NHL 14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions Here

[gator3guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by 06woz

So it's just me? Nobody else is playing an online high paced massive hitfest? Offline will hopefully be a little different

Yeah the hitting is ridiculous. Bobby Ryan fell every time he got touched in the one game I played.

One touch dekes are going to be a problem. Once again, anyone can do them.

Having played a few more online versus games, the game speed is def too fast. If they lower it I fear we will have the slow turns like last year.

[Gagnon39]

Well, I'm always afraid that when EA implements a new feature they will over-do it. Usually I'm pleasantly surprised when they do not, but in the case of NHL 14, my fear is justified.

While the fighting is cool the way they start is often as unrealistic as possible. This may not bother some casual fans because they have no idea which players fight in real life and how penalties are handed out in an actual hockey game. Let me just put it this way...

I just played a game (I was Chicago) against Dallas.

First period, I smoked a player into the boards on a questionable hit with Duncan Keith. Another Stars player (I don't remember who) skated across the ice to me, threw his gloves off and we instantly fought. I had no choice but to fight. I thought, fair enough. I've seen Keith fight a few times here and there and it was a questionable fight. I'll give the game the benefit of the doubt so far, even though this concerned me when it was about 4 minutes into the first game I played.

But then, I get a penalty for boarding along with a five minute major for fighting. Anyone that knows anything about hockey would understand that the Stars player should have received an instigating penalty for starting the fight. For those that are unaware, you cannot skate across the ice with the intention of starting a fight. Its "instigating," and any player who does this is given a two-minute minor penalty. So we should have been even strength.

Now, that's not THAT big of a deal. I guess. But the problems got worse.

Second period.

I hit another player with Brandon Saad and the EXACT SAME THING happens. This was the exact same scenario. Penalty for boarding to Saad, no instigator. Stars powerplay and I was forced to fight with Saad. I've watched A LOT of Blackhawks games and I might have missed three or four games all year last season and the best I remember Brandon Saad never got into a fight. But he is, after all, the "man child" so again, benefit of the doubt. Maybe it could happen.

Then...

The third period. I accidentally trip a Stars player with Viktor-freaking-Stalberg (who is no longer with the Hawks and never fights because he wouldn't want to mess his pretty face up). What happens? A Stars player skates across the ice and starts a fight. And... I received a tripping penalty on top of it.

This is just plain stupid. No other way around it. And I seriously question how something like this gets overlooked.

Here's what needs to happen...

#1 - First and foremost, this needs to be toned down. Period.
#2 - Instigator penalties need to be added.
#3 - An enforcer (or the most capable fighter on the ice at the time) needs to step in when players like Stalberg are challenged.

[Suntan Superman]

I've been toying around with fighting, and they do give instigating penalties, but only during on-ice action. I agree with everyone that the "he hit my guy so fight time!" crap needs to be toned down, and the instigator penalty needs to be enforced during that sequence. Don't get me wrong, when I knock Sidney Crosby on his behind, I fully expect, and deserve a fight, but it should either be from Crosby, or from someone nearby, or there is an instigator penalty.

The last NHL I played more than a few days/games was NHL 11, it's much, much improved from there, I still wish I was able to do more than just play in the CHL to go with my "Live the Life" and there could still be so much more added to "Live the Life" but the interviews and the "likeability" is definitely an addition I like(even if it's not all it could be) Ultimately I'll end up getting this, simply for "Live the Life" and updated rosters.

There are some major improvements still to be made, but it's still a huge step up from what we used to have. I enjoy that playing as a big lug on skates feels like playing a big lug on skates. I'm also really happy with passing. Before it was so hard to get incomplete/wrong/bad passes, now I've had so many errors passing it's actually frustrating me(I admit I'm a skill level below a lot of people as well, so this may not hold true for the hardcore gamers)

Overall, I'd give the game a solid 7/10 so far, cartoonish hitting is fun for awhile but it does get tiresome, though if I turn all the sliders down it gets more bearable, and like many have stated, fighting is a lot of fun, but there shouldn't be one fight a game, every game.

[Dolphins88]

It sounds as though it has regressed in terms of realistic gameplay which sux. Madden is getting returned and canceling NHL preorder. Dammit my 2 fav sports.. Guess ill have to get to like nba more.

[jayenomics]

The gameplay is so much better than NHL 13.


The BIGGEST issue I have is the division names aren't in the game!

The Divisions are labeled:

Division A
Division B
Division C
Division D

This better be patched.

[bad_philanthropy]

I generally like the gameplay on SS, hardcore simulation once slowed down a bit. It's not a revolution in sports gaming, but it is enough of an improvement for someone like me who had a lot of fun with '13. Teammate AI is definitely still lacking, but I'll give it a pass for this gen, and bring out the heavy criticism if it's not much better next gen.

I think the default shot power is set too high. Some of the laser beam wrist shots and snap shot have enough mustard on them to exit Earth's orbit if nothing stops them.

