For Those Passionate NHL Gamers
Hello. I'm Earl Vegas. Long time reader first time poster.
I have been playing EA hockey since the first edition. (Yes, that means I'm in my 30s -- early 30s I'll have you know) I have, like many of you, watched it grow over the years. And regardless of our differences it's the passion for hockey and the NHL video game series that unites us on reddit and these EA forums. Is it perfect? No. I don't know anything in life that is.
I have my gripes too, especially with the online play, that said, isn't it amazing that we can even play others around the world at our favourite game? I remember when NHL '95 was released and we could finally make trades. The game has come a long way since then. Now some of you make be young enough that you don't recall a time when online play was only a dream or early in the series when players had zero control over line changes, line-ups, rules (there were no sliders to adjust the flow of the game) etc. I remember well. And so, despite the flaws we experience each year or continue to experience year after year, this game has progressed beyond even my wishlists as a child and later as a teen and young man. Now that I'm all growds up (Swingers reference anybody?) and have a busy life and career I still find time to hit the digital ice and allow myself to simply enjoy the game for what it is. A brief trip into a world I would have loved to have the skill set for in real life. Yes, I played hockey growing up but my ceiling was **** hockey. I'd love to play in the NHL and I'd love to play hockey for a living. It wasn't in the cards. But I have the EA NHL series and that's just fine by me.
As much as online play can be fun I still enjoy the Franchise mode, which has improved and will continue to do so. Will it ever make everyone happy? Nope. But it's pretty solid. I think we live in a world of instant gratification and we have to remember the simple pleasures. Hell, a saucer pass? Was years before I could saucer a puck in this series growing up. Contract negotiations, fairly accurate rink replications, and Ray Ferraro, damn. No, I'm not easy to please I'm just pleased we even have what we have. Yes, I see and experience that faults and glitches we have all come to know too well but I factor that in during my gameplay and don't allow it to ruin my fun.
As it relates to online play -- well, it can be frustrating at times. But what I find more frustrating than any glitch or flaw is actually my opponents. When you get a good clean hard fought battle, win or lose, those are great experiences but often, lately anyway, I have matched up with absolute goofs who instead of playing the game of hockey will play for the W at any cost (I want to win too but ridiculous gamesmanship that requires one to play like a class A jerk to win a game of video game hockey isn't fun, is it?. Scoring one goal only to stick handle around their zone begging me to chase or any number of unsportsmanlike gameplay that sucks the fun out of the game. (You all know what I'm talking about. Too many examples to list)
And because of that behavior by some in the community I'm driven back to Franchise mode when I want to relax and actually enjoy a reasonably accurate simulation. And of course the AI is insane on Superstar without adjusting some sliders but the fact I can customize my experience and still keep in competitive is a feature I appreciate.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy a good online battle when it's up against another strong player that plays the game clean, even if they watch goal replays (I don't take issue with this, it also give me an opportunity to relax my hands and hit a bong and think about strategy so as not to allow the same play to burn me again)
Often people only hear about the bad, no matter what industry, and I think sometimes we need to discuss the good. And frankly, my opinion of course, NHL 17 brings plenty of value for the price point. $79.99 or $69.99 or whatever it cost at launch is great value for the amount of time we all sink into it. Think about the cost of going to the movies (don't hit me with the cheap night response, haha, because you can wait and buy the game used too) but where I live it's close to 12-14$ plus whatever concessions you purchase and for one person you can easily spend 30$ on a two hour entertainment experience. One could potentially spend 90$ going to the movies three times in one year that amounts to 6 hours of entertainment. I'm sure most of you put more than that in on the NHL series each month. Again, just my take on it.
This post was brought to you by my bong hit, apologies for the verbose perspective but I wanted to share.
No doubt I will post a gripe edition in the near future but until then I'm going to try my luck at another online vs match up. Thank you to all in the community, I enjoy reading your thoughts, and experiences and even your vitriolic rants and rebuttals to one another. Be classy, even when you chirp. And please, share what you love or enjoy about the series too.
