NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

[Drakar]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Time to time? This happens all of the time. And it has been happening on the regular in the NHL series every year since Littman has been off of head producer.

The only way this game can even beat me now is when the AI takes advantage of its own mess and abuses the other cpu players like in front of the net for the easy goal.

Otherwise, this is the 4th year in a row that I turned on the game and was easily scoring 4-5 goals out of the box on advanced levels. Last year in club alone I was averaging 3.2 points per game during the first week of games. That was on a supposed "new" game. My OTP stats after nearly 1000 games were pushing 6pts per game. They change nothing, they fix nothing. In fact they create new problems more than they address the old ones.

We played connected GM with 12 users last year and I played ever single game. My record was 78-4 on superstar with sliders heavily in favor of the CPU because we are very good at the game. I didn't lose to the CPU once and even had one player with 100 goals, Grabner would just fly down the left wing side with nobody to ever stop him from an easy entrance into the zone. You could stall and then step on the speed again once in the zone and easy short-side goal every time on the CPU goalie. Awful! No reason to even try to do other things, even though I have dozens of ways to easily score when I need a goal.

I've lost one game in 2015 so far, in OT. It is exactly the same bs. And I impose things to handicap myself against the CPU when I play offline by myself. I always bring the puck in the zone and set up a real offense. I never push the transition play when I don't have the rush numbers. And from game number one on NHL 2015 I have easily dominated time on attack by a 3-1 margin. Shots on goal by a 7-1 margin at times. Why? Because it is the same damn game and it is not good overall. Fix it, EA!

I don't mind dominating or losing. It how about the CPU AI goes about its business that bothers me and how my own CPU AI Teammate don't react or play the same as the opposite CPU AI.

[ThreeKing]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

If you're a fan of Hockey or the NHL, buy this game. Don't punish yourself because the things that were left out. The gameplay is incredible, prb would have game of the year all of the Modes were put in. Buy the game, play it for a few months and then trade it in. Worth trying just for the gameplay.

Totally agreed. Gameplay feels pretty organic and so damn fun for a first year title. Can't put it down.

If they come strong with their patches, and there's obviously a lot of fixes to be made, then this game deserves its respect.

[jake19ny]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

I have a theory on fixing the defense problem but if I'm right I'm afraid to see what I lose from the game as a result. Back in the good old computer days of the NHL series when guys could mod the crap out of it, someone came out with the Total Control Editor. Similar to NHL view this allowed us to tweak sliders with number values and it even opened some AI not available for tweaking in the game itself. Well back then it was determined by the creator of that fine application and agreed upon by the community after trial and error, that if you up the Aggression of players one of the downfalls was CPU teammates skating around out of position chasing the puck carrier. Now I have not seen this to be the case in the past NHL releases on the PS3/Xbox 360 and upping the Aggression seemed to make the game better, however with NHL 15 I immediately put the Aggression up to 5 and of course I am having the problem we are all having. I upped it to max and forget it guys were all over the place and it was the highest scoring game I played yet. Last game I moved it back to the middle and saw much better coverage (not perfect) in front of the net. It was only one game so I have to try a few more. Anyone else try this or notice this?

[jyoung]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

The game has been tweaked into a arcade game with some real puck physics.

This sums up my initial impressions as well. The puck physics really are phenomenal on PS4. Watch how this wrister goes from being completely flat during the shot to spinning all over the place after the save, which Brière then slaps into the net out of mid-air:

<iframe width="540" height="304" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ndnFIquuw-s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And some of it is a result of their removing the player "tie-ups" in front of the net. But thank god they did that because that was the most ridiculous excuse of a feature ever. It was just suction and was unrealistic. In real life it would be called holding or interference if it occurred anyway.

But rather than work with it or improve it they just canned it and didn't replace it with anyway to defend the net front. Wonderful!

I didn't notice it until you mentioned that, but it does seem like they've taken those "tractor beam" tie up animations out of the game for PS4. I'll have to start watching more carefully to see if I can spot it happening.

