Here we go again, another year of how to make the game good again.
Since 2013 the game has lost favor, been a disaster, less fun, more frustrating.
The top 2 culprits of this are
1. TPS skating is terrible
2. Servers struggle to give good online experience
Fix these two things and the game will play incredibly fast, smooth, and fun.
I once again propose going back to the glory days of this game, 2010 thru 2012 when it had it's largest following and most loyal community.
These are good suggestions, but we can all see how TPS is tailor made for puck carriers. Without the puck, the skating engine is very poorly implemented. Since at least NHL 14, TPS just makes me believe it is intended to allow for figure skating puck hogs.
So true. In real life if the forward makes a sudden stop, the defense will do it too. In this game if the forward makes a sudden stop, you try to do the same as a defenseman and you can't stop on a dime and you go way too far and slide out of the play.
Indeed. It's what makes defense so infuriating and honestly, boring to play in the long run.
So true. In real life if the forward makes a sudden stop, the defense will do it too. In this game if the forward makes a sudden stop, you try to do the same as a defenseman and you can't stop on a dime and you go way too far and slide out of the play.
Yep. Defending in this game is a nightmare. A lot of people say they don't like online versus because you have to skillzone. But that's mainly because the skating mechanics (especially on the defensive-side) are absolutely trash this year. Clogging the slot is really the main way for good defense this year because the defenders can't keep up. If you try any other strategy, you will fail most games especially going against decent players.
Honestly I am not nearly as critical as some of this game, I enjoy it a lot... a few things I would love to see them add that would make it much more fun for me (I mostly play just franchise/BAP dont do a lot of online except just games vs friends)
1) Hire/Fire staff - I feel this is a simple idea but would be so interesting, hire a coaching staff, scouts, an assistant gm... different guys have different personalities to consider... when players retire some will become coaches/scouts you can hire (I remember Madden use to do this)
2) NTC in contracts, it be interesting to be able to offer a star player a NTC to get a cheaper salary, then have to negotiate with the player if you try to trade him later
3) Scouting - don't have to go indepth on this one, we all know scouting needs work
4) Roster share - again we all know this would be huge
5) Be able to move draft picks in the main menu roster... instead of having to wait till the next update if theres a big deal, we can just do it ourselves
Curious and strange that seldom are wishes like to see all real players with real player faces in the game ? No real authentic Hockey Fans here ?
I for one play EASHL only, so real faces are the last thing I would personally care about.
On another note, I find it curious that you say you have played and coached hockey, yet gameplay and player control seems less important to you than stats and faces....
Have you guys tried FHM (Franchise Hockey Manager)? Sounds to me as this would be right up your alley.
NHL is a 3D hockey game, with a really shallow franchise / manager mode thrown on top of it.
FHM is 75% off right now, just saying...
Curious and strange that seldom are wishes like to see all real players with real player faces in the game ? No real authentic Hockey Fans here ?
I for one play EASHL only, so real faces are the last thing I would personally care about.
On another note, I find it curious that you say you have played and coached hockey, yet gameplay and player control seems less important to you than stats and faces....
The Gameplay is good enough, the rest is not. Its only a computer game ! If I want to play Hockey, I go to ice rink and play. Comparing to this, player faces, detailed stats and graphic details are easy to implent. Look at Fifa, most players have there real faces.
If it's only a console game, why do the faces matter more than gameplay? That sort of statement doesn't make any sense, and the game play is certainly not 'good enough', not even close. If you want to see real faces, go see a real hockey game...
If it's only a console game, why do the faces matter more than gameplay? That sort of statement doesn't make any sense, and the game play is certainly not 'good enough', not even close. If you want to see real faces, go see a real hockey game...
Look at his post history. He's an offline player that probably cares more about stats and things looking pretty than having great gameplay that mimics the real thing. You see the faces so minimal that it doesn't matter. You probably see the player faces maybe a total of 1min out of the other 14mins. It's the same reason the Stanley Cup celebration doesn't really get reworked. It's a rare thing that isn't worth updating.
And anyhow, making improvements in one them shouldn't prevent them doing improvements in the other, unless the devs are really on that tight a budget? I mean, people modelling faces probably aren't coding game play, but who knows?
If it's only a console game, why do the faces matter more than gameplay? That sort of statement doesn't make any sense, and the game play is certainly not 'good enough', not even close. If you want to see real faces, go see a real hockey game...
Look at his post history. He's an offline player that probably cares more about stats and things looking pretty than having great gameplay that mimics the real thing. You see the faces so minimal that it doesn't matter. You probably see the player faces maybe
"unless the devs are really on that tight a budget?"
