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

[DJ NEO]

"I found the "feel" of the game to be different. I know that some people are saying that the players still feel weightless, but I feel like there has been some work done in this department, and I certainly felt the weight of the players in their movements.

As far as the checking went, I found it much more difficult to lay out the CPU opponent - In my GM mode last year, I really struggled to have realistic numbers for hits, because it as the easiest way for me to thwart any offensive threat, just run them over. In my three games, that hasn't been the case.

That being said, I agree with many who have posted that the O-zone entry is a breeze again, it absolutely is - nothin has been addressed here from what I can see.

As far as the skills stick goes, I LOVE the new deking. It is a much more accurate representation of the movements of an actual hockey player. The past versions of the game, with the long arm, wind-up and whip wristers were garbage, and this has been changed.

I really hope they are doing some work on goalie animations for next year, they REALLY stood out to me as being terrible given the improvements to the player animations.

I also think the graphics and presentation are stunning - and I didn't have a HUGE issue with the commentary, hearing someone else was refreshing, but obviously room for improvement.

Also have to agree with others, in-that the AI has not really changed a tonne. I did notice some improvements, and clearly by the results of my three games, I have found it somewhat challenging, but I still see some head-scratching decisions quite frequently by AI teammates and opponents.

All of that being said, there are some improvements, but bottom line, it is OBVIOUS that you are playing an EA NHL series hockey game. Some of the legacy issues continue, but I have to disagree with those claiming it is "just a port" or NHL 14 with prettier graphics. I do feel that it is much more than this.

In summary, I think that the feel has changed, but it is still to be determined whether it has changed enough to allow for a less stagnant gameplay experience. I feel like it is a good effort by EA Canada, but there is still a long, long way to go to get to where thigns could and should be. I think I will make the dive and buy this one, but for those EASHL hardcore players who were so sorely disappointed, you may want to hold onto your $70 for another year to let things play out."

great post indeed, thanx.

[CelticHeart]

Lucky the demo generally had good impressions, the game feels good, but a part the modes that are gones, the question of resolution goes risky in an other autogoal of this poor management of comunication by producer and company.

There is any chance to get some official answer about the resolution of the final product?

All information about the internet talks about 720p that could be another bad things that afflict this game...

The most worst thing is that after the demo we can see that this game should be potentially very good, if it had the necessary resources that developers probably not had...and the question of resolution is another indication of this bad situation.

[MizzouRah]

I've played many more games on AS "hardcore" setting and I'm really loving the demo (still needs at least 5 min settings).

I got a penalty when the goalie came out to play the puck and I smashed right into him. The players definitely have more "weight" to them and you just can't stop on a dime. Again with the puck physics, really enjoying how the puck bounces around (no more basketball dump ins either).

No more flattening players with smaller players either. I love all the little presentation stuff, really draws me into the game. Hybrid icing.. pretty neat seeing it for the first time in the NHL series.

I've never used the "hardcore" setting, but I'm really liking the game play much more than the simulation setting I've always used in the past.

Can't wait for early access to the full game a week from Thursday I'm assuming?

[canucksss]

Ok...I played only 3 games last night because I didnt have much time due to work and family time. I played in AS/Hardcore

1. The uniforms flapped too much - even at the pregame (where you see both players standing and waiting to press the X, ps4, to start the game), a small movement of the player right/left the jersey flapping/waved like movement. Annoying.

2. NO NEUTRAL ZONE! - easy to get into opponent zone.

3. Penalties - in the 3 games, i saw 3 penalties (total!) - 1st game 0; 2nd game 1; 3rd game 2. Hopefully this could be addressed by the sliders. Honestly, I like to see many penalties that WE DECIDE to tone it down, instead of increasing the sliders to have more penalties called.

4. AI teammates are STUPID - player Im controlling broke his stick, so I switched to another player with the stick to get the puck. BUT the playr without the stick (controlled by AI) kicked the puck while I was few feet away. As the result, the puck went passed my player and went to the opposing team who scored! The player without the stick was not under pressure, no opposing player closed to him...I dont know why he kicked it.

5. No difference between goalie AI from 13.

6. No line difference - speed same for all players it seems.

I will try to play again...hoping for a different experience. But its really diminishing my hope to get this game AGAIN.


BTW, like the NBC presentation. Someone raised the issue, what if Canadian teams battle each other, I like to see HNIC. Likewise, I like the dynamic (low-med-high) camera.

[baseballboy13]

I have a PS4 and this game is honestly the best looking sports game I have ever played. The NBC presentation is absolutely beautiful and the commentators are pretty good considering it's the first year with these commentators. The crowd is definitely a step up from NHL 14. The puck physics are awesome. No more bouncy puck! The 12 player collision physics are pretty good even though it's cost me a few goals. Even without EASHL and GM Connected I think this game will be pretty good. The new goal celebrations are absolutely amazing. My only complaint is the jerseys. It looks like my player is wearing a flag instead of a jersey. Hopefully they tone that down a bit before the game releases. The new cameras are pretty good as well. As for the gameplay, it feels a whole lot better then 14. It feels a lot more natural and actually feels like playing a true hockey game. The deking is ok. All in all, this game looks like it's going to be a great one minus not having EASHL and GM Connected.

