No new Legends in 14?

[cyborgdholliday]

So evidently, according to the gamespot gameplayer interview, the only legends in NHL 14 are JR, Gretzky, and Lemieux. While other franchises find new and innovative ways of incorporating their sport's greatest players, the NHL series regresses into mediocrity, especially during the NHL 94's 20th anniversary? Pathetic. Being able to play with Yzerman, Howe, Chelios, Lidstrom, Zetterberg, and Datsyuk was a lot of fun, they should have only kept adding more, and more legends, especially after '13's mediocre core of legends. Especially considering how easy it should be to do.

[CubFan23]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

I could care less about legends in any sports game. Never use them. I just want a current franchise with today's players, just my 2 cents. To each their own I guess

[Dougie_G_93]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

never used them either....

and ea clearly doesn't know what a legend is anyway......

[cyborgdholliday]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

I could care less about legends in any sports game. Never use them. I just want a current franchise with today's players, just my 2 cents. To each their own I guess

We get that literally every year. We never got a sports game with Bobby Orr, Bryan Trottier, Bobby Hull, Dennis Potvin, Stan Mikita or a modern game with prime Sakic, Messier, Lafontaine, Francis. I would love to make a franchise mode with our sport's best teams The '55 Wings vs. the '80 Islanders, the '97 Wings vs. the '76 Habs, the '67 Leafs vs. the '74 Flyers. It shouldn't be that ambitious of mode.

[Simple Mathematics]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

I'd rather them focus on other things than legends and the NHL 94 anniversary mode. Like gameplay improvements.

[ComaFaction]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

NBA 2K does an awesome job of incorporating the great NBA players and teams of various eras. I love playing games with the teams I grew up watching through the 80s, 90s and even early 2000s. It boggles my mind that NHL 12 had a decent collection of Legends, one that you would have expected them to grow, only to have the number dwindle the following year and (apparently) continue to regress to almost nothing this year. For a franchise that once touted, "We won't put anything in the game unless we can go all in and do it right", why even bother including such an arbitrary and disappointing shadow of a feature?

[Schmackity]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

NBA 2K does an awesome job of incorporating the great NBA players and teams of various eras. I love playing games with the teams I grew up watching through the 80s, 90s and even early 2000s. It boggles my mind that NHL 12 had a decent collection of Legends, one that you would have expected them to grow, only to have the number dwindle the following year and (apparently) continue to regress to almost nothing this year. For a franchise that once touted, "We won't put anything in the game unless we can go all in and do it right", why even bother including such an arbitrary and disappointing shadow of a feature?

The nice thing is though that NBA 2K series had great gameplay and everything else and has an actual REASON to add legends. NHL still has so many flaws in AI, gameplay, goalies, and a host of other things that need to get fixed before they introduce other dumb gimmicky things.

[ComaFaction]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

The nice thing is though that NBA 2K series had great gameplay and everything else and has an actual REASON to add legends. NHL still has so many flaws in AI, gameplay, goalies, and a host of other things that need to get fixed before they introduce other dumb gimmicky things.

I don't necessarily agree it's a dumb, gimmicky thing, nor does it really take a whole lot of additional development time. It just involves the effort of licensing players.

[bwiggy33]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

We get that literally every year. We never got a sports game with Bobby Orr, Bryan Trottier, Bobby Hull, Dennis Potvin, Stan Mikita or a modern game with prime Sakic, Messier, Lafontaine, Francis. I would love to make a franchise mode with our sport's best teams The '55 Wings vs. the '80 Islanders, the '97 Wings vs. the '76 Habs, the '67 Leafs vs. the '74 Flyers. It shouldn't be that ambitious of mode.

Those players would cost EA a lot of money to get their licensing. The NHL team doesn't have a big budget to include the top guys of all time. Also some of those players may not even want to be in the game. The best route for EA to go would be to do what 2k did with historic teams. Put a bunch of historic teams in the game and allow the user to edit the players.

[Gagnon39]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

never used them either....

and ea clearly doesn't know what a legend is anyway......

Roenick is a legend to hockey video games. And while he's my all-time favorite player, I have to admit he's not in the same class as Gretzky or Lemieux.

