NHL 16 EASHL Beta Available Now For Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Extended Until Aug. 7

[Steve_OS]

The NHL 16 EASHL beta is available now for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. While it was available on the Xbox One earlier this morning and throughout the day (via workaround), EA Sports hit a snag getting it online for both consoles the way they intended.

With all of that said, they figured out the cause of the problem and have extended the beta until August 7, giving gamers an extra day to hit the ice.

NHL 15 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or EA Access) is required to access the beta initially, but is not required after you have successfully downloaded as the beta will be accessible directly from your console hard drive. (More information here, including a chance for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users to access the beta, if you have upgraded to a current-gen console).

As noted by Chase on Twitter:

Quote:

If you struggle to find the EASHL download spot on NHL 15 on PS4 -- tab to the Play option, then tab back to Home and it should be in top right panel (As seen in the image above).

The same can be said for the Xbox One beta, if you can't locate it.

Play a few games and let us know what you think!

[Ownal0t]

2 things so far,

first off, is it me or does the movement and puck control feel WAY off? i mean NHL 15 was my first game in 12 years but that first game felt wierd as hell, it felt like i had no control of anything and that i never had the puck when i did. i hope thats just me and not this game. cause that was annoying.

2nd. i wish when there was a game in progress of our club, we can get a score or be able to watch it live. just to make time in the dressing room less boring

[ThreeKing]

Are there drop-in games?? I can't get into a game.

[SinisterAlex]

Quote: Originally Posted by ThreeKing

Are there drop-in games?? I can't get into a game.

No drop in for the beta. Just club matches. Are you on the PS4 and west coast? I want to get in on a game but none of my friends are online to play. I've created a club just need some people to play with.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[Ownal0t]

i made a club for randoms and anyone and new people, 000 Rookies Welcome 000 is my club on PS4. east coast

[dmslapped]

Started making a character and the menus disappeared... not a good start

[shogunofharlem3]

Impressions from my end.

Much improved from 15. MUCH. Wish the "Game In Progress" status had a little more info. I sat in a room for about 35 minutes then finally the game started. Had I known I joined locker room in the 1st I could have come back later on.

I played 3 games. Lost all 3, 2 games were great and 1 game we lost 6 to 1 or 8 to 1. BUT, the other team was nasty! They were taking the puck behind their own net, drop passing it, another guy was picking it up with speed as they all curled. It was a thing of beauty, how EASHL, with practice, can be played.

Really had some fun. As a predominately defensive guy, I still feel naked out there with my canned poke check (that causes trips all the time), my little mini manual poke check (Holding RB and right right sweep) and putting the body on a guy. When those attackers come in, there really isn't much to do.

I would even take an Ulf Samuelsson button (I'm a Bruins fan and will never forget that knee to knee hit on Neely) but I'll take that in video hockey. Defense needs more options to stop the "skill stick" while we get nothing.

Passing seems slow to get rid of. Its a balance of speed of pass vs release, I like having control of my speed of pass but, I still play old man hockey and we can rip passes way quicker with no "load up" time. I like the idea but should be address.

All in all, really liked the beta so far. Goalies look far improved animation wise. Good stuff and I do credit EA for releasing early to get some feedback and to make sure it works when release

I'd like to see some impressions on:

Pass Release Speed
Slap Shot from D animation speed, I never could get one off no matter how much room I had.
Lack of Defensive Weapons to stop the many many Skill Stick moves

[The Visualizer]

+ I really like what they have done with pass accuracy between the builds. I only played Dman tonight, but I tried TWD, DEF, OFF and there is a noticeable difference between the 3 that works gameplay balance-wise.

+ Goalie animations and overall movement looked different and much more realistic. I like how their glove is up most of the time now and how you can see and take advantage of momentum on aggressive pushes side-to-side

+ i like that its harder to dangle thru traffic, that should promote a better style of hockey for those interested in winning until the exploit stuff is eventually discovered

- i only played about 10 games of NHL15 and coming from 100s to 1000s of EASHL games last gen the skating improvements and LT/L2 new control didnt impress me much

- AI still braindead in most situations, but thats prob by design to promote more 5v5 and 6v6

- i will echo shogun's post from above, pass release seems a little slow. It was completely unresponsive on a few occasions for me

- ai goalie cleared puck into crowd 2 straight games without much pressure on him

-body checking was not effective as I expected with Defensive Dman build. I lined guys up right and they glanced off more than often and kept the puck. Some of these attempts seemef like the collision animation wasnt triggered correctly.

- protect puck button seems pretty OP still. I had trouble bodying a couple guys off the puck (not sure what builds) and I used it effectively with 3 different dman builds