NHL 15 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions (Xbox One, PS4)

[tabulaRasa]

REal hockey: Zone pressure and passing and positioning wins you games
EA NHL hockey: Poke spamming, deke bonanza , no passing, breakaways, puck hogging

[Segagendude]

Quote: Originally Posted by CubFan23

Didn't care to see goalies fighting. Like that happens IRL.

I wanted to hear more commentary but this dude wouldn't shut up. Just from what I've seen, looks the same to me as last gen..

[Smirkin Dirk]

I think the CPU does not always allow you in the zone. It's not perfect but they are more aggressive IMO.

Ive seen a fair few sloppy plays aswell.

[meep316]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

To touch on your points: Firstly, "...from the ground up" I think is a term that gets tossed around much too often in this industry anymore. In dealing with The Show and Madden, as well as NCAA and NHL over the years, I have seen that get mentioned so many times it is truly a video game cliche now. However, often is it misunderstood what the developers mean when they say "built from the ground up". Technically anything that isn't a direct port and copied from an older game/build is new. So even when the consumers see exactly the same animations or stadium architecture that they have seen before it may have actually been completely recoded and rewritten and reprogrammed, but it just may have been based off of what was already known. This was most evident in the MLB The Show next gen game. A lot of things looked exactly the same in that game in terms of how it played and felt. However, it was explained that most of it was new and rebuilt from scratch. Sometimes they fear losing their style and making it too different with player models and the likes, I believe. But often I think what really happens is they spend all of this time building games that are just too similar to what we have had before and it gets stale. But technically it is "built from the ground up". I fear that this may be what has happened in the NHL franchise this year. As for 2 on 1's, yes it is better from what I have seen already. Not perfect, but they do drive the net and open themselves up for the pass or one-timer. The CPU will especially do this when attacking your d if you pull someone out of position and don't cover them properly. Breakouts are about the same, they skate to space I guess, but it seems to be the same spaces they have always been of late to me. Sometimes I play on a camera angle that is too tight to see the whole ice and have to assume they are in an area, I make that nice pass over and there is no one there ha. That is frustrating. I think it is pretty similar to before in this regard. But the attack is better, as I mentioned. And it is not that the increased speed isn't realistic, it is that there isn't as much variety and diversity in the shot speed. You really don't notice anyone being more powerful with their snap shots or wristers. They don't have those pucks that slide along the ice as much any more, which is shame because they could finally really have them be live on a shot with stick deflections and interactions with the ruts, snow, and skates on the way towards the net. But as you mentioned the pucks going into the net are better looking. They might be a little less live after hitting the net than is realistic. They don't drop and spin or move as much sometimes as they do in real life. But I don't think it takes anything away, personally.

The built from the ground up legalese doesn't surprise me. It's disappointing, though.

The CPU doing that is good, but I was more preferring to your own teammates. I'm glad you said they drive the net though. That was severely lacking in the past. It's just such obvious hockey 101, and they would never do it. It made 2 on 1s just pointless.

I usually play on the overhead/high, so I can survey the whole ice. It looks so awful when it's so painfully obvious where anyone with any amount of hockey sense whatsoever would know where to go, but the AI just refuses. Ugh I hope I see an improvement. That's like maybe the #1 problem I have with the AI. Johnny Superbman touches on it a lot as well, I don't know if you're familiar with his youtube channel.

That sucks about the shots along the ice. I shoot low a lot. Maybe as time goes on we'll see more of those kinds of deflections. The rolling puck aspect is very intriguing to me.

I hated in the past when shots would hit the net and just die. It's just the polar opposite of real life. Part of seeing someone snipe it into the top corner, is seeing the puck just rocket back through the crease and into the slot as the defenders frustratingly shovel it down ice in anger. It sounds dumb but this is a huge thing for me, even bigger than the stupid NBC production ****. I literally could not care less about Doc and Eddie in the game, or them on the green screen. The real outside pre game shots add nothing for me personally.

[CRIXUS81]

After the EASHL fiasco I wanted to hate this game so badly but after a few games I am pretty stoked to play it in a few weeks. I was getting my butt kicked on pro difficulty for the first couple games but I finally beat the Kings 4-1. Is it just me or does the CPU become hyper aggressive/extremely accurate after you score on them? Things just feel a little more intense after I score the first goal, so far the CPU has scored on me at least once a game less than 30 seconds (game time) after I score.

Anyways my first impression was that this was NHL14 with prettier graphics however after a few games I noticed the game just feels smoother and the passing feels crisper making setting up plays on the zone far easier and allows better creativity of plays to develop.

[18 eighty 5]

Quote: Originally Posted by Segagendude

Didn't care to see goalies fighting. Like that happens IRL. I wanted to hear more commentary but this dude wouldn't shut up. Just from what I've seen, looks the same to me as last gen..

I agree watching videos of 15 looks like it is identical to 14 but it does feel different through the controller.

It feels a little odd to me because the puck is looser in play which is great but the skating feels stiffer, certainly puck handling is. Too early to tell if this is a win/win or not. Might just have to get used to the feel of it.

If the skating of 14 had the looseness of the puck of 15 I think it might have been better. BUT I am grateful in a way that they did try to make the game feel and play a bit more differently. It just might not be the best balance yet?

[Smirkin Dirk]

The puck feels less sticky, Im see more broken plays.

We wont really know how sim this is until we frig around with the sliders in the real game.

[hobbs2121]

Quote: Originally Posted by meep316

Couple of things: 1. That guy's voice is the worst and he's awful at the game. The way he plays is everything that is wrong with everything with this series. 2. His first goal was one of those wrong side one timers that should be a simple re-direct instead of a rocket shot, looks awful, but I'm glad the puck sort of ricocheted out of the net like that. I just don't want that shot to be strong, because it's not. You can't get that kind of power behind a shot like that in real life, nobody can, it looks terrible and has been something I've always hated in these games. 3. The shot speed is great. People have complained saying it looks like lightning, that's how it is supposed to look. These guys fire the puck in real life, even on snapshots. That has never been represented well in EA NHL games until now.

2. Ovi can get this sort of speed but only him