NHL 15 Thread

[AcGold]

Very similar to actual hockey. It's easy for skilled players to score in the slot if left unchecked because the angles are optimal for the shooter and terrible for the goalie and also close enough that it makes it incredibly hard to react in time which is why the shooting% is so high in the slot. It's pretty much the number one job of the defenders to stop from happening. That being said I'm waiting for NHL 16 to see if EA gets their act together.

[secol]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Very similar to actual hockey. It's easy for skilled players to score in the slot if left unchecked because the angles are optimal for the shooter and terrible for the goalie and also close enough that it makes it incredibly hard to react in time which is why the shooting% is so high in the slot. It's pretty much the number one job of the defenders to stop from happening. That being said I'm waiting for NHL 16 to see if EA gets their act together.

i've played around with the sliders, but i can rarely snipe unless i get into the goalie's face. even faceoff circle in the middle of the ice isn't enough for eberle (or anybody else) to snipe a corner. i was sniping them back on pro difficulty though, which is probably a factor

[Esoteric]

Just finished an online game - I've experienced a ton of quitters so far.

Can't really blame this guy

[Wastedyouth]

I may have found a setting I dont hate. Which is saying something.

I am playing hardcore all star. Only tweaks I have done are to turn up my goalie reaction time one notch and the opposing goalie screen effect down one notch.

Games end up with shots for both sides in the mid 20s and scores around 4-2 or 4-3 either way.

The gameplay is still annoying with the AI doing questionable things every single second though haha.

[Wastedyouth]

Damnit. This is the most frustrating glitchy NHL game in 5 years.

[Russic]

It's odd how polarizing this game is. Gameplay wise this is my favourite hockey game ever. I haven't been this addicted to an NHL game in years. Find a way to get the modes and features from 14 in there and I'm spent.

[bubbsy]

avoid high traffic times for online play helps also

I've already played a few games against folks who have found a means to not get hit or have the puck poked off their stick using the puck protect, which is being used as an exploit.

but other than that, i agree, the gameplay has been fun.

Even if they offered just be a gm at parity to last years (with the fix for player progression), and i'd be completely satified.

[DownhillGoat]

I don't mind the gameplay but I've had two offline games give me a blue screen of death and end with 1 min left in the 3rd, and halfway through the 2nd.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by Russic

It's odd how polarizing this game is. Gameplay wise this is my favourite hockey game ever. I haven't been this addicted to an NHL game in years. Find a way to get the modes and features from 14 in there and I'm spent.

I just get so frustrated with the AI scoring cycle, but it's probably because I end up chasing the puck. Or Hiller sucks. I'll blame Hiller.

[Yamer]

If the AI gets anywhere near even a sniff of the slot it's a super-high percentage scoring chance. I feel I have about of a 10th of those odds in the same situations. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's essentially the same challenge offered through the disparity between user/CPU in terms of mechanics. It doesn't help when it seems like the AI and the momentum physics somehow took a large step backwards between the generations. Once again it feels like I'm driving a group of mid-60s Buicks out there, and pressing in any direction is a grand adventure in guessing which way the player is going to twist, turn, and eventually go.

One thing I will say that I do appreciate is the fact that players can't be as easily pinned against the boards as they were in previous versions. That's probably it, though.

[MisterJoji]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

I just get so frustrated with the AI scoring cycle, but it's probably because I end up chasing the puck. Or Hiller sucks. I'll blame Hiller.

Put in Ramo. I know he's rated less but so far in my season:

Ramo 10-2-1 / 2.27 / .910
Hiller 2-4-0 / 3.35 / .888

Maybe Ramo has higher speed/agility ratings because he seems to make a lot more of the desperation saves and saves when the shooter is alone in the slot than Hiller does.

[The Coppernian One]

Just noticed in Be A GM mode playoffs that it gives the overall record (similar to regular season) instead of series score. In the second round it was showing my record as 6-3 rather than a series lead of 3-1.

I like the gameplay better than past years although I still need to play with the sliders as the CPU seems to still have a stupid high shooting percentage. EA really needs to get things together big time on the rest of the game though.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by MisterJoji

Maybe Ramo has higher speed/agility ratings because he seems to make a lot more of the desperation saves and saves when the shooter is alone in the slot than Hiller does.

It would make sense - Hiller is very much a "systems" goaltender. He's great if he's in position and is tough to beat as long as he's able to set up for the shot. The problem is he falls apart when the game around him becomes chaotic. He's very much like Irving in this sense as his ability to scramble isn't great. Ramo, though not as amazing as Kiprusoff is in scrambling, is better than Hiller in this regard from what I've seen of both goalies.

[bubbsy]

Originally Posted by The Coppernian One

Just noticed in Be A GM mode playoffs that it gives the overall record (similar to regular season) instead of series score. In the second round it was showing my record as 6-3 rather than a series lead of 3-1.

I like the gameplay better than past years although I still need to play with the sliders as the CPU seems to still have a stupid high shooting percentage. EA really needs to get things together big time on the rest of the game though.

it's sad really. the gameplay is fun and i enjoying playing, however, the lack of game mode depth at all, leaves me pondering what i'm going to do with this game in a month or two.

[ComixZone]

I'm having a good amount of fun with NHL 15 on PS3. It's incredibly similar to NHL 14, as has been discussed, but there are some very minor tweaks that do make it an improvement. I think of it as a "Director's Cut" of NHL 14, and honestly I'm okay with that. I loved NHL 14, so 15 on PS3 okay in my books.

...15 on new gen consoles is a disaster though. I don't even like the changes to the gameplay. The player control is just sloppy. There's a difference between having to manage speed/agility/controllability and just general sloppy controls, and I find NHL 15 on new gen to be a sloppy mess. Extremely disappointing.

[bubbsy]

the one thing i absolutely hate about the gameplay, which is an issue carried forward from previous iterations of the game, is how when you switch players when defending (especially in the neutral zone) the game never switches to the player closest to the puck or the intuitive player you'd expect the game to switch your control to!

[AC]

Just beat someone online 6-3, who was playing as Chicago.

My goal scorers were Bollig x2, McGrattan on a breakaway, Byron, Stajan, and Smid.
I think that should have been worth a trophy alone.

[Deegee]

Can you knock the difficulty down so you can beat teams 15-0 etc on the next gen versions? One thing my son loves about NHL 09 on PS3 is wiping the floor with teams because the difficulty is set to an easy mode.

He's young.

[psicodude]

Yup. You can choose from rookie, pro, all-star, and superstar. I think.

My 7 year old plays on rookie with off-sides and penalties turned off. Fighting is cranked all the way up though.

[Russic]

An interesting take from Colin Moriarty on Podcast Beyond from last week (he did the IGN review). While he took them to task for the lack of modes, he also claimed the notion that they've been working on it for 2 years is false. Apparently this version of NHL began development less than a year ago despite having 2 years off. He mentioned that EA has an development order that obviously puts resources towards games like Madden and FIFA first. That makes a bit more sense. To me that doesn't change the review scores, but it does shed some light.