NHL 18 will be a disaster and it's a bad thing
First of all, I would like to say that I am not a hater of EA. I bought every NHL game EA has made since the NHL '92 on Sega Genesis. I bought it on PC when there was such a thing, on the Xbox, X360 and on Xbox One. I even bought NHL 06 and NHL 15 which were to be honest a really poor effort first generation hockey game of their respective console.
I live 10 minutes away from EA Burnaby campus. I have many friends that works at EA. I could go at anytime and acquire the game at employee pricing. It was offer to me every year. I bought the copy digitally because I understood how important is was for the local economy to do so.
I knew right away something was wrong when the NHL 18 closed and open beta started. The population playing the game was at a all time low. During the close beta, at time, the population was as low as 50 players. During the open beta, it barely reached 200 players, even during primetime. The game is already dead on arrival. No one is excited about the new dekes. They were fine last year, they didn't need any revamp. What the game needed was fixing defensive play, fixing a few bug that existed since NHL 13 (loop at faceoff ) ,improved human goalie and some AI tweaks. It is all the game needed. We didn't ask for 3 vs 3 arcade and all other crap that was added. I do not understand how this could have f*ck this up so bad.
To make matter worst, Destiny 2 just got release. It will take a phenomenal game to take people away from Destiny 2. NHL 18 is not it. This game is dead on arrival. It will failed in a major fashion. It's a bad thing because, NHL has already been on the decline for the past 8 years. The glory days of console hockey are long gone. The budget they receive every year must be worst than the year before. They have less staff therefore less time to improved the game. Less gamers buy the game. It's very inevitable. NHL is dying. EA will be force eventually to just stop making an hockey game. Our favorite Canadian sports will not longer have a digital outlet to entertain us during the winter seasons.
You may think this is over dramatic but it's not. If EA cannot get someone like me, an sports fan who have bought their product since their were just a small company, they are in trouble, big time. Now I understand the HUT impulsive gambler might continue to buy the game which will probably mean that if there is an NHL 19, It will be an HUT edition F2P, P2W version only. It's the only way EA can continue to make money if the declines continue.
I live 10 minutes away from EA Burnaby campus. I have many friends that works at EA. I could go at anytime and acquire the game at employee pricing. It was offer to me every year. I bought the copy digitally because I understood how important is was for the local economy to do so.
I knew right away something was wrong when the NHL 18 closed and open beta started. The population playing the game was at a all time low. During the close beta, at time, the population was as low as 50 players. During the open beta, it barely reached 200 players, even during primetime. The game is already dead on arrival. No one is excited about the new dekes. They were fine last year, they didn't need any revamp. What the game needed was fixing defensive play, fixing a few bug that existed since NHL 13 (loop at faceoff ) ,improved human goalie and some AI tweaks. It is all the game needed. We didn't ask for 3 vs 3 arcade and all other crap that was added. I do not understand how this could have f*ck this up so bad.
To make matter worst, Destiny 2 just got release. It will take a phenomenal game to take people away from Destiny 2. NHL 18 is not it. This game is dead on arrival. It will failed in a major fashion. It's a bad thing because, NHL has already been on the decline for the past 8 years. The glory days of console hockey are long gone. The budget they receive every year must be worst than the year before. They have less staff therefore less time to improved the game. Less gamers buy the game. It's very inevitable. NHL is dying. EA will be force eventually to just stop making an hockey game. Our favorite Canadian sports will not longer have a digital outlet to entertain us during the winter seasons.
You may think this is over dramatic but it's not. If EA cannot get someone like me, an sports fan who have bought their product since their were just a small company, they are in trouble, big time. Now I understand the HUT impulsive gambler might continue to buy the game which will probably mean that if there is an NHL 19, It will be an HUT edition F2P, P2W version only. It's the only way EA can continue to make money if the declines continue.
4
Howdy, Stranger!
Replies
I love the defensive skill stick, I like failing at all the new dekes. It's been fun for me so far.
It's also a shame because almost everything listed in the OP that needs addressing has been.
Ton's of people have been complaining about dekes since we moved to the current gen and asking for a revamp.
