Enough is enough where can I call to complain officially?
I want my money back this game has been tuned so poorly it's not playable. It behaves like something on a primitive console. I live in Canada is there a legit number to talk to a real customer support number?
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Howdy, Stranger!
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Honestly, you'd be wasting your time. I as well as others have tried in the past to no avail. Unfortunately with software, you're more than likely stuck with it.
I've played poor games in the past this is by far the most embarrassing gameplay I've ever seen any console.
If you purchased through debit or credit, contact your bank and dispute all charges related to NHL 20. Tell them you purchased the game but it's not what you thought/they advertised. I'm not sayin it will work for sure but it's your best shot.
A refund will need to go through the retailer you purchased the game from. If you purchased directly through the Xbox or PlayStation store, please contact their respectable Support channels so they can pull up your Microsoft/PlayStation account. Although it is our product you purchased, the transaction is still processed via the payment method you have linked to your Microsoft/PlayStation account in which EA Support does not have access to making changes to.
If you purchased it from a local or online retailer, please reach out to them. EA Support can be reached via live-chat, email, and phone at Help.EA.com.
I'm sorry to hear the tuning in the game is resulting in you requesting of a refund. Whether you ultimately decide to go that route or not, what is it specifically to the tuning you want the NHL team to be of that's not meeting your expectations?
Thanks for the reply. Well the majority of all games are not tuned well.
This is how my gaming session went today:
Game one:
Opponent was able to cheat with the L2 button exploit. Very likely had L2 focused checking button held in tight with elastic bands allowing him to focus check me all game and exploit the game engine. That's number one game down playing a cheat, 20 minutes of my time. Not sure if this can be addressed but it's a common complaint on the forum and unaddressed.
Game two:
Bad lag. Ping rate around 80 with a spike or two to 150. Quite unplayable. I was up early living in the west and obviously not many people up yet online at 5 am here so I got matched to someone likely in the west 3 hrs ahead of me to make the matchup quick. Needless to say no control. Too much lag not a great connection with the host.
Game three, possibly game four
Played a team overall much less than mine. This team is skating equal to if not faster than my players thanks to a fairness adjustment. This is my largest gripe the game engine each game tries to predict what a fair compensation will be. My team is composed of players with 92-94 skate and about the same acceleration. Yes fairness in concept is nice but this was a skilled player purposely choosing a bad team because it is well known teams are fairness adjusted. Consequently this player cheated- the minute I crossed the blue line he'd trip me. Want to point out this is not accidental it's a cheat because when you head to the penalty box your players do not fatigue enuf, while the power plays two lines do. This is an exploitable offset poorly tuned. I scored 3 of 12 trips. Soak that up that's almost a third of the game struggling with this cheater. With fairness adjustments this guy just played 3 good players and the rest low silver cards. With the adjustments given he would make a weak check and my players were stunned for an abnormally long time. Meanwhile i heavy hit his players and nothing happens whatsoever. With fairness adjustments he scored 3 goals on 6 shots. This fairness is a total cheat. We are almost 3 months in if I'm matched to my division are you really thinking the tuning works if players are purposely using day one cards?
Game three possibly game four:
Not too bad a game actually went to overtime
So here is about an hour and a half of my time and I've played 3 cheaters and one fair player. This mostly boils down to bad tuning.
I can go on tho in the next six games we see all of the following:
I'm successfully getting 2 on 1 position and my opponent dive block trips me as a try to play across. No penalty. It's a trip this is mistuned and also a well timed cheat.
One game I was just approaching the blue line on a breakaway and tripped. Just a penalty not a penalty shot. Again tripping seems a strong cheat. I do understand a lot happen as honest mistakes but check the other poster identifying your tripping tuning is obscenely off. These mistuned penalties further degrade the gameplay.