I've stopped believing this bogus excuse years ago. The bones of the game are 90+% copied/reused year to year, it doesn't take a huge budget to tweak 10% of the game each year, its not like they are starting all over each year.
There are two drivers of lack of effort by EA
1. Small niche game, compared to other EA titles, NHL is tiny thus not given much emphasis.
2. Once 2K sports stopped making a hockey game, EA lost all need to compete, now with a virtual monopoly they have no reason to throw a bunch of money into this game, they are in the process of shelving great ideas (ideas that are collecting dust) waiting for the day they "need to" make this game good again in order to keep the market share/compete in the future and maximizing profits/minimizing costs, its the only game in town, they plan to ride this as long as possible and only innovate enough to keep the sales figures/HUT purchases at a profit vs. cost analysis acceptable level.
Curious and strange that seldom are wishes like to see all real players with real player faces in the game ? No real authentic Hockey Fans here ?
I for one play EASHL only, so real faces are the last thing I would personally care about.
On another note, I find it curious that you say you have played and coached hockey, yet gameplay and player control seems less important to you than stats and faces....
The Gameplay is good enough, the rest is not. Its only a computer game ! If I want to play Hockey, I go to ice rink and play. Comparing to this, player faces, detailed stats and graphic details are easy to implent. Look at Fifa, most players have there real faces.
No the gameplay is not good enough. Not even Close.
If I want to see a game with all the player faces, I'll just watch an NHL game on tv. As for stats and whatnot, NHL.com and Don Cherry.
This is a game, as you say. What is the most important part of a video game? I would think control is the most important factor. Who cares if the game looks pretty when you can't control you player, or car, or whatever you wish.
Anyways, we clearly want completely different things and could argue who is right for the next 3 years. I will end this here and wish you good times with your game.
"This is a game, as you say. What is the most important part of a video game? I would think control is the most important factor. Who cares if the game looks pretty when you can't control you player, or car, or whatever you wish."
Right on!
It's all about control and responsiveness, you have these two things you have a fun competitive game. Look at NHL 09 thru 12, by far above and beyond the most fun years of this title. What was fun about these games? They were focused around control/Responsiveness (a skating engine what worked and vision control that worked). Just these two things allowed this game to play great, NHL 13 TPS was added that destroyed the skating and classic vision control was removed which limited control over your player as well.
"This is a game, as you say. What is the most important part of a video game? I would think control is the most important factor. Who cares if the game looks pretty when you can't control you player, or car, or whatever you wish."
Right on!
It's all about control and responsiveness, you have these two things you have a fun competitive game. Look at NHL 09 thru 12, by far above and beyond the most fun years of this title. What was fun about these games? They were focused around control/Responsiveness (a skating engine what worked and vision control that worked). Just these two things allowed this game to play great, NHL 13 TPS was added that destroyed the skating and classic vision control was removed which limited control over your player as well.
Never was a fan of TPS and losing the vision control to me was the biggest folly. 13 did bring some new and exciting things to the game but the frustrations behind the gameplay started festering from here. I did find NHL 15 on old gen to be one of the better games for tps but the gameplay still had a ton of frustration to it. It also doesn't help that the game started adding more features that seemingly took more and more control away from your skater, especially when you start to add east/west coast connection.
"This is a game, as you say. What is the most important part of a video game? I would think control is the most important factor. Who cares if the game looks pretty when you can't control you player, or car, or whatever you wish."
Right on!
It's all about control and responsiveness, you have these two things you have a fun competitive game. Look at NHL 09 thru 12, by far above and beyond the most fun years of this title. What was fun about these games? They were focused around control/Responsiveness (a skating engine what worked and vision control that worked). Just these two things allowed this game to play great, NHL 13 TPS was added that destroyed the skating and classic vision control was removed which limited control over your player as well.
Never was a fan of TPS and losing the vision control to me was the biggest folly. 13 did bring some new and exciting things to the game but the frustrations behind the gameplay started festering from here. I did find NHL 15 on old gen to be one of the better games for tps but the gameplay still had a ton of frustration to it. It also doesn't help that the game started adding more features that seemingly took more and more control away from your skater, especially when you start to add east/west coast connection.
I quite agree with all this, but I would add something.
Every single game I play, I can't help but shake the feeling the game is helping me at times, and hindering me at times, and alot of the time, within a single match. Sometimes it feels like the engine is trying to lightly pull my player in a direction, and this can be as far as 80+ feet from a loose puck. Or how about the engine aggressively pulls your D-man towards the faceoff circle because it anticipates you will will the faceoff?
