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

[Penaltybox4ever]

I really liked gameplay yesterday when I tried demo, liked the puck physics and new presentation the most. And it felt smooth. Didnt like menus much, still abit laggy but...

Sadly today when I thought I would do deeper analysis it was almost unplayable, WTF?
Choppy and laggy both VS and practice. Anyone else experienced this? Even the menus felt smooth as silk in comparision... Didnt notice anything like that in other games...
Strange...

[meep316]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

After playing a while longer, and on both the PS4 and Xbox One, I have found a few other issues that are bothering me. When trying to adjust the settings for your defense during a play stoppage one of the prompts is the same button that is used to skip over the stoppage and advance to the face-off. Who decided that was a good idea? And how did this get past testing? But my main issue with the demo so far is this: The gameplay is boring me already because we have been there and done that. Meaning, to get positive results you do the same things over and over again and these things are the same things that you had to do for the past 5 years with this game. There is no dynamic movement without the puck on offense. No dynamic lanes that open up in the zone. I know exactly where my players will be and where the defense is positioned and that never changes! I can never set up a PP in the zone and go from the lower left wing boards and pass across the ice to the far point. I can not expect to cross corner a fly in dump and know that my far wing is crashing to get it. I can't pin the puck holder on the boards and hope that my teammate will be the second guy in to support me and win the possession. These are the types of things that wear on a long time player of this series. That and the same goals going in, over and over and over again. Almost all of my goals given up are because the CPU beats my guy under the goal line, usually because of clunky controls such as a failed board pinning or wonky skating animation, and then they quickly center it to someone that is not being tied up in front for an easy, point blank shot. Why can't my backside d help tie up their stick? Give it a quick lift or clamp it down? Why are they not even positioned correctly? I see other people commenting about their scores for the demo being like 4-2, 6-0, etc. With shots being around 12-16 for their team. How in the heck are you managing that? I fear I know the answer. Most people just cary the puck into the zone and fire, over and over again. And every so often it works. Heck I know when I am going to score if I am giving a clear shot. I can see when the goalie is leaning wrong. That means there is little incentive to play a realistic game. And that is exactly what is like to play online. Just exploits and the same routines over and over. This is because of the unchanged AI. I could probably fool myself into playing this game this fall after a purchase. I could mess with the sliders and establish my own house rules and regulations to ensure I am not exploiting too much or cheating for an advantage based off of how the game is designed to play, but after half a decade of the same thing I am tired of it. I am bored by it. Goaltending has hardly been touched since 2006! Not the game, the year. How long will it take until they fix these issues and what faith should I even have at this point that they will even get it correct when/if they ever do? That is what is so sad about this demo to me.

The first thing you mentioned about the same button being a skip prompt, just lol. HOW do they mess something like that up? How does one person not speak up and go "uhhhhh wtf is this??" I'd say it's mind blowing but there is too much of that that has gone on over the years, that it's not surprising at all.

As for the rest of your post, man you are killing any shred of hope I had that I could be entertained by this game, lol. I feel like I play a certain style, and do things that nobody else (at least that I've seen in my thousands of games played online) does.

But reading your post, I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. I don't even have to play the 15 demo, because everything you're saying, I've been dealing with and ranting about for years. People will say "oh just don't buy the game then", "stop whining", "we're lucky to get a game at all" (that one always makes me laugh), etc. But this is what we are left with when things don't improve. I don't play EASHL, but in a way I'm glad that it got cut out, because I am finally starting to see EA get the backlash they should be getting, even if it's not for the right reason.

When I see people who are genuinely excited year in and year out to play the new version of this game, I am honestly stupified. Then I see them doing the exact same thing, over and over again, and I'm like "How is that fun??" My irl friends who play the game are the typical cheesing dummies, and they can't wait for the game. I have no idea why. And they all played at a relatively high level of hockey in real life, but none of those strategies are employed by them in the game, because why the **** would they be? The game doesn't reward that kind of play.

