NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

[canucksss]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Rammer will be taking the floor at 2:30 PST.

If its possible to make a separate thread for this and kindly make a bullet points of whatever this guy gonna report on? I have an appointment that time, greatly appreciate it.

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Will there be any more following-up with this, or is what we got all we are going to get?

[nddurst]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Will there be any more following-up with this, or is what we got all we are going to get?

I echo this. Any chance some of the questions in this thread can be addressed?

[froghair]

Nice info, fellas. Any idea (or your thoughts) on whether last change will be incorporated on faceoffs? I feel like the last change and getting match-ups is a major part of hockey and should be a given in any serious attempt at a simulation of the game.

[Money99]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

mattbertz @mattbertz
Played NHL 16 on all-star hardcore settings. Love the feel of precision skating, and scoring windows seem much smaller than 15. Good signs

Managing Editor at Game Informer.
Reader, writer, gamer, avid sports fan, connoisseur of rock 'n roll, drinker of Scotch.

I'm amazed there aren't more hands-on impressions from those that attended E3.
Even on HFBoards there's barely any mention of it.

Is this series even relevant anymore?

[nddurst]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

I tweeted Matt Bertz just now asked if he'd be willing to share his NHL 16 impressions with us here at OS.

His immediate response:

We’ll be posting a conversation between the three editors who played the game later this week on the GI site!

So there's something...

[Hockeynut99]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Rather just have some gameplay videos instead of producers talking.

[Devilsfan3026]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

I'm amazed there aren't more hands-on impressions from those that attended E3.
Even on HFBoards there's barely any mention of it.

Is this series even relevant anymore?

HFBoards lol. Speaking of irrelevant.

[canucksss]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Rather just have some gameplay videos instead of producers talking.

BINGO!!!

10 words

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Not having any gameplay footage is one thing, and it sucks, but not having any answers to specific questions is worse.

It is like there is a complete vacuum surrounding information with this franchise. And it hasn't been a good thing with its recent track history.

[dickey1331]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Im hoping they can improve on this game. I havent bought a hockey game in years and hopefully EA can show me enough to get this game.

[ChaseB]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Hey guys, so I didn't write the preview but I thought I would at least try to answer some of these questions if you don't mind. Apologies if I don't have answers to some stuff as I didn't follow this thread as closely as others due to it not being a main game I was assigned. (Plus, we did at least put a disclaimer that we may or may not get to these!)

Hey chaseB, thx for the Write up!!!

You say, the Presentation is improved, can you say something about audio (does the crowd react to a power play for example, is the atmosphere during a game better than last year etc.)

Thanks and sorry for my bad English

I think crowds, both in terms of sound and activity have taken a step up. It's probably my favorite atmospheric EA game now (Live probably has it beat in crowd audio, but NHL has all the games beat in terms of just having an interesting and dynamic looking crowd and miscellaneous things going on).

How's the computer defence play... are they engaging when they should?

I'm sorry, but all my games were User vs. User as it's rare to get an empty console at something like E3. I can speak from a human perspective and say I think it's more reliable and rewarding to play D so far. I generally play D 90 percent of my games in OTP/EASHL, and I felt about as comfortable as I ever have trying to stop folks from taking me one on one.

Regardless, I share your hope for more aggressive D.

Good questions, I second this one.

The defence in 15 was awful once again, nothing more than huge traffic cones to skate around. Have they made the AI defence better? And the Goalie AI was a big problem, too. Any news on these two points?

They're still very much working on goalies so it's hard to say at this point. I know they're really trying to focus in on goalies though, so if anything, it at least seems to be a point of focus. FIFA and NHL have the same issue in early builds where generally the goalies are a bit more broken than they will be in the final build. I believe, for whatever reason, that goalies are one of the final things that get that final level of tuning in both games, probably because adding new animations and AI tendencies and everything else during the cycle impacts them more than it would other positions.

Thanks Chase! Appreciate the hands-on thoughts.

My biggest issues/concerns with NHL16 are this:
- Are your CPU teammates still ridiculously docile?
- Do you notice different player types? How about teams? Can you actually see and feel a difference playing against a team like the Wild or Wings as opposed to a bruising club like the Ducks or Bruins?
- Will CPU opposition still be able to do things with the puck that you can't? Specifically, its 3rd and 4th line players. Can they still snipe, dangle and thread needles regardless of their attributes?