Seriously it boils down to the game feeling intrusive instead of responsive.
Replies
for our frenchies out there; french commentaries
Indeed. It's what makes defense so infuriating and honestly, boring to play in the long run.
Yep. Defending in this game is a nightmare. A lot of people say they don't like online versus because you have to skillzone. But that's mainly because the skating mechanics (especially on the defensive-side) are absolutely trash this year. Clogging the slot is really the main way for good defense this year because the defenders can't keep up. If you try any other strategy, you will fail most games especially going against decent players.
1) Hire/Fire staff - I feel this is a simple idea but would be so interesting, hire a coaching staff, scouts, an assistant gm... different guys have different personalities to consider... when players retire some will become coaches/scouts you can hire (I remember Madden use to do this)
2) NTC in contracts, it be interesting to be able to offer a star player a NTC to get a cheaper salary, then have to negotiate with the player if you try to trade him later
3) Scouting - don't have to go indepth on this one, we all know scouting needs work
4) Roster share - again we all know this would be huge
5) Be able to move draft picks in the main menu roster... instead of having to wait till the next update if theres a big deal, we can just do it ourselves
I for one play EASHL only, so real faces are the last thing I would personally care about.
On another note, I find it curious that you say you have played and coached hockey, yet gameplay and player control seems less important to you than stats and faces....
NHL is a 3D hockey game, with a really shallow franchise / manager mode thrown on top of it.
FHM is 75% off right now, just saying...
The Gameplay is good enough, the rest is not. Its only a computer game ! If I want to play Hockey, I go to ice rink and play. Comparing to this, player faces, detailed stats and graphic details are easy to implent. Look at Fifa, most players have there real faces.
Look at his post history. He's an offline player that probably cares more about stats and things looking pretty than having great gameplay that mimics the real thing. You see the faces so minimal that it doesn't matter. You probably see the player faces maybe a total of 1min out of the other 14mins. It's the same reason the Stanley Cup celebration doesn't really get reworked. It's a rare thing that isn't worth updating.
I've stopped believing this bogus excuse years ago. The bones of the game are 90+% copied/reused year to year, it doesn't take a huge budget to tweak 10% of the game each year, its not like they are starting all over each year.
There are two drivers of lack of effort by EA
1. Small niche game, compared to other EA titles, NHL is tiny thus not given much emphasis.
2. Once 2K sports stopped making a hockey game, EA lost all need to compete, now with a virtual monopoly they have no reason to throw a bunch of money into this game, they are in the process of shelving great ideas (ideas that are collecting dust) waiting for the day they "need to" make this game good again in order to keep the market share/compete in the future and maximizing profits/minimizing costs, its the only game in town, they plan to ride this as long as possible and only innovate enough to keep the sales figures/HUT purchases at a profit vs. cost analysis acceptable level.
No the gameplay is not good enough. Not even Close.
If I want to see a game with all the player faces, I'll just watch an NHL game on tv. As for stats and whatnot, NHL.com and Don Cherry.
This is a game, as you say. What is the most important part of a video game? I would think control is the most important factor. Who cares if the game looks pretty when you can't control you player, or car, or whatever you wish.
Anyways, we clearly want completely different things and could argue who is right for the next 3 years. I will end this here and wish you good times with your game.
Right on!
It's all about control and responsiveness, you have these two things you have a fun competitive game. Look at NHL 09 thru 12, by far above and beyond the most fun years of this title. What was fun about these games? They were focused around control/Responsiveness (a skating engine what worked and vision control that worked). Just these two things allowed this game to play great, NHL 13 TPS was added that destroyed the skating and classic vision control was removed which limited control over your player as well.
Never was a fan of TPS and losing the vision control to me was the biggest folly. 13 did bring some new and exciting things to the game but the frustrations behind the gameplay started festering from here. I did find NHL 15 on old gen to be one of the better games for tps but the gameplay still had a ton of frustration to it. It also doesn't help that the game started adding more features that seemingly took more and more control away from your skater, especially when you start to add east/west coast connection.
I quite agree with all this, but I would add something.
Every single game I play, I can't help but shake the feeling the game is helping me at times, and hindering me at times, and alot of the time, within a single match. Sometimes it feels like the engine is trying to lightly pull my player in a direction, and this can be as far as 80+ feet from a loose puck. Or how about the engine aggressively pulls your D-man towards the faceoff circle because it anticipates you will will the faceoff?
Seriously it boils down to the game feeling intrusive instead of responsive.