The AI's lack of awareness for the puck seems to be the biggest problem. They just don't track it very well when a pass comes into the slot/crease.

Then you add that to the fact that sticks and limbs can still clip through everything on the ice when catching passes and taking shots, and you end up with goofy goals like this that should never happen when the defender is in such good position:

<iframe width="540" height="304" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/C15p4LMcGcs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

This sums up my initial impressions as well. The puck physics really are phenomenal on PS4. Watch how this wrister goes from being completely flat during the shot to spinning all over the place after the save, which Brière then slaps into the net out of mid-air:

That first video is beautiful and the second is just plain awful. And for every beautiful thing you see in this game you often see 5 awful. And after seeing the same awful things for 5 years in a row it really wears on you. The people that are new to the series may not see it and I hate to point it out for them, but this stuff needs to be addressed and pointed out. Because otherwise we are going to be suffering with broken aspects of this game for another 5 years at least.

[jake19ny]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Here's another winner....In one of my BeaGM seasons I'm 3-0-1 and when I played my next game during the face off Ray Ferraro said. "The New York Rangers have been busy filling holes" (I signed or moved nobody) "when the close one up another one opens and that's why there record is .500 now".....couple that with no stats its a joke. I mean come on they stroke us off all they want about not being able to get the modes in but these little things are just makes it look like they really didn't care much at all about the product they put out.

[Cletus]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Bigwill, Jyoung, Bwiggy, et al. We might as well just stop and accept the dudebro dangle snipe celly fest that is EA NHL. They're not listening anyway. I figured out in the demo that the AI was bad, the only time the cpu scored on me was when I let in a backdoor pass. By me, I mean the AI guy that can't cover anyone despite being on the LA Kings who are probably the best set of d-men in the NHL.

If you like hockey but don't know all of the nuances/fundementals of individual play you will like it. If you're a hardcore guy and can't stand for the AI to make a play no NHL player in real life would make, you will hate it.

[ThreeKing]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Some of you guys are way too negative. You're making it sound like this game is the second coming of ET on the Atari 2600. Good Lord....lol.

[Cletus]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Some of you guys are way too negative. You're making it sound like this game is the second coming of ET on the Atari 2600. Good Lord....lol.

Here's the thing, it's 2014 and we have the same tools on defense as Blades of Steel with a couple more game modes. It's not a bad game but it's not what us hardcore guys want. It's also the only choice. People have put up very, very good detailed posts about what to fix. We get jerseys flapping. Instead of taking a few steps to overhaul AI we get new fighting engines. Instead of stick on stick collisions we get HUT.

[jake19ny]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

The negativity is completely warranted. That's great that some of you casual hockey guys love the game maybe even some hardcore guys love it. But when EA releases NHL 14 that was only a mere shade better (and some would argue that) than NHL 13 which was only a mere shade better than NHL 12....Then does not release NHL 14 on Next-Gen using the excuse that they want to focus on really improving the game so they thought it best to wait for NHL 15...Then they release NHL 15 completely void of 80% (and that's a generous estimate) of what NHL 14 had to offer......Then we hear promises of an update or two despite being a bit vague on whether or not it will contain some of the things we all want back.....Then add insult to injury as we spend time with this game we see lazy little things that there is no excuse for. No Season Stat tracking????? All the hype of the new announcers and they say nothing related to the season, they just spew random crap like a play now game????, Goalies wearing wrong colored gear and no way to change it????? Come on....I know people like HUT and stuff but how is that your biggest touted feature? Its a sports game and no matter what extras they add or delete a sports game representing a real life league should have the following or don't release it:
1) The ability to play a season and go through the playoffs (I mean that's what they do...)
2) Stat tracking for that season
3) Should play as best as can be expected like the real sport....Not Dmen running into the corner together leaving a guy wide open...Not playing 10 games and having 4 power plays total (something we have complained about to deaf ears for 3 years now) Not a 4th liner weaving around everyone like Gretzky, Not little Zuccerello flattening big guys with body checks, Not Marty St.Louis dropping the gloves 3 times in 4 games, I could go on and on..
4) Have the ability to let the users edit the players and make roster moves to mimic the real season
Everything else like HUT, Live the life, Be a pro, BeaGM, etc that should all be in addition to the above not the very basis for the game whiole leaving out the actual thing the sport does. Its great that the game looks so good and plays better but when you put the whole body of work since NHL 10 on the plate and think about all that has been promised over the years and never delivered or how they ignore the thousands of screaming voices about what needs fixing, it becomes hard to swallow and the negativity is well deserved

