NHL 24: My Final Review n More
My review will pretty much just be touching the EASHL All Human 6’s side of things and gameplay. EASHL I felt tried some ambitious stuff with giving us more customization whether you wanted it or no...
Forum Discussion
As an offline gamer, I heavily agree with the lack of rolling/bouncing pucks - online players would likely not want to see an increase in this, as this is adding more luck elements to a competitive video game, but I think the realism lovers of the offline world (like myself) should get to see some more of this.
Regarding the topic of "game speed hindering ability to set up in the zone" - does anyone else feel like we went back to the era of "getting stuck in receiving pass animation when a pass comes to your player?" They fixed this in either NHL 19 or NHL 20, but I swear it feels like I can't move my player while they're picking up the puck.
EA_AljoCommunity Manager
@razor2rosary wrote:Regarding the topic of "game speed hindering ability to set up in the zone" - does anyone else feel like we went back to the era of "getting stuck in receiving pass animation when a pass comes to your player?" They fixed this in either NHL 19 or NHL 20, but I swear it feels like I can't move my player while they're picking up the puck.
I haven't noticed this personally. If you have any video showing it, please post it in a new thread and I'll get it reviewed. Thanks!
All due respect...but when it comes to EA, there's a difference between "not noticing" something, and completely turning a blind eye to an obvious problem.
My Review- Also from an EASHL standpoint
1- I've noticed you get "tracked" into hits again...those hits where you have plenty of time to move, but your player simply does not respond to your inputs. This was a major problem with 22 that seems to have found it's way back into 24.
2- Passing is alright- most of the time- still feels like your passes go wherever they feel like it too much, but it's nothing out of control3- Goalie Logic...this was almost awesome at the release of the game: both goalies were making the saves they should, as well as making key saves. Lots of 3-2 or 2-1 games and that was awesome...then as usual the over-correction comes and it's reverted right back to one goalie being a superstar and the other not being even remotely competent (we've noticed when we match up vs lower ranked teams they often have the better goalie so make of that what you will)
4- One Button Trick Shots- Horrible decision. Absolutely horrendous decision. The michigan used to take skill to pull off, now every 11 year old xXTIMMY-420-69Xx (not a real GT) tries it every time behind the net because you simply need to tap Y/Triangle.
5- Speed- Seems to not matter at times. 6'8" 240lb behemoths with 87-87 outskating 5'10" 180 lb 94-94 guys shouldn't be a thing. Not happening all the time, but it's happening enough they the actual application of the speed/accel attributes should be looked at.
PRESSURE SYSTEM
-In theory this was kind of a good idea. I like the idea behind it, actually. In practise? Ugh it was a disaster. One team's meter fills up almost instantly after entering the zone, the other team's will take 24 shots, 12 hits, straight possession for 10 minutes, and it barely fills a quarter of the way. I'm alright with stamina being drained a touch faster, but the fact that being shorthanded didn't drain the stamina as much as this was an egregious oversight. Also, your awareness/attributes should NOT be affected, only your accel and speed.
GOALIE STAMINA- Terrible Why? Because it's seemingly arbitrary/random. One shot and the goalie's dead on the ice swimming around...despite having a full meter. Probably the only stamina thing they could get rid of.
Glass Breaking- Yeah ok it's kinda cool...but it's happening way too often. Tone it down a bit and it'll be ok.
AWARENESS- This needs some tweaking. Even the best defensive players in the sport won't pick off saucer passes backhanded without looking, I'm all for them swatting down saucers if they're actually facing the puck but no look stuff is a bit out of control
VISION CONTROL- This, at least offensively needs some tweaking. Even with 86+ OA, players seem to keep their back to the puck when tapping/holding L2, which tends to hurt your set up if you're a net front build.
NET FRONT BATTLES- Speaking of net front...offensive players definitely need a weapon here. Right now in front of the net it's basically open season for Defencemen to do whatever they want...crosscheck, interfere, bodycheck, all while the puck is nowhere near. Yet if the offensive player so much as nudges the defensive player- boom interference penalty. Using circle/B SHOULD allow a shove off. The second part of this is the net front tie ups. AI basically holds you in place, and human defence can basically spam it because they can recover from it quicker than an offensive player. There needs to be a better shove off option.
