Hey guys, so I didn't write the preview but I thought I would at least try to answer some of these questions if you don't mind. Apologies if I don't have answers to some stuff as I didn't follow this thread as closely as others due to it not being a main game I was assigned. (Plus, we did at least put a disclaimer that we may or may not get to these!)
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Originally Posted by zuntac |
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Hey chaseB, thx for the Write up!!!
You say, the Presentation is improved, can you say something about audio (does the crowd react to a power play for example, is the atmosphere during a game better than last year etc.)
Thanks and sorry for my bad English
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I think crowds, both in terms of sound and activity have taken a step up. It's probably my favorite atmospheric EA game now (Live probably has it beat in crowd audio, but NHL has all the games beat in terms of just having an interesting and dynamic looking crowd and miscellaneous things going on).
I'm sorry, but all my games were User vs. User as it's rare to get an empty console at something like E3. I can speak from a human perspective and say I think it's more reliable and rewarding to play D so far. I generally play D 90 percent of my games in OTP/EASHL, and I felt about as comfortable as I ever have trying to stop folks from taking me one on one.
Regardless, I share your hope for more aggressive D.
They're still very much working on goalies so it's hard to say at this point. I know they're really trying to focus in on goalies though, so if anything, it at least seems to be a point of focus. FIFA and NHL have the same issue in early builds where generally the goalies are a bit more broken than they will be in the final build. I believe, for whatever reason, that goalies are one of the final things that get that final level of tuning in both games, probably because adding new animations and AI tendencies and everything else during the cycle impacts them more than it would other positions.
-Again, hard to answer this one so far I think. Do you mean the D-men again, or do you want to give a more specific example?
-Again, tough to say in User vs. User games. I would agree with you though that it would be nice if teams and player types were more noticeable. I can only assume this is tough to do as I think nearly all sports games struggle to nail those two aspects.
-I will be truthful here and say I haven't noticed this as a huge issue in the past, but can't answer it either way for the same reason -- it's just not something I would have seen at this show.
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Originally Posted by green94 |
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Sounds great... can't wait.
Please tell me 5 man hugs are in the game though 
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Noooo, I'm sorry but they are not. In EASHL, it will still be more the one guy trying to race to get that hug first. They know people want it, but it's a bigger ask than you would think, and it just can't go above other stuff in the priority list for now. (I will show off my shame here and say this is one of the few questions I did ask, and that was without even knowing it was a question in this thread. I love me some big ol' group celebrations and wish they were there.)
So E3 mostly sucksssss for hearing commentary as it's just so loud overall. I did hear some loud Doc calls though, so one would hope it has perhaps improved.
Can't speak for Glenn, but my general point with NHL -- like most other sports games -- is if you don't like the core of the game, then you're not going to suddenly like it the next year. I know that's not exactly what you're saying here, I'm just pointing out that if you thought NHL was irreparably busted last year, I don't see how this game can fix all that for you in one cycle.
Playing against humans (mostly way worse than me), I did a lot of similar stuff. Obviously I didn't play the AI, but I don't have a major issue saying I doubt this will be the game that changes your feelings on a lot of this stuff.
I can't answer some of that question, but no I didn't see a constant ride-along leading to a smear into the boards. I saw a lot of good checking animations, but not that type of new style of check you're speaking about here. I think the only thing I can say is I did see nudges off the puck that didn't lead to a guy falling over -- but that's been in NHL previously.
Yes, 100 times yes. They've spent lots of time getting guys to do the right body positioning and AI guys squaring to the puck so they can receive the pass (humans can use L2 now to sort of do the same small things to do small movements and not drift so much, which is a nice little feature they've added). In short, I felt like a major threat on the PP, and last year probably my biggest gripe was how much of a disaster it felt like most of the time on the PP.
So I assume you don't mean flip dumps here or just regular passes into empty space? I guess you're talking about a smaller chip idea here, like something new? I generally just hold down the pass button or use R1 to do a saucer into the zone...So yeah I'm not quite sure what you mean here.
I've truthfully never noticed this, which means I'm probably a bummy bum player. But sorry not sure.