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Some of you guys are way too negative. You're making it sound like this game is the second coming of ET on the Atari 2600. Good Lord....lol.

Start posting what is good about it. And be specific. I posted positive impressions from my time with the game. I am tired of hearing it plays well or other generic statements. Post your proof. What are you seeing? Videos help a lot.

Did the AI player drive the net on a 2 on 1 with you and skated in a way to open up their body and stick to receive the one-time pass? Post that stuff!

Not the "i really like the way the puck bounces now". That stuff should be in the game, and it doesn't do anything to exemplify what is positive about it. Show me how the puck bounced over the stick at the blue line on a clear attempt up the boards, or describe that to me.

People are given these opportunities to explain and show what their impressions of the game are. If you are finding something to be repeatedly awesome or not it should be reported if those are your impressions.

As for me, if they spent any time fixing these long time issues then I could be moving on to reporting about other stuff. But instead we have the same problems year after year and nobody says a word in detail to explain the issues. I can't just turn a blind eye to all of them and pretend the game is awesome. This year especially since there wasn't anything to do in the game besides play now and be a gm.

[gopher_guy]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Some of you guys are way too negative. You're making it sound like this game is the second coming of ET on the Atari 2600. Good Lord....lol.

I don't know why people who want a hardcore hockey sim keep buying this game.

I'm a big hockey fan, but I accept the game for what it is, a fun and slightly arcade hockey game.

I just don't think this crusade against EA is productive. It's like people seriously think the devs don't want to release the best game they possibly can.

[Gerg04]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

I am enjoying the game play. I am as perturbed and disgusted as the rest of you regarding the missing game modes, and also about remaining issues that have plagued the series for some time. But, I am enjoying the game play.

Yes, this is an impressions thread. Yes we need to voice our opinion and displeasure in hopes that somebody somewhere cares enough about what's being voiced. However, I don't understand the purpose of repeatedly going over the same issues over and over and over. It's just so redundant. While every (most every) compliant is legit, and everyone entitled their opinion; at some point it's just overkill. I'm not saying any of you are wrong or your viewpoints are I'll conceived but at some point I think it just needs a rest.

I'll say it again. For all the bs, all the omissions, all the run around from EA and Rammer, I am enjoying the game, even if there are so many things that tick me off. But I chose to buy it, so I'll deal. I'm not saying everyone has to agree with me, just stating my opinion.

[THESHAMISASHAME]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

Some of you guys are way too negative. You're making it sound like this game is the second coming of ET on the Atari 2600. Good Lord....lol.

Sour grapes for sure and Im not talking Don but just give it up already and move on as its what I did with MLBTS .

But I guess some just think the more they cry and try to take the fun out of the game for others is just childish as this game is so fun and very sim if you adjust it to play that way

[Drakar]

Re: NHL 15 Available Now for PS4 and Xbox One - Post Your Impressions Here

I'll say it again. For all the bs, all the omissions, all the run around from EA and Rammer, I am enjoying the game, even if there are so many things that tick me off. But I chose to buy it, so I'll deal. I'm not saying everyone has to agree with me, just stating my opinion.

I knew before the start about the missing mode. It doesn't bother me as much. For a game that was build from the ground up it still play a lot like previous iterations.

Its not all bad though. I still play every night so I guess I either like it subconsciously or I am glutton for punishment. Either way