NHL 15: Hands-On Impressions

[AdamJones113]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cletus

But if your basing overall on points, then your rating system is just as flawed as EA. Gretzky had a lot of points in an era when no one played defense or there was no butterfly goalies. Stamkos is a top 5 center and before the injury this year was playing a very good 2 way game for a player only recognized for goals. If Stamkos shouldn't be a 91 because he doesn't have 100 points every year, then what should Toews or Bergeron be rated? The problem to me isn't the overall as much as it is how the overalls are weighted. The reason there's a flux of 80+ rated guys (and some of the problem with the AI) is that very few NHL players have awareness below 80. Awareness is one of the highest overall boosting categories and you find guys with high awareness that shouldn't have them.

My point is that EA's ratings are incredibly flawed!! Toews and Bergeron are better defensively then a guy like Stamkos should have a different OVR than them, but based on points Stamkos is just as good if not better. EA is "good" for physical and measurable stats (goals, assists, etc=shot power/accuracy) but terrible for intangibles, as you point out.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cletus

But if your basing overall on points, then your rating system is just as flawed as EA. Gretzky had a lot of points in an era when no one played defense or there was no butterfly goalies. Stamkos is a top 5 center and before the injury this year was playing a very good 2 way game for a player only recognized for goals. If Stamkos shouldn't be a 91 because he doesn't have 100 points every year, then what should Toews or Bergeron be rated? The problem to me isn't the overall as much as it is how the overalls are weighted. The reason there's a flux of 80+ rated guys (and some of the problem with the AI) is that very few NHL players have awareness below 80. Awareness is one of the highest overall boosting categories and you find guys with high awareness that shouldn't have them.

The whole concept of Overall's is flawed in general.
What we, and EA, should be focused on is the individual attributes; skating, passing, shooting, stickhandling, offensive awareness.

If a player's passing is 65, then he shouldn't be able to make anything but the simplest passes. If anyone is in the way, it's picked off immediately.
But if it's a top playmaker, with a 90+ rating, then needles will be threaded and low-percentage passes start connecting.

I really hope this cone vision works well too. In theory, it should help a lot. A scrub will have a small cone so only basic plays will be at their disposal while great players, like Stamkos, should be able to see all of the ice and have several options while carrying the puck.
He should also recognize open windows of opportunity and sneak in behind defenses for quality chances.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

The whole concept of Overall's is flawed in general. What we, and EA, should be focused on is the individual attributes; skating, passing, shooting, stickhandling, offensive awareness. If a player's passing is 65, then he shouldn't be able to make anything but the simplest passes. If anyone is in the way, it's picked off immediately. But if it's a top playmaker, with a 90+ rating, then needles will be threaded and low-percentage passes start connecting. I really hope this cone vision works well too. In theory, it should help a lot. A scrub will have a small cone so only basic plays will be at their disposal while great players, like Stamkos, should be able to see all of the ice and have several options while carrying the puck. He should also recognize open windows of opportunity and sneak in behind defenses for quality chances.

There's definitely not enough separation between players, but until sliders and attributes make a bigger difference, it won't matter much. Even with awesome rosters like the Revamped rosters, it's still not too different.
I wish my PS3 still worked. I was going to run a test when it died to see if stats made much of a difference in gameplay.
I was going to take default sliders for Hardcore Sim and create a team of all 99 players with every stat maxed out, and a team with attributes as low as i could get them. Then play 10 games myself, and sim 30 games to see what happened.
If anyone else wants to put in the time, i would be curious to see what the results are.

[LeafsFreak15]

Looks pretty great this year for graphics

[Rizzonme]

im pumped for this game like no other, hopefully there is online franchise

[mcavner]

Poke check. Ugh. SO sick of that. The hockey game deserves a better check, a two-handed stick check that does not automatically result in a high-sticking penalty. The poke check as the main stick check, because the other stick check is the stick lift... it is ridiculous. Biggest weakness in the entire game is no decent checking with the stick and they haven't done anything about it, ever. Disappointed.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by mcavner

Poke check. Ugh. SO sick of that. The hockey game deserves a better check, a two-handed stick check that does not automatically result in a high-sticking penalty. The poke check as the main stick check, because the other stick check is the stick lift... it is ridiculous. Biggest weakness in the entire game is no decent checking with the stick and they haven't done anything about it, ever. Disappointed.

I'm kind of surprised they haven't worked on any different ways of using the analog on defense.
It would be kind of nice if while holding, say, L2 (Left-Trigger on Xbox? It's been so long...) and you use the right-stick on defense, you poke the stick out in the direction of the stick. The harder you move the stick, the harder the poke, but also, the less accurate and more likely you are to jam it into some skates. Then, maybe doing the "wrist shot" movement, where you roll the stick causes you to hack at the puck, or player. Again, speed sensitive, with an increased potential for a hooking call (Maybe let you roll the stick, then hold it to kind of wrap the player, and guide them towards the boards with your body) or slashing. Then use something like double-taps in the direction of the opposing player to attempt stick lifts, with the speed of the taps putting more or less power.

I'm sure that's all pretty complex, but imagine him much better defense would be if you weren't constantly moving your fingers from Y, to holding two triggers to attempt a chop (Honestly, i still suck at that.). Instead you just focus on rolling and moving the sticks to get a more dynamic defense system, and more importantly, allows you to control where you poke checks come from. Gone would be the days of a player guarding the puck, and instead of reaching around for the poke, you just slam your stick into his legs, because RB dictated that as the direction. Or, worse still, having a break, and potentially being able to swat it from the right, but when you dive, you just throw your stick in from the left and get nothing but the player. That would be awesome.

Hell, the more i think of it, the less you need L2 at all. Just make it stick only. Similar to analog pitching in thinks like MLB2k (God, i wish The Show could snatch that mechanic). Then, my preference would be to bring back L2 facing the puck. Skating backwards causes me to spend too much time trying to do something simple, like face the carrier, because i have to move to face him, so pivoting in front of the net on defense is difficult.

[Splitter77]

as far as those that have played the game.
do you know if goalies can lose their stick??
-will there be too many men on ice calls??
-intentional offsides?
-high stick calls with blood???
-hand passes whistled down???

this is for next gen version