NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

[RaychelSnr]

If the long list of things that NHL 15 doesn't have on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 got you thinking about buying the game for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, be forewarned: Though NHL 15 retains every mode and feature from last year's title (minus the retired EA Sports Arena), the only enhancements it offers over NHL 14 are updated rosters, new announcers, some subtle tweaks to Be A GM's prospect progression, and slight improvements to puck physics and player collisions.

Almost everything else appears to be a copy-and-paste job from last year's source code, which means that the game's many on-ice issues cannot be saved by community rosters or by custom sliders.

Read More - NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

[BDG]

It kinda makes you wonder how much time was actually spent on the game

[tsbmolina]

Another money grabber by EA, surprise, surprise. No sucker here.

[ps3veron]

Ouch! I knew it! I think this is the lowest score NHL has received on OS.

[snc237]

So what you are saying is true, but for a game that was pretty good last year. Everything you say about it this year is completely bashing it you make is sound awful. Now if you owner last years version I honestly probably wouldn't be buying this game as it is for the most part the same. It's like a big patch for NHL 14 yet it's still nhl 14, a patch is not worth 60 bucks.

[SVCbearcat10]

I think we may under-estimate the amount of work that goes into redesigning the presentation and commentators. I would imagine redoing all the audio would be very time consuming and changing to the NBC overlays would be too. I think that ate up most of the budget and time for the NHL team for both generation of consoles. It couldn't have been cheap to get NBC and those guys. Maybe they should have took resources from NBA Live (which only has potential because the bar is so low) to a game that could truly be great. Remember with NBA and NHL, there were no exlusive agreements. NHL is the only game because 2k couldn't put out a good enough product to compete and vice versa for NBA (unlike Madden and MLB2k when they purchased the right to be the only game).

EA would rather have an average quality product in all genres/sports rather than be great at a handful. With lack of a consumer base to support multiple titles per sport, it makes better business sense.

[MavsUCCB]

I skipped 2014 last year because I didn't see any real significant improvements to 2013 and quite frankly I wasn't going to have the time to play it last year. After seeing the reviews and videos I was happy to go out and buy a used copy of NHL 14 knowing that I'm not missing anything from this years effort.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

Fair and accurate review.

[drj32]

you trash the game and then give it "above average"? please.

[peter21]

This is about what I expected. The days of me automatically shelling out $60 for a game are over and this review seals the fact that I will be saving that money for something of more value to me.

[mcavner]

Pretty simple fix for the progression system and goofy created players for the draft and all the ratings issues... just open up the game for offline players to edit stuff. Seriously, it's ridiculous to lock it up. And another wise move would be to allow access to the hundred of generated faces you can use for your created player and let you put those faces on the players in your GM or Season modes. If you're only going to add 30 cyber faces in two years EA, at least let us do something about it so we don't have five guys out of 20 have the same damn face. Ridiculous to keep that stuff locked up for offline gamers. That we have to crack games with programs and codes and all sorts of community projects just to make it playable - just open it up and let kids play with their toy the way they want to play with it.

[jyoung]

Re: NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

you trash the game and then give it "above average"? please.

GM Connected and the EASHL will mask many (but not all) of the gameplay issues that are detailed in the review, which is the main reason why the game still scored as high as it did. Without the ability to sub-out the AI and play with 12 humans players, the final score would be much lower.

The other reason is that we don't factor price into a game's score; we just mention it in the text of our reviews, if a game happens to offer more or less than what you'd expect from its price. The score is merely a reflection of the quality of the content in the game, without considering what it's being sold for, or how much of that content has gone unchanged from one year to the next.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

GM Connected and the EASHL will mask many (but not all) of the gameplay issues that are detailed in the review, which is the main reason why the game still scored as high as it did. Without the ability to sub-out the AI and play with 12 humans players, the final score would be much lower.

The other reason is that we don't factor price into a game's score; we just mention it in the text of our reviews, if a game happens to offer more or less than what you'd expect from its price. The score is merely a reflection of the quality of the content in the game, without considering what it's being sold for, or how much of that content has gone unchanged from one year to the next.

I personally like the tweaks, and NHL 15 360 will have longevity for me this year, but the game should have been a $30 "legacy edition" for sure.

[jromano99]

Re: NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

I’ve been a fan of the series since NHL11.I believe this is the best (primarily as a result of all the “tweets” from editions up until now)The current “tweets” have just added to the game.1) The new commenter’s, Doc and Eddie, provide a fresh sound to the game.I’ve been playing with the commenter’s turned off for the past two editions.They even add some history to the game, i.e. “Duncan Keith and Ryan Miller played together in college.2) The crazy puck bouncing is gone, adding more realism to the game play.3) The slot area is more accessible passing.4) Running into the goalie now causes a penalty and at time may result in a roughing penalty against each team. Penalties now seem more frequent. 5) Board play seems more involved and detailed.6) Goalies have new animations and the pads have been upgraded (at least to last year’s) 7) you can now collide with a player on your own team.While the layout and menu are still the same as last year the over all game has a much better feel to it.Worth the purchase !!!

[Dazraz]

I agree that this should not have been a full price release.
That said I'd rather pay for the 360/PS3 Version with all the modes intact rather than the stripped down next gen option.