NHL 16: Official Gameplay Balance Video, Trailer and Blog

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by kyussmanchu

I said it after the fiasco called NHL15 last year, I'll say it again. The entire DEV team needs to be re-assigned to new projects (or fired. Sorry, but if you release piss-poor products year after year, you deserve it) and the NHL franchise should get shipped off to a whole new DEV team and get re-built from the ground up. Take a year or two off and give the fans the game they have been asking for. It's not rocket science! Sorry, but until this happens, we are going see the same game year after year. They have gotten complacent and lazy in regards to innovation and instead focus on useless features like goalie fights and Youpee! I hate to be negative, but what real choice do I have?

Honestly, I get the feeling it's more of an issue with the direction EA wants to take the series, not so much the development team. At the end of the day, they're given their directives, and they have to meet those. They may want to make all of the things work that we do, but without the approval and funding from up high, they likely won't get the time to do so.

HUT is making EA a killing, and it doesn't seem to be a surprise that that's where 80% of their focus seems to turn. Online balance and play has become a huge factor, because HUT has to work for them. Instead of getting 60 for an offline gamer, they get 60+ for HUT games, and money talks.

I just wish a different company would take a crack at an NHL game. Someone with The Show's dedication to gameplay and realism would be great, and there's honestly never been a better time to try and split the market.

[canucksss]

Quote: Originally Posted by actionhank

Honestly, I get the feeling it's more of an issue with the direction EA wants to take the series, not so much the development team. At the end of the day, they're given their directives, and they have to meet those. They may want to make all of the things work that we do, but without the approval and funding from up high, they likely won't get the time to do so. HUT is making EA a killing, and it doesn't seem to be a surprise that that's where 80% of their focus seems to turn. Online balance and play has become a huge factor, because HUT has to work for them. Instead of getting 60 for an offline gamer, they get 60+ for HUT games, and money talks. I just wish a different company would take a crack at an NHL game. Someone with The Show's dedication to gameplay and realism would be great, and there's honestly never been a better time to try and split the market.

I believe the same thing, EA is doing great if they are heading to that direction. Unfortunately, I am more of an offline game (mainly BaGM). I love to play NHL game, but to pay for the full price of $60 with lack luster offline gameplay and team/player differentiation is insane. I would rather play the Eastside Hockey. Yea technically I am not the one skating and shooting the puck, but its management galore. Honestly, if EA does not want to improve in the mode I want, I'll just bring my money elsewhere.

I hope another team comes along and focus on the offline gaming and the mode I do care about before I hung up my skates (too old to play video games ).

[bigwill33]

Yeah, and I think that we are still the minority here at OS. The average gamer doesn't care about, or probably even want, all of the realism and sim that we are crying for.

Once EA puts back in all the missing game modes there will be a good chuck of people that will be overjoyed or at least satisfied.

What we want is real change and that requires a ton of work. Without anyone to really push them to do it, whether it be EA as a company or the development team, then we will continue to see legacy issues and such.

My hope is that they at least try and tune this game to be more simulation style, but allow for sliders and settings to make it as arcade as some people might like it. That is seemingly what companies like SCEA are doing with games like MLB the Show. If you get a great core game that plays realistic then you can do so much more from there than if you keep rehashing this arcade stuff year-after-year.

I want another game to help push EA's hand. To keep things moving forward and to combat stagnation. But truth be told, I liked EA's NHL game way more than any 2k game. If you could combine them, or their best aspects, you would have a pretty damn good game. But the important thing about 2k making a game was that EA couldn't rest. They each pushed each other to innovate. And I really miss that. Cause this game play is essentially going to be NHL 12 for the 5th straight year now.

[DJ NEO]

I think Ea sports should just build/mimic real physics engine that drives gameplay, not script scenarios and force everything to match those scenarios.

Thats why these games looks so oldschool and shallow.
I want organic game, not repetetive.

