NHL 15: First Gameplay Video Emerges

[Pezell04x]

Quote: Originally Posted by jayenomics

NHL 14 was horrible? News to me. The game was great in my opinion. NHL 15 looked fantastic, but what can we really pull from two minutes? I would have liked to see someone actually try and hit someone in that video.

It wasn't great. It definitely had some major problems with puck physics, hitting and goaltending after a patch because people bitched they couldn't score.

[Mgbleu1986]

It is 2014 and players STILL always have 2 hands on their stick with the puck....Wake up EA!

[SpectralThundr]

Quote: Originally Posted by centauris

All OperationSports is, is people hating on sports games.

While I'm sure this post was in jest, it's actually not far off from truth. What happened to this site really? How did people become jaded and entitled over the last few years?

[jayenomics]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pezell04x

It wasn't great. It definitely had some major problems with puck physics, hitting and goaltending after a patch because people bitched they couldn't score.

So one is an issue with the console hardware, and the other two were easily fixed through sliders. I wouldn't exactly call them major game issues. There will always be goals that are easier to score than others, and the vast majority will abuse them. That being said, you find a good league online and you don't have to deal with any of that OVP trash.

[OSGuy321]

The AI looks and plays dreadful. Awful.

[gabbers895]

Theres an NHL 15 spot on the Gamestop stage at 2:20 est (if my math doesnt fail me)

I'd post a link but I guess Im too new to do so :P

Wonder if we'll actually get some info or if were just gonna hear a rehash of the same stuff we've seen a million times?

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by SpectralThundr

Naw the critics are salivating to judge alpha footage, played by 2 dudebros 3 months before the game is actually done. It's amazing in a way. What skill level the game is on greatly affects how the AI plays, the critics won't let that either get in the way of a good EA SUCKS rant however. *GIF*

Can you honestly blame people for being a bit pessimistic? The AI will definitely play a big part in making or breaking this game for a lot of people, but it's still a bit of a let down to see something that looks like it's playing like a well polished NHL14 instead of a truly next-gen game.
I went into this video hoping to be proven wrong on the things i had thought might happen, but so far my expectations weren't far off. The skating and AI look largely unchanged. The goalies still look like they play the same nonsense game they did before. Is it fair to judge it based off of this tiny clip? Not entirely, but you do take something away from that. If you watched this video on low-res you would be hard-pressed to tell it apart from NHL14 by just watching the way the players move.

That said, there's still time. But, it's a daunting task. People want AI that plays hockey. Personally, i got bored with NHL14 because entering the zone was stupidly easy. I dumped the puck just to do it. Not because i had to. The attacking AI was more of the same. Skate down the wings, get smashed into the boards, stand still, start back skating when i get next to them, repeat. Same for AI players on the rush who would just stop skating at the blue line or the circles instead of crashing the net on a 3-on-1. EA has a lot to prove with 15. They've got the hardware to make amazing AI. They haven't had anywhere close to this level of memory to allocate to the computer running plays, noticing open ice, or creating breakouts. Hopefully they do something with it.
I can get past players that look goofy to me, i can deal with another year of a pretty stale Be A GM experience, but i can't take another year of brain-dead AI who just skate from one place to another, or stand still or run into each other in the zone because there's nothing else they know to do.

I'm still waiting for an actual EA provided video showing the game itself off, instead of 2 guys who are god-awful at hockey playing it, but that doesn't mean i'm not a bit letdown with what i saw beyond their control in this.

:edit:

Also, sliders that really work would be a huge change. If they gave us more slider control, and it made a noticeable difference, that would alleviate a ton of problems.
EA would be better off if they had more creation/sharing. Rosters, slider settings, created players. If we had a vault type system similar to what the show has, people could easily download released roster improvements, players, teams, and sliders, freeing up EA's time to address gameplay issues a slider fix won't deal with.

[AdamJones113]

Here's similar quality footage from E3 2014. Looks very similar to NHL 14.

Any ideas when EA will give us a professional video? That's what I'm looking forward to.