If those 3 are improved I'll bite.
Amazon.ca has a great deal right now where you get 30% off if you purchase 3 titles featured at E3.
I would like NHL16 to be in my top-3 but if the same things I mentioned above continue to plague this series, I'm not going to spend another penny on the series.

Hey Chase. Ask the devs if they plan on adding a roster share feature.

-Again, hard to answer this one so far I think. Do you mean the D-men again, or do you want to give a more specific example?

-Again, tough to say in User vs. User games. I would agree with you though that it would be nice if teams and player types were more noticeable. I can only assume this is tough to do as I think nearly all sports games struggle to nail those two aspects.

-I will be truthful here and say I haven't noticed this as a huge issue in the past, but can't answer it either way for the same reason -- it's just not something I would have seen at this show.

Sounds great... can't wait.

Please tell me 5 man hugs are in the game though

Noooo, I'm sorry but they are not. In EASHL, it will still be more the one guy trying to race to get that hug first. They know people want it, but it's a bigger ask than you would think, and it just can't go above other stuff in the priority list for now. (I will show off my shame here and say this is one of the few questions I did ask, and that was without even knowing it was a question in this thread. I love me some big ol' group celebrations and wish they were there.)

Great right up guys..

Did you hear Doc and his emotion in the game? Does he have better goal calls as EA was promoting and not sound completely unenthusiastic? If you scored with like a minute to go to go ahead a goal he would scream "SCORES" at times, but that was about it.

So E3 mostly sucksssss for hearing commentary as it's just so loud overall. I did hear some loud Doc calls though, so one would hope it has perhaps improved.

BigWill: First off: Glenn, when you say " The gameplay of NHL 15 generally satisfied..." that immediately made me cringe because I thought NHL 15 had some of the worst gameplay in sports video game history. It was everything that was bad in NHL 10-14 combined with new absurdities and unrealistic occurrences.

Can't speak for Glenn, but my general point with NHL -- like most other sports games -- is if you don't like the core of the game, then you're not going to suddenly like it the next year. I know that's not exactly what you're saying here, I'm just pointing out that if you thought NHL was irreparably busted last year, I don't see how this game can fix all that for you in one cycle.

BigWill: Did you guys pick up the controls and just do the same exact thing as the past 5 years? Did you know exactly how to score, how to breakout, how to enter the opposition's zone? Or were you forced to think and react on-the-fly? Perhaps relying on your real life hockey knowledge of positioning and reactionary skills to how the AI responded to your play, rather than just doing what is engrained in all of us when playing NHL (ie. passing it up the boards, carrying it over the blue line, making a move in the offensive zone and looking to gain the slot, shooting top corner short-side, looking for the one-timer down low).

Playing against humans (mostly way worse than me), I did a lot of similar stuff. Obviously I didn't play the AI, but I don't have a major issue saying I doubt this will be the game that changes your feelings on a lot of this stuff.

BigWill: Does the defense body up on puck carriers rather than only go for a hit or poke check? Can you ride a puck carrier off of the puck, into the boards, without knocking them over or destroying them, allowing for a loose puck situation?

I can't answer some of that question, but no I didn't see a constant ride-along leading to a smear into the boards. I saw a lot of good checking animations, but not that type of new style of check you're speaking about here. I think the only thing I can say is I did see nudges off the puck that didn't lead to a guy falling over -- but that's been in NHL previously.

BigWill: Can you pass this year? Especially in the offensive zone. Can you maybe set up a real power play and work the puck to the clearly open man more often than not, make 5 or 6 passes in a row without being challenged because you have space and time?

Yes, 100 times yes. They've spent lots of time getting guys to do the right body positioning and AI guys squaring to the puck so they can receive the pass (humans can use L2 now to sort of do the same small things to do small movements and not drift so much, which is a nice little feature they've added). In short, I felt like a major threat on the PP, and last year probably my biggest gripe was how much of a disaster it felt like most of the time on the PP.

