Hey, NHL Fans! The NHL 25 Deep Dive Trailer premiers today at 11 AM EST. Catch the video below and the blog here.

I just would have liked to see the bullet points mentioned in the blog, actually shown in the video. They covered like 3 points (one of which was already shown in the trailer), early access is available in only a few weeks, so unless they plan to do longer videos for the next 3 weeks, the short video doesn't show a whole lot. I like the AI improvements and hoping the skating will be smoother and more realistic, the one timer shot, I am unsure about, as it seems like something where you will just see it used over and over again. Showing the other features with it would have been far better. And for heaven's sake a beta test for those of us who have purchased every single NHL since it first came out on Sega, would have been very helpful. I used to do streaming for games, and Betas were always helpful in deciding if it was going to be worth spending money and time streaming it 

I just would have liked to see the bullet points mentioned in the blog, actually shown in the video. They covered like 3 points (one of which was already shown in the trailer), early access is available in only a few weeks, so unless they plan to do longer videos for the next 3 weeks, the short video doesn't show a whole lot. I like the AI improvements and hoping the skating will be smoother and more realistic, the one timer shot, I am unsure about, as it seems like something where you will just see it used over and over again. Showing the other features with it would have been far better. And for heaven's sake a beta test for those of us who have purchased every single NHL since it first came out on Sega, would have been very helpful. I used to do streaming for games, and Betas were always helpful in deciding if it was going to be worth spending money and time streaming it 

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

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

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

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

What I was hoping for, was that instead of talking about this in bullet points, was that they would actually cover these things in a proper Deep Dive, not a shallow dive. Bullet points mean very little, actually watching the bullet points implemented in a video would be helpful. Especially when the games are expensive and people are deciding whether it is worth purchasing this edition or sticking with a previous one. This video was kind of lazy. 

What I was hoping for, was that instead of talking about this in bullet points, was that they would actually cover these things in a proper Deep Dive, not a shallow dive. Bullet points mean very little, actually watching the bullet points implemented in a video would be helpful. Especially when the games are expensive and people are deciding whether it is worth purchasing this edition or sticking with a previous one. This video was kind of lazy. 

Can you be more specific? What is missing that you were hoping to see? Just saying you want a proper deep dive doesn't really tell me what you want more information on.

Can you be more specific? What is missing that you were hoping to see? Just saying you want a proper deep dive doesn't really tell me what you want more information on.

There was nothing stopping anyone from using one timers over and over again previously. I think having them be a more viable way to score is going to add some diversity to scoring. Which, is something the community has been asking for.

Thanks for the rest of your feedback. It would be good to see those highlighted better. I don't think we need a 30 minute video though. Those would have probably just added a couple more minutes to it.

A couple more minutes would have been appreciated. Hopefully it does add more variety into the scoring, its hard to say until you have actually played it for a bit. 

PS, You are good at this, always appreciated your answers in the previous years

We'll have more news coming as we get closer to release.

Thanks. Appreciate the kind words :)