provide any tips or screens as players "crowd" the net but make sure to "crowd" it about 3-5 feet off-center which never takes away the vision of the goalie and with the way shooting is in this game, isn't really in a good position for a tip either. They are constantly in a tieup battle off to the side which is somewhat comical to see but also disheartening as this has been the same for 4+ years now.

Can we either ditch these strategies in-favor of a more customizable set of "custom tactics" like FIFA, or can we simply add some fundamental hockey knowledge to the AI who are 100% static and can't recognize an offensive opportunity to save their lives? is it that hard to shift your "behind the net" positioning to a tip position when the puck rotates high? Is it too hard to program your overload side boards guy to continue driving the net after passing? Is it too hard to program your crash the net forwards to attempt to disengage a tieup and fight to screen the goalie? Bonus: is it too much to ask that attacking forward drive the net with their chest facing the net rather than their butt lol? I mean, come on....7-10 years straight of watching that...

I'll add more alter I'm sure, but those are some more early impressions.

[giantsharks]

Re: NHL 21 Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers - Post Your Impressions Here

I had similar issues playing the game OOB. Have a look at post 108 and see if sliders help. I am having much more enjoyable and more of an NHL experience than with the default sliders and doing this with 15 min periods.

I went from no buy with default sliders to a buy.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...post2050236057

i appreciate the tip and I have tried those sliders before my original post. I have tried multiple sliders and I still stand by what I said. You are right, it is much more playable with those sliders but for me its still a mess. Thank you for the suggestion and to each their own.