Faceoffs. They do not follow the statistics of the players because of fairness offset adjustments. Not sure what the offset is to make it fair but it's off. It shouldn't even be offset adjusted
Almost every aspect of the tuning is broken though. Shot accuracy, skating, checking, goal tending position, stick checking. If you have the better team overall they are hampered and the lower overall team is boosted. One may say what's the big deal it should now be fair right? But it's not my team design is based on speed and acceleration if that's taken from me I'm not able to play my strategy. The game engine is compromising my style artificially. The only games that work are games which have little if any fairness compensation, ie team overalls which nearly match.. As soon as two different team overalls are matched up the game tries to predict offsets and applies them. This is where all the problems begin. Now none of the cards act according to their stats and all the cheating begins.
Take this example I'm an 88 overall team playing an 88 overall team against joe blow. Our teams act as they should and it's a fun game. Let's say based on this game we are even in skill and let's say the game ended 3-3. So we know based on skill and team we are evenly matched up
Now let's say I play the exact same guy but now he's playing an 81-83 team overall and I'm playing my same 88 team. The game engine thinks it's unfair so applies AI adjustments to both teams. His goes up, mine goes down......but we have already determined we are even according to the first game, so the net result of this compensation is an artificial advantage. Same players now the lower overall team will likely win this game, mostly from offset advantages. In this game my goalie will come out aggressively leaving lots of net open, my team will bobble passes, will not intercept strongly, will check lightly and get checked and injured easier. Worse positioning you name it while my opponents goalie will effectively cover his net tight, and passes are crisp great interceptions, on and on. Now just because of adjustments it's a totally different game and score and beyond frustrating knowing my team I've had for 150 games plus is not behaving accurately but adjusted for the sake of fairness. This is how online works we are not matched fairly but rather quickly...and the games all act irrationally not as per the stats and strategies.
I hope this makes sense to you but it is ruining over 90% of games just to make quicker matchups. It's a gong show.
I open the scoring with a point blast awesome. After that game opens up cuz he realizes he can't sit back like that. Great should be a fun game. Now what happens? I take a point blast again and it hits a defender and literally magnetized to his player. Out of nowhere a free unexpected break away goal. What kind of physics is that? Am I in a new dimension? This is quite common these point blasts that don't hit something and carry on but rather immediately adhere to a player. Which is funny cause players frequently can't take passes. Poor tuning where is the physics.?
Whatever one-one but still thinking this game is ok. Now he's playing turtle again. Can't dump and chase he's in deeper and when I try it's counter productive-my dman goes for line changes- even if I do retrieve the puck. Line changes take way too long can be up to 30-40 seconds in game time. That's poorly tuned. So now I'm hovering out at blue line with no play whatsoever while he lets his AI check me. It's frustrating but I work around it. I go down 3-1 thanks to this strategy working.
I hang in there wiggle it in the zone deep and again go for my dman....except it doesn't pass where I aim it instead heads to the center slot. Happened 3 times ruining my gameplay strategy. Poor tuning. Maybe one in three attempts getting it back to point. The other 2/3s time I get it back and try slappers. Twice my dman does some kind of weird toe drag as if trying to deke a player? What is that? More poor tuning I'm not doing a skill shot I'm trying to take a slap shot. Here we have about five missed plays because of terrible tuning, against a fair game this is really bad news.
Game carries on I'm adjusting better and better I guess I can't go for point shots so start going solo decking. He starts taking penalties. Scored two nice set up plays on power plays 3-3 now.
Made a mistake he comes down ice scores a breakaway goal with about 5 min left. Ok game on. Then I tie the game on a legit goalmouth scramble. Alright!! Nope goes to replay doesn't count. It was fine. But doesn't count. Nice programming drama. Lol. Nice. Rage inducing. Whatever this is the norm. Keep playing gonna get some rival points at least 420 points. Never know may get one.
Now last minute I'm attacking hard again and guess what the game gives me a free goal. I shoot at net get a rebound shoot again puck ricochets and goes near the corner of the net and get this one of my AI I'm not controlling puts it in for me! What? What is that? Sure I'm glad to get a free tie but why is the game even doing this it's an online user vs user game not a demo. I'll take it I got ripped off on one anyway. Maybe that's why it happened I get my lost goal back. Programming compensation?? Maybe, who knows. Seems like bizarre tuning here too. In offline maybe ok but not online. It's ok tho hockey gods.
