NHL 15 News Post

NHL 15 Might Be Missing More Than We Anticipated (XB1/PS4)

03:15 PM - September 4, 2014 by RaychelSnr

Now that the EA Access trial period has started, Xbox One players have noticed that the list of missing modes and features in next-gen NHL 15 is much larger than previously expected. In a prior interview with Sean Ramjagsingh, some of these were hinted at but not fully disclosed, but the depth of some of the gutted features seems to be larger than initially anticipated. The following items are features which users have noticed are missing while playing the early access to NHL 15 -- keep in mind this information is preliminary and some of these could actually be in the game but well hidden. With just six hours of time to test, it doesn't leave much room to explore:

Modes/Features

No GM Connected
No Online Team Play (when this is patched into the game later this year, it will use real NHL players and teams)
No EA Sports Hockey League
No EA Sports Arena
No Online Shootouts
No Live the Life
No Be A Legend
No Winter Classic
No tournaments or Battle for the Cup
No season mode (you can only play seasons in Be A GM, which is limited to NHL teams)
No NHL 94 Anniversary mode
No custom music support
No create-a-play designer
Cannot customize each team's AI
No create-a-team
No way to edit individual players
Practice mode is now limited to one skater vs. an AI goalie

Gameplay

No custom camera option
No Action Tracker replay highlights
No Top 3 Stars at the end of games.

Be A GM

Yearly draft is fully automated by the CPU
Cannot play the AHL games for your chosen franchise
Players sent down to the minors do not accumulate any season stats
No fantasy draft option
No preseason games

Be A Pro

No option to sim ahead to the next shift
You only play in the NHL; you cannot play for minor league teams
The Memorial Cup tryout period is gone. You now begin by picking an NHL team, or by letting a random CPU team draft you.
No All-Star game

Ultimate Team

Cannot play against your friends
No tournaments
No mobile app

All of the above features were available last year in NHL 14 for the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 but appear to be missing this year on the new-generation of consoles. If you have NHL 15 early access and have noticed any of these are actually in the game or if anything additional is missing let us know in the comments below.

Game: NHL 15Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 16 - View All

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Member Comments

# 221 TommyWizard @ 09/05/14 11:53 AM

I would have in the past defended EA to the alter...

But they have a whole year and then INSULT us with this? What a joke. They are really hoping the consumer is stupid enough to buy the game (I'm doing a general sweep, please don't take offense if you have!) see that the past modes are missing and assume that they will be more than happy to try HUT out and purchase packs to have a nice time playing the game.

EA can go swivel. We've all heard stories about what they are like, how the hell can anyone defend them against this? They had a year. If they didn't have "The time" to add features THEN DONT RELEASE THE GAME.

It will be plagued with bugs and glitches if or when they start adding modes in. This really is a slap to the face of hockey and gamer fans around the world. We deserve better and it's time for EA to let go of that license and let someone who actually cares about the fans and not about lining their own monopoly jackets with players cash.

# 222 Kayotick @ 09/05/14 12:00 PM

Really??? Yeah I will pass on this.

# 223 actionhank @ 09/05/14 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by savedbyrask


	Only thing I can reason is they wanted to focus on the core game play first and foremost, which IMO would be a great thing. How many times have people said games keep adding features but don't fix the basic bugs or annoyances that keep it from being a great game? Plus, it's too early to tell that things WON'T be added later via patches and updates. Maybe there's a secret day-one update already planned? I doubt it, but until then, we won't know unless someone says so. Personally, I'd rather have a polished game that is playable over a game with tons of features I'll never use. I never used the season mode, or Be A Legend. I know most of you do, but I either played Be A Pro or Be A GM. My EASHL career never took off full time but I have played a few pick up matches which were fun. If everything that isn't included now is added later, that would be OK okay long as everything else is there. I'm not making excuses for EA or fanboying them because they WERE shady in not saying this before, but maybe, just maybe, they have plans. That being said, I'll wait for this in the bargain bin or see what updates may come later. Until then, I'll stick with 14 and PS3.