It seems they've spent a good amount of time on goaltenders, not only because they now will be controlled by humans again for OTP/EASHL, but also because yeah, they weren't in love with some of the goalie stuff last year either. I can't talk to too much at this point as I explained above (they're always sort of busted to a degree in these early builds.)
Sorry, again can't answer. I fool trained some humans end to end, but I would say it's a bit easier this year to just be jarred off the puck.
I'm sorrrrrrrry again, but yeah only human vs. human. They certainly tried to go for headhunter hits and paid with their lives.
It's a good question. It's hard for me to say a firm yes or no to it after only so many games. I didn't feel obstructed by this like I sometimes was in '15, but I in no way feel confident saying "it's totes better" this year.
So if it makes you feel a little warmer inside, a human passed it out with Carey Price and I just immediately picked up the puck and shot it into the net. However, I assume what you're talking about here overall is the ability for a goalie to sort of just pass it through your players to their own? In which case, yeah I'd be with you hoping it's gone. It happened in the one instance I mentioned above (so yay!), but my guess is this would still in some way be tied to what "style" you play on settings-wise.
So a prompt came up here and there after some hits, but it didn't seem as prevalent as last year -- and nobody chose to fight in these situations either. I think fighting is the same, but again, I actually didn't get in one fight.
So I think they came out today and said nothing major was changing for face offs. So yeah, I think that answers this.
I think this probably goes to the question above I was confused about. You're basically asking for a self-chip of sorts? I did a healthy amount of dump and chase and felt way better about it against the humans, but it's fair to say I think a lot of this just had to do with the fact that passing felt like it made more sense once I was in the zone. But I didn't really try to just chip it to myself very often, so I can't really answer this.
Can't answer the CPU part -- even if I had played CPU games I probably wouldn't feel comfortable answering this with so little time to see or not see certain things. As for the suction on the boards, ehhhh I think you probably won't be in love with it still if it already bothers you a lot.
I asked a decent amount of questions about OTP/EASHL, but didn't get into the trolling stuff. My guess is no on a lot of this stuff though just knowing what I know about other EA OTP modes.
Again, apologies but didn't ask this one specifically. I don't have a huge problem with the pauses currently, but I understand why you would.
Yep, again, sorry I didn't ask! And again, didn't even know this was a thing in general, so again, I'm a bummy bum.
Just guessing here, but I'm going to go with no here as my assumption.
So suction definitely isn't back in front of the net. I would say they're doing work here but I can't put a firm handle on it until I actually get to play off the puck on D in OTP.
Did see some kick out chances. I also used the swipe with the stick on D with loose pucks more than I had last year. But in terms of getting into the nitty gritty, I don't feel comfortable saying one way or the other right now.
Don't think so.
Menus are faster for sure, and improved in general. Obviously I didn't see the OTP menu so can't talk to the user flow to getting into a game.
I'm going to guess no.
I believe you're somewhat right here. I think the goalie masks are still tied to the individual artist and thus must be given permission by that artist unless the goalie buys the rights to the mask or whatever like he would his own tattoo. But yeah, both Live and 2K get away with this tattoo thing but every other game can't (still not sure why on some level!)
Didn't get to any OTs, but it feels mostly the same for at least the celebrations you can activate. I can't say for sure in terms of the celebrations where it goes to a cut scene.
Glenn did the write-up, I just did a tiny snippet!
1. I'm going to guess you'll still be chapped about this one.
2. Did not get a chance.
3. I do believe they've been working on this mode, but I honestly do not play much BeAGM, and at E3 you're just never really going to have time to dig into a mode like that anyway.
There was no media allowed for pretty much any sports game -- as has been the case for some years now. Maybe an exception or two was made for certain demos, but you weren't allowed to just capture footage so it wasn't just an NHL thing.
All I can say is NHL felt the furthest along I've ever seen it at this point in terms of gameplay polish/lack of blatant bugs. And I've played it at probably like 4 or 5 E3s at this point, so at the very least they seem like they're in a good spot to polish it up these last two months or so.
06-30-2015, 01:16 AM