HITTING RECOVERY- This has been a problem for a few years now, where the player being hit recovers faster than the checker.
Overall the gameplay itself is smooth-ish and is something to build off of...the framework is there for this to take full advantage of the hardware available right now, making it current gen only should be a priority now.
@Halfa_Starr wrote:.but when it comes to EA, there's a difference between "not noticing" something, and completely turning a blind eye to an obvious problem.
I'd argue that there are many users who turn a blind eye to their misunderstanding of the controls/nuance rather than a cabal of EA developers resigned to ignoring everything. EA is in almost every thread asking for users for more info, usually in the form of a video, in an effort to document and understand the 'issues' some people have.
@Halfa_Starr wrote:1- I've noticed you get "tracked" into hits again...those hits where you have plenty of time to move, but your player simply does not respond to your inputs.
The player-base has adjusted to hitting. When you're playing an opponent who's especially adept at taking routes to big hits, it's going to feel like you're being 'sucked in'. You're not. You've just missed your window of opportunity to avoid the hit.
@Halfa_Starr wrote: still feels like your passes go wherever they feel like it too muchChalk this up to user error.
@Halfa_Starr wrote: we've noticed when we match up vs lower ranked teams they often have the better goalie so make of that what you willMalarky.
@Halfa_Starr wrote: now every 11 year old xXTIMMY-420-69Xx (not a real GT) tries it every time behind the net because you simply need to tap Y/Triangle.Untrue. It still takes timing (try just tapping Y and let us know how that goes) and your opponent allowing you time and space behind the net. I understand the angst of seeing an opponent try a trick shot more often than previous years, but it's easily defendable.
@Halfa_Starr wrote:
5- Speed- Seems to not matter at times. 6'8" 240lb behemoths with 87-87 outskating 5'10" 180 lb 94-94 guys shouldn't be a thing.If the 5'10 skater has no energy left, yes it should be.
@Halfa_Starr wrote:PRESSURE SYSTEM
-In theory this was kind of a good idea. I like the idea behind it, actually. In practise? Ugh it was a disaster. One team's meter fills up almost instantly after entering the zone, the other team's will take 24 shots, 12 hits, straight possession for 10 minutes, and it barely fills a quarter of the way.This is simply not true.
@Halfa_Starr wrote:GOALIE STAMINA- One shot and the goalie's dead on the ice swimming around...despite having a full meter.Video?
Everything else I more or less agree with. Glass breaking is dumb af.
@razor2rosary wrote:As an offline gamer, I heavily agree with the lack of rolling/bouncing pucks - online players would likely not want to see an increase in this, as this is adding more luck elements to a competitive video game
Players ascending the leaderboards in HUT and OVP face a sobering reality: the higher they climb, the more luck begins to overshadow skill in determining match outcomes. This phenomenon emerges naturally as the matchmaking system pairs players of increasingly similar skill levels and the margin for skill-based advantages narrows significantly. Seemingly minor elements of chance, a fortunate bounce, a timely animation glitch, or a moment of server lag, can dramatically sway the result of a game between two elite players.
So, although OVP/HUT and other online players may see realistic puck physics as "adding more luck" to the game, they would need to accept the fact that 'luck' is an element of all competition - real world and virtual.
@razor2rosary wrote:
They fixed this in either NHL 19 or NHL 20, but I swear it feels like I can't move my player while they're picking up the puck.In the context of 1v1 modes, when you pass the puck to another player, you'll notice that the game automatically changes control to the player who is about to receive the puck. This change was implemented right around the time puck pickups became standard. Combined with the pickup logic, this meant that you are actually able to instruct the intended puck recipient on what direction to take when they obtain the puck, before they actually obtain it, resulting in smooth passes in-stride that give the impression of a 'speed boost'.
