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

[tjung0831]

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

All goalie sliders other than cover/pass frequency should be at 50 by default. To play on "default" Pro, goalies should be at 50 reaction and 50 cross crease reaction. I personally haven't been able to play on anything less than 70-75 cross crease reaction time.

Actually i think I have mine current at
62 for CPU
50 for Human - so maybe I didn’t lower them yet. It I need to check.

[ProbieByKO]

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

Would upping the AI difficulty slider on Pro improve the goalies? On default it's at 0 but may up it to see if that improves them. If not the I'll mess with the goalie sliders a bit. I do enjoy Pro it's just the goalies are a bit too soft at the moment. I'll never go above Pro as the higher difficulties are just to haywire for me & beyond frustrating.

Yes I've played on pro since 17. I imagine this year will be the same.

[CujoMatty]

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

I'm with you guys. Pro plays the best by far but is too easy OOTB. I have cpu cross crease reaction at 75 and user at 0 and I'm having real fun competitive games with average total of goals around 4-8 combined.

[Detroit Tigers]

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

... if you go too high on the two settings than determine how well screens work, you end up seeing a lot of bad looking goals because the goalie ends up not even reacting

This is just you chasing animations though, be mindful of that. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the goalie “not even reacting.” X, Y & Z happened in front of him, causing him to not even react to the puck. That’s sim. That’s any number of his attributes losing a dice roll. Who cares what animation happens to play? So you’re upset you didn’t get a sick flail animation on the goal? I mean yeah we all are but it’s not really about that. There was some other breakdown (or excellent offensive play) in front of him that caused the goal. The lack of a save animation is irrelevant. That’s how I’d look at it, anyway.

[MDgolf]

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

What’s up with RFA’s when starting franchise? With all the leafs contracts I’m unable to keep Dermott and Mikaev...


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[Money99]

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

I'm not trying to make excuses for EA believe me...... lol but....

Every sports game does this right now.

MLB the show has a 50 page thread every year about comeback code or scripting.

It's a common complaint about Fifa.

NBA 2k is well known to boost the AI and nerf user on higher difficulties.

Madden has robo QB on all madden difficulty.

PES is the worst. Derby games completely nuke the users ability to do anything.

I'm not a developer but it seems to me that it's a by-product of the limitations in current gen hardware. I've read quite a few times that one of the most exciting aspects of next gen hardware is the ability for smarter AI. Is it true? I dunno but I sure hope so.

I'm with you guys, it sucks but its definitely not a unique problem to the NHL series.

I hear you.
But saying that, the AI in some of the NHL2K games was fantastic.
Player types and seperation was done very well.
Same can be said for their basketball game.
And MVP as well as MLB2K did this well too.
I think it's possible but the white suits need to make it a priority.
I don't think the traditional 12-month cycle helps either. Half of that is spent on patching/fixing the current game and the other half is developing or adding to the microtransaction modes.

Sent from my MAR-LX3A using Operation Sports mobile app

[Rob V]

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

Probably a stupid question, but I cannot seem to find the League Leaders area in Franchise mode (goals, assists, etc). Can somebody point me to the right spot?

TIA!

[Freakywwe]

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

Probably a stupid question, but I cannot seem to find the League Leaders area in Franchise mode (goals, assists, etc). Can somebody point me to the right spot?

TIA!

I can't remember exactly, but it's called something like "STats Central" on the franchise home screen, right under calander. You just open the one for player stats, change team to "ALL" and sort for whatever stat you'd like

[capnlarge]

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

What’s up with RFA’s when starting franchise? With all the leafs contracts I’m unable to keep Dermott and Mikaev...


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I think this is a problem for the Leafs IRL.
Still have salary to move. I could see them moving on from Dermott.

They have 3 players making 8 figures

[MDgolf]

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

I think this is a problem for the Leafs IRL.
Still have salary to move. I could see them moving on from Dermott

No way!!!! He’s a potential stud... ya I guess it’s just like real life thanks


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[The EVHL]

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

This is just you chasing animations though, be mindful of that. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the goalie “not even reacting.” X, Y & Z happened in front of him, causing him to not even react to the puck. That’s sim. That’s any number of his attributes losing a dice roll. Who cares what animation happens to play? So you’re upset you didn’t get a sick flail animation on the goal? I mean yeah we all are but it’s not really about that. There was some other breakdown (or excellent offensive play) in front of him that caused the goal. The lack of a save animation is irrelevant. That’s how I’d look at it, anyway.

