NHL 15: Early Impressions from 360/PS3 Version

Feature Article

Submitted on: 09/06/2014 by Jayson Young

On the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, NHL 15 is essentially NHL 14 with three new announcers plus some tweaks to the puck physics and player collisions.

All of NHL 14's modes and features have returned, except for the EA Sports Arena, where gamers could wager real money in head-to-head online matches.

If you've played the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One demo of NHL 15, you'll immediately miss that version's significantly upgraded skating and stick-handling mechanics, as neither aspect has been improved on the Xbox 360. You'll also notice that NBC Sports' theme music and presentation overlays are oddly absent from the Xbox 360 version, despite the fact that NBC's announcers do replace Gary Thorne and Bill Clement.

After playing several hundred games of NHL 14, only three gameplay differences stand out so far in NHL 15:

1) The puck no longer bounces like a basketball whenever it's dumped into the corner. In all situations, the puck tends to behave more believably.

2) Player collisions are slightly more realistic, though they still look silly at times.

3) Goaltender interference penalties are called more accurately.

Other than that, you could easily turn off the announcers, and convince spectators that you were playing NHL 14.

Be-A-GM/Season Mode

In the one season that I simulated, the only difference I saw from NHL 14 is that the GM menus now appear inside a generic smartphone instead of on a branded BlackBerry. As usual, the CPU teams will make many dumb decisions. In year one, I saw Nashville waive its first line center, Mike Fisher, and waive one of its top prospects, Calle Järnkrok. One CPU owner offered me two third-round draft picks for 35-year-old grinder, Chris Neil. Another CPU team sent me a pair of third-round picks for Chris Phillips, a 36-year-old defenseman.

The AI is even more inept on the ice, as they still display zero defensive aggressiveness, have no clue how to break through the neutral zone, and possess no ability to hold onto the puck or create legitimate scoring chances. They'll still score once or twice a game, but only because your own AI goalie is guaranteed to do something dumb eventually, and let in a laugher of a goal that would make even Marc-André Fleury blush. The slow data processing and frequent pop-up notifications while simulating through a season make it tough to get through 1 year, let alone the full 25.

Be A Pro/Live The Life

I could not find many changes here, either. You still start out playing the Memorial Cup to improve your draft stock, then it's off to the preseason, where you will either make your NHL club's roster, or get sent down to their minor league affiliate. The same female player models from last year's game are selectable, but the new announcing team still uses male pronouns to describe female skaters.

EA Sports Hockey League

You can no longer wear the jersey number 0. Aside from that, I noticed nothing different in the one drop-in game I played.

GM Connected

I did not spot any new options or features in the test league that I created. The loading times between each menu and during every schedule advance remain frustratingly long. It's no wonder that such a small percentage of EA's NHL users play this mode, since full 82-game seasons continue to be the only choice.

NHL Moments Live

Placeholder graphics for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 NHL seasons are shown, but the only challenge currently available for download is the second overtime session of the clinching Stanley Cup Final game between the Kings and Rangers.

Winter Classic

There are no new Winter Classic venues, just the same 2011 (Heinz Field) and 2012 (Citizens Bank Park) stadiums. You can still use any team that you want in these outdoor events. But if you stick with the default matchups, Mike Emrick's new introductions for these two games are fantastic.

Ultimate Team

This mode is not playable during the Season Ticket period. We will have impressions of Ultimate Team when the retail version of NHL 15 releases on Tuesday.

Overall First Impression

After a full day of playing, I can find no compelling reason to spend full price on the Xbox 360 version of NHL 15. NHL 14's online servers probably won't be discontinued any time soon, considering that NHL 12 remains fully functional. Xbox 360 hockey fans should keep playing their old copies of NHL 14, or buy it used for $15 to $20 if they don't own it already. It will take a bit more time to fully discern what NHL 15's value is, but the value proposition in rushing out and getting NHL 15 isn't the highest from our first impressions of the title.

Look for our full review of NHL 15 on the PS3/Xbox 360 soon!

NHL 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 61 Yundtder @ 09/10/14 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyoung


	The CPU's defensive pressure feels the same. The CPU's offense seems to dump the puck in a lot more this year, but they tend to dump it at bad times when no one is rushing in to retrieve, so it's made the CPU offense even less effective than it used to be.

Agreed, they are still easy, but with some slider adjustments, its not too bad, doesnt feel like a NHL vs Pond Hockey game.

# 62 jromano99 @ 09/11/14 10:47 PM

I�ve been a fan of the series since NHL11.I believe this is the best (primarily as a result of all the �tweets� from editions up until now)The current �tweets� have just added to the game.1) The new commenter�s, Doc and Eddie, provide a fresh sound to the game.I�ve been playing with the commenter�s turned off for the past two editions.They even add some history to the game, i.e. �Duncan Keith and Ryan Miller played together in college.2) The crazy puck bouncing is gone, adding more realism to the game play.3) The slot area is more accessible passing.4) Running into the goalie now causes a penalty and at time may result in a roughing penalty against each team. Penalties now seem more frequent. 5) Board play seems more involved and detailed.6) Goalies have new animations and the pads have been upgraded (at least to last year�s) 7) you can now collide with a player on your own team.While the layout and menu are still the same as last year the over all game has a much better feel to it.Worth the purchase !!!

