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NHL 14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions Here

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Old 09-16-2013, 02:11 PM   #161
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qb
After playing some good ol' offline games this weekend, there's one thing I'm certain of... you need to crank up aggression to get anything close to a 200ft game of hockey.
Could you please elaborate as to why you think that's so? I always appreciate your thoughts on the game.

Played a game last night and CPU took 6 penalties against me on All-Star/Hardcore Simulation. Two were for fighting, the other four were minor infractions.
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Old 09-17-2013, 06:12 AM   #162
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

Whilst the demo gave me some mixed feelings (suffice to say I did not even pick up the game on release day), I am actually quite impressed with the full game.

My first two games were Winter Classic 2011, All Star difficulty, stock sliders. The first game I got smoked by the CPU whilst trying to get used to the controls, but the second game was a very gratifying experience staying together with the CPU right till the end and then winning 2:1 with a shorthanded one-timer 30 seconds from time.

Whilst I will continue to maintain that NHL 14 should have been what NHL 13 never was, I find noticeable improvements in pretty much every department. More than ever the game feels and looks like real hockey, with momentum, inertia and fluidity playing a major part. Position your player incorrectly and the opposition blows by you with momentum. Conversely, applying patience to your own offensive game and then hitting a clever pass to a flying skater, results in a great opportunity. What I like the most is how players will now react to receiving a pass. The motion is fluid, they do not lose momentum. This is especially useful when passing the puck between your D-men. The other noticeable improvement is control. Powerplays are immensely enjoyable, with the ability to cycle the puck around without accidentally going offside or turning over the puck because of clunky controls (like all previous installments). I love setting up plays being just patient and cycling around till I see an opening. The one touch dekes are also very well implemented and very useful in pretty much all contexts. For the first time the game plays and feels organic with stock sliders (though the speed seems too high on True Broadcast camera).

Defense is more of a challenge, but not necessarily in a good way. Similarly to FIFA, playing defense is a mixed bag. The CPU is too good at dangling with the puck, stopping and turning leaving your human-controlled skater hopelessly out of position. Sometimes it’s more useful just standing in front of goal and hope for a rebound. That said, I love how D-men look when they skate backwards. It feels so fluid and organic.

Fighting is a mixed bag for me. I am aware most people welcome this new addition. For me it is a non-event. I dislike fights in hockey – they detract from the game experience and EA has done exactly this here. To me it’s an unnecessary destraction that you can’t seem to turn off.

Online is also fun. I only played one game, which was competitive, fair and very close. My opponent ended up winning 4:3 with an OT goal, but all the action was very exciting and I loved the verity of goals and plays. There was no lag – everything worked to perfection.

I wish EA would not persist in recycle their commentary and visual presentation. This is the weakest part of the game for me. The cameras are identical (still no customization available for True Broadcast) and the commentary is just plain dated. I do have to concede though that some visuals have improved. The ice looks amazing, including the degrading of it as the period progresses.

Overall a good job, EA. A good title to say farewell with to current gen consoles. I bought NHL 13 and played it for about 2 weeks before losing interest. I think NHL 14 will maintain my interest much longer than that.

Last edited by iaxy; 09-17-2013 at 06:15 AM.
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Old 09-17-2013, 09:19 AM   #163
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

The thing about fighting is not true, I dislike fighting in hockey myself so I turned it down to nothing and have yet to see a fight since that time.
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Old 09-17-2013, 12:02 PM   #164
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ
Could you please elaborate as to why you think that's so? I always appreciate your thoughts on the game.
In my experience, raising the aggression slider to 5 or 6 does as much as anything (outside of maybe pass assist) to change the gameplay from flowing end-to-end rushes to something more uneven and unpredictable. Of course, I'm lowering acceleration, puck control, pass accuracy/reception, along with raising fatigue effect, but I think the increased aggression ties it all together.

CPU players on both teams make more of an effort to attack the puck, disrupting break outs more often, and keeping the puck in the attacking zone for extended periods. There are times when I really feel the need to clear the puck after getting pinned in my zone (fatigue!), but I can also do that to the CPU more effectively. This leads to more realistic scoring situations & chances and less "hot dog hockey" as someone (Kerosene31?) called it earlier.

It's not a panacea for all the gameplay issues and your opponent's strategies play a large part in how the game plays out (max out CPU strat adj to help with in-game variety). Zone entry is still easier than it should be and I'm sure one could skate in circles if they really wanted to, but I played several competitive games with balanced shot & TOA totals on All-Star. The big thing for me is that feeling of "I need to do something with the puck NOW" that really isn't there by default. Combine that with looser settings for puck control & passing, and it makes for a better game of hockey.
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Old 09-17-2013, 01:52 PM   #165
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

It's a big disappointment for me that the cpu doesn't use the puck chop. It has been one of the better defensive tools the past two years, and it's nicely refined this year.
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Old 09-17-2013, 01:57 PM   #166
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qb
In my experience, raising the aggression slider to 5 or 6 does as much as anything (outside of maybe pass assist) to change the gameplay from flowing end-to-end rushes to something more uneven and unpredictable. Of course, I'm lowering acceleration, puck control, pass accuracy/reception, along with raising fatigue effect, but I think the increased aggression ties it all together.

CPU players on both teams make more of an effort to attack the puck, disrupting break outs more often, and keeping the puck in the attacking zone for extended periods. There are times when I really feel the need to clear the puck after getting pinned in my zone (fatigue!), but I can also do that to the CPU more effectively. This leads to more realistic scoring situations & chances and less "hot dog hockey" as someone (Kerosene31?) called it earlier.

It's not a panacea for all the gameplay issues and your opponent's strategies play a large part in how the game plays out (max out CPU strat adj to help with in-game variety). Zone entry is still easier than it should be and I'm sure one could skate in circles if they really wanted to, but I played several competitive games with balanced shot & TOA totals on All-Star. The big thing for me is that feeling of "I need to do something with the puck NOW" that really isn't there by default. Combine that with looser settings for puck control & passing, and it makes for a better game of hockey.
Qb did you post your slider set by chance?

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Old 09-17-2013, 03:12 PM   #167
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nomah5
Qb did you post your slider set by chance?
I didn't. I won't put anything up unless I play a lot more offline. I haven't done that the last year or two, so we'll see. For now, here are some of the changes I'm playing with, working from the Hardcore Simulation preset. For now my User/CPU sliders are the same, but that could change if I play enough to dial them in. In no way am I saying these are "final" or the optimal setting... mostly me moving stuff up or down a click to see if how it plays.

Fatigue Effect: 4
Fatigue Recovery: 2
Puck Control: 0
Acceleration: 3

CPU Strategy Adjustment: 4 (I think, maxed it out)
Face-off Difficulty: 4 (I think, raised it one click)

Pass Assist: 1 or 2
Pass Accuracy and Reception: 0
Pass Interceptions: 4 (probably could go higher, but haven't yet)

Shot/Slap/One-timer Accuracy: 2

Aggression: 5 or 6
Hit Power: 0
Poke Check: 2 (could see raising CPU for challenge)

Goalies are the hardest for me. I'd ultimately like to raise screen effect and lower reaction time based on the idea of making it harder to create good scoring chances, but more rewarding when you do. I went a click in each direction for now and I haven't seen anything too noteworthy; most games have 4-6 goals total on around 60 combined shots playing 10 minute periods.

My plan was to start an offline GM to track some stats over a decent stretch of games. We'll see if I can find the time.
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Old 09-19-2013, 08:09 PM   #168
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Re: NHL 14 Available Now for Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

So what is the verdict? And is the Xbox version better?
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