If it's in the game it's in the game? NHL 24
I'm curious why the following features aren't in the game. They are critical features of hockey and don't seem that difficult to include in the game.
- Last change: this seems like an incredibly easy and critical addition. One of the many unique features of hockey, crucial to strategy, and gives home ice an advantage feel as you get to be intentional about matchups.
- Choosing the face off dot on freezes: start of the power play, icing, puck out of play, etc. allow the offensive team to choose the face off dot, giving a slight advantage to the choosing team.
- Selecting a fwd to take the face off: multiple teams have multiple fwds take face offs, depending on handedness and dot side. While the center for each line takes the majority of face offs they do not take all of the face offs all the time.
- Face off infractions: players get kicked out of the dot all the time and, while rare, multiple infractions in a face off can result in a penalty.
- Active line change/proximity change: again, a unique feature of hockey, line changes are fast and active with offing players being on ice (w/n 3 feet I think) while active players are jumping on. Sloppy changes result in a too many men penalty.
- 11/7: Sometimes teams put out 11 fwds and 7 d. And no, throwing a d man on the 4th line doesn't count.
- Set plays for offense and def off faceoffs: hockey has way more offensive and defensive sets and set plays than are present in any NHL # game (which is zero, forechecking strategies in the game mean very very little in actual functionality).
- Man to man def scheme: more and more teams are getting away from zone defensive coverage and opting for mtm. The only def options in the game are zone.
- Goalie playing the puck behind the net/up ice/aggressive push out of the crease on loose puck behind d: while this happens on occasion in the game it doesn't happen anywhere near enough. And yes, the player can control the goalie but, honestly, have you tried doing that in real time?
- Coaches challenge/forced reviews: this has been in the league for, what 4 or 5 years now? Maybe longer?
Honestly, there's quite a bit more but these seem like pretty simple additions. I don't expect a response as to why these elements aren't in the game, but thought I'd try anyway. Each year a new coat of paint is thrown on this game but the core foundation hasn't changed in what seems like five or six years. How long have we been using the same UI in the menus, character models for non star players/coaches? Case in point - the Carolina Hurricanes haven't don't the "Bunch of Jerks" celebrations in 5 years, yet every home game win has them doing the goofy cellys.
I know this a long, stupid post but the frustration is pretty high with a lot of us hockey fans. It just seems EA is completely out of touch with this IP and really doesn't care about the sport or community that pays to play this game. I dunno. I could be wrong. But these missing features would be like playing an MLB game that doesn't have a DH. Or an NBA game that omitted free throws. It comes across as a company that doesn't really know the sport it's representing or care to know. I'm sure this whole post is the equivalent of yelling at a wall but oh well. Felt like it needed to be brought up.
