Online VS Issues
Where to begin. I have been playing NHL since 93. Once online was available I jumped in headfirst and over the last 3 NHLs it has become all I play. For clarity, NHL 23 I played over 1200 online VS games. I have also been playing actual hockey for 3 decades (rep to now men's league). I am not here shaking my fist at the sky. NHL 24 was definitely a step forward from 23 in a lot of ways, but SO MANY bad decisions were made that in the end, made the game play just as bad as 23 IMHO.
Here are somethings I have noticed that make zero sense in NHL 24 Online VS:
1) Why is there no "Mutual Quit" option? The EA servers have always sucked, and will always suck. I play many games online, NHL is the online one that lags, kicks me offline for no reason, and has so much trouble staying connected. When those games happen, if you don't quit before puck drop you take an L. Why can EA not bring back mutual quit so when both players are suffering from bad connection, you can leave the game and not get dinged?
2) Why when the EA servers kick you off, and tells you so, does your record take an L? The server did the kicking, bc it is garbage and unstable, that shouldn't be an L. I would confidently say 15-20% of my losses come from this, and I am have dedicated internet in my apartment, in the same room I play, which is the highest level Bell Mobility offers. It is not my connection.
3) Why are the pause functions SO SLOW. They load like 1996 dial up. There is often not enough time to get to the goalies swapped. How is this possible? It was well documented as an issue in NHL 23 and still hasn't been addressed.
4) Why can you not edit your lines or change goalies between periods? The one pause per game thing I get, but real teams swap tendies between periods all the time. That is a no brainer.
5) Hip checks? Really? How often do we see them in the real NHL? The game is too fast and the players too skilled. Get rid of this dumb function and make hitting better.
6) On that note: Up/Down to hit? REALLY??? This completely took out hitting as a viable defensive strategy. The dive forward thing? Is this mortal combat? And often when you do time it perfectly, and connect shoulder to chest, guys walk right through with no reaction. I know guys are strong, but if you hit someone dead in the chest you will at least slow them down. Hitting is a huge part of the game, from nudges and bumps to huge open ice bangers, and yet it is very very hard to execute any hit in NHL 24 online VS game play.
7) Why are stick lifts so hard to execute without being penalized (in both 23 and 24)? Stick lifts happen CONSTANTLY in the NHL. In battles up and down the ice, before engaging for the puck, even if a player thinks the puck is coming to an opposing players they give them a little lift. Yet in 23 and 24 they barely connected, and 7/10 end up in a penalty. How can something so pivotal to the game be executed so poorly in online play?
8) Poke checks - if I had a dollar for every time I connected with a poke check, or got in the way of a flat pass and nothing happened I'd be rich. This needs to be fixed. Pucks don't travel through stick blades placed in front of them. And I am not talking sauce passes, those make sense and actually function really well. I am talking poke check out, guy flat passes it, poke check is RIGHT where the puck is on the ice and nothing happens.
9) Why does it feel like you are turning a house boat when trying to do edge work. And before a mod chimes in with "that is the tired player function", no, I am talking fresh line, full bar, full energy. The turns are SO SLOW, so are the stops, so are the quick turns, the accepting passes. It is all so slow. Every watched the NHL? These guys stop and turn on a dime, should the players in the game not be able to do that?
10) Why can we not customize our own controls? As in, give us a blank controller and let us choose a mix of the presets you have created that it seems no one likes? Neither of the choices for 24 make sense. Let us choose our own.
11) Why do the players bump into each other/get in each others way so often? Like clumps of them bunching up, out of position. Sure, sometimes this happens IRL and it is a laugh, but it is constant in online VS. And I am not talking about a corner battle, or front of the net battle. I am talking about 3 players (one being me moving the puck) all clumping together and no one can go anywhere.
This is the second year in a row I have been incredibly disappointed with my purchase. You see the bad reviews in the press, you see the online boards. I get a lot goes into making a game none of us will every understand or be able to do ourselves, arm chair experts I assume you call us all. But it really feels like no one that worked on this game has actually played hockey, or watched an NHL game.
