Enough is enough, and that's the bottom line.
Personally, I've been a fan, gamer, admirer, and player of this series, since NHLPA '93 for the SNES. Yeah, that's over 30 years of iterations, simulations, renditions, and currently, I'm unsure of w...
Forum Discussion
@CapeBretonIslndr Great post 👏
I'm similar to you I've been playing this game since it's inception, although I don't watch ice hockey like most others.
Tonight I decided to watch a full match on YouTube, Rangers vs Minnesota.
I was shocked how much of a difference there is between the game and real life. Really tbh the only similarities was there is an ice rink and hockey players. There is zero sim aspects to the game at all. I'll explain why before I get accused of trolling.
Goalies in real life come off their line to stop one on ones. They can pass the puck more than a few feet with power. They cut out cross crease passes.
One of the biggest observations I made is the difference in hitting. Players weren't falling down on every hit, it was more rare to see them go down after a hit. Big hits weren't happing every 2 seconds to my surprise.
Also from what I saw it was nowhere near as easy for the offensive players to skate past the defence as if they weren't there.
Teams played a formation which was visibly noticeable in real life. I could see how having a proper functional formation helped both the offence and defence. Having something as simple as that in the game would go along way.
Also I noticed that when I team is penned in there is very little movement from the defenseman, they held formation. Not one looked drained after a couple of shots.
Again I'm fully aware that having a 100% sim is virtually impossible but the differences between both are staggering.
I'm still playing the game, it's what I've done for decades. Old habits die hard, unfortunately. Now I feel like its a form of self torture, I know how much it's going to put me in a mood but I constantly go back for more.. Madness, total madness 😭
Will I buy 25?
I honestly don't know, I'll hang fire until there a trial then decide.
I'm similar to you I've been playing this game since it's inception, although I don't watch ice hockey like most others.
Tonight I decided to watch a full match on YouTube, Rangers vs Minnesota.
I was shocked how much of a difference there is between the game and real life. Really tbh the only similarities was there is an ice rink and hockey players. There is zero sim aspects to the game at all. I'll explain why before I get accused of trolling.
Goalies in real life come off their line to stop one on ones. They can pass the puck more than a few feet with power. They cut out cross crease passes.
One of the biggest observations I made is the difference in hitting. Players weren't falling down on every hit, it was more rare to see them go down after a hit. Big hits weren't happing every 2 seconds to my surprise.
Also from what I saw it was nowhere near as easy for the offensive players to skate past the defence as if they weren't there.
Teams played a formation which was visibly noticeable in real life. I could see how having a proper functional formation helped both the offence and defence. Having something as simple as that in the game would go along way.
Also I noticed that when I team is penned in there is very little movement from the defenseman, they held formation. Not one looked drained after a couple of shots.
Again I'm fully aware that having a 100% sim is virtually impossible but the differences between both are staggering.
I'm still playing the game, it's what I've done for decades. Old habits die hard, unfortunately. Now I feel like its a form of self torture, I know how much it's going to put me in a mood but I constantly go back for more.. Madness, total madness 😭
Will I buy 25?
I honestly don't know, I'll hang fire until there a trial then decide.
@Stubo_NHL24 wrote:
@CapeBretonIslndrGreat post 👏
I'm similar to you I've been playing this game since it's inception, although I don't watch ice hockey like most others.
Tonight I decided to watch a full match on YouTube, Rangers vs Minnesota.
I was shocked how much of a difference there is between the game and real life. Really tbh the only similarities was there is an ice rink and hockey players. There is zero sim aspects to the game at all. I'll explain why before I get accused of trolling.
Goalies in real life come off their line to stop one on ones. They can pass the puck more than a few feet with power. They cut out cross crease passes.
One of the biggest observations I made is the difference in hitting. Players weren't falling down on every hit, it was more rare to see them go down after a hit. Big hits weren't happing every 2 seconds to my surprise.
Also from what I saw it was nowhere near as easy for the offensive players to skate past the defence as if they weren't there.
Teams played a formation which was visibly noticeable in real life. I could see how having a proper functional formation helped both the offence and defence. Having something as simple as that in the game would go along way.
Also I noticed that when I team is penned in there is very little movement from the defenseman, they held formation. Not one looked drained after a couple of shots.
Again I'm fully aware that having a 100% sim is virtually impossible but the differences between both are staggering.
I'm still playing the game, it's what I've done for decades. Old habits die hard, unfortunately. Now I feel like its a form of self torture, I know how much it's going to put me in a mood but I constantly go back for more.. Madness, total madness 😭
Will I buy 25?
I honestly don't know, I'll hang fire until there a trial then decide.
I'm a big fan of this post because it's coming from someone who admittedly doesn't watch a ton of real life hockey. I feel like I'm always sounding like the "guy that wants real hockey" on these forums because I ramble and probably add too much context to formations and decision making IRL, but it's great to see you add a post like this because I think it means a lot more coming from this perspective.
If this series wants to market AM34 and get more "casual" hockey watchers/fans invested into the game/sport, then the game needs to somewhat look like the product they just watched! I'm all for making hockey accessible and fun for all. I want this sport to grow, I want this game to be something a casual can pickup and learn a thing or two from. Right now, they can't. Like you said, the similarities between IRL pro hockey and this game start and stop at the ice sheet and the fact that there's hockey player models on the ice sheet. It honestly looks almost nothing like the real life counterpart. I said this in another post, I'm a very casual soccer/football fan and Madden, EAFC can fool me into having a fun time. Maybe I don't enough, but the general concepts and flow of the sport appear to be respectable captured. NHL does not capture the flow of IRL hockey. Just the way the AI position themselves, refuse to pitch, refuse to screen goalies, can't execute simple forechecks, etc there's just not really any sense of "real life flow" to the game.