BigWill: Can you use the boards to pass or chip the pucks in?

So I assume you don't mean flip dumps here or just regular passes into empty space? I guess you're talking about a smaller chip idea here, like something new? I generally just hold down the pass button or use R1 to do a saucer into the zone...So yeah I'm not quite sure what you mean here.

BigWill: Can you call for a line change and still perform a poke check, or any other function that requires a face or shoulder button on the controller? Can you ask the Devs why this still programmed this way, if it is still the same!

I've truthfully never noticed this, which means I'm probably a bummy bum player. But sorry not sure.

BigWill: Were goaltenders touched at all? Still make way too many glove saves and warp from side to side and post to post with no real push or slide?

It seems they've spent a good amount of time on goaltenders, not only because they now will be controlled by humans again for OTP/EASHL, but also because yeah, they weren't in love with some of the goalie stuff last year either. I can't talk to too much at this point as I explained above (they're always sort of busted to a degree in these early builds.)

BigWill: Can we still skate end-to-end against the CPU with no real pressure in the neutral zone again?

Sorry, again can't answer. I fool trained some humans end to end, but I would say it's a bit easier this year to just be jarred off the puck.

BigWill: Did you only play human vs human, or were you able to play against the CPU? Was there a difference this year in how the CPU played? Did it still perform unrealistic headhunter hits on defense if you were one-on-one or even two-on-one?

I'm sorrrrrrrry again, but yeah only human vs. human. They certainly tried to go for headhunter hits and paid with their lives.

BigWill: Can you take the hit to make the play again? They removed it last year. You used to be able to bait your opponent into stepping up and attempting to crush you and then still be able to let go of the pass button as he engaged you, allowing you to make the last second pass before getting eliminated from the play. In 15 you would let go of the pass button and the puck would either not go or it would go some weird direction and you would still get lit up. Needs to be risk/reward for stepping up on defense like that.

It's a good question. It's hard for me to say a firm yes or no to it after only so many games. I didn't feel obstructed by this like I sometimes was in '15, but I in no way feel confident saying "it's totes better" this year.

BigWill: Is goalie passing still way unreal because they feel the need to cater to the arcade crowd that hates whistles and stoppages in play?

So if it makes you feel a little warmer inside, a human passed it out with Carey Price and I just immediately picked up the puck and shot it into the net. However, I assume what you're talking about here overall is the ability for a goalie to sort of just pass it through your players to their own? In which case, yeah I'd be with you hoping it's gone. It happened in the one instance I mentioned above (so yay!), but my guess is this would still in some way be tied to what "style" you play on settings-wise.

BigWill: Are we still automatically forced to fight because of a big hit? Do all players still fight like last year?

So a prompt came up here and there after some hits, but it didn't seem as prevalent as last year -- and nobody chose to fight in these situations either. I think fighting is the same, but again, I actually didn't get in one fight.

BigWill: Can you ask if the Devs ever plan on touching the face-off formations and logic again? Can we one day position our d and wings where we want them rather than just in the preset formations? Are we stuck having wings take face-offs again this year in certain situations? Will we ever just be able to choose what players on the ice take the draw?

So I think they came out today and said nothing major was changing for face offs. So yeah, I think that answers this.

BigWill: Can we finally cycle? Can we chip the puck up the boards to gain the zone and then skate the long way around the defender that tries to run legal interference... you know, like how we see it happen dozens of times in each and every playoff game?

I think this probably goes to the question above I was confused about. You're basically asking for a self-chip of sorts? I did a healthy amount of dump and chase and felt way better about it against the humans, but it's fair to say I think a lot of this just had to do with the fact that passing felt like it made more sense once I was in the zone. But I didn't really try to just chip it to myself very often, so I can't really answer this.

BigWill: Has board play been addressed or is it the same suction bs that it has been for half a decade now? Can the CPU still magically kick a puck from the end boards for a scoring chance in the slot?

Can't answer the CPU part -- even if I had played CPU games I probably wouldn't feel comfortable answering this with so little time to see or not see certain things. As for the suction on the boards, ehhhh I think you probably won't be in love with it still if it already bothers you a lot.

