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Franchise Mode, same problems all over again
Lack of Meaningful Updates and DephtFranchise Mode feels like it’s been left behind again. Nothing significant has changed, and the mode is still missing the features fans have been begging for, like online franchise, deeper scouting and drafting, or real management tools. It feels like the exact same experience year after year, just with a new menu skin. Broken Gameplay - Player Movement and PassingThe gameplay feels broken when it comes to player movement and passing. You try to make a smart pass to where your teammate is skating, but instead of continuing his stride, he suddenly stops, and the puck just slides past him. It kills the flow of the game and makes setting up plays incredibly frustrating. Instead of rewarding anticipation and hockey sense, the game punishes you for trying to play realistically. Unrealistic Player Salary DemandsContract negotiations make no sense. Players constantly ask for way more money than they’re worth, even average or aging guys demand superstar level salaries. It completely breaks team building because you’re forced to either massively overpay or lose players you should realistically be able to keep. Broken Salary Cap LogicThe salary cap only ever goes up by about $2 million a year, which makes no sense. In real life, the NHL’s cap can rise significantly depending on revenue, but in the game it’s stuck creeping up in tiny increments. It completely ruins long-term roster planning because contract and player demands grow way faster than the cap itself. Broken Player Stats TrackingThe stats system is a mess. When a player scores his first career goal, the in-game overlays (Ice-Q stats) often show him with dozens of career goals that he doesn’t actually have. It completely kills the immersion when the game can’t even track basic milestones correctly, like a rookie’s first NHL point or goal. And the total career points and goals in the record book have a lot of incorrect statsCHEL AI goalies and skaters are the worse ever
CHEL play Since 2020 CHEL AI goalies and skaters are worthless. Doesn’t EA see all the complaints. Are the programmers not smart enough to try the game before releasing it? Sure they create new animation each year when the goalie is scrambling but why let in so many muffins. Why can’t goalie learn how to stop breakaways. I thought NHL 25 was bad, 26 is now the worse. Every break away is a goal. 98% on the backhand. It gets so old. I’ve been playing these games since 1997 and this will be my final purchase. For the past 5 years EA make a few tweaks and release the same game each year. Just the bare minimum. If they put as much effort into creating this game like they do with FIFA and Madden, this game would rock but it’s just a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, the graphics are awesome but they remain the same each year. Hell, they can’t even update the AI players names. They’ve been the same for years. They play by play dialogue hasn’t changed in years.
NHL 26 Franchise mode - playing games feels very frustrating this year
I notice my user's CPU goalie lets in very soft goals while the opponent's CPU goalie plays like Hasek or Brodeur, no matter what he has as an overall rating. All games end like this for me: 36-42 shots and 2-4 goals vs the opponent team's 14 shots and 2-4 goals. I block many many shots in the games I play on Superstar but once the cpu opponent gets a shot away, it either hits the post and bounces on the goalie and in, or they snipe it from the blue line. It's so frustrating to play games when every game goes like this, absolutely tanking my goalies' SV%. Update: I changed the gameplay version to 1.0 and that changed it back to being better balanced for CPU gameplay. Now it's way better (more fun) even though user cpu goalie still lets in almost everything, but at the same time it's now easier to score myself. Would be great to have a gameplay tuner that stops CPU opponent from shooting overly accurately in every single situation.
Attributes.
Between The OP Xfactors. And Now all these added Prebuilds The game is starting to feel like theyre takin away from the Creativity that EASHL is. Every month A new Prebuild is added it seems. Now there is a shark. There are now more Prebuilds than Custom builds. It reminds me of the years where they removed attributes completely. Such a horrible idea. With Xfactors Attributes really feel irrelevant. Game play feels okay but this game is already trending in the wrong direction again. There are several Xfactors that are way OP and i feel **bleep** we're going to be fighting with EA over this the entire duration of the game. Remove Prebuilds. Get Rid of X factors bring back boost. Just remake 2014.XFactors.
XFactors are going to make certain Attributes irrelevant. Im a huge Fan of Hitting people can complain all they want about it but thats only because they like the free open ice to Dance around like a ballerina without any worry and since Stick checking never works properly its a risk to even try and poke. That being Said. I have set my build at 90 hitting with and without truculence. The difference is laughable. 90 is extremely high hitting without truculence and i should be able to lay massive hits without Any Truculence Xfactor. Without truculence my guy hits like he's using a Pillow to hit with truculence my guy feels like hes using a baseball bat to hit with. Like what is the point of Attributes if you can just use the orange Xfactor Truculence. And have 65 hitting and the orange Xfactor and be able to Run people off the rink with big hits. There are other XFactors that have run into the same problem. What I think they shouldve Done is set it up the same way NHL 25 was. Elite X factor you need at least 80 hitting to use this Xfactor All-star Xfactor you need atleast 85 and 90 to use the elite Xfactor. Something like that. In my opinion they shouldve ditched Xfactors for Something way simpler and Brought back the Boost Packs 09-14 had. +1 +3 and +5 added attribute points.#Broken
Chel 26 is so broken right now. Physics, mechanics, visual glitches, overlay glitches, goalies, reverse hits....it's TERRIBLE. You should NOT be able to register 11 goals on 18 shots NO MATTER WHAT. The AI goalies are trash. Meanwhile, the other team records 25 shots for 2 goals. The reverse hit MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL. Soooo ridiculous, unrealistic and absurd. I was CHASING a guy and from behind, maintaining his forward speed SOMEHOW reverse hits me and I bounce off him, going back where I came from. Entirely absurd and needs to be eliminated. I'm consistently a Diamond and can't get past a 17,000 Silver because drop in is so tilted. I love this game, it's my guilty pleasure, however, ready to park it and not play until changes are made.
AI goalies come out too far and pose which leaves large rebound opportunity.
World of CHEL AI goalies come out about 5 feet from crease it seems, and every player shoots low for rebound and they just pause/pose while they leave their back post open for a crasher because they are one to far, two a delay from the save for them to react. This is an exploitable strategy not because it's a one off, but it is every single time thing. Ai goalie aggression is too high, or their angles are, which ever makes them challenge so high and outside of the crease. Also, may want to tweak save animation delay for blocker high they just pose when they make a save. EA_AljoBe a pro major problem
This revamped be a pro is right direction to go but there’s few features missing which killing this mode once again. The main thing is the fact that injuries/transaction lists missing completely in the mode is just pure nonsense. You don’t see anything what’s happening in your team and in the league, that’s making the mode very one sided thing. You don’t even see your own player injury type or how long you are in reserve! Also the fact that game doesn’t recognize your player are injured is just ridiculous for the game devs. You will get negative feedback even you’re not in the lineup! This will need to be fixed, otherwise the mode will be dull and useless for longer term playing. Any news for fixing thisEA_Aljo
Menus are horribly slow (WoC)
My bar was already in the negatives and I'm still disappointed with how laggy the menu system is before and after games in WoC. There is so much stalling immediately upon entering I never know if the game permanently froze are not. C'mon now - I can cold boot my day 1 PS5 and get right into invading people in Demon's Souls in less than 45 seconds. I can suspend a cycle, go to reset mode, and then reboot Returnal faster than I can even make it into the HUB of WoC. I can make an entire pot of coffee in less time than it takes to find a finals match in One. We're already more than halfway into the current gen and we're still stuck like 3 generations back. I dunno if we need a new cache system, a way to permanently remove popup screens, or what, but it's unacceptable in this day and age to fall so far behind tech and QoL-wise
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