I care, because I'm a goalie IRL, and I'm trying to produce the most immersive experience possible for me lol. I don't like seeing a shot on the ice through one screen go in five-hole while the goalie is standing up. If I'm going to have to choose between erroring on the side of "screens are slightly underpowered but goalies don't look like mites" or "goalies literally stand-up and don't even butterfly when a point shot is taken through multiple bodies" I'm going to error on the side of the former all day. It's also not rewarding and feels way too easy when I score an unskilled shot because of "dice rolls" you know? To me, that's not "chasing animations" when I score 15 goals a game through screens, many of them not being placed in a spot that would beat a real life goalie. It's a different story if the odd one goes through like that, but I'm talking about literally having those values so high that the goalie simply doesn't react. If you can't see the puck but you hear a shot, you drop into the butterfly. That's modern goalie 101, so I'm not going to accept a slider set where goalies are so affected by screens to a point where they don't even react. That's not "sim" that's "bad hockey" imo. I'll go play FHM if I want a text sim where zero skill is involved in the goals I score.

[Rob V]

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

I can't remember exactly, but it's called something like "STats Central" on the franchise home screen, right under calander. You just open the one for player stats, change team to "ALL" and sort for whatever stat you'd like

Thank you... I found it about 2 minutes after I posted. Odd that you have to select "NHL" to see the stats.

[mkharsh33]

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

I've played every NHL game - and I have to be honest:

I'm really liking this game. More than I thought I would. It's nowhere near perfect - no game is. But this is their best effort in some time. I have only played Play Now games - I'm not concerned about Franchise yet as I want to get my sliders worked on. But this is a fun game...

[tjung0831]

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

I've played every NHL game - and I have to be honest:

I'm really liking this game. More than I thought I would. It's nowhere near perfect - no game is. But this is their best effort in some time. I have only played Play Now games - I'm not concerned about Franchise yet as I want to get my sliders worked on. But this is a fun game...

The last 7 games i've played have been fantastic. Best EA hockey game in long long time for sure.

[bwiggy33]

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

Yesterday I exhausted my 10 hour trial and for the first time in a long long time I bought the game full price. I was incredibly happy when they announced they were fixing the neutral zone to actually make it exist. I was skeptical on whether it was just talk, but it absolutely did finally get the attention it needed 10+ years ago. It's baffling why it took this damn long but it finally happened.

When playing I noticed immediately that the CPU was more aggressive and didn't just let you enter the zone. It forced me to actually have to dump the puck in and think about how I wanted to attack. I have yet to be able to go into the zone and fire a shot from the slot. It's the first time I've ever had that feeling in any EA NHL game. It is so damn refreshing that it has absolutely changed the game for me. It did exactly what I was hoping it would.

On top of this the pressure the defense applies when you do enter the zone is another huge change. In the times I've been able to enter the zone with just my controlled player, the D has pressured me and not just sat back which allowed me to wait for my players to enter the zone. It is about damn time this was done and it's yet another thing that has completely changed the game for me.

As for the goalies, they are so much better than when I used to play this game. Are they still warping and looking unnatural at times, absolutely. However, it's nice that they finally deflect pucks out of play and to the corners as well as suck pucks in. There are so many less instances with pucks going off of them only to flutter in the air behind them and go in. They still need tons of work IMO, but they are at least better than before.

Are there still issues with the AI at times, absolutely. However, you have to have AI mistakes in order for goals to be scored. No doubt it sucks when something so stupid happens, but there's nothing I've seen where it happens all of the time where it's game breaking. Maybe that will change for me as I continue playing.

All I can say is that I'm just blown away by how much the changes to the neutral zone and offensive zone pressure have made. It's completely changed the game for me. Maybe my long layoff from the series has something to do with it and yes, this all could change as I keep playing the game, but right now I'm having a lot of fun.