# 63 TheOmega @ 09/12/14 09:41 PM

I didn't see a bug/glitch thread for this game yet, so I figured I'd bring it up here. Other than the game automatically defaulting my period length to 5 minutes, no matter how many times I set it and save it to 10 (this was apparently a glitch in last year's game too), I apparently don't have goal horns in the 360 version. I have the horns set on max volume. At first I tried two games with the Islanders, but I never noticed the goal horn going off, only the end of game siren. Next I tried with the Lightning, who have a very loud horn, and once again goals only result in some fan cheering, no horn at all.

I haven't seen this problem mentioned anywhere else, so what do you have your volume settings on? Do you lower your crowd noise? All of my settings are on max, accept for menu music volume.

# 64 voodoo_magic @ 09/13/14 05:48 AM

I like that the computer doesn't pass it back and forth for 30 seconds at the redline before deciding to attack, flow is much better.

Puck physics and tipped passes etc is good, looser game.
In the few games I've played hardly any short side snipes, nothing like last year for sure.

Goalies movement is much better, more push side to side and steering shots to corner.

Have only had a few weird goals, I'd say about 1/4 of what I would have had last year in the same amount of games.

Like everyone else extremely disappointed in EA's pathetic effort on the next gen but I'm going to give them credit for some nice tweaks on the ps3 version.

# 65 CanuckJ @ 09/14/14 01:49 PM

I like NHL 15, I'm really disapointed they have coins instead of pucks now in HUT, pucks made perfect sense in a hockey game as a currency and turning it to coins is just stupid. Also their is no point in collecting a full team anymore and you only get stupid reward packs instead of pucks like last year and in my experience the packs rarely contain something worthwhile.

I'm only playing play now for the time being and I'm 1 - 3 with the canucks, but they have been good games really back and forth and love the fact the stupid dump in physics are gone.

overall I like it but since its still just a copy paste job I'm really glad I paid less for it

# 66 kornsined @ 09/14/14 02:22 PM

I wish the game was half price. The minor tweaks would make it more enjoyable then NHL 14 but not for $70. I really wish next gen had season mode. That's all I ever play.

# 67 DJ @ 09/15/14 05:30 PM

Thanks to moving across town a couple of weeks ago, I took a handful of games I no longer play into GameStop (along with a giftcard) and wound up walking out of the store with NHL 15 for the 360.

There's a lot of nice tweaks/improvements to this game from NHL 14, most notably the bouncy-ball effect on dump-ins has thankfully been removed. The skaters move a little slower than before to give them a semblance of having more weight to them. The new commentary team, while not the greatest (Doc just isn't as animated as he is in real life) is a nice breath of fresh air after hearing Thorne and Clement for nearly a decade.

My first game (All-Star, Hardcore Simulation base with adjusted sliders) saw the CPU take 6 penalties, including a boarding, hooking and slashing call, while I took 5. I saw a couple of different/new goalie save animations, too.

Glad the Pepsi Center has been licensed again

That drove me nuts it was generic in 14.

While this is a good game, it's still EA NHL at its core. Meaning, you'll see a lot of the same legacy issues that we've harped on for years. I think it's worth a purchase, but only if you're not paying full-price for it.

# 68 MizzouRah @ 10/06/14 05:27 PM

I have both current gen and last gen versions of the game and I'm so happy with last gen over current gen, so glad I bought it.

Current gen is good for vs games against friends or online, but last gen has a complete BeaGM mode as well as the game play vs the CPU is so much better.

Current gen is beautiful, but is missing so much of the little stuff, current stat pop ups, crowd chants, AHL games, the list goes on...

Game play is 14.5, but at least most of what nagged me in v14 has been fixed. Plus, with current gen, the CPU feasts on the only way it can score, an accurate one timer from the slot while your AI teammates are nowhere to be found.

I'm finally back to fun game play again after trying to get current gen to play properly.

# 69 FunkDockta27 @ 10/14/14 02:03 AM

Granted ive only threw down on 2 play now games. But OH MAN! First game was a win 1-0 in a shootout.

2nd game was a 4-3 win in OT. Back and forth. Carolina had me down 2 after the first. I got 1 in the 2nd. They got 1 more early in the 3rd. Got the game tying goal with a minute left. Went to OT and Carolina went berserk on the offensive end. I got behind them and busted off a slapshot got by the goalie high stick side.

Huberdeau was killing me on faceoffs. I was just under 50%. Won 16 of 33 faceoffs

# 70 MizzouRah @ 10/17/14 11:29 PM

Any news on jersey updates? Specifically the Blues new uni's?

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