A Somewhat Comprehensive List of Game Play Flaws in NHL 15 for Next Gen Systems.

[bigwill33]

The following issues have been compiled after playing well over 200 online games and dozens of offline games against the CPU in NHL 15 for Xbox One and PS4. Some of these are carried over from last years lists, but still apply for NHL 15.

Back again for NHL 15 (Next Gen) is my personal grievances of issues plaguing the game play side of the game. This is not a list of bugs and glitches as much as it is problems with the gameplay. Some of these issues are deliberately programmed into the game in the hopes of improving the gameplay. For that reason they are not to be considered bugs or glitches, so please do not mistake the two. This list will do little to touch on the aesthetics of the series or graphical aspects. It also touches very little on the slider sets as those are not touchable for online play. Nor will it touch on rosters, equipment, front end aspects such as broadcasting and music. Those are all separate issues that have their own problems, but are for another time.

*Disclaimer
If you are a fan of the series, or someone that enjoys the gameplay in these modes, I would suggest that you proceed no further in reading this. Enjoy what you have and be happy. However, if you are a developer of the game, or someone that is less than enthused with the direction of the series, then I encourage you to read-on and add to this list or pass it along to wherever it may need to reach to help improve the overall product. I will also be adding on to it as more things pop-up or come to mind.

In no particular order:

• Angles mean very little in this game. It is hard to gain a clear-cut and uninhibited breakaway, no matter how far ahead of the defense that you might be, because angles don’t seem to matter. Catching-up and disrupting the shot is done with relative ease. Furthermore, it when a defensemen gets “walked” or turned around in the defensive zone the attacking player cannot punish them in a realistic manner because of the lack of meaning with turning your players around. This means you can take a longer route or the wrong route and still be rewarded.
  
• Pucks rarely go out of play. After several hundreds of games played I can count on two hands how man pucks have gone over the end-board and glass from a deflected shot off of a stick or the goalie.
  
  
• Players easily glove down slap shots on attempted clears with their gloves.
  
  
• No injuries really seem to result from blocking shots.
  
  
• It is impossible to change lines and poke check at the same time. Yes, you read that right. It is 2015 and if you want to change lines without the puck (after a dump-in) or happen to lose the puck you cannot execute an attempted poke check on the puck because it will adjust the strategies instead.
  
  
• Deking leaves the defender helpless in an unrealistic manner. It is impossible to rub-out or cut off the puck carrier on loose puck dekes. It is just as difficult to play the puck in those situations. Even in keeping in your lane and sweeping your stick results in the puck going through the stick. Very unrealistic.
  
  
• The backside defender constantly loses his man. The result is an abundance of scoring chances down low, especially by the CPU. This is even more evident when the strong side defender is being human controlled.
  
  
• Goalies play their angles horribly. They were supposed to make it so that goalies now read and react to situations depending on the amount of threats attacking the zone. But a short side goal is still easy to pull-off even when the attacking player is alone and coming down from the circles on the wing and with the inside of the ice being contained and cutoff by the defending player. In real life there would be no reason for a goalie to shade off of that post at all. Furthermore they would probably come out and cutoff that angle to take away a week scoring opportunity. But in NHL 15 this shot is performed with ease, especially with a highly rated shooter.
  
  
• Dekes can pretty much be performed by any player regardless of their ratings or skill set.
  
  
• You still have to pause to call a timeout. How is it that there isn't a modifier option to bring up a sub menu during stoppages in play that might allow you to call timeouts or adjust line personnel on the fly?
  
  
• Goalies still pass the puck from a covered position with amazing accuracy and unrealistic results. Often a goalie can throw a puck through the opposing player and through potential harm. The result is that it is rarely a smart move to play realistic and cover the puck for a whistle and defensive zone face-off. This means more end-to-end hockey and is completely un-sim.
  