BigWill: Can you ask about online like; Is there any punishment in OTP for quitting a game early (like having to wait until that game that the player just left actually finishes before being able to jump into another game)? Is there any punishment for going out of position all game in OTP, continually going offside or just being an a-hole?

I asked a decent amount of questions about OTP/EASHL, but didn't get into the trolling stuff. My guess is no on a lot of this stuff though just knowing what I know about other EA OTP modes.

BigWill: Any changes to the amount of pauses in OTP/EASHL/Online? Why is there a need to have 3 or 4 pauses per team, per game, that last 45 seconds each?

Again, apologies but didn't ask this one specifically. I don't have a huge problem with the pauses currently, but I understand why you would.

BigWill: Can we call a timeout that refreshes your players in EASHL, finally?

Yep, again, sorry I didn't ask! And again, didn't even know this was a thing in general, so again, I'm a bummy bum.

BigWill: Any chance of being able to watch a game online or scout an opponent? Any way to see a team's record, rank, history, dnf %, etc. before accepting a game against them in any online mode?

Just guessing here, but I'm going to go with no here as my assumption.

BigWill: Did they add a way to tie-up an opponent in front of the net back into the game, but not in a way that was stupid and just was unrealistic suction that was nearly impossible to roll off of?

So suction definitely isn't back in front of the net. I would say they're doing work here but I can't put a firm handle on it until I actually get to play off the puck on D in OTP.

BigWill: Do goalies kick out real rebound chances, the kind in which a player sitting on the doorstep can take several cracks at to try and bury? And the kind that the d must just try and sweep to the corner to avoid being scored on? Or do the attacking players just keep whiffing on the puck laying next to a goalie because of the imaginary forcefield?

Did see some kick out chances. I also used the swipe with the stick on D with loose pucks more than I had last year. But in terms of getting into the nitty gritty, I don't feel comfortable saying one way or the other right now.

BigWill: Can we hold a player's stick up during a stick lift or finally pin their stick down to tie-up a man during a loose puck scramble or oncoming pass attempt?

Don't think so.

BigWill: Is the OTP menu and team selection still awful? Has it been changed at all or is it still just a mess where we wait for someone to finally come along and pick defense and have people that just sit in the middle for 3 minutes before everyone just backs out with 3 seconds left?

Menus are faster for sure, and improved in general. Obviously I didn't see the OTP menu so can't talk to the user flow to getting into a game.

BigWill: Any talk of allowing us to import our own logos or faces into the game?

I'm going to guess no.

Caniac94 - Nice catch on that trailer.

I did not notice that until you pointed it out about Cam Ward's goalie mask being authentic. I went back and watched the trailer again and noticed that it appears that there may be a few goalie masks that were able to be licensed, but Corey Crawford and Ben Bishop's mask still appear to be generic. At least from the trailer, that is.

EA might be having an issue with this because of the same issue that the Madden football team had with player tattoos. Hence the reason why they needed to get special licensing to use Colin Kaepernick's tats. I believe the goalie masks are artist rendered/designed and would therefore be considered private property. I guess it is just a little weird that on games like the NBA 2K series, they seem to not have the same issues including tattoos, etc. in their games.

I believe you're somewhat right here. I think the goalie masks are still tied to the individual artist and thus must be given permission by that artist unless the goalie buys the rights to the mask or whatever like he would his own tattoo. But yeah, both Live and 2K get away with this tattoo thing but every other game can't (still not sure why on some level!)

Have more or different cutscenes / celebrations been added?

The overtime goal cutscene where the player falls and gets jumped on gets old fast, especially when that is a very unrealistic celebration for a regular season game.

Didn't get to any OTs, but it feels mostly the same for at least the celebrations you can activate. I can't say for sure in terms of the celebrations where it goes to a cut scene.

Thanks for the write up Chase, at least give us perspective coming from OS and not just EA fan-boy. This is what I want personally, real description of the game that frustrates me year after year, so I will not be victimized or will change my mind to get this game after deliberately not buying 14 and 15.

Just to add to the questions:

(1) Will my RW/LW take the face off even when my Center guy is on the 4 on 4 or during PK?

(2) If you got the chance to play in the playoff, is the Intensity (esp. in defense and NZ pressure), the same as the regular games?

