Quite enjoying NHL so far this year. I’d grown a bit frustrated with last year’s game as I felt that it was tuned in a particularly frustrating way (both in terms of how the AI played and how encounters against human opponents would play out), and that the gameplay had grown a bit stale.
This year, I feel that the “RPM motion tech” is a bit of wind in the sails for the on-ice experience and does quite a lot to revitalize the gameplay. Some quirks still remain, but player fluidity feels less robotic than before and body contact has taken a leap forward. The increased risks with poke checking and improvements to stick lifting are a move in the right direction as well (...as someone who spammed poke check as much as anyone last year). Body positioning and smart play seems to be more rewarded.
Despite the heinous name, the “World of Chel” concept is a good one. It makes sense to conglomerate all of those player-control modes under a single umbrella, and I’m even enjoying “Ones” so far as a casual laugh.
I watched that review. It appears to be the same game as last year, which was essentially the same game as the year before that, and the year before that. Yet apparently it continues to get its tires pumped by reviewers, and I guess all you guys keep buying it. So I can't imagine things will improve until possibly next gen.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
I just hate how much of these modes is locked behind online.
Same. I don't play online enough to justify the price of paying for online and even if I did, playing with strangers sucks . Really hoping single player modes got some updates.
Should be delivered tomorrow
IGN Review. Looking forward to my Walmart delivery later this week!
Most of that was in the game last year. They added the outdoor rink and multiplayer to Threes. That guy clearly doesn't play this series regularly.
AI still looks dumb and useless, but maybe it's just cause they were showing Oilers.
What I'd like to know:
- Does the game save my strategies in Online VS or does it still forget about them after every game?
- Once the game loads does my strategies menu still show up behind the NBC banner?
- Does it still take a monotonous amount of steps through a menu to accomplish anything, only to back out to the beginning when you want to go back one step?
- Does the online game matching still just hang sometimes never to find a game only to leave you to back out and reset everything?
- Does EASHL still make it near impossible to get a game going because the drop-in menu design allows players to constantly leave hoping to find a different lobby with defense and a goalie?
- Does the AI still run my own goalie, poke pucks in their own net, turn away from a scoring opportunity, skate up to the opposition and then ignore him, etc?
- Does the game still reward players wearing a Canucks jersey with superpowers?
There is also a 'Fog of War' feature for professional players. That means that attributes for players on other teams and in the AHL are revealed only if you assign a scout to them. This is a switchable option, thankfully. While it presents a new challenge, it's not a realistic feature IMO. Any fan knows the general attributes and potential of any player in the league.
I like it. Luckily you can change what is hidden, and can toggle the fog of war for individual attributes, overall, role, type and potential. I agree that most people know how most pros play so i disabled it for overall rating and player role, but left it on for attributes and potential
I watched that review. It appears to be the same game as last year, which was essentially the same game as the year before that, and the year before that. Yet apparently it continues to get its tires pumped by reviewers, and I guess all you guys keep buying it. So I can't imagine things will improve until possibly next gen.
Tell us more about how we can be as superior as you, Corsi.
I don't think I'm superior because I won't buy this game until they make it good. There are many other reasons.
I get why people buy it. You can probably get enough entertainment out of it to be fair value for your buck. And I bet if it ever stopped selling they'd just can the franchise rather than investing more into fixing the issues. It's just really depressing that we can't have a good hockey video game because the development team is basically scraping for dollars rather than even trying to make it appreciably better.... and there's no reason to expect change.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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I don't disagree with Corsi. I was going to skip this one but then got it on the Walmart preorder sale. For $50 I'll definitely get 100+ hours of entertainment out of it. As much as I wish it was better and updated I still find it fun.
It's not the same game. The skating is definitely different, and the different direction they have gone with poke checks changes the complete nature of how you play the game without the puck.
My biggest issue thus far is that, being a predominantly offline mode player (season, be a gm) the offline game experience is still all to familiar in that it sucks. Playing on allstar makes the most sense (Pro not enough of a real challenge) yet, once you get to this level of above, the CPU players are able to skate/pass in a way which is NOT at the same level of my controlled player. After a successful hit, how the loose puck behaves seems too skewed in the CPU favour. Every year i battle with the sliders, but as soon as you start tweaking those too much, the game really starts feeling off completely.
I fear with where the general gaming community is going (online, HUT, etc), I don't foresee any real investment in improving offline game play from EA, which sucks.
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Just curious, how come so many of you only play Offline?
I used to play offline before online was a thing, but IMO it's way better to play against a person. And since I dont always have a buddy over the Online Vs is great. That's basically all I play.
My kid however, plays every mode except Online Vs. But he's only 9 and would get killed playing anyone half decent.
I'll say it again this year, and I'll say it again next year: EA needs to do their franchise mode like Eastside Hockey Manager. Do that combined with the gameplay and you've got a winner.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
