[The EVHL]

I wish they’d build this game with a slower default game speed. Everything just looks so “twitchy” and weightless with guys just buzzing all over the place. Sure, the new skating animations look good, but they still don’t look like they have any weight to them. It’s been the series’ biggest issue since forever really.

To add to this point, the only reason we needed an LT nerf and these skating animations to truly take a step, is because they tuned the game to be waterbug speed with no weight. I can throw on NHL 20 right now with my sliders and get a “realistic” experience with LT due to puck carrier agility sliders and just general pace of place being slower. The actual mechanic isn’t OP, it was the sliders that everyone had to suffer through that was the main culprit for 19-23 being such a joke online.

Shooting still looks weightless, goalies have looked insanely robotic since 23 and that trailer didn’t make me think it will be any better. No idea what this new team did to goalies in 23 but as a IRL goalie, they kill my immersion instantly. I can’t stand to watch them.

5-on-3 PK and we have two guys in line with the faceoff circle, not a great marketing clip when trying to talk up the AI.

Also saw them mention better AI rush reads, but honestly I’m not convinced since we saw no center driving (haven’t seen in since 21 because they just removed it in 22 and marketed it as “better rush defense/better NZ gaps” but they just removed center driving lol.)

Finally, icon passing and the pressure gauge on the ice are the final two pieces to leave me completely skeptical that this game will be even worth an hour of my time (like 24) because I simply don’t enjoy being reminded that this is a video game in such a blatantly obvious fashion. I don’t agree with the pressure system implementation, I certainly won’t play a game that slams it in my face without any regard for the playing surface or sim/offline players, and it doesn’t even have controllable sliders that could make me tune its implementation the way I want. Icon passing is the same, I just want to load a pass. I don’t want 4 buttons on my screen because I’m loading a pass. It’s ridiculous from both a sim/offline experience and a game balance/competitive standpoint.

I envy the ones who can look past all of it, but with kids and less time, I don’t see myself moving on from 20 which still imo has just a better “base” approach to the sport from AI, goalies, incidental contact, skating, and even not visually assaulting your screen with controller buttons and pressure gauges plaguing the playing surface.