I'm all for them improving gameplay, even if it's at the sake of other parts of the game for a while, but that doesn't even look like what happened. Watching a video of the game being played it looks nearly identical to NHL14 in the way players move, the way goalies play, and the way players handle the puck.
If the gameplay was leaps and bounds above NHL14 i would be fogiving as that would help gameplay, but to have gameplay that looks nearly identical, and then still have entire game modes cut, then important features like drafting and player editing inexplicably removed just confuses me.
It's like they spent 97% of their time making fans take selfies, adding new arenas, and working on the new graphics engine, and the other 3% on cutting features and touching up stick-handling.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakar


	You guys never work in an IT department before. Its not always the fault of the dev team. They probably got limited budget and resources to actually do their job right. Its the executive of the EA Sports division that should get a slap not the dev team.

I work in one right now. And while there are certain things the development team has no control over, a lot of this can't be excused. I'm all for putting blame where it's due, but completely writing off the development team and only blaming EA as the parent company would miss the point a little too. Everyone deserves a slap, EA just a bit harder. Sliders and penalties are a prime example. EA up high may say "We want more focus on scoring, more things to get the casual fan into the game!" but that doesn't excuse the absolute lack of penalties we've had for two, possibly three, generations of the NHL series now. The sliders have been laughably inefficient at altering the game in any real way. Those are things that are on the developers.

# 224 pezdaddy @ 09/05/14 01:23 PM

only chances for EA to redeem themselves for this lackluster new gen edition is to lower the price of the game for new and gen3 editions of '15. At most it should be $50. Since gen3 '15 is just '14 with minor updates that should be $30 at most but we know how greedy EA is

# 225 El_Poopador @ 09/05/14 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by actionhank


	I'm all for them improving gameplay, even if it's at the sake of other parts of the game for a while, but that doesn't even look like what happened. Watching a video of the game being played it looks nearly identical to NHL14 in the way players move, the way goalies play, and the way players handle the puck. If the gameplay was leaps and bounds above NHL14 i would be fogiving as that would help gameplay, but to have gameplay that looks nearly identical, and then still have entire game modes cut, then important features like drafting and player editing inexplicably removed just confuses me. It's like they spent 97% of their time making fans take selfies, adding new arenas, and working on the new graphics engine, and the other 3% on cutting features and touching up stick-handling. I work in one right now. And while there are certain things the development team has no control over, a lot of this can't be excused. I'm all for putting blame where it's due, but completely writing off the development team and only blaming EA as the parent company would miss the point a little too. Everyone deserves a slap, EA just a bit harder. Sliders and penalties are a prime example. EA up high may say "We want more focus on scoring, more things to get the casual fan into the game!" but that doesn't excuse the absolute lack of penalties we've had for two, possibly three, generations of the NHL series now. The sliders have been laughably inefficient at altering the game in any real way. Those are things that are on the developers.

It may be within their ability to improve things like sliders and penalties, but if they aren't given the time or resources to do it, then the devs themselves aren't really at fault. It comes down to the decision-makers.

# 226 kehlis @ 09/05/14 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakar


	You guys never work in an IT department before. Its not always the fault of the dev team. They probably got limited budget and resources to actually do their job right. Its the executive of the EA Sports division that should get a slap not the dev team.

I don't think people really care where the blame lies, I know I could care less, nor will I sacrifice anyone at the alter but it doesn't change the fact that this is pretty disheartening regardless of where the root of the issue is.

I was so looking forward to this game. Very disappointing stuff.

# 227 extremeskins04 @ 09/05/14 03:33 PM

You can't draft your own players? You can't do fantasy draft either?

Yep, passing on this title. Definitely not worth the $60 pricetag. I don't care how good the gameplay is, if there's no drafting your own players you can't build your franchise up, then there's no reason to play Be a GM mode.

No buy from me.