Your friend,
Earl Vegas (look me up: EarlVegas -- let's get out there for a friendly, I'm pretty good)
I have been playing EA hockey since the first edition. (Yes, that means I'm in my 30s -- early 30s I'll have you know) I have, like many of you, watched it grow over the years. And regardless of our differences it's the passion for hockey and the NHL video game series that unites us on reddit and these EA forums. Is it perfect? No. I don't know anything in life that is.
I have my gripes too, especially with the online play, that said, isn't it amazing that we can even play others around the world at our favourite game? I remember when NHL '95 was released and we could finally make trades. The game has come a long way since then. Now some of you make be young enough that you don't recall a time when online play was only a dream or early in the series when players had zero control over line changes, line-ups, rules (there were no sliders to adjust the flow of the game) etc. I remember well. And so, despite the flaws we experience each year or continue to experience year after year, this game has progressed beyond even my wishlists as a child and later as a teen and young man. Now that I'm all growds up (Swingers reference anybody?) and have a busy life and career I still find time to hit the digital ice and allow myself to simply enjoy the game for what it is. A brief trip into a world I would have loved to have the skill set for in real life. Yes, I played hockey growing up but my ceiling was **** hockey. I'd love to play in the NHL and I'd love to play hockey for a living. It wasn't in the cards. But I have the EA NHL series and that's just fine by me.
As much as online play can be fun I still enjoy the Franchise mode, which has improved and will continue to do so. Will it ever make everyone happy? Nope. But it's pretty solid. I think we live in a world of instant gratification and we have to remember the simple pleasures. Hell, a saucer pass? Was years before I could saucer a puck in this series growing up. Contract negotiations, fairly accurate rink replications, and Ray Ferraro, damn. No, I'm not easy to please I'm just pleased we even have what we have. Yes, I see and experience that faults and glitches we have all come to know too well but I factor that in during my gameplay and don't allow it to ruin my fun.
As it relates to online play -- well, it can be frustrating at times. But what I find more frustrating than any glitch or flaw is actually my opponents. When you get a good clean hard fought battle, win or lose, those are great experiences but often, lately anyway, I have matched up with absolute goofs who instead of playing the game of hockey will play for the W at any cost (I want to win too but ridiculous gamesmanship that requires one to play like a class A jerk to win a game of video game hockey isn't fun, is it?. Scoring one goal only to stick handle around their zone begging me to chase or any number of unsportsmanlike gameplay that sucks the fun out of the game. (You all know what I'm talking about. Too many examples to list)
And because of that behavior by some in the community I'm driven back to Franchise mode when I want to relax and actually enjoy a reasonably accurate simulation. And of course the AI is insane on Superstar without adjusting some sliders but the fact I can customize my experience and still keep in competitive is a feature I appreciate.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy a good online battle when it's up against another strong player that plays the game clean, even if they watch goal replays (I don't take issue with this, it also give me an opportunity to relax my hands and hit a bong and think about strategy so as not to allow the same play to burn me again)
Often people only hear about the bad, no matter what industry, and I think sometimes we need to discuss the good. And frankly, my opinion of course, NHL 17 brings plenty of value for the price point. $79.99 or $69.99 or whatever it cost at launch is great value for the amount of time we all sink into it. Think about the cost of going to the movies (don't hit me with the cheap night response, haha, because you can wait and buy the game used too) but where I live it's close to 12-14$ plus whatever concessions you purchase and for one person you can easily spend 30$ on a two hour entertainment experience. One could potentially spend 90$ going to the movies three times in one year that amounts to 6 hours of entertainment. I'm sure most of you put more than that in on the NHL series each month. Again, just my take on it.
This post was brought to you by my bong hit, apologies for the verbose perspective but I wanted to share.
No doubt I will post a gripe edition in the near future but until then I'm going to try my luck at another online vs match up. Thank you to all in the community, I enjoy reading your thoughts, and experiences and even your vitriolic rants and rebuttals to one another. Be classy, even when you chirp. And please, share what you love or enjoy about the series too.
Your friend,
Earl Vegas (look me up: EarlVegas -- let's get out there for a friendly, I'm pretty good)
0
Howdy, Stranger!
Replies
I think what irritates most of the ranters is the fact that this game has so much potential but never quite reaches it. The most frustrating thing is that it seems its always 1 step forward and two or three steps backwards in the series. It's doesn't get better and better each year. Most of the complaints are for problems that didn't exist in the previous generation.
