NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

[Money99]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

Geeze some guys act like EA is proposing a new revolutionary free health care system. It's a video game, and the best thing to do is rent before you go and plop down $60, which is what I did this year. In their first release they aren't going to go over every aspect that is new. Hopefully they correct the glaring flaws that have gone uncorrected for years

People get ticked off easily over this game because it's the only one to choose from.
If EA can't get it right, then there's no hockey game to be played.
That's the position I've been in since NHL10. And really, the last EA hockey game I really enjoyed was NHL07.

NHL14 is basically NHL 08.0.6.

[bwiggy33]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

All I want to throw in is that this looks good. Not great, but I'm sure there is more to come. However, some of you guys should stop complaining.. I mean go ahead if you want EA to have less devs for this game.. but this game needs as much support as it can get being that its on a low budget. I do know though that this little trailer release.. isnt everything they have. I'am excited for the new BaPro mode.

Stop Complaining? Most of us are not complaining. Some of us have strong opinions on this game because we are tired of seeing the same problems with the game year after year. This game has been pretty much untouched in major areas since 07, and it is being echoed by many many long time fans of the series. I have played this game since NHL 98 (Ages 7-23), I think I and many others have the right to express our opinions or as you say "complaints" with the game. Technology is improving with video games, and many of us expect more from the NHL series due to what other games such as MLB The Show have done. May I also add the many opinions that people are sharing, are extremely productive and not attacks at the developers.

I think we all know that the game has a much lower budget than most other EA games. We also know that the NHL team has less staff members. However, after 7 iterations of the series this gen, many people still expect more to have been accomplished. At minimum much better AI to play a dynamic and less repetitive game. I can deal with things like physics and skating not being perfect, in fact I don't expect that. What I do expect after 7 years is a much more dynamic and less repetitive AI, as well as a strong differentiation between teams and players. Those two areas are key for replay value with this game. I think that is the frustration with many people who have played the series year after year on this gen.

I do agree with you though that there are going to be more announcements. It's so early with information that it's kind of unfair to speculate that nothing else has been done to improve the game. With the track record of the series the past few years, many people aren't optimistic that the problem areas, will not be improved. You really can't blame people for that.

[canucksss]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

All I want to throw in is that this looks good. Not great, but I'm sure there is more to come. However, some of you guys should stop complaining.. I mean go ahead if you want EA to have less devs for this game.. but this game needs as much support as it can get being that its on a low budget. I do know though that this little trailer release.. isnt everything they have. I'am excited for the new BaPro mode.

http://youtu.be/ZCb6Rlpv9Fg - look at 3:55 (EA Sports Hockey IQ) - at first this was working perfectly in my offline game, but after the patch, there's not even presence of neutral zone defense from AI. Defense became non-existence....do not suggest HOF mode because all the program does is make all players juiced-up.

http://youtu.be/P0iLGMBRhIg - look at 1:09 when Ram is talking about EA TEAM AI (IQ), it was there at the beginning but after the patch it was removed. WHY? PERHAPS MANY cry-babies are saying "this is difficult...remove TEAM AI.... coz i cant rush" kinda statements.

please dont suggest to try the sliders....ive tried cycloniac's and mk's, these guys devoted so much of their time to have a great sliders. but because ea removed the defense aspect in this game even the great sliders of these slider gurus cannot help this game, IMO.

that's why i am "COMPLAINING". these are only several factors why it irates me after spending $$$. dont say "why not rent it first" coz this EA TEAM AI was IN the game before EA decided to remove it post patch.

[archibalduk]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

Stop Complaining? Most of us are not complaining. Some of us have strong opinions on this game because we are tired of seeing the same problems with the game year after year. This game has been pretty much untouched in major areas since 07, and it is being echoed by many many long time fans of the series. I have played this game since NHL 98 (Ages 7-23), I think I and many others have the right to express our opinions or as you say "complaints" with the game. Technology is improving with video games, and many of us expect more from the NHL series due to what other games such as MLB The Show have done. May I also add the many opinions that people are sharing, are extremely productive and not attacks at the developers.

I think we all know that the game has a much lower budget than most other EA games. We also know that the NHL team has less staff members. However, after 7 iterations of the series this gen, many people still expect more to have been accomplished. At minimum much better AI to play a dynamic and less repetitive game. I can deal with things like physics and skating not being perfect, in fact I don't expect that. What I do expect after 7 years is a much more dynamic and less repetitive AI, as well as a strong differentiation between teams and players. Those two areas are key for replay value with this game. I think that is the frustration with many people who have played the series year after year on this gen.

I do agree with you though that there are going to be more announcements. It's so early with information that it's kind of unfair to speculate that nothing else has been done to improve the game. With the track record of the series the past few years, many people aren't optimistic that the problem areas, will not be improved. You really can't blame people for that.