# 228 mdb1031 @ 09/05/14 03:52 PM

Just canceled my pre-order. I could handle some missing online modes, but no Season mode outside of Be a GM? No skipping to next shift in Be a Pro? I can't pay $60 for an unfinished game.

I work in software development, so I understand the challenges. I can't blame the devs, but the business decision to release a game that's so far behind the last iteration is pretty disingenuous.

# 229 lion88 @ 09/05/14 04:04 PM

very disappointing�

# 230 bigwill33 @ 09/05/14 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandMaster B


	Goals also don't tally in Be a Gm games while playing a game. It only shows how many a player has scored during the game and not for the season.

That is awful! That seriously is awful to me. They had this feature correct in the original Playstation versions of the game!!!

# 231 ManiacMatt1782 @ 09/05/14 04:37 PM

Playing the Demo, I wanted to support them for at least making a decent game to play on hardcore. but I can't, I can't justify 60 bucks on this. it's not even half a game, it's a 1/4. This game should have been cancelled because it's not even close to being half complete.

# 232 bigwill33 @ 09/05/14 04:41 PM

Why would they cancel it? People will still buy it. Heck people here at OS have made that evident. They don't release a game and they get no money, they release one that is stripped down to a barely functional product and they get some. With their budget, that some speculate must be minuscule, then releasing any product with an NHL logo on it will net them something worthwhile in return.

Until the game simply doesn't sell there will be no need for them to change this formula.

# 233 jaxxs @ 09/05/14 04:58 PM

game should have been delayed to get some of these features/modes back in , if they were scared of losing sales because of a delay, look what has happened now. there probably goin to lose more sales now then if they were to put out a full featured game let say one or two months later.

# 234 ManiacMatt1782 @ 09/05/14 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kehlis


	I don't think people really care where the blame lies, I know I could care less, nor will I sacrifice anyone at the alter but it doesn't change the fact that this is pretty disheartening regardless of where the root of the issue is. I was so looking forward to this game. Very disappointing stuff.

Yeah man, while he may be right, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that no matter who is to blame for this colossal failure, it happened, and this is not a product worth 60 dollars of my hard earned money. A lot of other people are going to be upset and vote with their wallets as well. As they should. If you want change, you hit them where it hurts most, the checkbook.

# 235 SGMRock @ 09/05/14 06:17 PM

I'm pissed because I went ahead and preordered this over the EA Access thing and that is non refundable. So I guess I'm stuck with this heap. I play Be a Pro most every year in this game and i can say that mode right now is just like it was the very first year it was released. You basically can hit B and come out on the ice anytime you want like before. There is no sim to next shift because you can basically play half the game if not more like the first year it was out. So once i work myself up to line 1 I'll have the top line out on the ice half the game, poor other teams! Also just like year one of Be a Pro there is no grading at all on your shifts. Not even any grading after your game, so you are not given a ABC grade at all. The only thing you have to do is meet your season expectations.

So I think this year I might just play Be a GM and skip playing Be a Pro. I'm sure that mode is also way stripped down but what can you do I own the game already so I guess I'll play it. :P

# 236 Spanky @ 09/05/14 09:50 PM

What an absolute abomination! So, NHL 15 is nothing but a money grab for the suits at EA?

Glad I'm not buying this debacle.

# 237 Rhaze48 @ 09/05/14 10:07 PM

Maybe us PS4 folk will get lucky and they will add NHL 2K10 to the PSNOW streaming library and we can play a decent hockey game.

# 238 mac68 @ 09/06/14 12:16 AM

I haven't read the whole thread, just the 1st page and I have seen 2 mentions of a 2 year development cycle. Pretty sure it's a myth. The way I understood they started to work on this version less than a year ago.

# 239 mac68 @ 09/06/14 12:18 AM

OT but how do you edit your post here ? I just can't figure it out

# 240 mac68 @ 09/06/14 12:23 AM

Anyway this sure is unacceptable for a game that sells $CAD70 .
The game was obviously rushed.

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