[RynoSabre]

This is great that they are improving the gamePLAY. I think some of the issues over modes has been blown out of proportion but there are still very significant issues with game modes. Outside of when OTP is coming, the number one thing I have seen, and I agree with is WHEN/IS there going to be simming to next shift in BAP? The game mode is broken and unplayable without this feature. The addition of "coaches comments" was nice but I would gladly sacrifice that for the ability to not have to sit and watch the game from the bench. I realize the troubles that the dev team had to cope with and decisions had to be made but the exclusion of this feature makes me think that nobody actually PLAYED BAP before release because nobody likes to just sit and watch the game from the bend. It's a lifeblood feature of the gamemode. How is it left out?
The gameplay this season is much improved, as are the visuals. But there has to be legitimate reasons to play the game. Single games and abbreviated GM mode are not one of them. They stripped out the offline tournaments in HUT which makes that mode almost pointless too. I don't play online much so my focus is on the offline features.
It's so frustrating because I have played every game in the NHL series all the way back to the beginning. I got an xbox one for multiple reasons but the primary drive in terms of the timing that I got it was to be ready for NHL 15. It wasn't released on next gen last year while other EA sports games were. As hockey fans, we accepted that and said "okay, but we expect great things next year." Outside of a few small tweaks in gameplay (VERY small), the last gen versions of NHL 15 are carbon copies, living up to a term that I have fought against for year, the "yearly roster update." I have defended this series (and others that EA has made) from that term countless times. This year I just can't. The "old" gen versions appear to have so little improvement in them that it makes me wonder where all the dev time went? If it wasn't put into making massive improvements in the last gen, and it wasn't put into implementing game modes that we, as fans, have come to love over the years, in the next gen versions, where did it go?
I'm not going to attack EA blindly and call them names because that's pointless and juvenile. I just have to ask the questions that everyone else is asking. WHERE is everything and WHY wasn't it implemented? Please EA, tell us why you have, by all appearances, forsaken the NHL franchise that a group of fiercely loyal fans have defended and loved for so many years.