(3) BaGM questions:

(a) If ever you got the chance to play the BaGM, is it still the same features as compared to 14?

(b) What's new in the BaGM?

(c) Scouting is it the old way, like assigning a scout to a specific region where he has a higher rank? Does it give you a detailed report?

Thanks so much!

Glenn did the write-up, I just did a tiny snippet!

1. I'm going to guess you'll still be chapped about this one.

2. Did not get a chance.

3. I do believe they've been working on this mode, but I honestly do not play much BeAGM, and at E3 you're just never really going to have time to dig into a mode like that anyway.

Is there no media allowed of NHL 16? We are getting all of this E3 coverage from other games and, once again, NHL seems to be under lock and key.

There was no media allowed for pretty much any sports game -- as has been the case for some years now. Maybe an exception or two was made for certain demos, but you weren't allowed to just capture footage so it wasn't just an NHL thing.

All I can say is NHL felt the furthest along I've ever seen it at this point in terms of gameplay polish/lack of blatant bugs. And I've played it at probably like 4 or 5 E3s at this point, so at the very least they seem like they're in a good spot to polish it up these last two months or so.

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Thank you for taking the time to come back and answer these questions, Chase.

I kind of figured the gameplay wouldn't be too much different from '15, but was kind of hoping against hope. I was also kind of hoping to catch you guys before you left E3 so that some of these questions and concerns could finally reach some of the EA devs. Maybe get some feedback as to where they are in regard to trying and address any of it.

Regardless, those are some of the issues that bother me the most in the NHL series, and I play primarily EASHL and OTP with my created player. But it is rare that I get to play full 6v6 games, so we have to rely on CPU players quite a bit... which can be awful frustrating, as I am sure you know.

Anyway, it really stinks that there isn't more answers, media, information about this game. I know Madden is way bigger in all regards, but we pretty much already have hours of raw gameplay footage and in-depth information about 90% of what that game will be come late August. NHL releases about 2 weeks later and we have mascot photos, snapchat reels, and Q&A's that have a lot of "no, but it is something that we would consider moving forward" and "not this year" answers. And that is about it. So with that being the case, thank you again for taking the time and trying to shed some light on the game, even if E3 wasn't the most viable place to grasp what we most wanted to know about it.

[CupCrazyManiac]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

I kind of figured the gameplay wouldn't be too much different from '15, but was kind of hoping against hope. I was also kind of hoping to catch you guys before you left E3 so that some of these questions and concerns could finally reach some of the EA devs. Maybe get some feedback as to where they are in regard to trying and address any of it.

THATS THE POINT! Damn, i wish a guy like bigwill33 was "our" E3 info man or at the EASports NHL "marketing" Day (EAGameChanger)

[ChaseB]

Re: NHL 16 E3 Hands-On Impressions (Quick Look)

Thank you for taking the time to come back and answer these questions, Chase.

I kind of figured the gameplay wouldn't be too much different from '15, but was kind of hoping against hope. I was also kind of hoping to catch you guys before you left E3 so that some of these questions and concerns could finally reach some of the EA devs. Maybe get some feedback as to where they are in regard to trying and address any of it.

Regardless, those are some of the issues that bother me the most in the NHL series, and I play primarily EASHL and OTP with my created player. But it is rare that I get to play full 6v6 games, so we have to rely on CPU players quite a bit... which can be awful frustrating, as I am sure you know.

Anyway, it really stinks that there isn't more answers, media, information about this game. I know Madden is way bigger in all regards, but we pretty much already have hours of raw gameplay footage and in-depth information about 90% of what that game will be come late August. NHL releases about 2 weeks later and we have mascot photos, snapchat reels, and Q&A's that have a lot of "no, but it is something that we would consider moving forward" and "not this year" answers. And that is about it. So with that being the case, thank you again for taking the time and trying to shed some light on the game, even if E3 wasn't the most viable place to grasp what we most wanted to know about it.

The one thing I would say is that, more likely than not, they are very much aware of most of this. And what I can also promise you is that in the future -- if you're still around -- I'll be more readily available to get these questions to devs when times pop up (because they do).