FWIW I agree 100% with the above. I'm in a similar position too, having played the game since NHL 98. For me, NHL 04 and 13 have been the most fun to play of the series to date. Since NHL 06 I've tended to buy the game every other year because I don't find there are enough changes year on year to warrant spending £40 annually. However, I personally felt there was little difference from NHL 09 through to NHL 12 and so NHL 13 is the first game I've bought since NHL 09 (although I play the demo every year to check it out).

AI is the big thing for me. I felt NHL 13 was a refreshing change because the devs appeared to be looking at developing the AI, tactics, goalies, etc and of course the brilliant skating engine. However, what has been announced so far is a real disappointment for me. I really wish the game was more of a simulation and less of an arcade game. Obviously there needs to be a balance between the two in order to keep the game enjoyable, but there are some simulation aspects I think are really missing. Board play is a huge omission from the game. What percentage of an average game in real life is spent battling along the boards? An awfully higher percentage than in NHL. And there seems to be only one or two board play animations in game (and much of the time it seems to kick in at the most unrealistic times). It's elementary things like this I wish EA would spend time fixing.

I'm still waiting to see what further announcements will be made, but from previous experience, I'm not holding my breath.

[FBeaule04]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

EA fooled me 4 years in a row now with glaring lights, huge announcements, big videos, social media think, etc, etc, etc.

No complaining this time around. I'll only have one thing to say. If EA delivers a game as good their marketing is, we'll have a heck of a game.

Remember the last time TO said get your ready? Well Don't blame me if I wait on the promises about NHL 14.

[Segagendude]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

http://youtu.be/ZCb6Rlpv9Fg - look at 3:55 (EA Sports Hockey IQ) - at first this was working perfectly in my offline game, but after the patch, there's not even presence of neutral zone defense from AI. Defense became non-existence....do not suggest HOF mode because all the program does is make all players juiced-up.

http://youtu.be/P0iLGMBRhIg - look at 1:09 when Ram is talking about EA TEAM AI (IQ), it was there at the beginning but after the patch it was removed. WHY? PERHAPS MANY cry-babies are saying "this is difficult...remove TEAM AI.... coz i cant rush" kinda statements.

please dont suggest to try the sliders....ive tried cycloniac's and mk's, these guys devoted so much of their time to have a great sliders. but because ea removed the defense aspect in this game even the great sliders of these slider gurus cannot help this game, IMO.

that's why i am "COMPLAINING". these are only several factors why it irates me after spending $$$. dont say "why not rent it first" coz this EA TEAM AI was IN the game before EA decided to remove it post patch.

Was it playable before the patches? If so, I'd delete them myself and just go back to release date settings..

[daflyboys]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

Pretty smart ad to integrate a real life move and the video game version. But putting 2 fights in within the first 20 secs..........

[GuyinPA75]

I really lost hope when I read this "for the first time in the EA SPORTS NHL franchise, true size and strength differentiation between players".

Haven't they said that every year for the past 2 years? How can they say now "for the first time"?

Fighting and hitting needed overhauled in the worst way possible. Hitting has been VERY, VERY, VERY weak last 2 years. And the fighting is worthless. Just rock'em sock'em robots.

With a gamertag of Lemieux I demand quality from NHL games. Last 3 years of NHL I have found poor in quality. The "efforts" have felt gimmicky in game. The new features have just been exploited online so much.

For NHL 14 to be a success in my eyes, EA really MUST make a way to stop glitch plays and glitch goals.

There is nothing fun or entertaining defending against the same play and goal EVER single play.

[bwiggy33]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

Was it playable before the patches? If so, I'd delete them myself and just go back to release date settings..

Same here. I would definitely take better AI pressure and defense over more penalties. It's been so long since the release that I can't even remember what the game played like out of the box.

[CaptainSuperman]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

I see a lot of comparisons to MLB The Show. 1) Baseball is a simpler sport to make a video game of. No forechecking, hell, no physical contact at all 2) MLB The Show had established itself out of the gate a great game. That means they had built something good from the get go. Where as NHL has always been building upon what they had. MLBTS has remained largely the same since it came out, but just the same as NHL got improvements upon it's foundation, so has The Show. EA would have to likely take a year or two off to recreate NHL from the ground up. And after that's done, they would be fortunate to create a winning formula that worked as intended and was fun.

I also see a lot of people who appear to want change just for the sake of change, which is a terrible idea. If it ain't broke, don't break it. Either these people would complain cause it is the same, or they would complain cause they changed their winning formula and that it's not the same. There is no winning with some people

[ice2modern]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

i can't decide weather to buy NHL 13, ( $10. cheaper ) 'cause according to u folks, the game is just the same game basically , every year ....or buy the
NHL 14...or bypass both & wait for NHL on Ps4 ? any thoughts ???

