Often considered something of a neglected child among EA's annual sports titles, the NHL series seems...
Written By: Kevin Scott
Click here to view the article.
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Often considered something of a neglected child among EA's annual sports titles, the NHL series seems...
Written By: Kevin Scott
Click here to view the article. -
Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Well written and I agree with the majority of it. They finally have the game fun to play and I hope they smooth out some of the rough edges in the coming months. -
Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
It's an... Ok review. Some parts I agree with. But some parts have me raising an eyebrow wondering if the reviewer might be letting the game off the hook because it's EA.
The part I don't agree with is the one about the AI being "smarter" this year. More aggressive? Maybe. More difficult (especially the AI goalies)? I'll give you that. But "smarter"? The AI's patterns on offense and defense are still pretty much the same as they always were. It will routinely b-line towards the net and attempt a shot when keeping possession and setting up for a cycle is warranted. On defense, AI Teammates will NOT pass the puck up to a forward when they have a chance. Opting instead to carry it up ice or, if the opposing team pressures them, double-back into their zone and often times coughing up the puck. Goalies might be harder, especially the AI, but they don't have to deal with the tether system the human goalies do. And their save logic is virtually nonexistent, often opting a butterfly save when a full on spread eagle or just stretching a pad or an arm is the correct (read "more realistic") decision.
All in all, HUT got the most attention this year (surprise, surprise). Well, maybe not the most, but certainly the more care in how it handled imrpovements . EASHL, Franchise, and most of the other modes stayed pretty much the same. The most egregious of the modes is BaP or "Pro Career" which is, for all intents and purposes, virtually a copy-paste of the same mode from NHL 22... Down to the same tired intro cut-scene to introduce your "Pro".
NHL 24 sees a new dev team with (allegedly) a new vision and new direction. That remains to be seen as the game remains virtually unchanged from previous versions, even preferring to err on the side of arcade-ish features instead of the more "realistic" approach the devs said they wanted to take this series in. We'll see what time will bring.
But 24 is neither an improved or different game. It's just filling the void with another copy-pasted yearly sports video game release...Last edited by VeNOM3099; 10-14-2023, 09:03 AM.Comment
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
I have only NHL 22 to compare since I skipped 23 with the lack of presentations. But I find it mostly the same game except the CPU is more assertive especially on Superstar difficulty (not so much on Pro or All-Star, routinely outshooting the CPU just like NHL 22). For some odd reason, I can’t score on True Broadcast even with the CPU Goalie sliders at 0 which I didn’t have a problem with in NHL 22 with slider changes.2018-2019 NBA Champions!Comment
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NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Venom, I've noticed this complaint from you since at least NHL 23. Have you ever tried to make the cycle/shoot sliders at 0/10 for the cpu? Because at default, yes they are too shot happy and bee lines to the net with no regards to cycling.
For NHL 23/24 I put cycle/shoot slider at the team strategy section at 1/10, and the cpu cycles great.
Sent from my iPhone using Operation SportsLast edited by phillyfan23; 10-14-2023, 10:28 PM.Comment
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Pretty fair review. I'm a lot lower on icon passing than most. As someone who has always used 0/100 assist and 5/100 pass accuracy, it makes icon passing completely useless as players will miss by egregious lengths. There's also some touch passing issues imo when trying to pre-load a pass, almost ends up being this really quick/weak pass when in reality I'm trying to just preload my next pass before receiving, not actually trying to touch pass the puck. Skating is also brutal imo. There's no glide. Need to get that solved ASAP before this feels like a hockey game.
Anyway, not to beat a deadhorse. Maybe some good small steps, think this series is a few years away at least, but at least there's some life and signs of change. That being said, the stick lift still being an auto penalty is just horrendously embarrassing. I don't understand how you're paid to make this game and can actually think that's acceptable.Last edited by The EVHL; 10-14-2023, 11:58 PM.Join the EVHL!
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Have a look at this nhl 24 clip between myself ( rangers) vs cpu (islanders)
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Have a look at this nhl 24 clip between myself ( rangers) vs cpu (islanders)
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
Another cpu cycle sequence....both clips I shared were from the 1st 10 mins of period 1.
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Yeah, that's one of the first sliders I always remember to set, and it does very little to change the AI's play. Like if they lose the puck on the initial rush and they recover it in the corner, they'll start a cycle (sometimes). But they still insist on carrying the puck into the zone too often. Especially the d-men which doesn't make sense. I coached Hockey for 5 years and I was mostly in charge of goalies and normal defense (head coach handled the special teams). My players would be benched for a month if they decided the best play in hockey to make, was to carry the puck up ice when available forwards are waiting for a pass out.
Back in the 2K days, when I used to be bothered to make sliders and roster files, I would also alter every player's Shot Bias in their tendency attributes manually. That's over 800 player attributes to change (though I would only look up the top 2-3 players in each team to determine what their shot bias should be based on how many shots they averaged a game). The rest were "best guess" based on their position.
I'm not gonna spend 10 hours editing rosters + gameplay sliders now to try what is hopefully not a broken offline mode.
I'll just wait for the patch to try out human goalies... eventually. And if there's a major tuner/settings update, hopefully I have a few hours left on my trial period to give it a whirl. I still had like 6-7 hours of trial period left whith NHL 23 (before it went to the vault). Don't think 24 will fare any different unless big changes are made in the next few weeks.Comment
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Still have yet to play a full game due to the occlusion of any tutorials. I haven’t played a hockey game in years, and wish I had known about that or I likely wouldn’t have purchased the game.
I watched some tutorials on YouTube, but they don’t seem to be helping.
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
Venom thank you for being a staple amongst this community over the years for calling out EA for what their game is. I was too suprised when I read the review and Kevin said the AI was "smarter" this year. I was going to give this game a try, however, I'm holding off again this year after reading your comments and from what others have said so far. I just lost interest after NHL 14. It's sad that we don't have another hockey game to look forward too each year. I loved your edits in 2K back in the day and it made it for a more realistic game.Last edited by bransen; 10-16-2023, 07:43 PM.Comment
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Re: NHL 24 Review: Throwing Pucks at the Net That Don't All Hit Their Target
It's not my purpose to dissuade anyone from getting and/or playing the game. A lot of people actually have fun with NHL 24 the way I is. For what it's worth, I'm glad they enjoy themselves.
Sadly, I'm not one of them. I try... I really do.
*sigh*
All we can do is pray this new team wasn't lying when they said they wanted to bring more realism to this franchise. For that I'm willing to look to the future. Maybe an update will make things better. Maybe one or two years down the line the game will get better.
There's no harm in hoping.Comment
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