[TheSaints7]

I am really liking this, the presentation and gameplay are really authentic which I like. Definitely picking this one up.

[bigwill33]

Some more in-depth observations on gameplay:


-Your AI teammates are useless most of the time. The backside help on defense is nearly non-existant! If you go below the goal line to defend the puck carrier, race for a loose puck, or cut an angle down, you will get no help (NONE!) from the backside defender.

This leaves all sorts of easy one-timers, cross-crease chances, and free dishes to the slot for easy shots on goal. This has resulted in about 95% of the goals I have given up thus far.

It even gets worse on the PK. If you stray away from the box you are in as a defender do not expect any help from your AI teammates if you do not immediately make the play.

To see if it was just my play that was causing this I did an experiment. I took a winger while in the defensive zone and just shadowed my point man. The puck was in my zone for minutes at time as a result. The AI defenders were constantly beat to every loose puck, rebound, pass, or just turned around by being off balance by the puck carrier. If you are not doing it yourself you will not ever gain possession of the puck on defense. And if you are doing it yourself you had better be spot on or you will not get any help from your CPU teammates.

This, once again, almost makes playing defense like allowing a dog to hump your leg. It is usually better to just lay back and let them finish than to go on and be assertive and try and stop it yourself.



Also:


The poke check and loose pucks... they are once again in favor of the CPU team. The CPU can break up your passes or knock you off of the puck quite a bit, especially with how wonky the passing seems to be in the zones. Sometimes it seems like the game just decides where you will be passing for you rather than taking into account where you are aiming.

But that being said, the CPU once again gets the benefit of never being caught taking a mis-step to a puck that is loose or poked free. I would put it at around 8 to 9 times out of 10 if you happen to poke the puck off of the CPU player they will get it back or their teammate will rush over to rescue it.

Conversely, if you lose the puck I would say you might get possession around 2 to 3 out of 10 times. This is very similar to what we have seen in the past and it is not good.



-Pinning on the boards is the same if not worse. Try pinning the CPU when you have the angle and speed, it is still a hit or miss proposition. The same is not true for them on you. And once you are pinned you are not getting loose. You must kick the puck along the boards and pray your AI controlled CPU teammate is around or will be the first guy nearest the puck when doing so, because they rarely read this correctly and support properly in either zone.

The CPU can still get pinned and kick in directions that are not realistic. I pinned a player to the boards behind my net and they immediately kicked a perfect pass into the slot for a one-timer and goal.

What would be nice would be the ability to pin someone and then take control of, or call for, a second player to come in for support. One that could dig the puck loose etc.



-CPU goalies play the puck far too often! I know there is a slider for this usually in offline play, but it is quite hard to force face-offs in this demo.


-Setting your face-offs on aggressive is still a punishable strategy. It seems that some time ago when EA redid the face-off logic and play they made it so setting your formation to aggressive would reduce the % of winning the draw. Rather than to make it realistic and give more loose pucks or 50/50 or even give more options when setting your defense up for a face-off EA said if you want to win a draw for an immediate advantage you will have to spam that face-off good. This needs work. The system is completely busted, but they need to finish and complete the face-off stuff that they worked hard on several years ago. It is about 3/4th's complete and it is stale and needs to be caught up with one of the most important factors of a real hockey game, a face-off in the attacking zone (especially during special teams play).



-The lack of intuitiveness on the line change options is still a handicap for this series. Killing a long penalty and want to make sure you have that top line out there after that final dump or clear with under 20 seconds left in the major penalty? Well, you still have to wait until the penalty is over to select that line, or any other.

How unrealistic is it to only be able to choose between line 1 or line 2 on the PK and PP?

How about when you are finishing up your PP and want to get that checking line out so you don't get caught with a dog tired unit out there, but oh you can't! Wait for that door to open and watch as the freshest guy on the ice streaks behind your team because you are gassed because you were stuck cycling through only 2 lines for the past 5 minutes of near real-time power play action.


-Oh, and I mentioned it first and then have seen it mentioned a few other times, but to reiterate; How in the heck do you let the face buttons choose the settings pre-face-off, EA?? How this made it all the way into the game is beyond me. Want to change up your face-off strategy while you are watching stoppage in play? Well I would hope that you didn't want to hit X on PS4 or A on XBone cause you are skipping to the next part of the game, usually the face-off itself, and who knows what strategy you will have selected?! Brilliant! It is things like this that really is inexcusable.

