And just like that...the optimism faded
November 2, 2018 12:24AM
edited November 2018
The game a quick 180 from what we liked from the beta.
The speed is an example. Many people feel that speed is slower than it was the beta and launch. In my opinion, I feel like it was faster. It feels like my puck moving defensemen drags cinderblocks across the ice.
Puck pick ups are terrible now and seem to be glued to an offensive players stick (see the other different thread about this)
I just feel like any optimism about this game went down into the gutter. Just the forums or any social media about this game and see how negative it is (maybe it was before, not too sure). Any thing good EA had going for this game they seemed to throw it away for the whiners who couldn’t adapt.
The speed is an example. Many people feel that speed is slower than it was the beta and launch. In my opinion, I feel like it was faster. It feels like my puck moving defensemen drags cinderblocks across the ice.
Puck pick ups are terrible now and seem to be glued to an offensive players stick (see the other different thread about this)
I just feel like any optimism about this game went down into the gutter. Just the forums or any social media about this game and see how negative it is (maybe it was before, not too sure). Any thing good EA had going for this game they seemed to throw it away for the whiners who couldn’t adapt.
Post edited by EpiCxOwNeD on
11
Howdy, Stranger!
Replies
I've had them on such a short leash for years but the love for the game kept me there. They burned their bridge so badly with no attempt to recreate the experience in which we paid for that I'm actually motivated to not buy the game and that feels amazing.
Exactly how I feel.
Yes it was easy to bump a player off a puck in the beta. All they had to do was tone down the ridiculous reaction times for AI goalies on one-timers, slightly nerf those reach far away from yourself pass interceptions and in my opinion, there you have it. A winning recipe. It encourages puck movement and cycling. Goalies don't consistently rob great one-timer shots and the game resembles a team sport again.
Nope. Revert back to the same junk that we have to see spread over 2 generations of consoles and the game becomes a selfish game where hogging is king. Defense can again aspire to become interactive pylons.
Unreal boys. It is incredibly frustrating to be playing NHL 19.14, 19.15, 19.16, 19.17, and 19.18. I sincerely still cannot believe you guys went back to an NHL 18 game style..... New skating and hitting, for what? Wasted all those resources so RPM can imitate TPS with better agility?
Good news is I got 6 games for the price of 1? Is that the joke this year? It isn't funny...
HUMAN Defense is now limited to standing in the low slot hoping to steal a pass or block a shot or grab rebounds. It's extremely boring and predictible but the ai can still effectively use all of the tools that have been taken away. Why bother playing d?
Offense no longer rewards teamwork or creativity because it's so much more effective to rag the puck with your back to the d until you can set up one of the glitch goals. If you don't play like that then the team your facing will, and they will out score you.
For all the skaters the skating feels so incredibly sluggish now. Regardless of good positioning the pokes and sticklifts are too inconsistent in deciding what is successful vs what is a penalty.
I would have been thrilled with what we saw in the beta with goalies a bit tuned down on cross crease saves and a delay on sticklift spam. Barring a complete reversal of the post beta logic that I've seen this will be by far the nhl game I've played the least in years and I will likely skip buying it for the first time since the 90's. Even if I think next year's game seems great during beta/trial I still feel like I would be an idiot for buying until late November when I can see what the game will really be like for the year. I feel duped.
Which may not be EA, as they claim they haven't adjusted speed at all.
But it's still EA's doing because from Beta to full release, there is a much larger community playing on the servers after full release so the fast speed was on a open server and the slower speed is likely because the server is bottlenecked, high traffic, bogged down, etc.
Either way it's on EA, for slowing the game or not providing a good online experience (neglect) causing bogged down server performance for a large % of their community.
I feel duped as well. IF and I mean a very small IF I do buy this game next year, it won't be before Christmas where I will see the final tuning, and get the game at a discount.
Don't forget to get second hand as well.
If the reason the skating is slower because of the amount of people on the servers now than at the beginning of the game I can’t wait to see how slow we skate when the holidays roll around.
Seriously. I bet a turtle would outskate us.
It's only november... They will lose too much players before hyping 20 lol
Actually, every review site like IGN and Gamespot gave their game glowing reviews. EA even sent out an email recently praising how GREATLY reviewed NHL 19 was...
The negativity comes from the fanbase who are exasperated with the changes that were made. I don't think it was intentional to mess up the skating like it was after the last tuner, but it's obvious those tweaks negatively impacted the gameplay for many. Especially the competitive community. Heck, they even sabotaged their OWN Content Creators (now confusingly called "Game Changers" even though they have NO say in how the game is actually changed). People like JERZNetwork, Himoccio, Nuge who've been promoting NHL on their Twitch channel for years, they don't play the game as much (or at all). Youtubers like BaconCountry and Jonlol barely put up any NHL content anymore, unless it's to rant about how bad the game's become.
They even went as far as sabotaging the game for League gamers like LG and X1 and such, by making matchmaking with another club (among other things) a nightmare!
I don't know if EA can fix this. I don't even think it's in their budget or roadmap to even release another patch/tuner for this game. In past years 2-3 updates was the maximum they'd do.
I hate to say it. I hope I'm wrong, but this is probably the way the game will stay until next year. I don't blame the devs. I think Ben ( @NHLDev ) and his crew initially delivered us a great playing hockey game. Just some decisions from higher in the chain of command to appease the whining throngs of RB/L2 mashers sadly destroyed all of that hard work.
Wow. I agree. But you really think they won't revert it back ? I mean it's clear the key words everyone is saying around is "Get us back to beta!" lol
In my opinion, I would very much believe the devs WANT to fix things. But the ultimate decisions rest with their higher ups at EA. As consumers there's nothing much we can do except speak with our wallets. This was the first year since NHL 14 that I actually bought the game. I even pre-ordered it because of how happy I was with the BETA.
It's not gonna happen next year.
Can't wait to see if they do revert. They seem to listen... But true about higher decisions. I'll start preparing as if they won't ( no new tuner ) cause I think you may be right. Good luck to you !
But yeah... This year I held off until about a week before the game came out to pre-order it. And it was a near thing because it was a few weeks after the BETA and there were still many issues present in that BETA that were kinda holding my decision back. Still, I trusted that this time, it would be different.
And it was for a while. For a while, skill was rewarded...
Totally agree Mr Venom I also pre-order this game because how great the beta played and as you said it won't happen again
I feel bad because after playing the beta I sold my buddies on the game who didn't buy 17 or 18 after trying those editions out. TPS was gone, it felt fast, hitting was a blast. I loved it and my boys caved to my sales pitch and bought 19. Fast forward 6 weeks, post tuners, and they hate it again. I'm back to working franchise mode solo using the beta/original tuner and they're out $60 each. Bums me out.
Full game = NHL 19 LOL Edition