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

[Brady2Moss81]

Quote: Originally Posted by NEOPARADIGM

Probably mentioned but they need to make the crowd reaction much louder for goals. Was much better last year and it wasn't even perfect last year either. For shame.

I made a thread about this and there were no replies. REALLY kills the immersion. I want the playoffs to sound like the playoffs. These sound like AHL preseason games.

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[Smallville102001]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brady2Moss81

I made a thread about this and there were no replies. REALLY kills the immersion. I want the playoffs to sound like the playoffs. These sound like AHL preseason games. Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

I have only played quick games but the crowd is to darn quit!

[bcruise]

So...this game's pretty good.

I picked it up when another title I was going to buy this year got delayed, and for the first few days I felt like I had made a terrible mistake. It still felt like the same non-stop North/South game this series has been for years. No flow to the game - it just didn't feel like hockey. On top of that, almost no penalties unless I was the one committing them. I was about to give up.

Then....the tuner. I actually had to initiate the Head to Head matchup search in order to trigger that - there was no prompt before the main menu like in Madden. But after I started playing a few games with that, everything changed. For the first time, I believe, ever in this series, I can actually feel the ebbs and flows of momentum. I can play good positional defense and be rewarded with realistic shot totals. I can draw penalties with good offense and, in desperation to prevent a goal, commit one to stop a surging CPU offense.

It's not perfect. It never will be by my standards because I want to be able to have this gameplay for full 20 minute periods. The AI is still hard-coded to be over-aggressive, charge through the neutral zone unless pressured and, at least on the defaults, be way too perfect in its execution. Even through slider tweaks to make the game "sloppier" that everyone knows, the longest I can go without getting shot totals out of whack is 10 minutes. I've always seen that as a compromise point in hockey games - half of a real period is at least enough time for me to get into the flow of the game.

One other thing....although I'm probably blissfully unaware of any problems in the mode, BAP on Authentic is playing AMAZING with the regular game settings I'm using. As long as I sim each shift that I'm not on the ice, the shot totals for the game look great - which means I'm not seeing excessive shots/goals while I AM on the ice. My shifts don't dominate the game, in other words - I feel like one small part of the whole team. The only thing is that, playing as my right-wing position, I have to cover down low a bit more often than I'd like to cover for an out-of-position D-man. Of course that leaves the point open and leads to trouble if I don't close out fast. But it's a small-ish price to pay to keep the shots down.

I'm going to post some videos of my gameplay in the Photography thread (yes, there are videos posted there too) so you guys can see what I'm talking about. Although this particular game was a bit too North/South for what I've been seeing in games, shot totals and penalties were dead-on. Also had its fair share of drama that I won't spoil. I'm also tossing around the idea of streaming my BAP.

I haven't had a hockey game that I've been able to truly enjoy since NHL2K3. My love of the actual sport has never decreased, but I've just had to take a long hiatus from its video game interpretation because I felt it had the wrong vision. It's not there yet - it's not close....but this is real progress IMO.

[jake19ny]

Couple positive little things I have noticed since I have gotten about a dozen offline games in.
CPU goes offsides
CPU dumps and chases
CPU ices puck
Pucks leave the rink a bit more
All those things seemed to be non existent in previous releases.
Also in case anyone missed it because it was in a thread that kind of got buried, move puck control up not down to have more lose pucks. It's worded odd but if you read what it says in the slider description it does let you know. It's also been tested and proven. I wouldnt max it out because then every time you touch a guy the puck cones lose and this might reduce penalties. Around 3 or 4 is good and reduces CPU shots which were way to many. I wish EA were more clear and consistent with slider description. It's weird how some have to moved down to increase things and some up to decrease things.

[MizzouRah]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake19ny

Couple positive little things I have noticed since I have gotten about a dozen offline games in. CPU goes offsides CPU dumps and chases CPU ices puck Pucks leave the rink a bit more All those things seemed to be non existent in previous releases.

Agreed! Much more stoppages due to these things this year, which is nice.

[bad_philanthropy]

Pretty big changes in the newest tuner. Skating feels much tighter and the cpu ping-ponging seems gone.

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

Pretty big changes in the newest tuner. Skating feels much tighter and the cpu ping-ponging seems gone.

Thanks for the heads up. Noticed that the old one (that I based my impressions on) isn't selectable anymore so hopefully nothing got messed up.

[jake19ny]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

Pretty big changes in the newest tuner. Skating feels much tighter and the cpu ping-ponging seems gone.

Is this a recent tuner? I'm not hone to check. If it is, is it 1.02? I don't like when they overwrite old tuners in case I prefer an older one. I thinkn it was NHL 14 they overwrote a tuner that I was using, that was excellent, to make online improvements, and wrecked it. fortunately I was able to go back to an older one but it wasn't as good.