Only simmed one Be a Gm season so far. Scoring seemed a little low. Stamkos led the league in points with 94, but was the only one in the 90's, and there were only about three or four others in the 80 point range. The top goal scorer was Patrick Hornqvist with 37. But it was a small sample size, and I noticed some stars like Ovechkin and Cosby missed a good chunk of games and were trending over a point per game pace. Not a big deal.

The new little changed to line management are great, and the twitter feed in the news is a welcome small detail.

Interesting detail that only interests me is it seems in Be a Gm they have a grandfather clause for visors on rookies. Many of the CHL prospects, when you go in to edit them, have a reebok helmet, and no visor. However, play them on your AHL or NHL team and they'll be wearing a visor despite not having one assigned in their equipment options.

[Fiddy]

I just played EASHL games yesterday/last night.

I sent my 5year old son to a football game with his Pap and Nana. Lol.

Quick impressions from my phone.

Skating is 100% better. If you don't think so then I don't know what to tell ya. Skating as a d man backing out of the zone is smooth now. Not herky jerky like last year.

CPU AI IMO is a bit smarter in D zone but not much better than NHL 13. They are much better at passing the puck and not having to call for it. They are really solid on PP positionally.

Per usual, same goals, same shots, etc. IMO 100x easier to score. Why? Bc with the ones I just mentioned the one timers are back and they back big time.

Goalie animations seem improved but more of the same there IMO.

Fighting etc while neat at first, needs toned down. Every hit don't need to result in a fight.

Also. Again like last year the EASHL played great first 5 to 10 games. After that it seemed that the more we leveled up our player, the worst the fan felt. I dunno. Weird.

Face off spam online. Same as last year. Terrible.

[CarryTheWeight]

I only played one offline game last night so don't take my impressions as gospel (since most of the games I play in the NHL series turn out different each time).

I'm not that impressed. I like it, just not as much as I should be. Maybe the minor tweaks are a bit too minor...even for this longtime, hardcore hockey fan. It's very similar to last year's game, which, in many respects is a good thing. It's just lacking a lot of polish and diversity.

I'm going to agree with everyone about presentation. Next-gen is the perfect opportunity for this team to go all-out in that regard. The gameplay's pretty much there, now add some presentational authenticity and drama to non-playoff games. Get TSN, Hockey Night in Canada and/or NBC Sports Network branded games. I wouldn't mind keeping Gary and Bill as long as there could be another commentary team or network to switch things up and keep things fresh from game to game. We're switching to Blu-ray on both next-gen consoles, so why not add tons more content?

Player faces are absolutely awful. No excuse as to why a game that once had every player authentically represented on last-gen is so inaccurate now. I understand the development team prefers to scan players in instead of using photos, but why a game like NBA can get nearly every player in the league, including backups and long-time free agents to look decent and NHL can't is a bit silly. FIFA has this same issue, but it's understood considering there's nearly 10,000 players. NHL doesn't have to be 100% accurate with every league but at least make every NHL regular look 90-95% like their real-life counterparts.

I've found the new fighting engine relies mostly on stick skills and isn't as fresh, strategic or revolutionary as advertised. I was able to win all of my fights simply by repeatedly flicking my right analog stick and using the dodge/block function minimally, and this was on All-Star using the default Hardcore Simulation sliders. Fortunately, I have seen a few instigator penalties, so that's indeed in there. Only in certain situations, though, like if you hit a player and start a fight with him afterward or if you shoot the puck at the goalie after the whistle. Love the details after fights like bruises and such, but I think they're a bit overdone considering we don't see them after every fight in the real league. Once in a while would be all right.

Interesting thing to note is that after a fight with Steve Ott, Joffrey Lupul ended up being injured for the rest of the game and the commentators mentioned this. I haven't looked at the demo impressions thread very much so I'm not sure if it's a common happening, but it's an interesting and unpredictable addition.

I like the minor additions to BAGM including the fact that goaltenders actually rotate and supposedly get injured once in a while. Good news, especially for people who simulate. All I'm hoping is that this mode gets a once-over on next-gen. Maybe a FIFA-like global scouting system could work so that you can acquire players from world and junior leagues...maybe even licensing individual college teams/conferences and making their rosters editable like in the NCAA series could work as well.

I'm tired of the NHL and AHL seasons happening in a bubble during BAGM. Why don't we have real-time stats from junior, European and International competitions? Why can't we play as a GM in the junior or European leagues in addition to the NHL? This is what makes games like EA's own FIFA and NCAA series a lot of fun. We should have the freedom to do all that. But I'll save that for a wishlist thread.

Finally, I'm not sure if I'm awful at the game or if my rebuilding Sabres team is (probably both considering how they were last season) but I'm struggling to score on good scoring chances while the AI seems to bury every awful shot they take. I know, real life often operates the same way but it's often tough to mount a decent attack. I find this happens in certain FIFA games as well, but in others it's ridiculously easy to score. I don't know. As I said before, the game has a level of unpredictability sometimes.

Anyway, I liked 13 but 14 isn't exactly astounding in terms of improvement. Yes, it has improved in certain areas and remained awfully stagnant in others...but it's still pretty solid. Regardless, EA's Season Ticket is one of the best deals in console gaming today. Yes, they're still getting their money but it's saved me even more the past few years.