NHL 18 Beta Feedback Thread

SirPsychoT

Please use this thread to post your feedback.

Negative feedback is fine, insults, trolling, etc is not. If you post inappropriate responses you will be banned.

If you disagree with what someone wrote respond like in a respectful manner or your posts will be deleted.

Nothing2Prove

Problems
Matchmaking. Although its a positive for not being able to see your opponent prior to starting. The problem is that you may end up versusing someone who player locks or the connection is terrible which stinks.
Skating. was barely fixed if at all. Still so many problems with being warped and skating like you are on bricks. They spin for no reason.
Chop pass. With the new D you cant chop now.. Big feature removed IMO
Goalies letting in passes and non shots... like comeon this is too often.
AI Slashs/trips - too often
Seemless puck ups still.. lol
Positives
New D skill stick. Love it, it seems to have many uses already for covering passing lanes.
Versus. not having to edit your lines if you want to play another versus game right after your 1st is amazing.
Saucer passing. Finally the AI doesnt stop every single saucer pass.
Continued OT in VS. THANK YOU!
AI positioning. In the offensive zone they seem a bit better. That could just be me though.
The dekes are new and refreshing. I am sure in 3s they will be used a lot. Im a fan of putting the stick between my legs
Final thoughts: Is the game better than last year? Sure. Its a slight improvement gameplay wise. The nhl 3s arcade mode is fun and 3v3 eashl will be a nice addition. Its a better game. But by how much I am not really sure. Its not a huge upgrade, but an upgrade.

BOSTONRANGER86D

Why was the skating engine not improved a single bit? It's identical to NHL 17. A few small fixes would have made it feel more realistic and give it a smoother play. Players still have tons more ability with the puck than without.

BodyBags0000

I actually ended up playing the supposed best finnish NHL gamer as my first versus game and he kinda showed me in a rough way that all the worst bugs and exploits are still there. The usual versus stuff, AI defence, glide bubbles, that weird cut towards the boards after you cross the offensive blueline that gets the AI to overcommit, defence getting beat way too easily if you lose the puck near the blueline in the offensive zone.

Long story short. There's no fixes to the contact physics, no improvements to skating either. AI seems to be slightly better on breakouts but still really stupid around their own net and overpowered by the boards and they still can't react to the play at all but seem to go on preset rails.

Even shorter: they didn't fix any of the actual issues.

Pass

Sgt_Kelso

Ok, so: it's more like NHL17.01 with 3vs3 glued on top?

I am not really sure on how the DSS works, I tried covering some lanes and stuff, but it's kinda hard to learn things while there's a game on, you need practice mode! But I liked how poking seemed different and more effective, but these are early days, I am sure people will learn to live with (or it will be nerfed ) Defence seems more effective? had good connection too, but I am not sure how long that will last.

Hate, hate, hate the arcade mode, just horrible for me. Like I said elsewhere, Wressling on ice.

There were some other minor improvements/changes I cant remember now, both in presentation and game play - oh yeah, the net seems to come loose a lot?

And about the pause screen during EASHL pause, a good idea, but would it have killed you to add connection bar beside everyone's name so we'd see if there's a problem (player)?

BOSTONRANGER86D

Sgt_Kelso wrote: »

Ok, so: it's more like NHL17.01 with 3vs3 glued on top?

I am not really sure on how the DSS works, I tried covering some lanes and stuff, but it's kinda hard to learn things while there's a game on, you need practice mode! But I liked how poking seemed different and more effective, but these are early days, I am sure people will learn to live with (or it will be nerfed ) Defence seems more effective? had good connection too, but I am not sure how long that will last.

Hate, hate, hate the arcade mode, just horrible for me. Like I said elsewhere, Wressling on ice.

There were some other minor improvements/changes I cant remember now, both in presentation and game play - oh yeah, the net seems to come loose a lot?

And about the pause screen during EASHL pause, a good idea, but would it have killed you to add connection bar beside everyone's name so we'd see if there's a problem (player)?

You can't get control of the puck while using the defensive skill stick. All you can do is literally wave the stupid stick around... That's it. Nothing more. But don't worry kids can press one button and do advanced dekes with their eyes closed...

brandon_9889

Wow so incredibly disappointing... Here's what I got so far after 5 games of EASHL.

- Movement and skating is still horrible. Its sluggish and slow. Turning is such a chore and clunky as hell.
- Boardplay: AI still warps on to you. Even at speed you still get sucked to the boards.
- Seamless puck pick ups are still ****. Auto animations take over and you have no control over your skater AKA "train-tracks/warp"
- Slapshots: Missing a ton of slapshots. Even when lined up with the puck.
- EASHL feels like a copy-paste job. Same intro's, cut scenes, etc,etc.
- Same crappy drop-in style lobby's with the countdown timer...Wait 3 minutes just for everyone to back out and start the process over again.
- Penalty box: Would be nice to be able to move around freely with the right thumbstick.
- One touch passes work and don't work. Sometimes you can get a quick pass off after receiving it; Sometimes it doesn't register.
- I dont know if this is just a beta thing but why cant in EASHL 3on3 we use the small ice?
- AI is still terrible. In 3's the AI center will line up for the draw and win the faceoff to the side i'm not on. This sends the puck back off side.
- Chop passes. As strictly a Defenseman online the ability to not be able to "chop" the puck is huge.

