NHL 17 Video - World Cup of Hockey Gameplay (IGN)

[csamuelsvt]

IGN has posted an NHL 17 gameplay video featuring the World Cup of Hockey. Check it out and post your thoughts.

[jake19ny]

Don't know what difficulty they were playing on but way to many tape to tape magnetic passing. Still to easy to gain zone entry due to zero neutral zone pressure. Looks like money goal moves still there. Can't say I noticed much difference in the goalies and this was touted as something they addressed. Not seeing much to make me think this signing to play much different than NHL 16. Hopefully they were playing on a low difficulty and in fairness it was human vs human so I have idea how the CPU AI will play. I hope to God the sliders work

[actionhank]

There are definitely some positives, but, man...the AI still seems absolutely clueless a lot of the time. Not sure if someone was controlling the Czech team, but at 6:14, there's a perfect example of the bad defense by the AI players away from the puck, and the inability to really do much on defense.

The Czech center coming back after the turnover just stops and stands still, and Toews makes a pass up ice right by his stick. The AI never actually tries to stop the play, or intercept the pass, they just stare at it, and slowly work back up ice once it's past them.

The center ice defender on the Czech team keeps skating in after the turnover, before stopping and then slowly doing backwards crossovers once the Benn is right on top of him. He does two poke checks that both miss, and then turns around and starts skating behind Benn who got to come at him with speed, and instead of the defender doing anything, he just skates right behind Benn and watches the shot go in.

It would be really nice to see more pressure from defenders in close to puck carriers. It seems that the AI tries to skate in for a crosscheck, and if that fails and the poke checks fail when the player is coming towards them, they just give up and follow the play. In real life you see defenders constantly trying to get a stick on the stick, arms, or puck as they're trying to chase someone down.

There are parts that are nice to see, still. The coverage looks good at times, but at others it just looks weird as guys pile in and move around. A lot of the AI movements still seem stuck in a "Have to Be at X Position" setup, rather than reacting to what's around them (Easier said than done, I know).

8:53 is another good example of frustrating defense AI. Muzzin has the puck at the blue line, and the AI forward skates at him, which is nice to see, but there's no defense...he's literally just providing a warm body to come towards Muzzin. He doesn't put his stick out to block any passing lanes, and as he's skating in towards Muzzin for the body check, he still isn't actually doing anything defensively. He's just skating towards him. I think that's my biggest issue with defensive play, and I think it's what leads to the feeling of a lot of tape-to-tape passing. It's not necessarily that the AI is too accurate (they are) but it's also that the AI on defense is just standing in place near a player waiting for them to get the puck before they do something to react to it. There's no attempt to clog shooting lanes, or block passing lanes, it's all reactionary.

After that, it's nice to see Hertl skate up and retrieve the puck that was knocked loose when Muzzin got hit (It's great to see that smaller hits can knock a puck loose now, instead of the bumper cars that it used to resemble with a glued on puck) and Doughty immediately skates back to cover the neutral zone. Things look good for the Czech team, because they've got a potential 3 on 1. Muzzin is now facing away from the play, almost at the top of the circles, and the other nearest Canada player is a forward skating towards the play, but he's also at the top of the circles and fairly behind the play, whereas 3 Czech forwards are near the blue line with only Doughty back on defense. The odd-man break gets almost immediately canceled out though, because as soon as Hertl passes up to Hanzal on the boards, Hertl slows down, and then Hesmky I believe it was, the other forward who could have made a straight break down center ice and kept it at least a 2 on 1, gets passed by two Canadian forwards when he makes a wide sweeping turn to the "right" side of the ice where he should be playing normally.

By the time Hanzal is crossing the blue line with the puck, Hertl has slowed down and is being passed at the center ice line, and Hemsky is also not even crossing center ice. What could have been at least a contested odd-man rush turns into a weak wrister from the circles, with 3 Canadian players in the middle of the ice, and 3 Czech players in a line on the left side of the screen.

[jhawk826]

Literally nothing I saw that sets this apart from NHL 16.

[Vikes1]

Have to agree that what i saw really didn't look much different from '16' gameplay wise. I'm still hopeful though that with the sliders, create a team and the new additions to franchise mode, i'll enjoy '17'.

[Cletus]

Let me preface this by saying I'm trying not to make this a personal attack on devs, but everytime I see a dev play this game it's horrendous. It doesn't give me much hope when I see a dev play and they never hold on to the puck with the goalie or dump the puck. I couldn't stand to watch much of the video because the only smart hockey I saw was from the AI. If the devs think this is how hockey is played then this is how the game is going to play. I'm really hoping someone comes out with a really nice set of sliders because I'm tired of the best means of offense being hold down hustle, shoot and pray.

[actionhank]

To be fair, the best programmer for the game may not always be the biggest hockey fan.

While they would both be great in the same person, you might not always get the two.

[Madwolf]

It looks like he was playing on a different difficulty setting.

I am perplexed by those saying that the goalies look no different, because they definitely behave differently than the do in NHL 16 in as much as how they block the puck. It's noticeable when you play, but I still wouldn't say that you'll feel like your goalie is standing on his head to win you the game too often.

There are some little things in the video, such as the difference in movement between the guys back skating, you can definitely get past them easier now. You won't feel as much of the sudden burst of speed to stay even with you from the defender. If he gets caught flat footed you can get around him. The video showed both sides though, which kind of confused me. When Crosby tries to blow past the guy he definitely stuck with him back skating. In the beta this wasn't really a problem.

The AI defense is better, which was another part you have to really experience to appreciate. They cover their man much more often and get into better positions in the passing lanes. It's still not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction. Going back to 16 is frustrating because I know what's in 17 now.

I will agree that the person playing just wasn't all that great outside of his deke moves on the goalie (I'm bad at dekeing) and he really never showed off the battle in front of the net. When your player posts up in front of the net now they're a lot better at tipping it on goal, like it was in the PS3 days. It makes your defensemen much more engaged, and on your own defensive end of the ice they'll try tie up the opposing forwards to prevent the tip on goal. It's very satisfying to play.

It was a frustrating video to watch because the player was making all sorts of bad passes trying to force it through skates, and just skating through opposing players not protecting the puck, etc.