  
• When your center is tied-up on a face-off you are unable to switch off of that player to control another player. This results in a huge disadvantage for the defensive team because you cannot set your players into proper positions with being forced to control a tied-up player.
  
  
• A human player that sets their controller down will still be able to possess the puck and the amount of difficulty that is in place to knock them off of the puck or free the puck from their stick is insane! Also, the computer will actually play better and more aggressive in these instances. When you are playing with a true man advantage online because your opponent isn't even playing or controlling his player the game should not reward them!
  
  
• Breaking out up the boards is as easy as ever. Zone entry along the sides of the rink is still super easy. It is also way too easy to stay wide in the zone and get behind the net. Yet it is nearly impossible to setup a real cycle down low.
  
  
• Passing to the points can be a nightmare. How many times have you accidentally and inexplicably threw the puck back down the length of the ice when it should have been an easy pass back to the point man?
  
  
• Changing guys on defense is cumbersome and clunky. If you like to control the third guy high when getting back in transition you will often have to cycle through both defenders multiple times before you can select a forward that is supposed to be getting back and cutting off the center of the rink. Why is there not a modifier that allows us to select any player on defense such as a basketball game would feature?
  
  
• It is not a viable option to flip pucks off of the boards or chip pucks out of the zone or in deep on the attack. In real hockey this tactic is often used by players, but in the NHL series the boards are nearly just for aesthetics in most cases. Banking passes has also essentially been removed from the game, especially when breaking-out of the zone.
  
  
• It is also very hard to control the touch on passes. Passes seem to be predetermined in the amount of speed and pressure that are applied to them. This takes skill and the human element out of the game.
  
  
• There is no way of tying up an opponent. The old way was awful, but now there is no option whatsoever. Defenders are taught at a young age to win the battle with you stick on the ice. Lifting an opponents stick and holding it up to prevent reception of a pass or a rebound attempt is often used when playing defense. NHL 15 has no instances of these occurrences.
  
  
• Boxing out opponents from rebounds is pretty useless. They should not be glued together as in past NHL games by EA, but at the same time there needs to be something in place to body out an opponent driving towards the net.
  
  
• Pinning yourself or an opponent to the boards has received no attention and remains an eyesore and unrealistic. It is impossible to check someone off of the puck that has pinned themselves to the boards.
  
  
• The game is programmed to have little understanding of what actually constitutes a hit from behind or boarding.
  
  
• Icing is often wrongly called in NHL 15. You can have a defender standing two feet from the end line and if they dummy the play the game will still call for an icing. In real life the icing would of course have been waived off.
  
  
• Offside is not always properly displayed making it hard to tell if you still need to tag-up behind the blue line before attempting to play the puck in the offensive zone.
  
  
• The wrong players still take face-offs. You cannot choose which player takes a face-off in any situation other than to choose which line is out on the ice. The computer will decide which player will take the draw and it is not ratings or position based.
  
  
• The face-off system as a whole is outdated and needs reworked. There needs to be more randomness and loose pucks during face-offs and more jostling for position. A setting on “Simulation style” should allow users and CPU centermen to be kicked out of the face-off circle if they attempt to cheat the draw repeatedly.
  
  
• Penalties are limited in what can be called. Slashing is wrong in that it is called when a player attempts a stick lift. There are a numerous amount of penalties that are called on a nightly basis in the real NHL that have never even been implemented into the video game NHL series.
  
  
• Scoring from slapshots from the point is a tad difficult to really do. It shouldn't be easy, but defenders can score from near the blue line with a clear lane once in a while, and even more with traffic in front.
  
  
• There is no description of what injuries are during a game or options to bring a player back or sit them for online play.
  
  
• Playing the puck with a high stick is not an option other than on controversial goals.
  
  
• If a player shoots the puck at the goal after a whistle and the option to fight appears on the screen the team with the option cannot initiate that fight if the line change or tactics box is open on the screen.
  
  
• Goalies can’t drop their sticks.
  
