NHL 14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions Here

[Dolphins88]

I really wish EA had of made the 94 mode 2 dimensional players like it was back in the day. Slapping on blue ice looks cheesy.

[Dolphins88]

Yes I agree canceling my preorder too and put it on nba2k14 .. For 9.99 get next gen. This sux.. 2 fav sports hockey and football and both r not good this year((....I'm looking forward to show 2014 on ps4

[Fiddy]

updated thoughts after a full weekend of playing EASHL games.

skating, again, awesome. everything feels smooth, maybe too smooth. but def better than last year. this helps the d men get back better as well, the transition into skating backwards is better, less stuck in mud etc.

with that said about d, ummmm, the poke check is pretty much gone. last year way too effective, this year, its terrible.

that has allowed the curl shots to come back in full force. they were there last year to an extant, but being able to play the lanes and poke the puck free kept that limited.

guys per usual, can just deke out on forehand or backhand, curl it, and wiggle around, cant poke it. real hockey right EA?

im fine with the above, if thats what they want, but at the very least put the poke checking back like it was last year so um well, guys can defend.

i like that the hit assist seems like its on 1 click. you dont get sucked in to hits etc like last year. need to time them up better.

one touch deking is as lame as i thought it would be. doesnt seem to be tied to the deke attribute either. seems like its tied to your speed and acceleration. guys spam this all the way up the ice, since poking sucks.

cpu players still terrible in own end, passing for them terrible as well. yet, in o zone, they pass great, stay in position, forecheck. like night and day.

one timers, one timers, one timers, and well, one timers! not being able to poke leads to a ton of these as well.

again, im fine with that, if we give up those chances, thats on us. but being in position, 90 def awareness, 90 poke, 90 puck control, and the puck zips through me and others, come on.. LOL.

a few issues on d would be addressed if they just added the poke checking back like 13.

[adayinthelife]

This is insanely long, sorry. I’ll start by saying I’ve only played offline games thus far with NHL 14. I honestly have no idea how so many people play online, or how it seems like most people ONLY play online. If that’s all I did, then yeah, I would have a supremely low opinion of this game as many others do. Default sliders straight up suck, and allow for very little variety or realism. Basically, outside of playing strictly against your real life friends, I see no way to enjoy this side of the game at all.

Anyways, some detailed thoughts after playing for a few hours over the weekend. Strictly gameplay related, haven’t touched any game modes yet:

The tweaks they’ve made are small, but they’re the best improvements to the game overall vs. the “back of the box” features (but who’s surprised by that, really?). As others have said, skating is much smoother. I was worried about this coming in, that it was going to essentially revert the skating back to how it was prior to NHL 13, but I think they’ve done a great job here. Like others, I felt the skating in 13 was a little off, though it was still a huge, huge improvement over what they were doing from 08-12. It feels like they’ve tightened it up across the board this year and it feels great. The new strafing when skating backwards/playing defense is a thing of beauty. I play defense in real life hockey, and this addition is the most true to life experience I’ve seen for playing the position in a video game since 2k’s free poke check movement (more on that later).

I suppose tied into the skating to an extent is the “new” contact physics. I say “new”, because it seems like they’ve essentially just reinstated the checking engine that they introduced in NHL 11, which was promptly removed in 12 for whatever reason. It feels more refined in 14, and is easily the best the series has ever had, though there are still a fair amount of wonky hits. I have noticed some incidental contact types of collisions, which is great to finally see. I love the addition of left stick hitting. Seriously, it’s something that seems so small on the surface, but it just feels like this allows the game to take into consideration the speed/size/momentum of a checker more so than the right stick checking. There’s an option to turn this off, but in reality I wish it were the other way around - switching all of the hitting to the left stick rather than the right would be where it’s at for me. My reasoning for this is because then the left stick would control your body movements while the right stick is exclusively for stick movements, and perhaps this would free up the right stick in defensive situations to have it be totally free moving for getting in passing lanes, poke checks, etc. similar to the 2k series. To me this seems perfectly logical, but maybe I’m missing something.

