It's Time for a change

[badazzleroybrown]

First off let me say that I am not Bashing your efforts
I have been playing Games in General since 1983 I guess I am a Dinosour
by today's standards.My First system was ATARI 5200 then it was Colleco vision.
Then I had something called Amiga 500 then Turbo Graphics 16 then Nintendo
3DO yeah I payed 800 bucks for that hunk of junk now that was a lot of money back in the day.

Well you get the point I have had every console ever made and played or waisted many hours of my life playing them. I was more into Football and basketball, then in 98 I played my first hockey game and loved it on the pc
played a whole season played 3 before I quit. I so enjoyed that game from every aspect.

And I really enjoyed the presentation of 2k Hockey series "god I miss that series" One thing that other companies do better than you is have in depth screens and stats , The NHL series is in need of some serious overhaul
the commentary in your game is great I love the crew you have but there just isn't enough stat overlays during the game that captures the atmosphere
of true hockey nothing to build upon. The Jumbotron's should be used for replays or something else what a waist just to show them when you score.

Ever since you made I think nhl 06 for the 360 you have had the same goalie
masks at what point are you going to explore the option for users to be able to upload there own images for offline use or giving them the ability to create there own or heck to actually allow us to buy ea custom ones where we use microsoft points to purchases ones you create, anything beats the dull ones you use, especially if you trade a goalie only to see him wear his old mask on his new team looks goofy.

Now lets talk player model size, First the goalie cut scenes or to see each goal tender in net , the person in real life could be 5-10 or 6-9 and you represent them the same size in the game , that is so stupid. second when you see players going into the face off circle they are larger than they should be you need to shrink the player models or increase the ice rinks.

The game needs individual moves for super stars like nba 2k series has freethrow routines or madden has qb throwing styles anything to give your superstars more realism, Ice puck physics dead on give that man a raise.
what happened to being able to break the glass or nock a player into the seats or being able to poke the puck in before the goalie can secure it,

Your ying yangs will call it a glitch but it happens in real hockey
every little thing adds to the overall experience your gameplay tweaks that you do every year are good enough now start adding more to the game instead of waisting it on new canned animations.

the game needs better awards at the end of the year show the past winners
on a screen for everything like you used to do, and why can we not use superstars like before for offline use I hate mut hut and every other online thing I will never ever purchase it and when you realize most of use don't give a hoot then you will start making a game for us instead of greed.
things I will buy purchase the ability to use retired legends in offline modes
goalie masks even special uniforms or maybe a customizing my splash screens or convert the game to my fave team,also would like the ability to start at the draft like before option.

Can someone please tell me why every update makes the game more arcadish I am calling it turbo hockey now it sucks i get so frustrated that
have to play 6 min periods because if i played 20 each team would have 150 shots on goal, i think I get like 20 to 25 faceoffs during that time on a average, in real hockey there are 50 to 60 faceoffs during a game.

the game needs more face offs from icing from pucks leaving the rink from pucks being lost by the refs from what ever reason they stop the game

and the skating the game needs more breakaways players ratings should matter you can take the slowest guy skating backwards and the fastest guy going forward and not get around him on any level after pro, I want to be able to control when I want to excelerate rather than the game decide
it takes way to many strides before he attempts to skate fast
the whole point of breakaways is reaction to the play on hand not his ability to excelerate

where is the human error ? they cpu AI should make mistakes like out of position heck give them a rating for where to be so that once in awhile they are not where they should be. human error should play a major role in hockey because that is how most goals are scored because a player is not where they should be or tired.

when i am fighting why cant there be others fighting as well
more bench and coach reactions .
make those jumbotrons do special things when you break records during games give cutscenes for players who you just aquired from trades before the game or cutscenes for rookies who score there first goals.

and for the love of god why can i not just cut players from my team i end up dumping 5 players for 1 to a team that has roster spots just so i can add free agents and please change the game options to go from 1 to 100 instead of increments of 1 to 6 and make each click matter .

excuse my typos bad grammer and punctuation english was never a interest to me.

