NHL 16 Available Today For Xbox One & PlayStation 4, Post Your Impressions

[Splitter77]

after playing thisvall weekend.
this game is just like last year.

only difference is the sim speed is faster.
i have also noticed maybe one new animation.

how you cannot view any boxscores from the calendar is baffling. this is 2015.

players all play the same. goalie all look the same. team all rated the same.

no stoppages. no goalie whistle stops. no pucks out of play.

time for a total rebuild on this game boys

[schlitz73]

Quote: Originally Posted by BL8001

Something I am not liking at all and the same thing runs rampant in the fifa series when you play the cpu on different difficulties. I played hut on rookie, the starting offline season. My players did what the cpu players do on pro and above, skate to the net and park and wait for the tap in while the cpu defenders cannot knock them off their spot. You get to enjoy that on rookie level. So what they do on pro and above is clog the slot, your players never "post" up and they stay moving, suspiciously moving away from the puck. This is EA's stupid way of making the game more difficult for the user. I hate with a passion that ea feels a need to nerf your defense but also dumb down your players too as you raise difficulty. Just make the cpu smarter, leave my team alone.

I don't know why I was surprised when this occurred to me too today. It is exactly like Madden. WHen you bump up the difficulty there the CPU gets better and your team gets way worse. Same thing here. My rookie level HUT games I can barely MISS a shot. Scored more than 20 goals each in the last two games on rookie and only lost 2 faceoffs all game. The one game on Pro and I couldn't win a faceoff until the third period, passes were missing players by a mile, shots kept going wide or ringing off the post and my team misfired on more than half of my one timer attempts.

I can't imagine how horrible they would play on a harder level because Pro was terrible. Pro on HUT and even BaGM feels WAY harder than in BaP where its challenging but doesn't turn your teammates into a pile of useless braindead morons.

[Smallville102001]

I didn't play last years game other then the demo but I thought last years demo graphics didn't look that good. I just got this game on Friday and have yet to really have much time to play it really only played a little and messed around with the on the ice trainer but man the graphics are great easily better then mlb, madden but not has good has NBA 2k. This is only like the 4th game this gen to blow me away graphic wise so far. The last NHL game I got was 13 more of a causal hockey guy has I only really only watch the sharks so I don't know a lot about hockey and really only get hockey games once ever sever years.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by FBeaule04

This game is just like the Toronto Maple Leafs. Until they figure that you need people who eat hockey, sleep hockey, breath hockey, ah, and most importantly, knows hockey, what youre going to see is a game that can make it some way, but never will have the tools to win it all. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, it's playable and enjoyable in some way, but it's a game with so many obvious holes that you have to wonder what people are thinking. To me, having a girl with a sign saying she want's to marry me while after 3 years we still don't have 5 players goal celebration on the ice is baffling. Feels like trading Raycroft for Rask. NHL 16 to me is a 6/10. Some games feels like 8 some like 4. Not bad, but not close to NBA 2K and MLB The Show.

I don't think it's a matter of the team not knowing hockey. I don't doubt most of the guys they hire probably love the sport as much as most here do.

I think the issue is the direction EA itself wants the game to head in. They see the real money being made in offline sports, just in the same way a lot of companies shifted towards a focus on DLC, much to the detriment of their initial product. EA's focus is on making money, and those are the marching orders I think the development team gets.
I'm sure they would love to have a lot of the same things we want, but when you've only got 3/4 of a calendar year to work on the game, while the other 1/4 is spent spit-balling ideas, and supporting the previous release, you're pretty handcuffed in what you can do.
I have yet to play NHL 16, and I easily passed on NHL 15. I'm hoping to rent it someday, but for now, Redbox doesn't carry it, and I've seen nothing to warrant my dropping $60 on the thing.

I just wish another company would step up to the plate and challenge EA. There's no loss there. EA has to adjust it's game to counter challenges from the other company, and we hopefully get a company more focused on the core gameplay, than marketing it's online modes for the sake of getting the consumer to plop down more and more money each month. Sadly, with the hockey market being pretty thin already, I just don't see a company putting the resources into doing it. A startup company likely couldn't afford the NHL licensing, and most other major sports game companies probably don't see much profit in trying to split the fanbase of an established title.

[onlybygrace]

Ok, I'll bite...I've heard enough negative comments to completely baffle me as to how so many have so much negative to say.

I rented NHL 16 when a co-worker let me borrow his ps4 and I was completely impressed with the game after my slider adjustments. I liked and could feel the player separation, thought the presentation was brilliant, the arena atmosphere was authentic and electrifying, and generally came away totally impressed. No play stoppages or pucks going out of play? I feel like many of the negative impressions I'm reading bare no resemblance to the game I played.