  
• There seems to be little rhyme or reason as to what a disallowed goal entails when dealing with a kicked-in puck or gloved-in puck. Watching the replay numerous times seems to be inconsequential as to what the call on the ice will end up being because it just seems to be at random as to whether it is a clean goal or a disallowed goal.
  
  
• Pretty much all goalies play the same.
  
  
• Ratings really just allow goalies to warp without pushing off in an unrealistic manner more than anything.
  
  
• Goalies will make desperation save after desperation save, yet the same money goals from NHL 07 are in the game.
  
  
• It is way too difficult to crash the net and score via a rebound or loose puck on the edge of, or within, the crease. It is almost as if your stick won’t connect with the puck or shoot when in close to a goalie.
  
  
• There is a well documented lack of physics in play when a puck should be affected by a stick. Often the puck will warp to a players stick and poking or placing your defenders stick around the offensive players stick or the puck yields no result as ghosting occurs.
  
  
• Winning a face-off while on the penalty kill in your own zone often results in an easy zone exit and subsequent transition so that the killing team can possess the puck and even go on the attack with a 2 on 2 break. CPU players have no clue on what lanes to clog or angles to play to breakup these exit passes.
  
  
• The menu system is horrible and cumbersome. Some of the worst menus in sports gaming history. Buried in the menus are features and functions that are often used and needed, but at the forefront there is HUT everything. This is clearly done in attempt to milk the cash cow that is HUT.
  
  
• Shots can be 35-7 with time on attack routinely being 8mins to 1min and the score will be 2-1 in favor of the team team being outplayed, or something similar. The team can cycle and complete cross-crease passes that should be tap-ins in real life because the opposing human players are so out of position, but the AI goalie will go post-to-post so fast that they often get over to the other side before the pass even arrives.
  
  
• Goalie AI has been relatively untouched for several years now.
  
  
• Goalie movements are stiff and the forcefield around a goalie prevents realistic results that you would see in a real hockey game. There are no garbage goals where players dig for loose pucks and rebounds from point blank. Instead the user is forced to spam the poke check button near the net in the hopes to get a goal when the puck lays near the crease with a goalie in net.
  
  
• Instead of changing the ways a goalie plays EA has seemingly designed them to just be quicker and read plays faster to improve their save percentages. The results mean that real hockey plays and intelligent strategy take a back seat to cheese shots and other wonky money goals. (Every player has a repertoire of one or two moves that they try to get to when in need of a goal, it becomes a game of who can stop the cheese shots better when playing online in any mode)
  
  
• Fights occur or are offered on big hits that often result in an injury. Against the AI when playing the cpu a fight will occur automatically when a human player lands a big hit on a player, regardless of the players involved. This is not only completely unrealistic, but it would likely result in more injuries and suspensions in a real situation.
  
  
• Players are often accidentally checked by simply skating. Collisions can occur all over the ice just by skating purposefully into a player without the puck. No interference will be called so long as the player doesn't flick the right (check) stick.
  
  
• Hitting in general is still very unrealistic. Players, especially cpu players, can obliterate a skater that they would have no possibility of touching in real life. For instance, a player that has gotten behind the defense with the puck is often not only caught from behind with some magical catch-up speed, but then can be annihilated. In order for that to happen in real life physics would have to occur in which the speed and force of the player trying to catch up is so much greater than the player that is past them that they would almost need to be standing completely still to get the leverage to lay any type of hit that is seen in this game.
  
  
• Rarely is dumping and chasing on the CPU AI a result that is needed or even warranted in the game.
  
  
• Seemingly no way to manually bat pucks out of the air. It is attribute based, but can the user influence when it happens or is all predetermined? This would be nice to know.
  
  
• The CPU will easily flip pucks out of the zone or dump them the length of the ice with little effort and with players bearing down on them. In real life it is quite hard to get the leverage to lift a puck off of the ice, and is rarely the option chosen by a clearing team when under pressure as a flubbed clear or deflected attempt could result in a prime scoring chance. None of that is represented in the EA NHL series.
  
