NHL 25 Gameplay Deep Dive Trailer and Blog

What was up with how short that was? Didn't feel like a gaming deep, felt like a shallow dive. What we learned: advanced skating IQ, oh wait, already knew about that one from the TRAILER. Advanced AI, def should be an improvement, and the advanced one timer, seems cool, but also seems like something that will lead to single style goals, again. Was hoping for more from that video considering there was an extra week to prepare for the video. Most games have 15-30 min weekly deep dives prior to launch, just saying

So that was it? It was like 5 minutes long. I don't feel like they really went into a "Deep dive" onto anything. 

There's some more detail in the blog I linked above.

Really like the changes made to the AI teammates. Hopefully will lead to less frustration for me. 

I see the goalies still incorrectly prioritize depth over angle and dive unnecessarily, so hopefully that gets cleaned up relatively soon because it fills me with rage every time. 🙃

What do you want more information on? It really won't be apparent just how different the gameplay is until you get to play for yourself. It's not the easiest to show off in a trailer. There are a lot of changes the community requested. Better skating, better AI, manual one Ts, improved strategies, etc. I think the changes to vision control alone are going to be very well received. You'll just have to wait a few weeks to find out when you get your hands on it.

What are they supposed to do, give you a 30 minute video of people using vision control and scoring one-timers? Sure, it was short (we're never satisfied) but it got to the point.

Plus, there are additional details at the end of the blog with some bullet points that many of us has been asking to be resolved over the course of the last year:

Goalies

• General Improvements preemptive save decisions & animations.
• Improved poke check & puck cover responsiveness and situation-solving.
• Improvements to save motion coming onto the goalposts.
• Increased save range including better solving for lacrosse goals.
• Goalies stay on their feet longer, and won’t drop to or stay in butterfly if they have time to get back up.
• Tweaks to save and capability models 
  • Improved readiness for controlled and redirected saves
  • Rebalanced goalie precision
• Improved decision-making for positioning 
  • One timers
  • Facing in-tight shots
  • Challenge distances
• New Actions Added
  • AI goalies will use the spread-v
  • User goalies can saucer pass
  • Goalies can cover the puck off of teammate's stick to better protect their own goals
  • Post-goal emotional reactions
  • Pad stack and desperation side poses are now merged

Hitting System

• Improvements to hit alignment to ensure more consistent outcomes
• New shoulder check animations from back-skating
• Improvements to shove and hit conflicts with shooting controls
• Get-up time is scaled based on player fatigue and the level of hits taken
• Fatigue drain varies based on the size of the hit delivered
  • The bigger the hit the larger the stamina loss
• AI will now use the hip check 
• Player sizes factor more into hit outcomes
  
  

Sustained Pressure System

• A team that activates pressure will receive 20% increase to their on-ice player stamina meters

I like the look of it but I'll judge it when I get it on the 27th.

One thing I'm not sure about is giving the offence a boost when the pressure system hits full.  There needs to be something in place where the defence can get a boost. Maybe for a perfect check, blocked shot or a completed pass out of the o zone.  The harder the move the bigger the boost. 

For example - 

Stick checks - 5%

Body checks - 10%

Blocked shots - 20%

It looks good, I worry about puck ragging being more abused but hopefully with improved AI it will help balance it.  The checking I hope has more of an aim assist aspect to it instead of the flailing arms animation.

ooh i do NOT like that pressure system change. i don't know how it'll actually play out, but i hate the logic behind it - a team that's working the puck around the zone does not magically GAIN energy after a certain amount of time irl.

EA_Aljoi don't play CHEL just Franchise (usually BAP if its changed), so does the entire vision control thing not apply to me?