Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

[ChaseB]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Maybe I will end up with this game because it is "hockey" and I can finally be in a game with my friends again online, but I really can't justify spending any more than $30 on it again.

You had I think 47 negatives and two back-handed positives so I think maybe you shouldn't go down this road for your own sanity bigwill!

[biglami]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Why is picking up a stopped puck so hard?

I noticed sluggish controls too in NHL 15 and 16 for passing and shooting especially. No sluggishness when I poke check though.

[JJMarley]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Biggest issue I have with this game is the puck pickups. It's obviously still a problem this game.

[s_mkheidze]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Biggest issue I have with this game is the puck pickups. It's obviously still a problem this game.

B-b-b-but they fixed it!

So far it sounds like I will be skipping this game until I can get it for like $10.

[feedmeccc]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Not sure if it's been mentioned anywhere, but in the 15 total games I've played (with no human goalies), every single goalie has been a lefty. It's rare to see a lefty goalie in hockey, makes no sense to have every goalie as a lefty. I'm hoping that was just for the beta, but I remember in nhl 14 there were far too many lefty goalies in EASHL (non human of course).

[thedudedominick]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Not sure if it's been mentioned anywhere, but in the 15 total games I've played (with no human goalies), every single goalie has been a lefty. It's rare to see a lefty goalie in hockey, makes no sense to have every goalie as a lefty. I'm hoping that was just for the beta, but I remember in nhl 14 there were far too many lefty goalies in EASHL (non human of course).

All the ai players are the same every game in the beta. Not sure if it's going to be like that in the release.

My club is loving this game, it feels like we get rewarded for playing good hockey instead of losing a game 4-2 when the shots were 8-30.

Love that the player builds make you play to certain strengths and there is no cheese build that everyone uses. You really need to rely on having a balanced team to be successful.

My biggest issue is the default super conservative strategy. If they just allowed us to set team strategy in the gm options it would save so much time and effort each game.

The ai isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's just the horrible conservative strategies that make them never poke or check. When you make your team more aggressive you see the ai playing much better with their body and stick.

I'm just hoping the passing, shooting, and overall game doesn't get easier on release. I love the puck bouncing, not every pass being perfect, sticks actually hitting the puck on forced passes into the slot. The game needs to stay this way to be enjoyable and not turn into old eashl games of defending one shot and one pass all game long.

[Madwolf]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Defense (3 games played): Joined a random club and played RD (TWD) for my first 3 games ever. The game is definitely slower and feels a lot different from PS4 NHL15 as far as skating goes. Only 1 guy had a mic, and that was in the 3rd game. So communication was bad, and Teal was always off-sides (DAMNIT TEAL!).

Passing and picking up the puck definitely felt different and more realistic. It can certainly be frustrating at times though.

I over-skated the puck a bit, and still do. It's definitely an adjustment.

Defense overall was a lot better. You could get in the way of pucks, stick lift felt good, and poke check was rewarding for smart play, and spam-fests would get you penalties.

I think checking was improved and more realistic, but there are times when I'd hit a guy with my TWD and not knock him off the puck, or effect him at all despite having good momentum. That was incredibly frustrating.

The thing that was impressed on me the most during the first 3 games, all loses, was that spreading the ice, and cycling the puck was crucial.

Goalies are both better, and the same. I feel like they don't let in shots as easily for the most part, but in Game 3 we basically had a guy just top cheese the goalie twice in a row on a slap shot. Goalie was square and everything.

Center (1 game): Playing center was pretty fun. I was winning 2/3rds of our face offs, and I felt like that was one of the reasons we were able to win. The other team had a human goalie who was definitely struggling, and quit after 2 or 3 goals.

I wasn't able to score, but I was able to get an assist.

Goalie (1 game): I was honestly a little worried about playing Goalie from everything I had heard on the boards thus far. On top of that I hadn't played it since NHL 14, and I never played a lot of EASHL then.

Honestly I came away really impressed playing a Butterfly goalie. As long as I stayed square to the puck, and didn't just drop down to butterfly for no reason I was stopping pucks. I stopped 30 of 33 goals, and was very happy to get the win 4-3.

Out of the 3 times I got scored on, 2 of them I was badly out of position thanks sliding in the butterfly too far across the crease and ending up way out of position.

The right stick for quick pushes across the crease is pretty awesome, and it saved my bacon a few times. It really helps with those teams that just want to cross crease 24/7.