  
• Laying down is the greatest defensive move that can be done in this game. It is nearly impossible to saucer pass or skate around a player that is fully laying down with their stick extended out near the net. EA has seemingly made the chances of a screened goalie higher though when laying down in front of them in the slot. This is comical because that should reduce the screen. The entire laying down system and results of it need to be heavily tuned in moving forward. Reducing the reward for laying down needs to be implemented as you only see it as a desperation move in real hockey. In fact, coaches often tell defensemen to never leave their feet, especially on a 2 on 1, as they are essentially taking themselves out of a play. It is an all or nothing play and in the NHL series it is way too rewarding.
  
  
• The chop puck feature is glitchy and has been overdone. The result of the hack is that the first player near the puck in the air cannot interact with it. It is an automatic clear past the first threat in most cases and gives a clear advantage to the players that spam the feature. In real life it is a desperation move when a player is unable to gain possession on a loose puck. This is done in the hope to at least keep your opponent from gaining clear possession or in the hopes to move the puck past them to a safer spot on the ice or where support may be. It is simply way too over dramatic in the results featured in the NHL video game.
  
  
• The glass will no longer break or become dislodged.
  
  
• CPU players can skate in unrealistic ways. They often will turn and skate as if they are gliding on their blades as their feet are turned so that the width of their blades would be the sleds. Watch as two humans pressure a CPU player that has the puck in it’s defensive zone, it will retreat and backtrack as both humans take a single side of the CPU player. It will then counter and turn in weird ways causing the humans to lose track of the CPU player because it is simply not a way someone could realistically skate at all.
  
  
• Give-and-go passes are nearly unseen in the game. In addition to that your fellow attacking player that is CPU controlled will often take horrible angles towards the net in an odd-man situation, making the threat of a pass to that player nearly non existent. This was said to have been addressed, yet it is nearly as bad as it has ever been.
  
  
• Why does the clock still slow down for penalties online? This makes special teams way too important for the game. Which could be okay if the penalty kill wasn’t way overpowered.
  
  
• Face-off formations need reworked entirely. For instance, on a defensive zone draw it is rare that the far winger would line up inside of the defenseman when their primary mission is to get to the point to defend the opposing team’s defensemen. EA has it set so that you cannot flank your far winger out past your own defender and lines them up inside, right on the circle. This benefits the attacking team nearly every time. It also makes it harder to get to the boards as a wing if the defending team happens to win the draw and wishes to use the far wrap to breakout. You should be able to setup a formation in any manner in which you like really. Stack all players to one side or put two defenders back below the circle, etc.
  
  
• Using the one-arm puck shield move is also overpowered in the game. In real life the defender would close the gap and engage the player with the puck. They would use their body as a counterweight to steer the puck carrier and then attempt to reach out and contact their stick with their own stick in the hopes of jarring the puck loose. None of this is possible in the game, yet they continue on with the one-armed puck shield as if it is appropriate and it is has not really been touched or addressed in any manner since its implementation into the series.
  
  
• There are times where the CPU can move the puck too precisely while pinned to the boards and can make complex passes to a teammate that is not relatively close by while being pinned by an opponent to the boards with the puck. Numerous times I have seen a kick-out come from behind the goal line to a player cutting down towards the post. Why the goalie comes off of the post in these instances is another issue, but still the pass is unrealistic.
  
  
• If you jump a route because of a great sense for hockey gameplay and knowing the lanes you are frequently unrewarded in possession of the puck. Instead, what often happens is either the puck continues on route to its intended target unimpeded or the puck is slightly knocked off course and possession is immediately gained by a nearby player (usually on the same team as the passing player). What should happen more often than not is a turnover or at the very least a 50/50 loose puck with a battle or race for possession. But pucks are programmed to gravitate towards sticks in this game and the AI is programmed to know where the puck will bounce prior to the occurrence giving them an obvious advantage.
  