-Not to mention that you must still scroll through the lines by button mashing the same button during gameplay! How many times have you over-cycled through the line that you really wanted to select while playing? Then you have to jam the button 4 more times to hopefully get the line you want. Sometimes you get a little bit of lag and it doesn't register at first. Fun times!

I said years ago to implement the line changes to the d-pad. Up is line 1, right is line 2, and so on. You could do it so many other ways that would be better. How about pulling the right trigger, that has no assignment, and that brings up a 4 button option (perhaps the face buttons) and then selecting your lines that way?

We have been choosing lines this way for 20 years now and it is old and antiquated! Streamline, EA. Less buttons are better.

The opposite goes for fighting. I don't want to accidentally trigger a fight trying to induce a pinning of my opponent to the boards. I don't want to accept a fight half way back up the ice because it is the same control as something else during gameplay! Put in a modifier to fight!!! You can't accidentally pull the goalie anymore with having to hit the left trigger and select, the same should be said for challenging and accepting fights! Fix this already, please.



Cameras:

-Can I get a damn lower camera that is pulled back just enough to show my point men when I am in the offensive zone? Passing back to the blue line on offense should not be a guessing game! Heck, allow me to make a custom camera that has the angle and zoom that I want. Let me customize it for all places on the ice! I know this would break online syncing, but at least give me the option for offline play.

-Let me cycle through the gameplay cameras with select or some other designated button like Madden does now. Simple enough. Less pausing the better.



Timeouts:

Same deal, EA. Allow me to call my timeout from on the ice. Left trigger and another button at the same time should bring up a prompt during a play stoppage "Call Timeout? Yes, hit _". Simple as that. Bam!



-I am really going to miss custom sounds in the next gen version. This isn't EA's fault, but it will certainly be a bummer not having that in there for now. Just a thought.


Serious question: Are you guys that are playing on the toughest setting getting slappers or shots from the points to go in at all? I cannot get my slapper past either goalie no matter what I try, so far. I am also not seeing hardly any shots from the point from the CPU against me. Wondering what your experiences are.

And why can't I pass where I want? My biggest attribute in real life, as well in the game, is my vision. I read plays and space well and can dish pretty nicely. This game really struggles to make the indirect passes look good, like the ones off of the boards coming out of the zone and into the neutral zone areas. I would like to bank a pass here and there, but it is not usually looking good.

I also struggle with what should be easily made passes in the offensive zone. I see a clear lane and a teammate and I do what I am used to doing with the sticks and it goes far from the intended target or is magically poked when there shouldn't even be a chance that this puck is to anyone but my teammate.

I still feel that EA should implement some sort of quick notification of who you are passing to, not a vision cone lol, but perhaps a small icon that would subtly light up when you are targeting them, just for your own sake. It wouldn't meant that the puck would always be spot on because ratings and other factors would impact it, and it should be an option to disable this, but just maybe to see something like "oh, I apparently am not hitting the exact angle needed on the sticks to get it back to the far point man and have selected the player in the slot, I better jam this back a bit further before I release the pass button so it has a chance of making it through." type of option.


Anyway, sorry to be long winded. I just was playing and these things come to my mind. I keep checking my mailbox everyday for that paycheck from EA or the contract offer to work on the game... no luck yet. Hahaha. Peace!

[Klayups]

As far as Hockey games go I'm about as causal as they come.

My first hockey game was actually NHL 95 I had it on my computer and would often play the Sega geneisis version as well. IT made me get interested in Hockey and i even ended up playing a bit of roller hockey growing up.

For the most part i havent followed hockey since the strike a few years after that.

I have always liked the fast pace of hockey and though I don't know the players and their skill sets i can appreciate athleticism of all forms, especially the skilled skaters and puck handlers.

That being said I went ahead and downloaded this NHL 15 demo, i didn't have any expectations as I'm not a hardcore hockey fan (NBA,Soccer, MLB hardcore) just a casual dude who is looking to get back into the sport (maybe) and wanting something fun to play on his down time after work.

This game's presentation is absolutely ridiculous, by far the best presentation i have ever seen in any sports game, the commentators, before and DURING (especially) really draw you into the game, they don't seem robotic at all.

The crowd noise is well done as well...it really really immerses you into the game, i really was bummed each period was only 3 minutes. (seems like the second period goes by faster than the others though, weirdly.)

The game play is cool, it's hockey (again I'm not a hardcore hockey fan) skating, passing all seemed responsive. I had a few penalties crashing into the goalie which was cool. I'm not adept at the puck handling at all other than spamming the stick around but i was able to score a couple goals just using knowledge of angles and passing the puck around.

Overall the demo was fun, i don't know if I'm going to buy this game day 1 but i think i will eventually buy it.

I've been really into the created player modes lately and i will most likely create a dude and see how far i can advance with him in the game.

Going to be a good year for sports games on next gen...good job NHL team...you may have just brought this old hockey fan back to the sport.