My only major complaint was that the hug the post button or action was incredibly borked. You'd get stuck on the post at times, and other times you couldn't get it to activate at all. I just stayed off the post for the most part, which is one of the reasons I ended up getting scored on.

A minor complaint would be needing to use precision movement so often that it felt like the button should actually be for quick movements, rather than tiny ones. It made no sense that I was holding the button 95% of the time, when I could have only been holding it 5% of the time.

Overall I really liked playing goalie.

[mynutees]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Poke check is way too overpowered.
Stick lift is useless.
CPU passing out of the zone is good if you find space.
Calling for it is useless unless you are wide open.
Seen several terrible goals (not out of the ordinary)
Game seems relatively unchanged.
Passing is slow and clunky.
Dekes are not nearly as effective.
CPU DEF will skate behind your own net and get trapped for no reason - yet again like in previous versions.

It's nice to have club back. I have lost all confidence in EA as a studio. I think this game will be same old, same old. Without competition in this genre it's going to be the same stuff year after year. Same commentary, same terrible CPU ai, same slow menus which are difficult to find what you're looking for stat wise.

If they just took NHL 09 and fixed the CPU they would only need to do roster updates. Who cares about beards, upgraded fighting engines, or realistic puck physics that will never be realistic.

Fix the damn game already.

[JJMarley]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Poke check is way too overpowered.
.

I honestly think it's better than last year. You won't see many people spam the poke check button anyone.. I like it. It makes you adjust and move the puck quicker.

[Mikey88]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Its odd to me that some people here have said that the skating is slower when i feel the exact opposite. To me, the skating is too fast and out of control, leading to dmen going offsides in the o-zone and just players in general drifting out position too easily. Even when youre at a stand still without using sprint, your player feels a bit floaty and weightless at times. It also makes it harder to setup plays which is strange considering the mantra (play as a team...)

I think just by lowering skating speed a little bit would go a long way in terms of passing and cycling the puck along the boards

[JJMarley]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Its odd to me that some people here have said that the skating is slower when i feel the exact opposite. To me, the skating is too fast and out of control, leading to dmen going offsides in the o-zone and just players in general drifting out position too easily. Even when youre at a stand still without using sprint, your player feels a bit floaty and weightless at times. It also makes it harder to setup plays which is strange considering the mantra (play as a team...)

I think just by lowering skating speed a little bit would go a long way in terms of passing and cycling the puck along the boards

Yup. People that I've played with said the same. Thank God for sliders. Sliders. Mmmmmm

[Madwolf]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

I don't know how you could say the poke check is over-powered. If you spam it you get a penalty, and if you don't time it right you don't do much at all.

It seems tougher to use now, but more rewarding.

Perhaps you're just using a player with low stick handling skills?

[Madwolf]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Had some more good and bad games.

Played with a guy named DreamyRhinos who was using Crosby's number and in game name. He tried to play like he was Crosby. Deking, carrying the puck, all that good stuff. Of course this led to turn overs and all that jazz, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that he insisted on playing RD no matter what. So over the course of 8 games with him he played out of position, and a forward had to come back down and play D.

So at one point in the night our club is 3 for 9, one of those wins he wasn't present for. One of his last games we lost 1-11 because he hurt us so much offensively and defensively. It was maddening.

So he FINALLY leaves and we end up losing our first game in double OT. Then we rattle off 3 in a row before I took a break.

Obviously being a bunch of randos in this club our offense has been pretty bad. DreamyRhinos actually had a good portion of our points, but that was also because he would NEVER pass the puck, so he was the only person getting scoring chances.

There is definitely an emphasis on cycling the puck this game, and being a defender on this club has been a little frustrating because I rarely see shots on passes cycled back to the point. I finally managed to score a goal which felt really good after all the work I put in on D. And I did it while I was a defensive defensemen, so it made it a bit better.

[JimmyDeicide]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Im not able to play the beta with my normal Gamertag but once i created a new one per some tips from the EA forums i was finally able to get in.
My thoughts after one night are very positive so far. I like trying the different builds and such and what stands out the most to me is the fact that you can actually intercept plays if your in good position. Reading a play and jumping in front of a forward waiting for a break out pass is finally rewarded.
Things just seem more honest to me.
Defense is still really hard to play because of the skating more so than tools given.
Defense needs a precision skate control like goalies or Fifa so you can make small movements in front of the net or when angling a forward.

just Some quick thoughts now im able to play.

[Madwolf]

Re: Your Thoughts on the EASHL Beta

Agreed there, I tend to over-skate a lot on defense.