Is it perfect? It never will be, but I think they've laid a killer foundation for the future.

It's the best hockey game I've ever played. A system seller, imo.

[jake19ny]

Quote: Originally Posted by onlybygrace

Ok, I'll bite...I've heard enough negative comments to completely baffle me as to how so many have so much negative to say. I rented NHL 16 when a co-worker let me borrow his ps4 and I was completely impressed with the game after my slider adjustments. I liked and could feel the player separation, thought the presentation was brilliant, the arena atmosphere was authentic and electrifying, and generally came away totally impressed. No play stoppages or pucks going out of play? I feel like many of the negative impressions I'm reading bare no resemblance to the game I played. Is it perfect? It never will be, but I think they've laid a killer foundation for the future. It's the best hockey game I've ever played. A system seller, imo.

Have to agree. I can think of plenty wrong with it but I think they have taken a step in positive direction and I have the game playing really well for me now. The only thing I may disagree with is the player separation, that I wish they did a lot better as I'm scoring way to much with my 3rd and 4th lines. hopefully the roster makers find a way to share the roisters because that usually helps in the player separation department. Like you said its not perfect and never will be but I'm going to enjoy being able to play a season again. lets hope they don't release a tuner for online that jacks up offline play like they have done in past releases. On a side note I continue to find little things that impress me. I just realized, after all these years they finally fixed the CPU goalie pull. they actually pull the goalie with around a minute left instead of 20 seconds like years past,

[nddurst]

I caved and bought NHL 16 last week, and was able to get in a few 'play now' games against the cpu over the weekend. As a disclaimer, I haven't bought this game since NHL 12. I played NHL 14 just a handful of times on old-gen. So this was my first experience with the series on next-gen systems (PS4).

I played on all-star/hardcore settings (although I messed a bit with the sliders a little) on 8-10 minute periods.

My impressions match many of those who have already posted in this thread, but here is my take on NHL 16 in a nutshell:

A good start.

It is by far the best NHL game I have played (granted I didn't play '13 or '15 at all). There are still some legacy issues, and the AI is still hit or miss, but overall this is a good game and can be built upon for future releases to make the game excellent.

The Good:
-Gameplay is more sloppy, more loose pucks and battles for possession
-Graphics and presentation are stellar. The arenas look fantastic.
-Puck and player physics seem improved quite a bit. Lots of random puck bounces off legs, deflections off sticks, etc.
-The defensive AI is improved. Players break up passes, get their sticks into the lanes and blocks more shots
-Setting up in the offensive zone and cycling the puck (especially on the power play) is a much larger part of the game now
-There is SOME player separation. I do feel different handling the puck with a player like Pavel Datsyuk as opposed to Luke Glendening. Same goes for defending against the cpu.

The Bad:
-Commentary lacks much enthusiasm, and gets stale quickly
-AI defenders still act clueless at times, and don't play with any urgency when it matters most
-Neutral zone pressure is still basically non-existent. It is much too easy to gain the offensive zone.
-CPU players don't dump the puck from the NZ enough. Too much back and forth skating waiting for the perfect opportunity to skate the puck into the zone.
-CPU goalies are super human at times (more on goalies below)
-CPU has the ability to perform quick tape-to-tape passing too easily
-Board play needs improvement. It happens too seldom and doesn't involve enough players. Plus it doesn't function in a realistic way.
-Penalties (even with maxed sliders) are seldom
-Auto line change logic needs to be tweaked. The AI coach leaves players on the ice for way too long
-The AI offense-to-forecheck transition needs tweaking as well. Your players give up possession too easily and go into forecheck 'mode' (leave the zone and assume their forechecking formation) too early when there is a change of possession deep in the attacking zone. In my non-expert opinion, any time there is a change of possession BEHIND the red goal line (in most cases) your team should still be in 'offense' mode, trying to fight to keep the puck deep.
-Offensive AI needs to crash the net more often when there is a shot on goal, especially on the rush.

The Ugly:
-Goalies are sometimes laughable. They simply need to be rebuilt for NHL 17. From knocking in pucks that sit along the goal line to superhuman saves being made to make up for poor positioning and movement, I think goalies are the most disappointing part of the game.

Again these impressions are based soley on about 7 or 8 games in 'play now' mode against the cpu. Sliders-wise, I dropped player acceleration to 0 for both human and cpu and it seemed to make the gameplay slightly better. I also maxed penalty sliders as stated above along with the aggression sliders, with little effect on penalties which is an issue.

Overall, this is a good game. Not bad, not great. It's good.

[billman29]

Something I noticed last year that still hasn't been fixed

the banner farthest to the right is inaccurate, as it should read ''NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS 05 - 06'' not ''95 - 96''