Defensive skill stick, poke checks seem more effective and pass interceptions seem to be a little better.
Hasn't happened to me yet, have you seen it?
I can't speak for human goalies, I don't play it, but my friends that do noted some differences. They aren't sure if they are for the better yet, as they want to get used to it. This is from the Beta.
AI has improved a lot. No more pinning themselves behind their own net waiting for the other team to come steal the puck is a huge plus.
There are still plenty of things that needs fixing, (like a lot of work is needed on skating) but so far I enjoy much of NHL 18.
Good to hear.
The only thing that's fun about the NHL series is playing EASHL with your friends. I'm sure it'll be fun on NHL 18 but over time it's getting harder and harder to convince my buddies to pick up the new NHL. It's definitely a dying series (in my opinion).
I just can't justify the $79.99 to play EASHL occasionally with my friends, especially when games like destiny 2 are also out at the same time. I realize there are other game modes other than EASHL but they aren't fun. I played a ton of HUT in 17. Like 1000 games. I'd win 80% of the time. Top 500 in every comp season. It's just not fun. It's frustrating whether you win or lose. Other modes like be a pro and franchise are so stale it's brutal. GM connected was fun but apparently no one plays it so that's why EA scrapped it.
It's weird typing all of this since there was a time when NHL was literally the only game I'd buy all year. As the OP said.. If guys like him and I are feeling this way, what hope is there to draw in casual players?
Sorry this was so long. I hope those of you who do pick up NHL 18 enjoy it. I hope to check back on these forums in the future and hopefully there will be great feedback on 18 and I'll go out and buy it... Wishful thinking probably though.
After 9 hours of eashl I can say this year is a joke. If I didn't need my chel game fix like an addict I would skip this year. All the same bugs. Feels like the same game for the most part with reset sliders. Custom mascot I imagine is not what most gamers want. Threes seemed like a good idea but fragments the small community. The new dekes are fun but almost don't see anyone use them in a competitive 6s game outside of the odd breakaway.
Still bad server matching. Still fat man lag.
Again this year the game is released with god like AI, crazy poke checking from behind or spammimg and too many weak goals.
I am predicting lowest sales by quite a bit. Tons of people playing 3s at first then once the novelty wears off the online community will be the smallest ever.
I do enjoy the Ultimate Team concept, but I play Ultimate Team on Madden and FIFA, because it is just so much more in depth on those games. Im not even a soccer fan, but I've become one because of how well done FIFA UT is. I could literally go on and on and on for about ten paragraphs about all the bugs and dumb things I've seen happen in this game over the years across all modes, but it's a waste of time.
NHL has been riddled with bugs and cheesy game play for years. As a person above said, I'm actually, like pretty damn good at EA NHL, but it's just not very much fun to play at this point. It's actually kind of annoying to play. All of the players, whether 95 rated or 80 rated feel the exact same. Ill always be curious enough about the newest NHL game to at least give it a shot, so hopefully in the future they come out with something that makes me feel excited to play.
People say the same thing every year but end up buying anyways and I imagine what they make on HUT will cover more then any small reduction of sales which might not even happen.
I hope that 19 has Frostbite and completely gets an overhaul because holy crap am I tired of this rinse and repeat game every year. They're not getting any of my money this year so I hope next year is a wake up call for them.
I doubt they're embarrassed.. it seems they added quite a bit to keep the hype alive
I'm in a club of like 5 or 6 hardcore EASHL's, and we're all not playing NHL because D2 is out and phenomenal. And my FL is filled with similar stuff - of all the guys I play in NHL leagues with, about 35-50% are grinding D2 instead of playing Early Access 18. The decline of NHL year after year and the greatness of D2 are bad combo for EA. Also, BF1 just had a huge update, so people play instead too. And soon COD. Those other games ARE taking away from NHL, but only because NHL is an inferior product in comparison. And this is coming from the hardcorest NHL fan.
Totally agree with all of this. I would advise people to not even attempt to play an EASHL game in NHL 18 if it puts you on a server outside your region (and hence the online bar isn't green). The lag seems even worse than 17' in that scenario (although it may just be the same).