What a absolute let down again. Will be purchasing...However off of craigslist for $20 acouple months after launch.

murderMAX10

the puck pick ups need fixing. just give us button to force the pick up or make it more consistent. 6s games played like bumber cars(worse than last year imo). do something about the these collisions.
3vs3 was actually way more fun and the game played much better. problem with 3vs3 was the penaltys. its not helping at all to get one bot as an power play player. mean it doesnt feel like your on power play. just make it 3vs2, no bots needed.

in trees it was stupid that first you choose team then you find opponent. everyone just ends up playing with allstar teams. coz you have to figure thats what the other player is picking.
trees mode not my cup of tea. feel they went bit over board with the arcade style. like the money pucks and how colorful the ice is. hard to see whats going on at times.

Nothing2Prove

FYI chop passing apparently is the game people complaining(i did too) you have to hold in the RS now for it.

brandon_9889

Nothing2Prove wrote: »

FYI chop passing apparently is the game people complaining(i did too) you have to hold in the RS now for it.

thanks for the heads up!!

matheson10

Does inviting people for arcade 3s not work? want to play a against a friend.

DontNeedTips

Servers and tps are an utter joke. I'm being serious .

Tier1SOFOperator

Still only 2 man goal celebration. Awesome.

Axel_Owretchsin

Many have gameplay complaints nailed, so I'll stick to general things.

Ditch the menu transitions guys. Like MLB. Just go for pure speed, fluidity, responsiveness. We are unable to test simming speed, but I'm assuming like everything else, it's untouched. So, look at simming speed for the September release please. Simulation single games should be instantaneous—again, like MLB—and simulating an entire season shouldn't take ~15+ minutes.

Menus, and simulation speed please. It shouldn't be a chore even before getting to play the actual core game.

Workin_OT

brandon_9889 wrote: »

Nothing2Prove wrote: »

FYI chop passing apparently is the game people complaining(i did too) you have to hold in the RS now for it.

thanks for the heads up!!

I don't think you have to hold it. Click and release then move RS works and feels better than holding.

Al_Tito13

I played a few online versus games so far and the first thing I noticed when I went to edit my lines for the first game was the lowered player ratings. It was about time! After going through almost all teams, 90's players are pretty rare and 85+ ratings are reserved only for stars players now. There are way more players in the 70's too, which is a great thing. Bigger player separation was long overdue, hope it will translate well in the game and we will be able to actually see a real difference between them in gameplay.

There are some new cutscenes and there is now a lobby before online versus games to select your team, change lines or strategies, invite friends to play with you or against you. Seems like a good addition. Only problem is that we don't seem to be able to see opponent's connection status anymore before starting the game.

As for the actual gameplay, it's a similar game to NHL 17, no doubt about it, but there are a few details that made the game play a bit differently. And for me, the details are really important, so I wasn't disappointed like some others.

First of all, I loved the new defensive skill stick. We can sweep the stick left and right, covering passing lanes or extend it while skating, it's great. With that, stick check really works, there are stick on stick collisions and the poke check is way more consistent now. If we hit the puck with our stick or our skate, it seems to come loose consistently, which is pretty important. The defensive game seems to be working well on the default online setting, so really good thing. Only hope the gameplay won't be altered too much now, after getting a few complaints that poke checking or defensive skill stick is overpowered... It's not, it's simply working well.

To me, the game feels smoother in general. Puck pickups, pass interceptions/deflections and hits also seemed a little bit different and tighter, but will have to play more to be sure. Didn't get mad about the AI so far either, so it's a good thing, positioning seems at least a bit better offensively, but it's way too early to say whether the promised improvements to AI positioning offensively and defensively are actually working or not.

As for NHL Threes, for me it's totally pointless, and I hate arcade games, so I won't even touch it.

So far, like I said, I'm having fun and I like NHL 18 for the new little details gameplay wise compared to 17, but there are not huge improvements either. The defensive skill stick is definitely the best addition for me, along with the bigger player separation in ratings.

sethamphetamines

5 minutes into my first vs game I saw that the AI is still pants-on-head stupid about positioning and line changes.

Speaking of line changes, sucks to be you if you want to change your lines in game, apparently that's just not an option at all.

Club still uses "Use Best Game Location" - aka "The absolute dumbest thing ever"

Really EA, with all the issues you guys have with connection in this game, you still don't fix this? Not even fix it (by letting us choose the server) but you can't even roll it back to what it was before where you could force it to match your club's server (even if that wasn't always accurate)? It was bad in the past, then last year they changed it to an F- "Best Location" thing, and this year they kept it. This is so disappointing and frustrating. Really, is it that hard to just say, "here, choose your server, you will only play games on this server"?

****, I just can't believe they didn't change this.

Some positives... DSS could be cool. I need to get used to it, cause right now I feel like I'm just flailing my stick around, but I'm dislodging the puck, so at least it works.

Kudos for revamping the VS front end, it was sorely needed and seems pretty nice from the little I messed with it.

p0tentZ

I wish the rinks were a little bit bigger in Threes... and I hope they have a rink with ONLY WHITE PAINT.

sethamphetamines

Just tried out 3's, and wow...

Do you want fast paced action at break neck pace? Ridiculous hitting all over the ice? Crazy goals and insane hockey play? Did you play NBA Jam and think, I wish they made a more arcade version of this? Did you find the last Fast and Furious movie too nuanced for you? Then buckle up because NHL 3's will blow your mind. It's over the top thrills while hitting you BELOW! THE! BELT!

And if you're rolling your eyes at what I just wrote, then you'll hate it as much as I did.

Steven5470

In my first "three's" game, the goal limit was 7. I scored 5 and the game ended?? Is this supposed to happen? "End of Game criteria" was "Goal Limit".