[brandon27]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

Those players would cost EA a lot of money to get their licensing. The NHL team doesn't have a big budget to include the top guys of all time. Also some of those players may not even want to be in the game. The best route for EA to go would be to do what 2k did with historic teams. Put a bunch of historic teams in the game and allow the user to edit the players.

That's actually a really good idea IMO. EA would just need to put the rosters together, use position and number as placeholders to identify them to get around the licensing issues and title the team 97 Red Wings or something. At least the option would be there, players can then edit the names if they so choose.

That being said, I still doubt I'd use it much, so I'd like to see them fix up the outstanding gameplay stuff, add a fresh new broadcast presentation overlay, and new commentary that preferably includes Jim Hughson again, and for the love of anything and everything... NOT Mike Emerick.

I really do like the idea of incorporating historic teams and rosters that way though.

[cyborgdholliday]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

Those players would cost EA a lot of money to get their licensing. The NHL team doesn't have a big budget to include the top guys of all time. Also some of those players may not even want to be in the game. The best route for EA to go would be to do what 2k did with historic teams. Put a bunch of historic teams in the game and allow the user to edit the players.

But that's NOT what 2K did. Also, I just assumed the players were still part of the PA after they retired? How would 2K be able to afford all of those NBA players' rights?

[bwiggy33]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

But that's NOT what 2K did. Also, I just assumed the players were still part of the PA after they retired? How would 2K be able to afford all of those NBA players' rights?

What do you mean that's not what 2k did? Have you played 2k8? 2k10 (not sure about 2k9) didn't have historic rosters but 2k8 did. They put in a whole bunch of teams with the players named by their number. If the players were still in the NHL during the 07-08 season then the actual player was included on the roster. Then the players were editable so you could make the rosters accurate. There are some terrific 2k8 rosters on this and other forums that have those historic teams completely edited and it's pretty cool.

Once a player retires they are no longer a part of the NHLPA. I'm sure the NHLPA and retired player are connected but not in the way that EA can just use anyone they want in their video game.

As for NBA 2k think about how much more money they have to work with. Besides MLB (which could be gone), NBA is the only other yearly release sports game that 2k has. All of their money is basically devoted to that series. EA values NCAA, Madden, and FIFA way higher than NHL, meaning that a lot of the budget goes to those games. NBA 2k also outsells NHL by a large margin and deservedly so. Obviously Basketball is more popular than hockey, but that game represents it's sport way better than NHL does. I hate the NBA but that game is pretty good.

[cyborgdholliday]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

What do you mean that's not what 2k did? Have you played 2k8? 2k10 (not sure about 2k9) didn't have historic rosters but 2k8 did. They put in a whole bunch of teams with the players named by their number. If the players were still in the NHL during the 07-08 season then the actual player was included on the roster. Then the players were editable so you could make the rosters accurate. There are some terrific 2k8 rosters on this and other forums that have those historic teams completely edited and it's pretty cool.

Once a player retires they are no longer a part of the NHLPA. I'm sure the NHLPA and retired player are connected but not in the way that EA can just use anyone they want in their video game.

As for NBA 2k think about how much more money they have to work with. Besides MLB (which could be gone), NBA is the only other yearly release sports game that 2k has. All of their money is basically devoted to that series. EA values NCAA, Madden, and FIFA way higher than NHL, meaning that a lot of the budget goes to those games. NBA 2k also outsells NHL by a large margin and deservedly so. Obviously Basketball is more popular than hockey, but that game represents it's sport way better than NHL does. I hate the NBA but that game is pretty good.

My apologies, I interpreted "2K" as to having meant NBA 2Kxx, rather than the former NHL series. But I suppose this makes sense. Tragic.

[bwiggy33]

Re: No new Legends in 14?

My apologies, I interpreted "2K" as to having meant NBA 2Kxx, rather than the former NHL series. But I suppose this makes sense. Tragic.

Oh sorry if that was confusing. Ya it is tragic. Hockey gamers, and really all gamers would be so much better off with choices. I will say though at least with hockey it isn't because the rights were bought out. EA won the masses over and sadly it resulted in a company folding their game. It just sucks that the great product EA NHL had out there didn't improve how I thought it would since 2k stopped producing a hockey game. It's made me miss 2k hockey even though I never bought one of their games until I was fed up with NHL. It would be interesting to see how the two hockey games would compare if 2k still had a game.