NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

[Yeats]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

Ramjagsing must have had to have swallowed the blue pill, seriously. As if NHL 94 arcade mode looks and plays much different from so-called simulation mode. What a company.

[canucksss]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

i remember Rammer saying that they did add stick collisions, but it caused to many loose pucks and would ruin the fun for casual fans etc. so they turned it off. why cant they give us that option to turn it on for offline or online seasons with friends?

if they would turn that on under the hood, im sure it would be frustrating, but guess what? we would adapt and force people to play actual hockey. pass, dump, forecheck, cycle, etc. not just dance around, loose puck deke, spin around, start and stop, skate around etc..

i also wish they would add back that when you do any of the above that you fall down and lose the puck. buuuuuuuuuuuuut the casual whiners cried and they removed that. bah!

You know that they will not add that option to have an on/off for the stick collision...because they have limited budget and limited people working in the NHL department.

[bwiggy33]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

[*]Avoiding Offsides: Players will do a better job of adjusting their route to ensure they remain onside as the play enters the zone.

What offsides? Offsides barely exists in this game as is. I'm willing to bet half of the games I've played I did not go offsides once and the times I did it was because of me trying to hold a puck in the zone. The problem is every time you enter the offensive zone your CPU teammates automatically stop at the blue line instead of trying to time the puck carrier entering the zone so they can go in on a rush. As it stands now you have to wait for all of your teammates to start skating again in order to have any chance of setting anything up. It's just ridiculous. They need to go back to the way it was in 07 and 08. The logic may have been a little annoying at times but at least there were offsides. Once again though it just all reverts back to the fact they want a fast paced no whistle hockey game. Really really sad that this is happening.

[jyoung]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

i also wish they would add back that when you do any of the above that you fall down and lose the puck. buuuuuuuuuuuuut the casual whiners cried and they removed that. bah!

Off the top of my head, here are some simulation elements that have either been removed or dramatically reduced since NHL 09 due to catering for casual players:

-- Shot blocking injuries (I haven't seen a single one this year online)
-- Self-injury when missing a check and running into boards (completely gone)
-- Goalie collisions (supposedly returning in NHL 14)
-- 4 vs 4 OT followed by shootout in regular season EASHL games (taken out via patch in NHL 09)
-- Charging penalties (I've seen zero called this year)
-- Skaters losing their edge and wiping out when trying to turn too sharply (completely gone)
-- Scoring by screening the goalie (not entirely removed, but significantly reduced to the point you rarely see it anymore)
-- CPU offsides (used to be fairly common, almost never happens now)

The design philosophy of this series seems to be to make the games go by as quickly as possible with constant up-and-down action, no penalties, no injuries, no offsides and no neutral zone play.

That same philosophy explains why they refuse to penalize people for spamming the draw button on faceoffs, or why the puck has a built in "invulnerability" period whenever the goalie passes out the puck out from a covered up position.

[FBeaule04]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

Off the top of my head, here are some simulation elements that have either been removed or dramatically reduced since NHL 09 due to catering for casual players:

-- Shot blocking injuries (I haven't seen a single one this year online)
-- Self-injury when missing a check and running into boards (completely gone)
-- Goalie collisions (supposedly returning in NHL 14)
-- 4 vs 4 OT followed by shootout in regular season EASHL games (taken out via patch in NHL 09)
-- Charging penalties (I've seen zero called this year)
-- Skaters losing their edge and wiping out when trying to turn too sharply (completely gone)
-- Scoring by screening the goalie (not entirely removed, but significantly reduced to the point you rarely see it anymore)
-- CPU offsides (used to be fairly common, almost never happens now)

The design philosophy of this series seems to be to make the games go by as quickly as possible with constant up-and-down action, no penalties, no injuries, no offsides and no neutral zone play.

That same philosophy explains why they refuse to penalize people for spamming the draw button on faceoffs, or why the puck has a built in "invulnerability" period whenever the goalie passes out the puck out from a covered up position.

The real philosophy behind that game is to make some people (I had another word in my head for this but I'll keep it for myself) play the game really fast so they can get they're 300 000 points in 1000 games and in the process making another type of people (same here for the word) spend all the money they can on boost slots and boost pack thinking it's going to make a difference.

In the end, the third type of people, like me (a ...), buy the game year after year, feel completely lost by what's missing and stopping enjoying a game I wish I love.

[Moose24x]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

Off the top of my head, here are some simulation elements that have either been removed or dramatically reduced since NHL 09 due to catering for casual players:

-- Shot blocking injuries (I haven't seen a single one this year online)
-- Self-injury when missing a check and running into boards (completely gone)
-- Goalie collisions (supposedly returning in NHL 14)
-- 4 vs 4 OT followed by shootout in regular season EASHL games (taken out via patch in NHL 09)
-- Charging penalties (I've seen zero called this year)
-- Skaters losing their edge and wiping out when trying to turn too sharply (completely gone)
-- Scoring by screening the goalie (not entirely removed, but significantly reduced to the point you rarely see it anymore)
-- CPU offsides (used to be fairly common, almost never happens now)

The design philosophy of this series seems to be to make the games go by as quickly as possible with constant up-and-down action, no penalties, no injuries, no offsides and no neutral zone play.

That same philosophy explains why they refuse to penalize people for spamming the draw button on faceoffs, or why the puck has a built in "invulnerability" period whenever the goalie passes out the puck out from a covered up position.

I'm only quoting this post because I was only allowed to like it once. Once is not enough. This post is truth.

[bwiggy33]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

In the words of Pierre Mcguire, jyoung you are bang on. Although this game has made improvements in different areas, most of the sim elements that were in those first three versions have been taken out. Imagine where this game would be at if those things were still in the game with the improvements they've made the last couple years. This game would be pretty damn good. It would be interesting to see if removing those sim elements has actually made a difference in sales.

[Cletus]

Re: NHL 14 Video & Blog - EA Sports Hockey IQ

In the words of Pierre Mcguire, jyoung you are bang on. Although this game has made improvements in different areas, most of the sim elements that were in those first three versions have been taken out. Imagine where this game would be at if those things were still in the game with the improvements they've made the last couple years. This game would be pretty damn good. It would be interesting to see if removing those sim elements has actually made a difference in sales.

It might not have made a huge difference in sales, but it made a huge difference in people enjoying the game. That's especially true for EASHL mode. I've seen more people quit in November than ever before. The sad part is, most of the hardcore EASHL guys were the ones quitting. I also wonder how many elements were taken out by Rammer and or what was put in by Littman.