What you mentioned about employing house rules and stuff to play against the CPU, I have always said that people who just strictly play offline in the EA NHL series are PSYCHOPATHS. I mean yeah dealing with cheesers online is annoying, but I will take that any day of the week over the stale as steel EA AI. When you find someone good to play with, the games can be fun, but it's hard to find those people. I honestly can not imagine playing against the AI, I have no idea how people can do it. It is the WORST.

[drake_fury]

Here's my review of the Demo.

First of all, I'd like to point out that I have never played real-life hockey myself and therefore, I have never had a coach to teach me how to play it correctly. That being said, I do watch a lot of hockey on TV, as well as pre-game and post-game shows, so i'm not just doing anything.

I own every EA NHL game since NHL08, all of them on PS3. That review is for the PS4 version.

Presentation

Well it isn't the major marketing point for nothing. They did it greatly. Some people say that Doc is not excited enough... well I guess you guys didn't hear him when a team scores the tieing goal with less than 15 seconds to the game. It was awesome! One thing though; I've noticed 2 different "city view" intros for each teams, and when it comes to the green screen presentation, the one saying that the key in the game is going to be the special teams seemed to come up quite a lot... Not sure if it's because they really are 2 teams relying heavily on power play or becuse they really have only 1 presentation per arena plus this one they can put everywhere, but I've felt I've aleready seen it too much...

Graphics

Graphics are stunning, I'm a bit sad about the 720p thing, but I'm hoping we get 1080p for release. I haven't noticed much of the jerseys moving since I've played mostly on Dynamic High Camera (which is awesome, by the way), which made the players too small to really notice it.

Deking / Skating

Wow! I just love the new deking animations, I love how you can't just do any deke at any time, how the way you skate directly affects your deking. Much less robotic than previous copies.

Arena feel

Along with the presentation, The fact that they captured the details of the arenas is a major selling point for NHL15. Like a lot of people, I'm disappointed that the music didn't come with it... Scoring in the Bell Center without "Le but" from Loco Locass won't feel quite right... I do love the super fans and stuff like that though, the audience really feels alive.

AI

Like I've stated, I'm not a real hockey player... I play pretty bad defense, and therefore I'm not so well placed to comment on how they play defensively. But I've been playing NHL14 on Superstar / Hardcore most of the time, and I've felt that the CPU on All-Star / Hardcore in NHL15 was very similar when I came to cross the blue line. What really feels different though istheir coverage of the slot, especially the high slot. In NHL 14, coming with a left-handed player from the right wing, cutting in the slot and swinging a wrister in top-right was an almost sure goal. Now, the goal will probably get in too, as firing a perfect snipe from the high slot shooting the opposite side you skate can get past any goalie, even in the real NHL, but this time, getting to the right area to do it will prove much harder.

Glitch goals

That famous wrist shot that was the plague in NHL 13 and 14, is it still there? Well, as I've stated in previous paragraph, the high slot coverage made it more difficult to get there, and so I wasn't able to do it often enough to see how consistently it went in, but out of 3 times where i remember being wide open in the high slot and tried to snipe without a screen, 2 out of 3 got in the glove, the other one in the twine. On practice mode, on a breakaway deke, I can score about 4 out of 5 times. The goalie seems to challenge waaaay too much, and gets beaten by the skater's speed. If you bring the puck to your forehand and release in front of the goalie, skating right, the backhand is WIIIIIIIDE open. The same goes for the forehand. Very simple. It seemed to be a tiny bit harder on shootouts, probably due to the fact that you don't have only Kopitar, and other players may not be as good with stick-handling.

Penalities

6 minutes for a whole game is not long, but I still managed to see quite a few penalities. Goaltender interference, slashing and tripping are the ones that happened to me the most, with a few boarding ones, which were pretty much all merited. I don't think i've seen anything cheesy. I haven't tried to clear the puck off the glass with the goalie though... a thing to try tomorrow. The CPU also takes quite a few penalities but you need to draw them... If you don't skate around in the offensive zone trying to setup, the opposition won't chase you around and so they won't put a stick in your feet or slash you. If you stand still, they'll just crush you and won't take any penality.

Will I buy the game without EASHL?