  
• Hitting has too much of an impact on the momentum of the game. It has been programmed into the game that the more physical team can knock their opponent off of their game by constantly hitting them. This can be true in some instances, but the game mistakenly gives teams with little or no true hockey skill the advantage simply by running around undisciplined like and hitting everything, legal or not, resulting in shaky hands and a “rattled” opponent. This affects many of the attributes such as puck possession, shooting accuracy, passing accuracy, and more. It needs to be heavily tuned because a skilled team should exploit a team like this more often than not. Running around and being out of position should lead to prime scoring chances, but as a result of the hits the team that is given these chances can rarely capitalize as they would in the real world. For instance, taking the proverbial hit to make the play may result in the scoring chance, but doing it more often than not gives the advantage to the defensive team. This is harps back on a general retune being needed because scoring in this game comes more from money and cheese goals than actual set up hockey plays. Meaning, you are more apt to score on the rush with defenders in front of you than you are on a 2 on 0 with pinpoint passing. That isn’t correct!

[Splitter77]

love the list.
just out of curiousity.
what is your fav alltime/most realistic hockey console game??

[m_maclean24]

Everything here is well said. Much work to do to make this game what it should be. I hate to say it, but it's as if the developers have never played or watched a hockey game. I think you are right on the money saying a lot of your complaints are built into the system purposely, especially in regard to the goalies.

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by m_maclean24

I hate to say it, but it's as if the developers have never played or watched a hockey game.

This series' problems don't stem from a lack of experience or a lack of knowledge in hockey. There is plenty of both at EA Canada.

The gameplay issues arise from wanting to make spectacular plays like this:



And this:



Something that every player on the ice can perform with ease on every single shift.

To use EA's own words, they "want to make everyone who picks up the controller feel like a superstar."

So each September we get a game that doesn't represent the sport very well, and doesn't teach people how to play the sport the right way, because it doesn't reward users for employing proper hockey tactics. Instead, the game continues to favors players who just hog the puck while dangling all over the ice and scoring weak wrist shots from long distances and bad angles.

[m_maclean24]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

This series' problems don't stem from a lack of experience or a lack of knowledge in hockey. There is plenty of both at EA Canada.

Understood, point well taken.

[GROGtheNailer]

I imaginary upvote this whole thread. Excellent list.

[bigwill33]

Quote: Originally Posted by Splitter77

love the list. just out of curiousity. what is your fav alltime/most realistic hockey console game??

That is a hard question to answer because I am not sure there is a "most realistic" hockey game that I can really single out, especially for consoles. Back in the early 2000's the NHL series for PC was amazing. You could mod so much stuff to really make the game look and play more realistic.

Despite having all of the controls that we do now I would have some really intense series with friends. Games where every inch of the ice was contested and dumping and chasing was a must. It was a chess match. At the same time there was always money goals and glitches to be had. It was just a matter of how prevalent were they and were they easily combated in that they didn't ruin the experience.

As for recent times, I think sometime a few years after the bump to Xbox 360 was my favorite. The skill stick was in full force and they kept adding nuances to the game to really give users more tools to play the game. Drop-passes, better skating mechanics, tip-in goals, stick-lifts, etc... These all were subtle changes that made the game deeper. My favorite year was probably the 2nd year that EASHL existed. And even those games were really buggy and had tons of cheese. The loop glitch existed for about 3 years before they finally cut off the means to exploit it. That was a game ruiner to many, and rightfully so.

I have always been an EA hockey player. The 2k series looked bad to me. Didn't even play that great of a game that I thought made it worth the hype. There was certainly aspects of that game that I wished EA had implemented, but for the couple of years that I bought 2k hockey games in addition to EA hockey games it really was just to get the change of pace and because I love hockey so much. I need realistic game play, and 2k had aspects of it that really shined, but then had their own set of issues. Combine that with the fact that I am a whore to good graphics and EA was just the overall superior product, in my mind.

