[The EVHL]

Quote: Originally Posted by VeNOM3099

It's mostly been the same people since NHL 12-13, IIRC. Something's gotta change. And I don't think it's gonna happen at EA. To be fair, NHL 14 was full of issues back in the Xbox 360/PS3 days, but it was leaps better than the current (and last) console generation versions. And to be fair, 2K wasn't that much better, it just had a different feel to the sport they were recreating. Less shiny façade (grfx) and more substance (gameplay). Someone's gotta take a crack at the sport from a different angle. One that puts an emphasis on core hockey gameplay first and build a video game on top of that. Not the other way around.

This is the most frustrating part. Not that 14-Legacy were perfect by any means, but you can go back and play those games now and notice that the AI is actually much better than the current game. They have 100% dumbed-down the AI since the X1 generation and it's so insanely obvious to any long-time player.

13-Legacy they took a "sim" approach which was respectable, but lacked a lot of the technical aspects 19-22 have to make it more of a reachable goal. Now that they have the technical features to actually make a very respectable sim product, they're too busy prioritizing the michigan and the vasilevskiy animations to be bothered with bringing the AI up to speed and/or adding useful, non-gimmick animations to shooting, passing, puck receptions, goalies, etc to actually capitalize on their rather impressive technical foundation they've built.

The pieces are here in this game, the sliders prove that and when the AI is not having a mental meltdown, this game can look and feel great at times. They just need the vision and the dedication to polish the game and they'd have a product that can live in the wonderful world of being "sim" without being frustrating.