Why you should lower your expectations for NHL 25
I’ve seen a lot of people saying things like “I think NHL 25 could really be a good game”. For your own sake, please lower your expectation. If you think about it, what do we even know about NHL 25? We do know we’re getting new game presentations, but only in rivalry games. Also, these presentations won’t be realistic, which is the only thing the community asks for. We do know player AI is getting an improvement. However, as seen in the gameplay deep dive, the AI players are still just skating around with no plan on the ice and it’s all just a big mess. Some people want an updated franchise mode, which actually will be coming this year, allegedly. We are less than two weeks from release day and still no news about the “new” franchise mode, which probably will just be a slight change in the menu. I don’t know what you think, but I’m pretty sure we can expect the same cutscenes in Be A Pro. For how long have they used these cutscenes? 5 years in a row maybe? These are just some of the reasons why you should lower your expectations on NHL 25. Myself, I won’t be buying the game. If we all don’t buy it, EA will get the wake-up call necessary to develop a game that is actually ok to play.
Franchise questions
What additional access will we have to edit our franchise experience in NHL 25? Really hoping for the ability to edit strategies, player positions and players attributes in general. Bought every version since 2001 and want full control back. The other EA titles do it? Why not NHL?
HELP
hey I need help, I pre ordered nhl 25 deluxe on the 11th, last night they attempted to take out the money (I have enough) and right now it says payment failed and then I try it again and it says problem on our part try again later. Does any one know what to do? When I go on my xbox I can click on the game and it says You own this game come back later for when it releases or smth like that
So when are we getting any trailers?
The hype and information available for NHL 25 is the worst I've seen in 5 years. No beta and no trailers except for 1. What we have been shown in these trailers is terrible, especially regarding the new graphics 'overhaul'. In the small clip they showed of the new players they couldn't even showcase it correctly, stamkos didn't even have half his visor rendered in! ( I'll attach a Screenshot) I don't even know why this is a marketing point anyway, the game is played at a overhead angle and we can't even see the players face. If presentation is going to be a big seeling point (for the 3rd time in 5 years mind you) you may as well show us something. EA_Aljo told us we were getting a trailer but it looks like we're just getting a blog. 1 period of gameplay that's it. That's all I want to see. So far we are paying 70 dollars for a scoreboard and some new animations which could be an update by the way. This is genuinely a slap in the face to the NHL community from a billion dollar company. For the love of God please wait till this on sale for 20 bucks during the holiday. This is not a 70 dollar game.
Some "good" X-Factors do literally nothing. (Proof)
Ankle Breaker and Puck On a String animation comparisons. Linked above is a quick short I made comparing two animations that you would expect to work with the respective abilities, based on the ability descriptions. A loose puck deke with and without Ankle Breaker, and a Toe Drag with and without Puck on a String. For the comparisons, both builds have 90 deking, the clip on the top screen has no deking Superstar or Zone abilities, and the bottom screen has the Zone ability. I then overlay them as best as I could to show that the animations start and stop at the same time. This isn't the only test I've done, it's just the only easy to consume comparison I've created, but I went through and counted frames for multiple different animations with multiple different deking attribute breakpoints and it was consistent that the only thing that seemed to affect animation speeds was the deking attribute itself, and not the X-Factors. With Puck on a String I tested just simply moving the puck from backhand to forehand, same frame values regardless of X-Factors. My assumption for a while now about Ankle Breaker is that if it does have an affect, it only has an affect on CPU Players, but I'm not really sure how to test that. If that is the case, it being included in World of Chel is pointless for like 99% of scenarios. As for Puck on a String, I have no idea if this does anything online or offline, in both the online Free Skate and the offline Team Practice I saw zero difference in deking speeds with or without the abilities, this seems like it's probably a bug. One more thing I noticed about another ability some people think is really good, Shutdown, is that it doesn't seem to behave how you'd expect based on the World of Chel Description. The World of Chel Description says it helps in 1-on-1 situations. However, if you go into the Create-a-Player it says it helps defend rush chances. I tested in Free Skate and in the Pro Am (I haven't tested this in actual online games yet), but it seems how it works is that Shutdown will pretty much always activate if the puck is NOT in your Defensive Zone. Once the puck is carried into your Defensive Zone, it will continue to activate for a few seconds, regardless of how many players are near you or in your own zone, but after that few seconds pass, it doesn't seem to activate again until the puck is cleared. This leads me to think it was designed with the Create-a-player description in mind, to defend rush chances. If that's the case, a simple update of the description in World of Chel would at least fix any confusion. Anyway, hope this helps shed some light on some things that I think might be bugs that could have gone under the radar and can lead to some tweaks and confirmation that abilities are at least helping in some way/doing something akin to what their description says.
Any chance of the decade long EASHL goal total bug being fixed this year?
I'm cautiously more optimistic for this year than I have been in a while so I'm hoping this would be a great time to fix the goal total glitch that's been in EASHL/Club play for what seems like forever. Whenever you score, both the X-factor bug that comes up ALWAYS says 1st goal of the season and this the score bug says S. Player (1) even if its the 512th goal of the season. I know the team boards that drop down for milestones/passing others is accurate but it would be nice if the other totals don't always show it being the 1st of the year.
Player Age Adjustments and Season Start Dates
I was speaking with Vasy, who creates amazing rosters that are shared in the NHL games. We agreed on 2 things that would greatly improve offline experiences. One is being able to edit a players age, so that after the draft we can place drafted players onto their proper teams, instead of getting the notification that the player is "too young to move". The second thing would be to be able to select a start date for your season. This would mean that if you are on NHL 25 and the draft has occurred you could select to start your season in 2026, or a date during that pre-season. Which in theory, should adjust the player ages to their proper age, allowing you to move them onto their proper teams. Both of these would help with the offline player accuracy and experience overall. On the player movement note it would be good to have the age limit restrictions on movement between teams removed. Its my game that I purchased, if I want to move a young player to a different team in offline mode, why should I not be able to? I realize that the chances that they have listened to these requests from previous years is pretty slim. I also realize that we likely won't hear about this until we start playing on Sept 27, however passing along this feedback would be greatly appreciated EA_Aljo Thanks
Hope to see a new format of friendlist (video idea)
i did a post in the old version of this forum for this topic. i very hope to see custosmizations in the friend list. i did a video from my PS4 to what i would like to see. a kind of idea that you could get inspiration from. because im starting to have a lot of friends in it, And i would like to differentiate them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFeRc_R-Ykw