Forum Discussion

Seasoned Vanguard

3 months ago

What Do we Gotta Do?

EA_Aljo What Does the Community Need to do to get results? I hate to be this guy who Just complains but my god man this game just isnt fun anymore. Unfortunately it the only hockey game out there a...

world of chel

EA_Aljo

Community Manager

3 months ago

If my friends and I had the same amount of time to play that we had with NHL 14, chances are excellent we'd still be playing just as much. It's just not possible at this stage of our lives. So much has changed since then. I get that the game doesn't hold the same interest for you. Everyone's different. I still come across people that play a huge amount of games.

Pre-builds just don't bother me. Except for the skins. I don't care for those. Pre-builds or not, people find the meta and build the fastest player they can. In the end, you can have a player with everything at 99, but it doesn't matter if they don't have the skill to play. There's so much more in this mode than just attributes so I personally don't put a lot of weight into them. Yes, they're important, but they aren't really going to make up for a skill or chemistry with your teammates.

There were changes this year to builds. It's entirely possible they will change again in the future.

You can turn on the on-ice trainer to see your targeting. The shot speed is shown on the boards. I don't know if this is in the practice arena or not though. I know a mode where you shoot at targets would be fun, but there are probably bigger things to work on that would benefit the community more.

One button controls don't bother me that much either. I rarely ever see anyone even attempt a Michigan let alone score with one.

We don't have the same features from NHL 14 because it's 12 years later. We already get accused of copying and pasting the game every year. Yet we continually get asked to bring back 14. Have you played 14 lately? I'd be curious to see what people think after not playing it for so long.

I know some of you are super passionate about menus. I would love the option to just make them all text based. Totally boring looking. I'm not a presentation guy so basic menus would be awesome. But that's not really a reality in 2025. There's so much that has to go on in the background. We will continue to try to optimize them.

I hope match club size returns. We'll have to wait and see if it happens.

MollysHatchet

Seasoned Vanguard

3 months ago

EA_Aljo People play the game because its the only NHL game out there. NHL 26 isnt even the best game in the last 5 years and its certainly not Better than NHL 09-14. Again I admit NHL 09-14 had there problems mostly Poke check was broken and a number of Attributes didnt work properly. NHL 26 gameplay is fine but Xfactors along with a few other things just absolutely destroy the game.

Again Im Not Asking you to remake NHL 14 im just asking for Boost packs seen on NHL 14 to replace xfactors. The Boost system was far better and way simpler.

As Far as Features Yes Its 12 years later. Yet we have less Features that actually Matter to the game than we did 12 years ago. The Ability to change Stick curve Flex and skate radius was awesome. The Ability To go into Free skate and test your shot and skating was awesome. The Main Feature on NHL 26 is Cosmetic garbage. Once a month We get a new prebuild with an awful skin. Or we get a dumb Holiday Jersey great. NHL 14 offered More quality Features than NHL 26.

Do you know there are Youtube Videos that show all the cool features previous games had and how many were removed? Some of them Were re added and claimed as new its actually pretty funny.

Prebuilds again dont belong in EASHL. EA had already had to Shrink the Hockey store. At the beginning of the year there was way more product to get. Get rid of prebuilds and Skins and theyd be able to Add more Gear and even create a team store so we could get more team product faster than Hockey bags and the random stuff they give us in Hockey bags. I just have this Feeling that EA is going to force us to use Prebuilds again and ditch Attributes theyve done it once and it was terrible. EASHL give you the freedom to be creative so be creative. As far as changes to Builds it wasnt super noticable. Would be cool to see player builds be more distinct than they are. Playmaker and Two way make grinder feel irrelevant in this game. Grinder used to be so fun.

As Far as menus Its pretty its not about being passionate about them its sick if seeing the same thing for the last 10 years now. Theyre also super slow for being on new gen. The Simplistic menus on those old games were better. The text/font everything just looked way better.

Custom music should be brought back that was a great Feature. Since most the Music On NHl games is awful. At the very least NHL should do like a greatest hits from over the years. Id rather listen to the same music than the trash thats been on the newer games

If we could get a mix of Old and new that would be a plus. Obviously Gameplay should be more realistic as technology Evolves. So NHL 26 gameplay with The Suggestions ive made could make this game unbelievable. But the Longer Ea holds on to Xfactors the further this game will be from greatness. Those Earlier games offered the better features on the creativity side. The newer games offer better game play.

I really hope we get these changes but highly unlikely.