Yes. But I'm still very disappointed by the announcement. Hockey is a team sport. knowing how to position yourself when you DON'T have the puck is probably even more important than knowing how to snipe. Playing with others, against others, is the essence of the sport. All 6 players of a team don't share the same mind, and so controlling an entire team will never really feel like hockey. I will certainly play quite a bit of be a pro, but I really wish I could play my player with my friends.

Hope you enjoyed the read.

[Woody19]

I played the Demo ob XBoxOne yesterday and I have to say I'm quite dissappointed:
Not only were the graphics quite blurry in the presentation scenes, also the new jersey animation looks really unrealistic. Last but not least, they don't seem to have put much effort in designing the menus.
Oh, gameplay: didn't notice much difference compared to NHL14.

I really looked forward to playing NHL15 on my next gen console, but it seems far worse than NHL14. I've owned every edition of this game since 97, and I have never felt less inclined to buying the next version.

[meep316]

Quote: Originally Posted by bwiggy33

STICK HANDLING- I've been saying it for a long time, stick handling needed major retooling. Well they must have listened or something because now it is near perfect. Gone are the days of skating up the ice doing full extension back and forth stick handling BS. I see a ton of people have commented that they hate the stick handling. That's probably because it's more realistic and the players actually stick handle within themselves which is what you see in real life. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of those moves being tied to the skill stick but that I can adjust to. EA do not change this no matter how many people complain. You are on the right path to how players actually stick handle in real life.

What I saw from the video EA released about the new skill stick, it looked like they were on the right track. Those very quick, little short, subtle stick handling movements are something I have wanted for a long time. The far out back and forth crap is so unrealistic. The way you are talking about this, it sounds exactly on point for what I wanted. That's not going to make up for horrific AI, but hopefully it'll be pleasing when I try it out.

[bwiggy33]

Quote: Originally Posted by meep316

What I saw from the video EA released about the new skill stick, it looked like they were on the right track. Those very quick, little short, subtle stick handling movements are something I have wanted for a long time. The far out back and forth crap is so unrealistic. The way you are talking about this, it sounds exactly on point for what I wanted. That's not going to make up for horrific AI, but hopefully it'll be pleasing when I try it out.

Yea it's actually a huge breath of fresh air. You can no longer just toe drag back and forth over and over. Instead the toe drag is actually that animation from the videos where the player makes that quick toe drag move. Since it's locked into an animation you can't make any other stick handling movements until the animation plays out. Seriously, it may be the best thing they've done to this game in quite some time in my eyes. The thing is it helps prevent stick handling spam and poke checking spam. It may be very beneficial for online players. I just have a feeling the masses will come out and complain because they are so used to stick handling at will back and forth with full extension, without losing the puck. Now even if you don't lose the puck while stick handling really fast back and forth, the defender can at least poke check the puck off your stick easier because the extension isn't as far. That's at least how I'm seeing it now. I could see it differently as I continue to play more games though.

[ps4]

Ja jestem. rozczarowany. demem. mam takie. wrażenie. że na mojej ps4 jest bardzo słaba grafika to chyba nie działa w 1080p

[meep316]

Quote: Originally Posted by bwiggy33

Yea it's actually a huge breath of fresh air. You can no longer just toe drag back and forth over and over. Instead the toe drag is actually that animation from the videos where the player makes that quick toe drag move. Since it's locked into an animation you can't make any other stick handling movements until the animation plays out. Seriously, it may be the best thing they've done to this game in quite some time in my eyes. The thing is it helps prevent stick handling spam and poke checking spam. It may be very beneficial for online players. I just have a feeling the masses will come out and complain because they are so used to stick handling at will back and forth with full extension, without losing the puck. Now even if you don't lose the puck while stick handling really fast back and forth, the defender can at least poke check the puck off your stick easier because the extension isn't as far. That's at least how I'm seeing it now. I could see it differently as I continue to play more games though.

Cool, I'm really looking forward to trying it myself. The problem with watching so many videos of other people playing, is that most people just play the most basic ways. They never utilize all of the tools given to you, which is just crazy to me.