But I guess you have the best attitude about it and if you point out all the negative and get mad then your defeating the whole purpose of playing a video game to escape life for a while.
There are, and have been, too many issues since the next-gen releases that plague this game and make it much less enjoyable than years prior.
Agree with all of this. I originally bought the game on release day for the PS4 like I always do, and I'll say that it lasted in my home for about 2 or 3 weeks before I had enough of the bv115h!t and I had to trade it in to save my sanity. I was also part of EA Access on a free month trial and used up my 10 hours on the game before it officially released for the Xbox One. The 10 hours then wasn't enough to figure out what kind of game it was.
So I run into a copy for the Xbox One for 20 bucks from a local thrift store and decide what the he!!, I'll give it another try since they have patched/tuned the game since release day. It's also worth 25 for trade-in so I'd be gaining a few bucks if I didn't like it. Well, after ONLY a few days with this game it is going in for trade tomorrow.
In all honesty, I have played a bunch of good games against some good players over the last few days, but there are still way too many W-T-F issues that make this game about as fun as oral surgery. There is still too much of that "ice tilt" feeling way too often.
I remember having games where all progress would stop because of glitches and you had no choice but to start fresh, and even some games that bricked and we're completely unplayable.
That's not the case anymore, but unfortunately developers have gotten firmer release dates and at times, all too comfortable releasing games with large issues that require months of work before the first update is released.
EA has run into this 3 consecutive years in a row with the NHL series. NHL15 was a massive failure with sneaky marketing, NHL16 had the massive EASHL connection issues and NHL17 was much imrpvoed, but the inability to stick lift for over a month on a core function of gameplay was just horrific. Is this the developers fault? No, it's all likely corporates fault.
Look at COD for example. Infinite Warfare has been out for several months and just last week the leader boards were finally patched into the game. A huge franchise with a ridiculous budget, massive profits, one of the few world wide games across all gaming platforms couldn't even get their leader boards out in time for release, or even shortly after release. It won't be another 8 months before the next release and the world slowly moves on from IW.
The overhaul to HuT has turned me off that mode completely. The broken trades/signings/drafting/fighting in franchise turned me off of that mode. The complete ineptness to do anything with your player outside of playing a game in BoP turned me off of that mode. So all I have left, really, is EASHL which is my favorite mode to play. As fun as it is at times, it's nothing like it was before. Completely stale with no real replay value unless you find goal cele's and mullets something to strive for..
IMO...
EASHL needs to be "career based" again.
Ditch the OTP mode with the 6 v 6 (with actual teams) for lobbies and the preset builds we have now for the LG'ers and what not. Perfect fit for them.
Done and Done.
Yup. +1 and four cookies for you
Bold Part, YEPPERS! I complain because not only do they not recognize (or choose to ignore it) this type of stuff as they build the game and test it but some of the SAME bugs / glitches / etc have been in the game for the last 3,4,5 years now (no end in sight either)
Like I said in another thread. I hadn't touched NHL since Thanksgiving Weekend (real life happened) Played 2 games the other day (new patch, etc). NOTHING significant changed...NOTHING! The Puck protect bubble is still there to use and abuse, Ragging the puck is still there to be used and abused, Solid objects are still allowed to pass through other solid objects, Player switching still sucks, I was skating FORWARD with the puck IN FRONT OF ME (Kessel) but yet my opponent (Klefbom) was still able to poke check me from BEHIND and take possession of the puck in one big swoop
I wouldn't mind them bringing back player progression if it was accompanied by an aging system, as well as regression for selfish play and disconnections.
Feel the same way actually.
Every single mode has serious issues.
Game freezes, bugs, locks up or simply dashboards itself very often.
Most additions to the game actually break it. EASHL customization is a great example.
Alot of times EASHL games won't even start. Bugged before the puck even drops.
This has been an issue since NHL13. Played a guy in GMC. He was the Preds and I was the Islanders. I dumped the puck puck in, opponent chose to take control of his goalie and he got stuck behind the net. It's comical to think these same game flaws/glitches/etc carry over year after year with NO end in sight