[canucksss]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

Was it playable before the patches? If so, I'd delete them myself and just go back to release date settings..

yea...it works but no penalties....try to use the release date settings and see if you can just add tuner 1.04 if it works.

it didnt work for me.

[kdorsey0718]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

Honestly, I was fine with NHL 13. Loved the game, loved Tuner 1.04. No AI is going to be perfect and hardcore fans will always adjust the sliders. Once you do, the realistic gameplay comes out. The game is default to new players and making it a stiff experience.

My biggest issue is presentation. I wanna see an NBC overhaul. Gary Thorne here in Baltimore is one of the best baseball announcers around, but he hasn't called hockey in so long. Why is he still on the game? And unless you are a diehard Rangers fan, you won't know much about Bill Clemente. They're great at calling the plays but the humor is old. Can you imagine a game with Doc Emrick calling the action? Amazing! I don't even care who the color commentator would be. Hell, put Pierre down between the benches to offer insight between plays and in intermissions. Madden has CBS, NCAA has ESPN, Tiger Woods has CBS and the Golf Channel, even the old NCAA Basketball games had ESPN and CBS. Bring NBC to NHL 14!

One of my biggest peeves isn't the gameplay, the sticky passes, or anything like that. Mine is the puck. It's too stiff. When you watch a hockey game and Zdeno Chara winds up from the point and hits net, that puck bounces out back to the ice. It doesn't hit the net and slowly fall down. It's an odd pet peeve but when I slap a shot in or I hit the top of the net, I want it to bounce around.

[bwiggy33]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

No AI is going to be perfect and hardcore fans will always adjust the sliders. Once you do, the realistic gameplay comes out. The game is default to new players and making it a stiff experience.

True, no AI is going to be perfect. However, these sliders don't make the AI more realistic. The same exact AI problems occur no matter what sliders you adjust. The reason the sliders in this game do not affect the AI mind is because they are broad. Game speed, shot speed, Acceleration, pass accuracy, etc. Those don't change the way the AI thinks. Those change how the game plays for both the Human and CPU.

The sliders do not go into the mind of the CPU to actually change the way they think and play the game. There are only three sliders that change the AI mind. The first being AI Learning, the second being CPU Difficulty Adjustment, and the third being CPU Strategy Adjustment. Other than that all of the other sliders are based solely for how the game feels and plays. That is the major problem. As for the 3 sliders that do affect the AI mind, they pretty much turn the CPU into superhumans if you bump up those specific sliders, thus resulting in many odd things to occur. People will debate whether this is the case, but when my goalie lets in a soft shot on the ice from outside the blue line late in the 3rd period, I think there is something fishy going on. Then the game will proceed to score strange goals until it is tied up or they have the lead. This isn't a one time thing, this has happened many many times during last gen and this gen.

Now the one thing in this game that does affect the AI mind is the Build your AI feature. That is the first time in this gen that we have been able to actually alter the way the CPU plays the game, in a non superhuman way. The problem is, there just aren't enough sliders for that yet and they can't be used in BAGM. Hopefully they will be adding more options and sliders for the Build your AI feature in NHL 14. Now people may say that these AI mind sliders I talk about can't really be done. That is completely false. If you look at 2k's hockey game, they have loads of sliders that pretty much all affect how the CPU thinks. These include: CPU Pressure (critical slider), Shot frequency, poke check frequency, passing frequency, one timer frequency, hitting frequency, goalie sliders (actually altering how they decide to play the position), and I could go on and on. Way different than the broad sliders EA has.

If EA wants to make this game for everyone, they need to add more specific AI altering sliders. That's how you hit the sim, casual, and arcade population. If they can give us more sliders that actual alter the AI mind to make the CPU feel natural and dynamic, this game would be damn near perfect.

[canucksss]

Re: NHL 14 Official Trailer, Six New Features Announced

If you look at 2k's hockey game, they have loads of sliders that pretty much all affect how the CPU thinks. These include: CPU Pressure (critical slider), Shot frequency, poke check frequency, passing frequency, one timer frequency, hitting frequency, goalie sliders (actually altering how they decide to play the position), and I could go on and on. Way different than the broad sliders EA has.

If EA wants to make this game for everyone, they need to add more specific AI altering sliders. That's how you hit the sim, casual, and arcade population. If they can give us more sliders that actual alter the AI mind to make the CPU feel natural and dynamic, this game would be damn near perfect.

THIS!!!!! You hit the great point. Now, do you really need a BIG BUDGET and many programmers do this? Because if the answer is NO, then why EA cannot implement it?

I WILL VOTE FOR YOU FOR THE NEXT PROJECT DIRECTOR OF EA NHL franchise!!!