NHL 23 summed up in this video

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@TTZ_Dipsy wrote:

This year when the team decided "hey, everyone hates when we patch stuff so let's not do anything at all" - the year we absolutely, positively, objectionably NEEDED that patch - It leaves me totally flabbergasted.

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This.  A thousand times, this.

For me each new NHL game from 16 to 22 brought some kind of positive change to the game.  They weren't perfect.  I didn't necessarily agree with every gameplay change, but they were all generally moving the game in the right direction.  And I never felt that any game was "ruined" by post-beta changes, even changes I didn't feel were 100% correct.

That's why the state of the NHL 23 beta was such a surprise.  No positive ( IMHO ) changes to the gameplay.  Goalies were completely broken and pretty much every defensive tool was either outright made useless or severely nerfed while offensive tools were buffed.  During the beta I was telling teammates that there was no way the release version of NHL 23 was going to be the same as the beta.  There was no way they could look at the state of the game and be satisfied with it.  Boy, do I have egg on my face now.

People not liking changes made post-release to a previous game has nothing to do with what was needed post-release for NHL 23.  That attitude is galling.  People liked BF3, that doesn't give BF 2042 a pass.

I'd almost rather the excuse be that EA poured all their resources in cross-play this year and had nothing left to deal with gameplay changes.  It still wouldn't be a valid excuse, but it would at least not come across as outright insulting.