About 30 seconds left he takes a penalty. Crumbling under pressure? Oh neat overtime. Go to overtime my team is slowwwwwww. What just happened? So much ice and can't move. Why?.
Get it in his zone and despite having overload power play two players fumble behind the net rather than in front. What is that? One come out one does not as I lose the puck by AI forcheck waiting for this mess to cleanup. He gets in my zone heads to corner. I'm not suckered tho. I protect net. No I don't a simple pass goes thru two players including my controlled player who should easily intercept this and head down ice on a breakaway. No it's an week backhand one timer in the net. What just happened? Oh right that magical programming where I said short handed is overpowered...short handed programmed momentum almost scripted if not.
So this was actually one of my more fun games in my last 20. It was a game I'm mostly happy playing but this is best case scenario and still riddled with so many instances where the tuning is not following user input which is quite important in a vs game, correct me if I'm wrong.
Thankfully out team overalls matched up well if they didn't it'd be a really terrible game with further exaggerations than the ones I mentioned. Sadly these are the one in six to one in 10 games that keep me hoping and interested in your software product. That said it's very deficient by today's expected standards.
I remember playing hockey on the intellivision about 30 years ago and this game reminded me of those crazy days where programming was lacking so it was simplified to a redimentary form with some randomness to keep it fun. I actually don't mind some of the randomness it's fun but I do expect my passes to go where I intend at minimum and if I shoot I expect a shot not some weird deke out of nowhere. As I said best game in 20, still problems in this one too. Not fully broken like most games but still not fully satisfying either.
Playing good defence is playing cowardly, wow!
Anyway, for the passes not going where you aim, there’s reasons why. First of all, you can deactivate the Pass Assistance in the Controller settings page. If you remove it, your passes will go exactly where you aim. It might be hard at the beginning, but it feels more right if you don’t like the pass assist function. If you still want to use Pass Assist, you need to aim where the player is going to be when he will receive the pass, not where he is. Yes, sometimes he is where he will be. If you are aiming at your defence man directly and he is moving to somewhere else, the pass will either go to the player going in the direction of where you’re aiming (being corrected if your are within the range) or just go exactly where you aimed if you’re out of range of any player. It can be hard with AI, because they don’t always do what we expect them to do.
I don't think he's saying playing good defence is cowardly. What I got out of that part is his opponent was skill zoning. I don't think it's necessarily cowardly, depends how you use it. If your opponent is LTing and playing just for cheese you kinda have to skill zone. If your opponent is playing straight up, then I would agree skill zoning is cowardly.
So if you play against somebody that play aggressively, you are obligated to play aggressively also? Why would the defensive player (not with the puck) change his strategy if it is working? If you score an easy cross one-timer or snipe one top corner because your opponent doesn’t protect it well, will you stop doing it? I don’t think so.
Yes, people cheating/glitching goals are toxic and boring to play against. Skill zoning is not a thing though. It is your job as the offensive team to make the first move. The team playing defence can stay still as much as they want. It can be boring and keep the scoring very low, but still doesn’t change that you have other options to score. You just need to adjust your style and try to make them move or use their lack of aggressiveness against them. Use them as screens, etc...
You're not obligated to do anything, we are trying to win the game after all. The point is to win or lose with a little class or sportsmanship. I don't think it's cool to select your D man and let the AI pressure the opponent. You should do that, where is the fun in letting AI do everything for you?
My experience with this game isn't very good. I've had plenty of times where my opponents get goals that there is no way I can stop them. I can be in good position but my player won't intercept a puck even of it goes right to him. Or my AI defence partner just wonder off for no reason, etc. If this kinda stuff happens to me, when I get easy goals I assume it's happening to my opponent so I would stop doin it.
I usually, let one of my AI rush the guy (they are pretty good at putting pressure on the opponent) and use the player that I control to block the other possibilities of plays. It works really well. You need to use every tool at your disposition to win.
