Look at the AI in NHL 15 (PS4/XB1)
Look at the AI in this game. Noticeably better at routine plays, as the creator states “it feels like I’m actually allowed to play my position, I don’t have to babysit the AI as much” and it’s so true.
Watch him play player-lock D and tell me that doesn’t look noticeably better than the last few games. The AI is so incredibly bad now, and this game reaffirms my belief that’s it’s gotten worse this generation.
Also, the lighting and the ice surface looks pretty sweet compared to the dull stuff we have now. Hopefully frostbite will bring the game back to the graphical heights reached 7 years ago.
Idk what’s changed since NHL 15, but there’s been a noticeable decrease in AI teammate competency and broadcast/presentation/graphics immersion.
15 was a full priced Alpha but the potential was there, kind of surprised how we got to the point 21 is at. Better skating/hitting, better features in general, more sliders, yet completely dumbed-down AI and just gameplay in general. Such a surface-level experience without much energy or passion for the real sport. Madden and FIFA are the same. Hollow, lifeless, soulless, robotic experiences.
Watch him play player-lock D and tell me that doesn’t look noticeably better than the last few games. The AI is so incredibly bad now, and this game reaffirms my belief that’s it’s gotten worse this generation.
Also, the lighting and the ice surface looks pretty sweet compared to the dull stuff we have now. Hopefully frostbite will bring the game back to the graphical heights reached 7 years ago.
Idk what’s changed since NHL 15, but there’s been a noticeable decrease in AI teammate competency and broadcast/presentation/graphics immersion.
15 was a full priced Alpha but the potential was there, kind of surprised how we got to the point 21 is at. Better skating/hitting, better features in general, more sliders, yet completely dumbed-down AI and just gameplay in general. Such a surface-level experience without much energy or passion for the real sport. Madden and FIFA are the same. Hollow, lifeless, soulless, robotic experiences.
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The AI was much slower to “cover” for teammates who weren’t actually out of position so I’d take that back in the game lol.
Would say that the game pace looks much more in control - the players, puck and your mind could actually register whats going on.
I don’t play any “modes” in these games because they’re way too limited for me, I just run a league via an excel sheet haha. I’m talking strictly gameplay here. There’s definitely things from 15 I’d like to see in 21 (puck physics, goalies getting beat by shots more realistically, and the AI positioning) but I still think 21 is a better overall on-ice product. The zero-touch dekes from 15 were insufferable and obviously RPM is a lot more enjoyable than TPS which lacked any lateral agility when skating backwards + the pivots were awful.
The puck is just so beautifully loose and unpredictable in 15. If you guys have it, you should all go play a game or two just to watch the puck. You don’t see those kinds of rolls and bounces in 21, @djneohockey was 100% right here and I didn’t realize it till I went back and tried it myself.
I actually liked the AI in 15 when I played it the other day, but the skating is just atrocious. I wish we had RPM with old-gen NHL 13-15 old gen. I remember the AI being not as noticeably frustrating in those games. The puck physics in new-gen 15 also helped the flow of games. Everything wasn’t as perfect, you could use this to your advantage and it could also burn you. That’s hockey for you, not whatever this garbage the competitive scene has produced lately.
I don’t get how the AI and puck physics can get noticeably worse in an 7 year generation. 15’s skating is so bad, the checking engine is pretty bad, the zero touch dekes are out of control, but I keep playing it almost every day after I suffer through 21 just to see the night and day difference. This game has been amazingly dumbed down for the competitive and super casual players. Goalies are more dynamic, goals in general more dynamic, AI isnt as painfully stupid/requiring constant babysitting (pretty big one here for offline players) and the puck bounces alone make the game less predictable and a lot more fun.
I’m so tired of the always flat puck and the AI being able to do 0 degree pivots at full speed like an industrial lawn mower while my players have to follow actual physics of a human skating on ice. I’m tired of 50/50 battles being 95/5 for the CPU, it’s just such a shallow game. There’s no passion for replicating real hockey going into this product imo. The puck physics, the default sliders, and the state of the AI prove it. And maybe next generation sliders will work again so I don’t have to watch goalies switch between making a lot of blocking saves in realistic scenarios to magically gloving and eating every single shot from every single scenario ever imaginable game-to-game without touching a single thing. It’s ridiculous.
Yeah that actually looks pretty good. Hmm, I dont remember me loving 15...could it be that the skating was worse but the puck physics more accurate?
But that video was impressive.
The skating is absolutely dreadful. TPS was horrid.
Yeah dosent look silky-smooth.
We never really got that 'bulls-eye' with this generation - where everything add up. Feels more like - when one thing was good, another thing was bad, and when the bad - went to be good - the earlier good went to bad.
I think I spent more time installing NHL 18 than I did playing it. By that year I was so sick of the skating I couldn't even play the game.
Yeah it’s actually hard to grasp that they let TPS last for 6 years. It literally felt like I was playing virtual rod hockey.
Except rod hockey is fun
A very important distinction.