NHL 17 Beta Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here!

[speedtrucker]

Again another 5 games last night and only 1 game with >3 goals, a 2-1 OT win. The other 5 were 7-5, 3-6, 1-4, 5-2, 6-5...

The AI goalies have more animations but they are constantly being beaten with high cross-body shots on fly-bys and extremely soft wristers from the blue-line.

Additionally the new tactic we saw is this;
Face-off tie-up
Outside winger tries to win the tie-up
Inside winger skates backwards to far post.
If outside winger wins puck- perfect tape-to-tape pass
Goalie is so out of position outside winger has easy open goal.
We had maybe 1/3 of the goals against us scored this way, despite every attempt to block the passes.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by Simple Mathematics

Thank you for this great review. I am an offline/franchise gamer as well, so this was very useful for me. From what I am gathering from most of the reviews, the small improvements are very welcomed, but it doesn't seem like they made that large of a difference. I am still very interested to see what the 100-point sliders can do. That is the major selling point for me this year.

Same here. I've been disappointed in the videos I've seen so far. Too much braindead AI back on defense, still.

But, the sliders have the potential to really shape the game.

[brandon27]

Quote: Originally Posted by speedtrucker

Again another 5 games last night and only 1 game with >3 goals, a 2-1 OT win. The other 5 were 7-5, 3-6, 1-4, 5-2, 6-5... The AI goalies have more animations but they are constantly being beaten with high cross-body shots on fly-bys and extremely soft wristers from the blue-line. Additionally the new tactic we saw is this; Face-off tie-up Outside winger tries to win the tie-up Inside winger skates backwards to far post. If outside winger wins puck- perfect tape-to-tape pass Goalie is so out of position outside winger has easy open goal. We had maybe 1/3 of the goals against us scored this way, despite every attempt to block the passes.

This was money last year too.

[nddurst]

For me, this beta is still not enough of a replication of real NHL hockey for me to justify buying this game.

Neutral zone pressure is still mostly non-existent.

Defensive AI is still lacking, albeit improved, and the lack of proper board play and tie ups (in places other than in front of the net) really kill the realism for me.

I simply have no fun playing a game that is skate north, shot attempt. Skate south, shot attempt. Repeat until game is over.

It's possible the plethora of sliders (if they work) could fix some of these issues, but until I see/read proof of that being the case, NHL 17 will unfortunately be a pass for me. That would be 4 out of the past 5 iterations I would not be purchasing. (I broke down and bought NHL 16 last year, and stopped playing after about 2 weeks.)

I should add that I play primarily offline against the AI. I don't care for playing this game online.

[speedtrucker]

Quote: Originally Posted by brandon27

This was money last year too.

Strange, guess our defense was just better in 16 because we didn't have this frequency of face off goals.

On a separate note, our top scorer in 16 had 80-ish goals in around 20 seasons of EASHL. He has almost 40 in about 20 games in the beta EASHL.

[Caniac94]

Quote: Originally Posted by nddurst

For me, this beta is still not enough of a replication of real NHL hockey for me to justify buying this game. Neutral zone pressure is still mostly non-existent. Defensive AI is still lacking, albeit improved, and the lack of proper board play and tie ups (in places other than in front of the net) really kill the realism for me. I simply have no fun playing a game that is skate north, shot attempt. Skate south, shot attempt. Repeat until game is over.

This is what I was afraid of and if that's the case this will definitely not be a buy for me at least not initially. I'm mainly an offline gamer but I would like to give EASHL a try this year since I'll be moving to a place with great internet next week. Aside from that I don't see any reason to get the game this year. Without neutral zone pressure and AI that doesn't properly know how defend and gap up it's pretty useless for me to play. There's a lot of simple things missing from this game that resembles real world hockey that could be a game changing thing.

[Gerg04]

I love the unpredictability of passes/lose and bouncing pucks. While not perfect its way better than in the past.

Repeating myself here but it's worth it: the offensive zone play back against the blue line is phenomenal. Should've been fixed long ago, yes, still very well-done and welcomed.

Not a perfect game. Definitely an improved and different game from 16'.

Sadly, for all the improvements, the AI is still horrendous at times.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[brandon27]

Quote: Originally Posted by speedtrucker

Strange, guess our defense was just better in 16 because we didn't have this frequency of face off goals. On a separate note, our top scorer in 16 had 80-ish goals in around 20 seasons of EASHL. He has almost 40 in about 20 games in the beta EASHL.

I should have clarified though... it was money against the CPU last year too. It got to the point where if you had a good faceoff man, you'd just push forward, the winger sweeps in to get the puck you can either pass it off to the other winger, or a quick deek on the goalie and it was in the back of the net on a regular occurrence while the D men would just spectate. I assume you're talking about online though. However I've done it just as easy in HUT games against the CPU. The D is a bit more effective this year, but not much.