But with this latest development team at the helm in Vancouver the product has really seen some dark times in my mind. The innovation that was there 8 years ago has stalled. It often takes 2 or more development cycles to really see any true movement on issues that are in the game with anything (including game play) and even when they are addressed it just seems to be a patchwork job at best.

The game still does it for me as far as visuals. There could always be improvements, of course, but the base is there as far as a foundation to work off for that. It is really these aforementioned legacy issues with the actual on ice gaming that just sours me each year. And the lack of concern or urgency to fix any of it.

I look at a game like MLB the Show. Roughly similar sized staffs and budgets to make a game for a niche audience. The attention to detail with every aspect of that game dwarfs anything that the NHL team has had in 5 years. When NHL "built from the ground up" this current rendition we have now all they did was seemingly reprogram the exact same game play. MLB did something very similar, in their first iteration yet we are left with a sense of hope with that series.

Why is that? It is partially because they have a developer that takes the time to come in and respond and address things that diehard gamers (that's us) would like to see touched upon. I think by his own admission he would tell you that he is not a true baseball head, but that doesn't matter. He understands his audience and while it may not be important to him in a game he/they(SCEA) get that we are providing feedback and they want to make changes to help provide a better product.

I don't get any of that from EA. They can't even hold a community day vote in a proficient manner. And their polls to their consumers show the path that they are heading down and what is important to them. And those thing are not addressing nearly anything on my list that have been issues in this game for half of a decade now.

The sad state of affairs is that for EA the NHL series probably doesn't warrant spending a ton of resources on versus the income it yields in return. Spending more time on cash grabs like HUT is where their priority seems to lay these days. And while there is a good portion of their audience that would be fine with that, along with being fine with a more of an arcade style game, there are still their diehards like us out there.

We may be in the minority now, but what other games are doing now (even other EA games) is providing a dynamic experience. Something that is truly customizable for each group of unique users. And the product that they are creating to base this off of is mostly a simulation style sports game. In creating a sim game that can be adjust to be more arcade, rather than the other way around, companies appease a greater mass of consumers. The NHL series has yet to buy into this mindset, from what I can tell.

MLBtShow, Madden, Fifa, NBA2k all have a base layer that is simulation at heart. Those products try to emulate what is seen on the field or court. How close they get is up for debate, but that seems to be the intent for the most part. With EA's NHL game the product has already shifted over to HUT based fantasy style realms of gaming. To entice those players the on-ice game play is set up to match. Fast-paced, up and down action. Huge hits. Flashy saves. Fights galore. The aspects of hockey that happen in less than 10% of the action is what EA is selling with their NHL game. The mundane and technical aspects of the sport have been untouched or unrefined for so long that they can't even figure out how to implement them anymore it seems.

Case-in-point; there has to be more to playing defense in hockey than just hitting and poke checking. EA hasn't figured out what that is yet, however. They would rather grow the parts of the game that are sexy than to water it down with real life hockey play. They don't think their audiences would respond positively if they made the game play more realistic. And maybe they wouldn't, but if you make a game that is based more off of reality that can be tuned to play arcade and sexy then I think you would have a better chance at selling your product than what is occurring now. It seems to be working for other sports games, from what I can gather.

[canucksss]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

To use EA's own words, they "want to make everyone who picks up the controller feel like a superstar."

I would understand EA if this is geared towards those who are new to the game or for kids who does not have any clue what life can throw at you.... But they should also have other levels/sliders for those who would like to experience real hockey, the nitty gritty part of the game. Having the real feeling or even close to it as a GM or player.

I lost faith to this company after '13. And I refuse to give anymore money to this company unless they really pay attention to offline, BGM gamer like myself.

By the way, EXCELLENT points and well written bigwill33.

(I just hope EA is reading this...but then again, I highly doubt they even come here to honestly see what we think of their game).