I personally try to not do Cheese/Glitche goals and play as realistically as possible, unless my opponent wants to play dirty, then I go all-in. Sometimes, I still win by playing fairly realistically. Other times, I need to play a little dirty and glitch goals and skill zone a little. The problem then is not the game, it is the opponent that doesn’t want to play fair and just want to win no matter what. Nothing that EA can do about that. They can nerf stuffs, but they will find other bugs/glitches and exploit them. They are cheaters, they won’t change. It seems to be worst with all the youtubers/Esports competition, since money is involved. People want to be the highest rank for fame and money.
All the weird deflection and other suspicious goals or weird stuffs, happen to everybody. It is just bad luck. You made a mistake trying to do something and it didn’t work, or just didn’t think doing it. Some things could be fix be tuning the sliders or recoding, others are just bad luck and there’s nothing to do about it. Even in real life, weird stuffs happen.
Of course EA can do something about it. There are plenty of online games that deal with cheaters or exploits. I have no data to back this up, but 19 beta felt fantastic to me. Then the game released and it still felt fantastic. Then 2 weeks later it felt like 18. And LTing was out of control. Puck protection bubble was out of control. In my opinion they gave us a great hockey game, maybe even a foundation for next gen, but they took away. Why? To appeal to people who want flash over substance. They don't want hockey, they want dangle, snipe, fortnite. EA would rather make that than hockey
I'm all for weird stuff too. I like the randomness that would be present in real hockey. Maybe what we perceive as flaws is EA trying to mimic that. So I can forgive some things, if i make a mistake or there are weird bounces of the boards or players fall or something, that's absolutely fine. Having your AI defence stop backskating and towards the blue line as the opponent rushes. Obviously easy 2 on 1 goal. Pushing left on the stick to have the pass go right. Those are 2 but I'm sure there are many more things that should just not happen.
Yes, some things like the goalies being to easy to score (almost useless) is fixable easily by tweaking the sliders, but the problem then will be that some persons won’t be happy because the games won’t have enough goals. I believe that EA is modifying the game to the taste of the top streamers/players (it gives them free publicity when those people stream and they are usually followed and copied by many people —-> more money at the end) and stick where the money is. They don’t make much money from selling the game by itself, like all games most of the money come from micro transactions. Could they do a little bit better and try to please everybody, maybe a little bit more. It is really hard though, the two visions (Realistic vs Arcade-ish) are tough to combine.
Anyway, to be able to fix some of the weird AI behaviours, EA needs clear video of what and when it happens to pin point why it does that or a very clear description of how everything happens. Most of the time, it is due to some human inputs. I’ve realized that my AI would stop certain place because I did or didn’t do something. Like if you get a 2-0 or 2-1, if you go too much toward the front of the net, your AI will stop and keep his distance which prevent you from doing a one-timer. If you head more toward the circle/board (away from the middle of the ice), the AI go more for the net. Same kind of reaction happen on defensive plays if you switch too much of players or if you switch side too often. It seems like the AI needs time to readjust every time you do those things and it could give your opponent a chance if you do it at the wrong time.
Pass assist. Kudos to going hardcore and not using it however there are 225000 players on ps4 alone. The game needs to work for all these players, not for a few thousand hardcore players. In the game I outlined above my dman was waiting at the point not moving. Aiming straight down with no pressure, on my own terms. Pass did not go there multiple tries. Gave up and moved on to another strategy. Bad tuning.
Skillzoning. At first this used to really bother me but you can utilize it to your advantage too. When pressured by ai hounding that's really tough but you can pull them in deep which really frees up the offensive zone. When dmen skillzone many times they won't go for puck so it can be taken advantage of to snipe. I will say these are challenging games but they offer both sides advantages and disadvantages. This style of play I bet has created the most difficult tuning decisions.
The reason I want a refund is because so many games both teams are fairness adjusted to a painfully sickening level. The developers know exactly what I'm referring to. I'm making my stand that I m not a bot that can be used. I deserve my team to behave as per it's stats every game.