That's all Folks

My son only plays '23 with me. He doesn't play enough, nor does he have large enough hands for the new hitting. I figured it out, but I play a lot normally. writing two books at the moment, so I don't have time of late, but it was pretty much several hours every day. I keep '23 around for him.

Thanks for your feedback. But it's not just the line change. I just couldnt get the feeling for the game in general. In 2023 I managed the timing of hitting pretty well. Since 2024 I lost that timing. Everytime I tried to hit, my player kind of "side-stepped" and simply would go around the player I wanted to hit. The difficult hitting combined with the people who understand how the game works in terms of physics, just simple drive around in circles, and I barely can get them. Which is super difficult playing in defence in my own zone, as my players constantly dont get close to them. Sometimes I simply tried to let KI defense play, as it was better that way, but would frustrate me. Often, a player enters the zone, then drifts off by turning back, going in another direction and I dont get to hit him anymore. That are the things that made me become really upset. There are so many things I could mention, like, when I make the goalie release the puck, most of the time my own players skate away and the puck ends up on the oponents blade. Line changing we talked about. But then there is the general feel. Even if my players arent tired, sometimes they are suddenly complete off and the oponent scores like 3-4 goals in 1-2 minutes. It feels like they suddently switch on overdrive and you have no chance. I have experienced this phenomena very often and my son as well. Thats also being mentioned very often in forums all over the internet. Perhaps its ICE-Q that is just not so great yet, i dont know. Bottom line: i didnt really enjoy NHL25. Lets see, maybe its different in NHL26, but I will wait purchasing it. 

You can do this where you don't have to worry about line changes, strategies etc. Be a Pro allows you to take control of a player and they will do all the line changing and strategy setup for you so you do not have to. If you are, however, talking about online play, then to be quite blunt, this is nothing but a skill issue that you have to change the way you play. If the game did line changes for you (which they sometimes do after a certain point) then there would be plenty of people going "why are my guys going for a line change NOW? this is terrible timing EA fix game".  When Kid said "adapt your strategies" that includes being able to line change more effectively. 

Just go watch Sleeveless Gaming's latest "No Money Spent" episode but to give you a brief explanation... In it, he says that in order to really make the push to Division 1 which has been his goal for quite awhile now but has been stuck in the 1900 ranges, he had to really adjust how and when he changed his lines up. Spoiler: He now reached Division 1 so it was obviously a big thing that was setting him back. Anywho, if you want to be better online, you just have to learn how to line change. It's part of Hockey anyways.

So, you're saying the game is interfering because it's not changing lines when you want it to? We're currently aware of an issue causing this. Hopefully, it'll be resolved in a future game.

But as mentioned, its not that. Its the overall feel of the game. I dont have the feeling I am under control and I get the impression that the game itself interferes very much, which is, btw, also the feeling of a lot of other gamers in the community. 

How is the game interfering?

As I mentioned to Kid, I dont want to take care of any line changes. I myself have played real ice hockey since I was 4 and I agree what you said when you said that you need to adapt your strategies. I tried that, but nothing really worked out for me. I have tried to adapt the strategies according to some YouTube NHL pros, but nothing really helped. Trying to hit has become very hard in my opinion. But hey, maybe you guys have figured it out and I didnt. I can tell you, that in 2023 I have had the game under control and now not at all, which is really sad. I wished there was an option where you could play without taking care of your strategy. But as mentioned, its not that. Its the overall feel of the game. I dont have the feeling I am under control and I get the impression that the game itself interferes very much, which is, btw, also the feeling of a lot of other gamers in the community. 

I understand that the game needs to evolve. I agree on that. But I am the type of player who does not want to care about line changes or if my players get tired. I want the game to take care of that, as I simply want to enjoy the game itself. I went back to playing 2023 where I immediately felt way more comfortable with the feeling of the game. I had the impression that I am under control of the game and not vice versa. And I immediately started winning again. 

There are certain aspects of 23 that I did like better. Controls being one. I would second that each edition has new things that you need to learn in terms of strategies and game mechanics. This is to be expected. Games are meant to evolve over time, some changes are good, some not so much. I haven't experienced what I would call the game making you begin to play worse while your opponent improves in the game. What happens, is that the opponent learns your strategies and adapts to them, which actually does happen in real hockey. When playing, it is up to you to adjust your strategy and game play to keep them guessing. As KidShowtime1867​ mentioned, proper line changes are very important. The devs had made tiring players more of a factor in game, so you need to change lines. You can go into the settings and scale the effect of this back under sliders, if you are not happy with this. Sliders allow many things to be adjusted. 

RoyLegato77 wrote:

I now KNOW for a fact, that the game is interfering BIG TIME and the times when you would have equal winning chances are gone, cause the game just doesnt let you.

How do you know it was 'the game' and not your line management skills? Are you leaving players out too long and making them fatigued? Are you working hard to relieve pressure by high-dumping the puck out of your zone or executing good zone-exit strategies? 

The game has evolved to be arcade in some ways and more realistic in others. For example, in your case - you claim:

RoyLegato77 wrote:

after a while my team felt completely lousy and slow, but the oponent sort of had a boost and I had no chance

Have you considered your opponent executed a timely line change while you were under pressure? Your players were fatigued and the opponent had fresh legs? These are the things you need to manage in NHL 25 that you didn't have to manage in NHL 23, etc. 

Yes - the game changes every year and sometimes the changes can exceed your previously attained skills on the stick. That's okay. I'm too old to want to mention it here, but I struggle with this every time there's a new mechanic. The key is not to get into your head that 'the game' is trying to keep you down but rather try to find out what 'the game' wants you to do in order to succeed. 

Sounds good. How exactly is the game interfering? Could you explain that better?