NHL 17 Beta Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here!

[briguy4747]

Quote: Originally Posted by clou14

Skating feels great, much smoother than 16. The goalies look amazing. 41(!!) new stances. Almost every Canuck have face scans, I'm not sure about the other teams. The create a team/arena is beautiful! I just wish we could import music like The Show. I went and pre ordered the game after about 2 hours of playtime

Hey Clou...Is the Canucks roster up to date ?
Erickson & Dudbranson included ?

[clou14]

Quote: Originally Posted by briguy4747

Hey Clou...Is the Canucks roster up to date ? Erickson & Dudbranson included ?

Gudbranson is there, but so is Vrbata (he looks amazing in this game) and Hamhuis. So it looks updated to the McCann trade but thats about it

[briguy4747]

Quote: Originally Posted by clou14

Gudbranson is there, but so is Vrbata (he looks amazing in this game) and Hamhuis. So it looks updated to the McCann trade but thats about it

That's not very up to date then...what about Louie Eriksson ?

[mikeq672]

Gameplay feels like the exact same damn thing. Pretty disappointed so far, hopefully it grows on me over the next week but as of now it looks like I might not be giving them one more year like I thought.

Everything I remember them saying about gameplay changes seemed very similar to last year.

[Al_Tito13]

I have to say that the game definitively feels better than last year and it's because in big part of some little improvements made to gameplay. Sometimes, a few little improvements put together can improve a game by a lot and this is the case for NHL 17. I just hope that the game won't be altered much, because I really believe that we have something good in our hands right now. I don't want to get too excited, I will definitely have to play more games, but I loved my experience so far. Here are my comments:

- Positioning is better and players really square up to the puck now.
- Hitting is improved and smaller contacts can separate the puck carrier from the puck.
- Poke checking is better, it's in a good spot right now.
- Stick collision detection is improved. Is it perfect? No, I would like even more, but it's really a lot better.
- Puck control seems a bit lower, which is good and it marries well with hitting, poke checking and stick collisions.
- Net battles look like a good addition, but didn't have enough time to test it fully yet.
- Skating is also a bit changed and feels quite good.
- Passing feels better.
- Boardplay isn't working bad using the button to pin the opponent against the board, but I hope that boardplay gets more improvements in the future, it's a pretty huge part of hockey but it isn't represented really well in the game.
- Goalies saves look better with their new positioning saves.
- Goalies seem better on poor wrap-around attempts.
- AI seems better, but I will have to play more to be sure about it.
- With a defensive skill stick, it would have been even better, but I'm sure it will be looked at in the future.

So far, good job EA! And I can't wait to play offline and test the all new 0-100 sliders.

[snc237]

So far I have only played vs and HUT. Unfortunately I have faced no one competent and my closest game has been 6-2. The game feels smoother overall. Goalies hug the post/protect the weak side much much better. Much harder to get onetimer off in the slot. A.I. In general is much improved (though neutral zone still weak). Mix that in with the puck being losser and the physics engine approved apon it makes for a much more skill based game. For all the people that say it's the same as last year it's not, if you play the game casually here and there you probably don't see all the changes and improvements. I have played around 500 games of online games in various modes and from what I see so far this is a really really good game.

[Nittany]

I haven't had a chance to play yet...but here's one huge question. EA hasn't fixed this in 5 years now.

I play 3 on 3 in EASHL only...so the AI is important. Whenever we are down a goal under 2 minutes to play and the other team is on the PP...the AI just dumps the puck. They never even attempt to make passes out of our zone and tie the game up. It's like EA codes the AI to dump the puck on the PK no matter what.

It's basic hockey! I have never understood why this hasn't been addressed in 5 plus years.

Does anyone know if this has been fixed?

Also....do the AI D-men immediately skate backwards when controlling the puck in your own zone? Instead of quick breakout passes...EA has them skate backwards first (usually behind the net) which ends any chance of a breakout. Drives us nuts!

Thanks!

[Flgamma1856]

Xbox one codes:
VWYPY-RG2JJ-R46X9-RC64M-R46CZ
JFPGH-JXMP2-WTHGJ-W4VFV-DPX9Z