[DJ NEO]

Awesome post, thanks!
I'll show your ideas/ point of view to devs, so they see Im not the only one in this fight for true hockey

[Efbomb]

Quote: Originally Posted by DJ NEO

Awesome post, thanks! I'll show your ideas/ point of view to devs, so they see Im not the only one in this fight for true hockey

You're not alone, DJ.

I'm 42, and I've been playing EA hockey since its inception.

I've had a lot of head scratching moments over the years, to the lament of hundreds of dollars spent on controllers.

Well, I'm past that stage now. I take the game for what it is. A representation of the sport I love. I know full well that it will never be a perfect product, but that won't stop me from wanting it to be as close as possible.

The #1 thing that bothers me is the core gameplay. Sure, the game has come a long way in terms of graphics, but every year there's one point were I yell out "it's exactly the same BS as last year.

I'm talking about the AI and the way the CPU plays.

Programming the AI I'm sure is tough, and it may never play like a real game of hockey, and that's fine. What's not fine is, as noted, is the way the CPU plays.

I'm an offline player so I see how it plays, day in, day out.

I truly believe that the CPU does not adhere to the laws of physics that govern the game. The CPU can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. That's not even a belief in fact, it's straight up the truth.

Things the CPU does that really annoy me:
1. Starting, stopping, sliding backwards and jiggling in place while skating. All without moving their feet.
2. Tape to tape, no-look, rocket passing.
3. Stick handling at twice the speed of the game (especially around the net).
4. Stick handling through the boards, net, legs and skates at will.
5. Massive body checks from a standstill (especially when you pass them).
6. Turning around while in the checking animation to knock you off the puck.
7. Tired, slow defencemen skating backwards as fast as your fastest skater going forward fresh from the bench/penalty box.
8. Sucking you into boardplay (especially after you pass them).

I mean these are just a few of the thing that make me not want to play. And as I said before, it's been this way for years, so I'm not blaming the current devs.

I just hope that they want a realistic hockey game as well and try to address some of these game breaking issues.

[Honome]

Quote: Originally Posted by Efbomb

You're not alone, DJ. I'm 42, and I've been playing EA hockey since its inception. I've had a lot of head scratching moments over the years, to the lament of hundreds of dollars spent on controllers. Well, I'm past that stage now. I take the game for what it is. A representation of the sport I love. I know full well that it will never be a perfect product, but that won't stop me from wanting it to be as close as possible. The #1 thing that bothers me is the core gameplay. Sure, the game has come a long way in terms of graphics, but every year there's one point were I yell out "it's exactly the same BS as last year. I'm talking about the AI and the way the CPU plays. Programming the AI I'm sure is tough, and it may never play like a real game of hockey, and that's fine. What's not fine is, as noted, is the way the CPU plays. I'm an offline player so I see how it plays, day in, day out. I truly believe that the CPU does not adhere to the laws of physics that govern the game. The CPU can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. That's not even a belief in fact, it's straight up the truth. Things the CPU does that really annoy me: 1. Starting, stopping, sliding backwards and jiggling in place while skating. All without moving their feet. 2. Tape to tape, no-look, rocket passing. 3. Stick handling at twice the speed of the game (especially around the net). 4. Stick handling through the boards, net, legs and skates at will. 5. Massive body checks from a standstill (especially when you pass them). 6. Turning around while in the checking animation to knock you off the puck. 7. Tired, slow defencemen skating backwards as fast as your fastest skater going forward fresh from the bench/penalty box. 8. Sucking you into boardplay (especially after you pass them). I mean these are just a few of the thing that make me not want to play. And as I said before, it's been this way for years, so I'm not blaming the current devs. I just hope that they want a realistic hockey game as well and try to address some of these game breaking issues.

I completely agree with you. I simply lost interest in the series because of this AI problem, the higher the difficult the most unfair the AI play against us. They have speed boosts, super quick turn reactions, backhand passes that are faster and more accurated than any of our passes, checking without moving an inch on defense, magnetic sticks that pull the puck for their possession even after our perfect poke check, imput reading (that means that the AI read our movements as soon as we press the buttons what is totally unfair when compared to a human reflex, and that goes on like your list.

