First Day Recap

Im focusing on EASHL here. The Mostly good and a few bad things. Let's get into it.

We still need to add a "reactivate club" option for the returning clubs. It's such a pain to restart ever single year. 

I do like that all your purchased CHEL gear transfers from last year but it's unfortunate the branded items dont. Taking the coins out of the bags and just issuing them to the total is the right call for sure. 

Store looks to be majorly upgraded. Hopefully it actually works this year and they don't just abandon it. I still think the store should have every item in the game available for purchase from day one instead of randomly having items pop in and out. In addition to that Club GMs should also earn "club coins" when playing club games. Those "club coins" can be used at a club specific store that let's you buy arenas, logos, jersey templates, etc.

While were talking about club customization. Removing the ability to use NHL/AHL colors for your club is the wrong move. As the games get better each year we should be adding customization, not limiting it. Even the jersey templates are tired. Im hoping the real team colors are added back in the first patch other wise you've severely hampered any color customization. 

The copy and paste for the player info is excellent. Glad that's back. Love the addition of player specific hat trick items. Also, the players look great. The hair moves with the player and things like that making it more life like.

Onto gameplay now. It's the best it's felt maybe ever. Player movement feels slower and heavy, deliberate... but it's not bad. The game itself feels really smooth. 

The skating is great. Like I said it's a bit slower and heavy but it's not a bad thing. Only complaint is the gliding is gone, especially if you use L2. If you're back skating and let off the stick your guy doesn't really glide backwards like he used too. He comes to a complete stop if you utilize L2. It's not a huge deal, just will take getting used too. 

The shooting and hitting feels fine. Wish the hit animations were better but they're better than last year so that's a step up. Poke checks work well and aren't instant penalties but you also can't spam into the skates so it's a nice balance there. 

Players appear smarter. Not just the AI but user controlled players are doing things automatically which is good. For example, we had a right boards to left circle 1T attempt, the center was in the slot which was in direct line of the passing lane. The pass wasn't going to him and instead of the center taking the puck and ruining the 1T chance, his player automatically lifted his stick to allow the puck to pass by him and get to it's intended target. Big W there. The AI is definately better, especially the goalies. They are reading the play better, they dont spazz out when the puck is up in the air or near the crease. They actively poke or move the puck when its near them. Their animations seem to be better overall. The contextual contact adjustments are great. No more getting stuck on people or anything like that. You can easily scoot around or between them which is awesome. 

Pressure system seems to build a bit quick but because the defending team isn't getting punished it's really not that big of a deal.

Gonna finish it off by talking about "EA stuff". There wasn't really anything last night that made me go "welp EA fudged us there". We only had one goal against where it was a bad BS animation. Other than that the goals scored on both sides were fine. There wasn't any bad animations causing turn overs or penalties. Everything played about as well as it could have. Now the key is for EA to tweak some stuff without breaking it completely. 

 

CM Edit: Modified profane word to not violate the rules. Please keep this rule in mind:

• Cursing/Swearing: Using alternatives or symbols doesn't make it okay. We all k*** what you're trying to s**. Our profanity filter catching it is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, just fyi.