Lack of Direction - What is the EA NHL series?

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@MikeyAU630 wrote:

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

Hey there, @RicochetII 

Again, this is a video game. Hits might be over the top at times. There are also times they are very realistic. Regardless, the point of the game is to have fun. Yes, there are some purists that want the game to be a 1:1 recreation of the real sport, but from what I've seen, the more real the game gets, the less it's liked. There need to be player attributes for example that add assistance to shooting, passing, hitting, etc. When we made a change to this a few years back, it made the community pretty upset because it became harder to score and accurately pass. We also frequently get comments saying NHL 14 played better. Which is far more of an arcade style game than NHL 24 as the physics are more realistic than they were 10 years ago yet some that claim they want a full sim game would rather have one that was less sim than what we have now.

I'm in agreement with hipchecks and Lacrosse moves. I'd rather those return to the way they were. Thankfully, the Lacrosse goal is pretty uncommon and the move is easy to defend to begin with.

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@EA_Aljo I think you are missing the point when we say NHL 14 played better.  Yes, the physics are more realistic now, but the tuning and thus gameplay is far less realistic.  Back in the NHL 14 days, both offense and defense had to be played fairly realistically to be successful.  On offense you had to move the puck around to find the good shooting spots to be successful.  On defense, solid positioning, taking away the passing and shooting lanes was rewarded.  Nowadays, you have to play the "meta" to be successful, and it hardly resembles hockey.  The game speed is way, way too high.  Offense is way overpowered compared to defense.  Shot accuracy and power are far too high, and forwards who lose the puck instantly regain control nine times out of ten.  On defense, you're penalized far too highly for an ever so slightly mistimed poke (huge loss of speed) or ever so slightly misaimed hit (artificially pulled way out of position), and playing well positionally is penalized by the Pressure Meter and the lack of interceptions.  It's become all cross-creases and "glitch goals"... it wasn't that way in NHL 14 days.

Edit:  Forgot to mention:  In NHL 23, the HUT Rush "Sim mode" that was introduced later in the year fixed many of the issues I describe.  The game played far more realistically and most people loved it.  Why didn't that become the normal tuning this year?  The game would be far better and more "sim" if it had.

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I also really enjoyed the sim mode in HUT. It would have been nice to see that become the regular tuning. It also made a lot of people unhappy though. So, that's the thing, we have a very diverse audience of players. While there are many of us that want a more realistic game, that's not going to make everyone happy.

I know the team is aware of the feedback you're providing. Changes could be made in the future. The lack of interceptions has been a big one for sure. Pokes going back to the carrier has been mentioned many times as well. I'm on the fence with that one though. Normally, when that happens, it's because the carrier has better positioning and is traveling in the direction of the puck. The defender didn't make good enough contact to send the puck out of reach. Poke checking is my primary for of defense. I use the defensive skill stick a lot as well because I have a lot of success with sweeping the puck away. I'm not saying there are no issues though either. It would be good to make pokes work more consistently. I also hate the slow down from poking. That's very frustrating.

If I recall right, the biggest complaint about 14 was cross-crease goals. That was the go to way to score and you spent all game defending it. Passes still got through, but I really can't remember if it was any better/worse than we have now. It's been almost 10 years since I played that game, but I know cross-crease goals were extremely prevalent then.

Thanks for the continued, constructive feedback. It's most definitely appreciated.