However, the issue is that some people don't quite understand this. So, when they hit the pass button and the game automatically switches control to the recipient, some users will send directional instructions unknowingly to the recipient and often times, the direction of the input results in the puck recipient executing a pickup that completely nulls any momentum they may have been generating prior to obtaining the puck or in your case; resulting in a bug where there's seemingly no control until after a few frames of possession.
This is why you often see people complain how their opponents seem to "always have an extra step" on them when complaining about high-level competition and how the games can feel scripted or tilted. What those users are seeing are players who have mastered the pass-to-pickup sequence and understand that a pass to a player in stride combined with the proper pickup execution can give the result of your players burning by defenders who are caught flat-footed.
To try and avoid your issue of players not being able to move while obtaining the puck, try noticing any actions you're taking on the left stick while the puck is in transition. You may notice a habitual movement that might be the root cause of your players losing control/momentum.
- @razor2rosary Much like what KidShowtime said the "luck" is kind of needed even in competition. Players like to get by with having low attributes because lots of the attributes don't have much value to them. Like me personally I'm not a fan of dekes not failing on their own.
When you think about it goalie is the biggest RNG of them all. Your goalie can let in a shot and you shoot that same shot 10 times on their goalie and it never goes in. I'm not asking for crazy bounces just some times for the puck to be on edge effecting shots, pickups in a scrum, and sometimes receiving a pass. I don't want pucks bouncing over sticks like crazy but I would like to see it maybe on a bad pass that is hard to be bobbled a bit.
Right now players have little reason to invest in some attributes because they just don't make a big enough difference.
@KlariskraysNHL wrote:
@razor2rosaryMuch like what KidShowtime said the "luck" is kind of needed even in competition. Players like to get by with having low attributes because lots of the attributes don't have much value to them. Like me personally I'm not a fan of dekes not failing on their own.
When you think about it goalie is the biggest RNG of them all. Your goalie can let in a shot and you shoot that same shot 10 times on their goalie and it never goes in. I'm not asking for crazy bounces just some times for the puck to be on edge effecting shots, pickups in a scrum, and sometimes receiving a pass. I don't want pucks bouncing over sticks like crazy but I would like to see it maybe on a bad pass that is hard to be bobbled a bit.
Right now players have little reason to invest in some attributes because they just don't make a big enough difference.I would like to make it clear that I am personally for RNG elements, as I'm a sim/realism fan. It's funny how they could mitigate some of the issues with meaningless attributes by setting the attribute effect slider to "10" on their online slider preset.
Speaking of RNG elements and seemingly useless attributes, I'm currently doing sliders testing regarding shot accuracy for my personal simulation league. Here are some stats:
-> The average wrist shot accuracy rating for an NHL calibre-forward as of the final NHL 24 roster is 86.6.
-> The NHL 24 default slider set has a shot accuracy slider of 55/100.
-> In the NHL, forwards miss the net on average with 3 of every 10 unblocked shot attempts (31.2% actually).
I did some full-length tests where I manually tracked the shot attempts for each game. With NHL 24's default online set, I was seeing roughly 8% of unblocked shots missing the net.
It genuinely doesn't feel like shot accuracy matters all that much with the online defaults. I'm having roughly the same on-net % with Brayden Schenn, an 84 overall skater with 87 shot accuracy (basically average), as I do with 95 overall Matthews with 98 shot accuracy (best in the game).
Man.- @razor2rosary I've asked for shooting in general to get a complete remake along with goalies at the same time so it can hopefully be more organic. But yes I'd love more missed net shots going for corners and
deflections missing the net.
You absolutely do get stuck/sucked into passes.
- @3efc27f286815a47 This isn't an EA NHL exclusive thing either. This happens across **all** EA Sports games. I wonder what they all have in common 🤔
- EA_Aljo
Can you post a video of this?
I'm on rural Manitoba internet, so no, I'm not uploading a video. If you're trying to deny that your player pulls to the puck (to the point you end up offsides sometimes), or stops to wait on a pass, then you're just here towing the company line.
I guess when you're the only game in town it's not too difficult to just bury your head in the sand knowing full well it's our way or no way.
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