NHL 25 Gameplay Deep Dive Trailer and Blog

You're right. It seems a little absurd to me on its face. Guess we'll have to wait for release to assess that impact. 

All of the EA games usually have roughly a 4-6 min deep dive. FC 25 = 4:30. Madden 25 = 4:30. F1 24 = 5:15. This is not uncommon of EA to do. As for the extra week to prepare you are wrong about that. The content creators were shown a video to make their reactions on. If they were to change the video, than everyone would have to also change the content they prepped for.

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. 

This specifically is for gameplay. There is a Franchise Mode deep dive coming later. If you don't actually play and just sim games, I can see why gameplay doesn't matter to you.

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.

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 

Am definitely looking forward to the Franchise video, that is where 90% of my time is spent and it has felt stale for a long time. It needs a complete revamp, from bringing in s proper storyline, to having conversations with coaches, and scouts, interviews, advertising, home opener excitement, playoff excitement, new players/rookie excitement, I could go on and on, but at this point the game is pretty much set in what they are going to do

This was certainly an interesting trailer. Things that I noted:

• There lacks transition animations on the scorebug when it comes to both the shot counter and the goal display. Instead of a smooth transition from the standard scorebug display to the "GOAL" display when a team scores, it snaps from one state to the next.
• The very first clip of the trailer (after the 40 second introduction) shows AI Charlie McAvoy whiffing a check - this was a MAJOR issue with the AI in NHL 24, as it did not appear like they knew how to properly use the new checking system.
• Improved skating looks fantastic - in my opinion, the game has never looked this fluid.
• There does appear to be actual improvements to the AI's ability to get open, both on the power play and at 5 on 5.
• Interesting idea to show a known cheese goal in the trailer.
• Noticed that shot speed now appears on the boards - this is a lovely QoL addition, and it leaves me very interested as to whether shot speed was finally calibrated to be realistic. Slap shots in NHL 24 (and games prior) easily click over 120 mph with the games online slider preset. They either addressed this, or the boards are showing inaccurate calculations.
• The reactive actions section was gold - that "panic turns" change is EXTREMELY interesting.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm curious what you mean by cheese goal. Are you talking about the short side shot? That's a pretty legit goal in real hockey. Also, it's not a shot that goes in every time. You have to give the carrier time and space to pull it off. Which, is a result of bad defense.

Honestly though, these videos should be coming out sooner to give more information. EA does not set a good bar standard for deep dives. You want good deep dives, take a look at Cities Skylines 2, Planet Coaster 2, Planet Zoo, Starfield, etc, if they mentioned improvements on their blog/websites, it was covered in the videos. This helps drive excitement, as well as giving real information for making purchasing decisions. EA typically just relies on repeat buyers, so they put very little effort into properly promoting and developing excitement for a new release. Admittedly, will pre-order it, but that is just cuz I have bought every single NHL game since they were first released on Sega, yes I am aging myself, lol 😂