[Moose24x]

Alright, I'll give my impressions now that I've had enough time to play a good amount. I'll note that I've been playing everything on hardcore simulation style.

The first thing I'll say is that, overall, this game feels like an improvement to me. The second thing I'll say is that I can't really pin point exactly WHY. Certainly, in many respects it feels identical to NHL 13, just perhaps a bit polished and smoother. At the same time, there's a sort of undefinable difference that I'm feeling that has me a bit more immersed in the action and makes it all feel a bit more organic and realistic.

Since I can't quite put my finger on what it is that I feel is making this experience better than NHL 13, I'll simply point out the things that I do and don't like so far:

+ The hitting, while obviously tuned way too high in order to showcase it for the demo, feels great and adds a lot. I feel, so far, that size, speed, etc. is all finally present in the collisions.

+ Enforcer engine adds nice depth to the immersion but, like hitting, it's tuned to a ridiculous level for now (I hope it's much less prevalent at release).

+ Overall skating feels a bit smoother, or less encumbered.

+ Pucks seem to be bouncing more, and bouncing more realistically as well. Whether it's off the stick on a pass, off the boards or off the pipes, the puck is behaving nicely.

+ Players in the offensive zone seem to be more ready to receive passes and shoot one-timers when you pass to them.

- Back skating and pivots don't feel better to me. I don't think anything was ever said about back skating, but pivots were hyped and I'm not feeling the improvement.

- Shot power seems really weak, but I'm hoping it's just the tuners for the demo.

- Offensive AI seems as stupid as usual. I haven't seen them hold the puck in yet and while they do a better job getting out of the way of their own players, my teammates aren't helping me fight for pucks or doing anything useful.

- Everything feels like it's floating a bit. I don't feel like the players are anchored to the ice at all right now.

- Kinda bummed that Michael Grabner, with a full head of steam in HUT, can be caught by a CHL d-man who was flat footed, turned and began skating backwards. One of the fastest guys in the NHL should seem like a race car to an undrafted CHL d-man that's skating backwards. Still way too little player differentiation.



That kind of sums it up for me. Overall, the skating feeling less sluggish, along with the new collisions and the immersion of the new fights has the actual gameplay feeling somewhat fresh for me. My disappointments are more related to issues that still remain unattended to, such as fast players getting caught when they shouldn't be, rather than any real disappointment with features that ARE in the game. On hardcore simulation, the game is fun and feels like a good hockey game. I'm sure hitting power and fight frequency will be toned down in the actual release and that will leave me fairly happy with the core product. I'd like to see improvement in player differentiation, load times for GM, etc.