EA NHL 19 is garbage.
September 24, 2018 4:55AM
edited September 2018
I've been playing the EA NHL series for 10 years. For the last 5 years, I've logged on every night and have played drop in with a friend I met playing NHL 11. I get very excited every year when the newest NHL is released. This year was it for me.
I was so excited, finally a game that fixes the NHL 18 EASHL bugs and makes a game that I won't be able to quit playing. I bought the game and text my friend to get online and play some drop in's. Here's the play by play:
If any other companies read these forums, now would be a great time for someone to come in and start a hockey series to steal the market.
TL;DR - Bought game looking for NHL 18 w/ bug fixes and was very displeased with the loot box, hockey bag, HUT pack, money grabbing greediness of EA. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I was so excited, finally a game that fixes the NHL 18 EASHL bugs and makes a game that I won't be able to quit playing. I bought the game and text my friend to get online and play some drop in's. Here's the play by play:
- Long Wait time (AGAIN): You should probably rename this game EA SPORTS Dressing room. It's a brand new game and we had to wait 10 minutes to get into a 3's drop in game. This sucks when we normally only play 1 hour per night. The best is when we drop into a game with no one on the other team?? What the heck is that all about? You spent all your time programming ways to con people into buying HUT cards but couldn't figure out how to queue people from the dressing rooms.
- Environment: I almost had to change my pants. We dropped in to an outside rink in some remote mountainous area. The team we were playing against was away and were wearing white overcoats with dark pants. No problem, because I always put on team icons. WRONG! The game is bugged. The team we're playing has the same color icons as my team. I can't tell my center from their center (both red), or my LD from their LD (both light blue). I play this game because I love NHL. Now I'm forced to play on some random pond against Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss. Why can't I just be my penguins?
- Announcer: This game is so half-**** slapped together. The cut scenes still show "NBC" and the replays are the same ones that have been around for many years, but NO ANNOUNCER!? I love the announcer, and making fun when he announces plays that didn't even happen. The game is QUIET.. so QUIET that it's boring.
- Crowd - One of the great things about scoring goals is seeing the crowd react and hold up their signs.. I guess that's going to be an NHL 20 feature. I'm guessing it's Ramjagsing who's going to get credit for "adding a crowd" next year... he's doing a great job.. keep it up buddy.
- Poke Check - I love that the poke check causes everyone on the ice to fall over. I think you even get a tripping penalty for pressing poke check near a ref.
- Balance - I always choose a grinder. I loved the fact I could edit his height/weight. I noticed the team we were playing against were small grinders and I couldn't' wait. My guy gets the puck near the boards.. and the danglers (without any distance between us) can knock me off the puck.. HUH? Maybe it was an imperfection on the pond ice... oh wait.. this must be a feature that worked in NHL 18 that they'll fix again in NHL 20.
- Glitch Shot: Already!! This is great, to score every time on a shootout goal, it's very realistic!! All you have to do is skate fast, hold the puck between your legs behind you, and snipe top shelf. It works every time, and it's just like skaters wearing supreme brand sweatpants have been doing for years in pond hockey across the world. I do have to say this isn't as bad as the toe drag curve shot glitch, but it's definitely up there. Great job!!!
- Loot Box Candy Crush: After the game I got a noticed that I won some hockey bags. I'm thinking GREAT! maybe I unlocked the NHL 18 drop in mode that let me play as the penguins for 1 hour a night... but nope! EA SPORTS has turned this sports game into a loot box. Now I can get rare hockey masks and Hugo Boss underwear to wear while playing hockey on a pond, with no crowd, and no announcer, in the mountains of Afghanistan. I only have to wait one more year for NHL 20 to release crowds and announcers, for the measly cost of $60 and winning a rare loot bag ($5 each).
- Maybe 6's is better?: We said.. wait maybe this is just a 3's bug. We waited 15 minutes again to drop into a 6's game. As soon as the game started, the other team wanted a fight so I obliged. As soon as the fight began, I heard some weird alien sounds and the game screen blinked a few times and went black. Ahhh, this is the EA that I know. After 10+ years, I turned the game off and won't be back until I can re-buy a game with the features from NHL 18.
If any other companies read these forums, now would be a great time for someone to come in and start a hockey series to steal the market.
TL;DR - Bought game looking for NHL 18 w/ bug fixes and was very displeased with the loot box, hockey bag, HUT pack, money grabbing greediness of EA. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
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And he's not completely wrong either.
You would think clubs would be easier to match and find games but it isn't, it takes just as long to find a club game, especially finding exact numbers, and no one wants to play vs a team with more comps than humans because this year gives an even higher advantage to computers with less humans where I think it should be opposite and the AI should be dumbed down. You should have an advantage over AI if you have more humans, but instead we are left with AI that make tape to tape passes, beat you in foot races even when you have the jump on them, are able to strip you of the puck very easily and they just make smarter plays than the previous years.
Again im not complaining so much about the difficulty because we learned to battle the AI's but we still avoid teams with more ai then human all the time, which makes match making take even longer.
So, it's ok for you to think the game is trash, but it isn't ok for anyone to say the like it?
It's fine to say you like it. I even enjoy it at times. However, there's a difference between that and then repeatedly telling people the only issue with the game is matchmaking. And doing it in such a way that the matchmaking is somehow just a small, trivial issue while everything else is perfect.
Agreed. It's a fun game, but too many lingering issues from previous versions bring the overall satisfaction level down a notch. Hopefully, with the way it's progressing, we'll eventually see much, much needed change in philosophy from EA.
Right now this game is still more like Outrun in the Arcade than Forza or Project Cars type simulation. It's suited for short bouts of mindless fun. But if you try to take it seriously and play it for long runs, the cracks in the seams start to show up.
Well, I wouldn't say everything else is perfect, but come on. Game play is the best it's been in probably over 6 years. They have added tons of customization vs any other release.
Sure, MM is a disaster, that is a given, but the rest is pretty good for a new year with a new engine. Better than 15 was anyways. And I'm totally fine with poke checking in case that is what you're getting at. Once people realize defense is about containment before just stealing the puck for constant breakaways, the better off they will be.
What a shame they don't actually tell us anything regarding the biggest complaint on here and Reddit.
NHL 19 has a new engine?? Did I miss something? Or are you just talking about the new skating mechanics? I like to grade things as a whole and OPs post basically looks at the larger picture than the one or two things that people are so proud about. For the most part, it's basically a $30 carbon copy sold for $70+.