This is the result of a years worth of work? Pathetic!
July 26, 2017 7:47AM
edited July 2017
NHL 3's Mode - They promoted this as the big new feature and ... this might possibly be the WORST mode in any sports game EVER. What a joke. It basically just kept all of the problems that were already there for Online Vs. mode but made the rink smaller and tried to make it an arcade mode (but it's only half arcadish which just makes it stupid and not fun at all). This was absolutely the biggest waste of time and resources imaginable. Unbelievable.
EASHL 3on3 - Now the EASHL 3 on 3 mode is nothing like the "NHL 3's" mode and it's not bad. It's basically the same as the EASHL we're used to but with OT rules (well, except that it's not sudden death). Having 4 fewer players on the ice (except for when there's penalties) opens things up immensely so it's more fluid, a lot less congestion, fewer puck battles and turnovers, and more than anything else you don't see all the AI problems since there's fewer potential AI players (even if people quit, there's only a possibility of 1 or 2 AI players). You still have to deal with puck hogs and trolls but what can you do?
EASHL 6on6 - The normal EASHL mode (and pretty much everything else in the beta) is basically NHL 17 with a few tweaks that make playing D even worse than it already was. Seriously, how is that possible? I'm pretty sure most people who exclusively play forward won't find much difference between 17' & 18' except that it seems that it's now even easier to maintain possession, easier to dangle, easier to score. I suppose all of that is fine, but my God, playing D is an absolute joke. The pivoting problem is even worse. There are times when I feel like I'm all over the place trying to pivot and get into position, other times it pauses for a split second and the opponent flies right by you. Poke checking and hitting seem to be about the same, but it seems even more difficult to intercept passes, so apparently you have to be even MORE conservative in 18'. Net battles are still worthless and don't even get me started on the pathetic attempt at a "defensive skill stick". What a worthless ****. feature. I suppose it looks cool at times being able to wave your stick around in whatever direction you want, but it's so ineffective that it's pointless to even try to use it. In the offensive zone, playing D feels exactly the same and 17'. As for the AI that was promised to have been improved...well, I have seen some instances where AI seems to be making better passes, leading passes, where they make surprising moves to get the puck in the attacking zone, some good one-timer passes, etc. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of unbelievably stupid things as well (like AI player goes to the boards to get a loose puck and instead of passing it they just leave it there and I seriously don't see any AI improvements on the defensive side...the AI d-man is still as stupid and unhelpful as ever). It's just extremely inconsistent.
As for the biggest problem that plagues EASHL ... lag/connection problems... obviously we'll need to see more of a sample size, but so far it seems like there's no change. In some games, the controls seem to do what you expect, while other games the controls seem to be a half second behind. I've even had a few games lose connection already, either during the game or after when it tries to connect to the EA servers to save the stats. Seriously, how it is possible that they don't even attempt to improve this problem?
The ONLY positive improvement that I see is that passing seems better.
I wonder what people think about playing Goalie in the beta. It seems that the AI goalies are worse than they were but I don't know about human goalies.
I work for a software company so I understand the complexities of producing this type of product, but seriously, I would be embarrassed if our company even released a beta version that's this bad.
EASHL 3on3 - Now the EASHL 3 on 3 mode is nothing like the "NHL 3's" mode and it's not bad. It's basically the same as the EASHL we're used to but with OT rules (well, except that it's not sudden death). Having 4 fewer players on the ice (except for when there's penalties) opens things up immensely so it's more fluid, a lot less congestion, fewer puck battles and turnovers, and more than anything else you don't see all the AI problems since there's fewer potential AI players (even if people quit, there's only a possibility of 1 or 2 AI players). You still have to deal with puck hogs and trolls but what can you do?
