NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

[drj32]

you trash the game and then give it "above average"? please.

[peter21]

This is about what I expected. The days of me automatically shelling out $60 for a game are over and this review seals the fact that I will be saving that money for something of more value to me.

[mcavner]

Pretty simple fix for the progression system and goofy created players for the draft and all the ratings issues... just open up the game for offline players to edit stuff. Seriously, it's ridiculous to lock it up. And another wise move would be to allow access to the hundred of generated faces you can use for your created player and let you put those faces on the players in your GM or Season modes. If you're only going to add 30 cyber faces in two years EA, at least let us do something about it so we don't have five guys out of 20 have the same damn face. Ridiculous to keep that stuff locked up for offline gamers. That we have to crack games with programs and codes and all sorts of community projects just to make it playable - just open it up and let kids play with their toy the way they want to play with it.

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by drj32

you trash the game and then give it "above average"? please.

GM Connected and the EASHL will mask many (but not all) of the gameplay issues that are detailed in the review, which is the main reason why the game still scored as high as it did. Without the ability to sub-out the AI and play with 12 humans players, the final score would be much lower.

The other reason is that we don't factor price into a game's score; we just mention it in the text of our reviews, if a game happens to offer more or less than what you'd expect from its price. The score is merely a reflection of the quality of the content in the game, without considering what it's being sold for, or how much of that content has gone unchanged from one year to the next.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

GM Connected and the EASHL will mask many (but not all) of the gameplay issues that are detailed in the review, which is the main reason why the game still scored as high as it did. Without the ability to sub-out the AI and play with 12 humans players, the final score would be much lower. The other reason is that we don't factor price into a game's score; we just mention it in the text of our reviews, if a game happens to offer more or less than what you'd expect from its price. The score is merely a reflection of the quality of the content in the game, without considering what it's being sold for, or how much of that content has gone unchanged from one year to the next.

I personally like the tweaks, and NHL 15 360 will have longevity for me this year, but the game should have been a $30 "legacy edition" for sure.

[jromano99]

I’ve been a fan of the series since NHL11.I believe this is the best (primarily as a result of all the “tweets” from editions up until now)The current “tweets” have just added to the game.1) The new commenter’s, Doc and Eddie, provide a fresh sound to the game.I’ve been playing with the commenter’s turned off for the past two editions.They even add some history to the game, i.e. “Duncan Keith and Ryan Miller played together in college.2) The crazy puck bouncing is gone, adding more realism to the game play.3) The slot area is more accessible passing.4) Running into the goalie now causes a penalty and at time may result in a roughing penalty against each team. Penalties now seem more frequent. 5) Board play seems more involved and detailed.6) Goalies have new animations and the pads have been upgraded (at least to last year’s) 7) you can now collide with a player on your own team.While the layout and menu are still the same as last year the over all game has a much better feel to it.Worth the purchase !!!

[Dazraz]

I agree that this should not have been a full price release.
That said I'd rather pay for the 360/PS3 Version with all the modes intact rather than the stripped down next gen option.

[NHLandPESFan]

Outstanding review, you really hit on all the gameplay issues this game has. With this game getting trashed in reviews, I wonder how it will sell but I would rather have the series die than continue on like this. If it doesn't change year to year, it's dead already.

If EA doesn't feel this title is worthy of a decent budget, then they should at least have the decency to start releasing this every 2 years instead of every year and put some time into improving the product. NHL 2k8 had a better franchise mode including users able to control multiple teams and that was SEVEN years ago!