The problem is that they don´t seems to care about it, they make the game nowadays for a different generation of gamers than ours (i am also in the elders team with 39). I wouldn´t see a problem on that if we had ANY OTHER DAMN HOCKEY GAME TO PLAY! It´s really frustrating that our only choice is EA and they seem to go in a completely different path than what i think of a good sports game.

[csamuelsvt]

Hey DJNEO, can you please have the developers understand that they NEED to have Doc's trademark SCORRRE in this game? It's been two years and it still isn't there. The lines they have for him in there just really don't do it at all. The one where he screams when you score with 1 min to go in the 3rd is good, but it still isn't the one we all want.

I don't know why it isn't in but please let them know that this will be year 3 and it is time. If need be, ask them if they can take clips from actual NHL games and get this line and his other trademark lines in there because it is unacceptable to not hear this in the game by now. The UFC 2 developers did this with Bruce Buffer who had the same issue recording his lines with enthusiasm. They simply took actual audio from real UFC events and imported them into the game.

Many thanks and hopefully you can let us know if they plan on doing this this year and don't let them tell you its in there because we all know it isn't despite them saying many times it is!!!

[sweetjones]

Quote: Originally Posted by Honome

I completely agree with you. I simply lost interest in the series because of this AI problem, the higher the difficult the most unfair the AI play against us. They have speed boosts, super quick turn reactions, backhand passes that are faster and more accurated than any of our passes, checking without moving an inch on defense, magnetic sticks that pull the puck for their possession even after our perfect poke check, imput reading (that means that the AI read our movements as soon as we press the buttons what is totally unfair when compared to a human reflex, and that goes on like your list. The problem is that they don´t seems to care about it, they make the game nowadays for a different generation of gamers than ours (i am also in the elders team with 39). I wouldn´t see a problem on that if we had ANY OTHER DAMN HOCKEY GAME TO PLAY! It´s really frustrating that our only choice is EA and they seem to go in a completely different path than what i think of a good sports game.

Wow, i thought i was the only one that noticed this. It's so frustrating and obvious that that is their only solution for a so called competitive AI.

[GlennN]

Quote: Originally Posted by Honome

I completely agree with you. I simply lost interest in the series because of this AI problem, the higher the difficult the most unfair the AI play against us.

I, too, am a long time gamer (dating back to the original Atari 2600 system). I think difficulty levels are what is killing franchise mode for me in many sports games, including the NHL series. Remember Front Page Sports Football on the PC? That is the last game I recall where there were no difficulty levels. Since the game was driven by the attributes of the players, one could adjust the difficulty by what team/players they are using. If I am playing a franchise mode, the players I have need to play to their attributes. Back in FPS days, they did. In the NHL series, there just is not enough driven by the ratings. Even though there is a slider for this very thing, to my experience, it has little effect.

[BSDShoes]

When NHL 17 comes out as beta and hits EA Access with 10 hour trial, vote with your wallet after spending time on them. Although beta rarely ever reflects the final release in terms of EA Sports games (NHL 15 and 16 beta were great while release had very different behavior and results). If it's not very good or is too similar to 16 then don't just buy it because you love hockey and it's a hockey game, that's what EA feeds off of.

I have zero confidence in NHL 17 being of any improvement over 15 and 16, 16 by far is one of THE worst NHL releases since NHLPA back in 1992.

Quote: Originally Posted by GlennN

I, too, am a long time gamer (dating back to the original Atari 2600 system). I think difficulty levels are what is killing franchise mode for me in many sports games, including the NHL series. Remember Front Page Sports Football on the PC? That is the last game I recall where there were no difficulty levels. Since the game was driven by the attributes of the players, one could adjust the difficulty by what team/players they are using. If I am playing a franchise mode, the players I have need to play to their attributes. Back in FPS days, they did. In the NHL series, there just is not enough driven by the ratings. Even though there is a slider for this very thing, to my experience, it has little effect.

Man I loved Front Page Sports Football, I played NY Giants and Mark Lange was the go to running back. I'm a fan of Be A GM but lately matches are almost completely out of my control, I'm in my 40's too and raging isn't healthy for me.