EASHL 6on6 - The normal EASHL mode (and pretty much everything else in the beta) is basically NHL 17 with a few tweaks that make playing D even worse than it already was. Seriously, how is that possible? I'm pretty sure most people who exclusively play forward won't find much difference between 17' & 18' except that it seems that it's now even easier to maintain possession, easier to dangle, easier to score. I suppose all of that is fine, but my God, playing D is an absolute joke. The pivoting problem is even worse. There are times when I feel like I'm all over the place trying to pivot and get into position, other times it pauses for a split second and the opponent flies right by you. Poke checking and hitting seem to be about the same, but it seems even more difficult to intercept passes, so apparently you have to be even MORE conservative in 18'. Net battles are still worthless and don't even get me started on the pathetic attempt at a "defensive skill stick". What a worthless ****. feature. I suppose it looks cool at times being able to wave your stick around in whatever direction you want, but it's so ineffective that it's pointless to even try to use it. In the offensive zone, playing D feels exactly the same and 17'. As for the AI that was promised to have been improved...well, I have seen some instances where AI seems to be making better passes, leading passes, where they make surprising moves to get the puck in the attacking zone, some good one-timer passes, etc. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of unbelievably stupid things as well (like AI player goes to the boards to get a loose puck and instead of passing it they just leave it there and I seriously don't see any AI improvements on the defensive side...the AI d-man is still as stupid and unhelpful as ever). It's just extremely inconsistent.
As for the biggest problem that plagues EASHL ... lag/connection problems... obviously we'll need to see more of a sample size, but so far it seems like there's no change. In some games, the controls seem to do what you expect, while other games the controls seem to be a half second behind. I've even had a few games lose connection already, either during the game or after when it tries to connect to the EA servers to save the stats. Seriously, how it is possible that they don't even attempt to improve this problem?
The ONLY positive improvement that I see is that passing seems better.
I wonder what people think about playing Goalie in the beta. It seems that the AI goalies are worse than they were but I don't know about human goalies.
I work for a software company so I understand the complexities of producing this type of product, but seriously, I would be embarrassed if our company even released a beta version that's this bad.
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I envision something like this being said in an EA NHL team meeting. Something like:
Team Lead: "So, we wanted to enhance offense in all modes because this is what sells (for both sports video games and watching real sports), but we also wanted to do something on the defensive end to give the impression that we are balancing it for our EASHL and BaP users."
Dev 1: "Well, last year we introduced Net Battles and even though it wasn't actually designed to be used effectively, it sometimes looked cool and it was good for promotional material."
Dev 2: "Yeah, so this year we could introduce a Defensive Skill Stick and it doesn't actually have to be effective, it will look cool when they use it and we can use it for promotional material."
Team Lead: "Is this enough? It seems that some users feel like it's tilted too far towards offense over the years."
Dev 1 & 2 together: "Well, what the h3ll else do they expect us to do, give them AK47s to use on defense?"
BTW, I do realize that those of us that like to play defense are in the minority, but I always hope that something will change to make playing D more fun. I think I just need to realize that this isn't going to happen and I need to start playing forward if I want to actually have fun playing the game.
https://youtu.be/zYWIAXgr8WE
Are you serious? There will be a 19. The game generates millions of dollars despite (what all the haters think) is the worst/laziest dev team on the planet.
You could argue that based on feedback over the course of the game's life cycle, the dev team plans and creates pre-pre-alpha builds for features they hope to implement into the next game in that time frame...until their bosses aka "the suits" force them to throw everything out the window of course.
The development cycle is actually from December to around June/July. Any other time is probably dealing with ****.
December to January is Concepts. January to February or March is Pre-Production. Then Production, and finally Post-Production. Obviously the game is done way before release date...inform yourself.
NHL 3's is complete joke, too.
And release to December is vacation and putting out patches that should've been fixed on day 1 of release? Roster updates are very, very basic lol
I think you missed his point
I know what his point was, just clearing up his misconception.
If you took your hater blinders off and weren't so mad at a video game and weren't trying to contribute to the hate on EA circle jerk you'd realize they probably expected this and is probly the reason why they just named it legacy, eh bud?
2k make it happen
Look, I really tried to give them chances to improve things.
When 15 came out as a half-arsed game I pre-ordered it still.
When the 16 Beta felt like "this is the one" I ate it all up again. That Beta was initially a solid game I thought, but as usual they killed it with tuners along the way.
When the 17 Beta came along I wasn't as sold on things, but felt the passing was a lot better so I gave that a try on release day. That game lasted a week in my possession before hitting the trading block.
Now here we are with an 18 Beta that plays/feels IDENTICAL to 17 in most things (much like the similarities between 15 and Legacy) and after five VS games (count em, 1-2-3-4-5) I have had more than my fill of the same ole-same ole that this series has become. The THREEs idea is a nice touch, but there's no sustainability in that mode right now (in my opinion.)
I honestly don't go out of my way with a chip on my shoulder against EA. I really want them to succeed at what they do, because that means more fun for us players, right. Maybe over the years they've earned that chip though......EH BUD?