[iaxy]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

You know how in hockey you often see players extend their arms to impede another player's momentum? There is nothing like that in this game. Playing defense I always watch a puck carriers chest in a 1-1 situation. If he and I both have help I try and close the gap nearest the blue line and keep my stick on the ice. If he makes a move or a loose puck deke I match his body, all while staring at his chest because it won't lie or deceive me in which direction his body is going to go. Often they skate into me and I body up on them and ride them out of the play, usually off of the puck. Sometimes they try and drag the puck through me and I can get my feet moved fast enough to usually stop it, but even if I miss I have their body. As long as I don't impede them without the puck for more than a second nobody is calling interference because that is how you are taught to play defense. None of that is replicated within this franchise's hockey experience. The counter, as a puck carrier, is to sometimes chip it around your defender along the boards and sort of slingshot yourself by them as they backpedal. This is a controlled dump for a common zone entry in hockey. This is also nowhere to be seen in the NHL. In these pictures that DJ Neo has captured to show how bad the warping is and sticks going through the boards, is a perfect example of how defenders would extend an arm to shove a puck carrier or transition their weight. Knocking a puck carrier off balance opens them up for a poke check or stick lift, or even a stick pin down (which EA has no concept of). Until they figure out a way to add these important subtleties to this series this game will just resemble something that is not true hockey. I can't even think of an analogy. Players that just bump into each other or completely crush each other with hits is not the way hockey is played. There is a method to contact. It is to establish space and momentum, not just to keep the puck away from the net. Hockey is a game of angles and winning space to gain an angle is vital. In EA's hockey you skate straight up the boards and look for passing lanes towards the middle, every time. Often the most simple of passes in real life are the hardest to make in this game, for some reason. Seeing a guy skating 4 to 7 feet in front of your guy and trying to get him the puck is an adventure. These are passes I can make with ease in real life. But if you need to backhand a pass up the boards, or out of the zone, without transitioning your weight as you really would, then EA seems to think that this is amazingly easy to perform. Apparently all guys have wrist and forearms of the hulk. The physics in 15 are pretty wonky, too. Pucks don't go out of play off of sticks, goalies, or anything like you would normally see when in the offensive zone. I have also seen pucks that are passed from the defensive end out of the zone hit the boards in the neutral zone and then take off with even more momentum. As if the boards pushed the puck forward with even more force than it came into the boards with. Then the puck outraces everyone for an icing because of this slingshot physics that apparently NASA gave EA? Point is, this game is lacking a lot of things. And with how behind they were after taking a year off on next gen from releasing a game to putting out a half-finished product in NHL 15, EA is struggling just to get all of the modes and features that were in last generation's iterations. Everything that I have mentioned should have been started to be addressed by now with where this game was 5 years ago. Instead they spin their wheels and focus on HUT or other parts of the game that don't fix or address their legacy issues. The fact that they keep "refining" the skating should be a red flag, not a selling point. They can't seem to grasp the one concept that is uniform throughout the sport. They can't model different strides or skating styles based on individual players, either. I am glad that they are trying to fix these issues, but at the same time we are stuck with antiquated goaltender animations, a lack of true contact and neutral zone play, and a face-off system that hasn't been touched in half of a decade. Not to mention, pages and pages of things that have been taken out of this series that we don't know if we will ever get back in.

Could not have said it any better. All that blurb around accurate arenas, mascots, beards is only a distraction from the fundamental objective - which should be gameplay. Until EA put gameplay at the heart of the franchise, this game will always be as exciting as a 2 day old rewarmed microwaved soup.

[jake19ny]

I don't think the Dev team is incompetent I think they are doing what sells not what we a small minority of hardcore hockey fans want. HUT sells and online gaming is the big thing. Casual gamers want to jump in a feel like they can compete right away. Even casual offline gamers want a more arcade like experience. It's not just NHL series I haven't played MADDEN in years. Just like money goals there are money plays in MADDEN. I saw the same garbage year after year just better looking garbage. The coaching AI was bad in Madden as well and player seperation was better than NHL but still poorly done. The only sports game in my opinion that you can tweak to play realistic is The Show. I don't play NBA games so can't speak to that. The Show can be tweaked to play realistic or arcadey I wish the NHL series would do that but I think that would require starting the engine from scratch and that's not happening anytime soon. In fairness I think we sometimes have an unrealistic expectation. Hockey and Football are sports that have a lot of players moving very fast and relying on each other to make things happen. It's quick thinking human action and reaction that I think is very hard to duplicate in a video game.

[nddurst]

There's a simple issue playing out here.

EA Sports is continually trying to adapt the game of hockey to be palatable to the casual fan/gamer. It should be the other way around. You should be trying to push the casual gamer to learn about hockey and adapt to the real life nuances of the game. Make the product represent its sport.

They've got it backwards.

[snc237]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheCloser

If "not bad" is your standard of quality then there is serious cause for concern. Just because the madden team did a poor job doesn't mean the nhl team will do a poor job. 2k did a solid job with the nba franchise. They are the leaders in sports game graphics, commentary, and atmosphere.

Yes cause the team that had one fourth the budget as madden will be able to out do them just like that.