On the slider side things, I do still wish there were more of them and that they had a wider range. Having said that, to me so far it has felt like they actually do have a little bit more of an impact this year. Is it enough? No, but it’s definitely an improvement. I’ve been able to get CPU passing percentages down into the 60-68% range with relative regularity, while in years past you’d basically never see it dip below 70%. It’s still total bull****, because this is with all of their passing sliders completely zero’d out, but at least it’s an improvement. Hitting is quite challenging with the assistance slider all the way down and forcing yourself to use left stick hitting exclusively. I like this because a) it adds a learning curve to the game, something that this series desperately needs at this point, and b) it solves the problem of constantly having big hit after big hit and fight after fight all game. Another area I’ve noticed sliders having a better influence is in the aggression. With the CPU side bumped up a bit I’m able to have the best CPU forecheck the series has ever had, imo.

Random quick notes:

- New fighting is great, more enjoyable than I ever anticipated. I was taken aback at first by how frequently they happened, but with some slider adjustments and just playing a smarter game (i.e. not constantly drilling people into the boards face first), they happen at a reasonable clip and in realistic situations.

- Haven’t seen this mentioned, so it could just be me, but the puck physics appear to be improved as well. I don’t know that anything crazy has gone on under the hood, but it’s almost as if the puck is simply lighter this year. I’m getting more bouncing pucks, and shots feel a little harder by default (again, simple slider adjustment).

- At least for an offline player, the goalies are improved and feel slightly more organic. Still one of the weaker points for the series, but again, improved.

Overall, I don’t think it’s that offensive or that far off base to call this game NHL 13.5. It truly feels like a tuned, tighter, refined and more polished version of last years game. I actually enjoyed 13, so these improvements are enough to make it a purchase for me without much hesitation. If hockey wasn't my favourite sport, and/or if we had some other options to choose from this may not be the case, but unfortunately this is how it is.

For anyone looking for a big leap forward, this simply ain’t your game. The only thing that will keep me from playing multiple seasons (and I can guarantee it will) is simply series fatigue. These guys have done all they can do with an outdated engine, and at this point are spinning their tires in many areas. I know it will never happen, but I really feel like for next gen they need to split this title into 2 different games. One for the online crowd, and one for the offline. Preferably made by 2 different dev teams (I really think the current team is burnt out on the series just as much as we are - there's no passion there anymore). We are two different beasts (online players/offline players), and I just don’t think either side will ever be happy if they keep trying to balance the two.

[desperado462]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

I actually had a guy stand up for me twice in Live The Life..I dropped my stick but not my gloves. A teammate raced in dropped his gloves and he and the other guy went at it..I was the leading scorer on my OHL team at the time..it was pretty cool..happened twice as I was running around hitting players at will (I guess that makes me Sean Avery??)

[desperado462]

Is anyone else getting a game freeze after Sept 21st in Live The Life? I have let it sim itself, and stopped and manually simmed and on both occasions the game freezes going from Sept 20th to Sept 21st...I have the downloaded eraly preview of the game

[Money99]

My apologies to the mods and members here, but I had to give props in 'verbal' (text?) form to adayinthelife for a great hands-on review.
I felt a simple thumbs-up wasn't enough.

Thanks!

[half-fast]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

guys per usual, can just deke out on forehand or backhand, curl it, and wiggle around, cant poke it. real hockey right EA?

This big time. I was playing a guy online, and despite me being up in shots 21-2, the guy was winning 2-0, he got cocky and said on the mic, "Well, I'm killing you, so I might as well go for a drink now", leaves his player there with the puck and walks away. I kid you not, I *could not* lift his stick or poke it away, I'm right there missing all these stick lifts and then somehow get called on the 7th attempt. Unreal. By the way, I ended up winning the game in overtime through typical EA catchup bs goals, because I was outplaying him, they let me score garbage at the end of the game.

Also, yes poking has been nerfed. Maybe it was a bit too easy last year but this year is ridiculous how often it should work and doesnt. Typical EA, people complain, so instead of fixing it the next year, they just go the complete opposite direction. This game is so stale it makes me sick. When the coolest new thing you see is the twitter feed, but even that is stale already repeating the same lines all the time and talking about the goalies 90% of the time, that's bad.