NHL 15 News Post

NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

11:46 AM - September 11, 2014 by RaychelSnr

If the long list of things that NHL 15 doesn't have on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 got you thinking about buying the game for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, be forewarned: Though NHL 15 retains every mode and feature from last year's title (minus the retired EA Sports Arena), the only enhancements it offers over NHL 14 are updated rosters, new announcers, some subtle tweaks to Be A GM's prospect progression, and slight improvements to puck physics and player collisions.

Almost everything else appears to be a copy-and-paste job from last year's source code, which means that the game's many on-ice issues cannot be saved by community rosters or by custom sliders.

Read More - NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)

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

# 1 tsbmolina @ 09/11/14 12:51 PM

Another money grabber by EA, surprise, surprise. No sucker here.

# 2 ps3veron @ 09/11/14 01:12 PM

Ouch! I knew it! I think this is the lowest score NHL has received on OS.

# 3 snc237 @ 09/11/14 01:19 PM

So what you are saying is true, but for a game that was pretty good last year. Everything you say about it this year is completely bashing it you make is sound awful. Now if you owner last years version I honestly probably wouldn't be buying this game as it is for the most part the same. It's like a big patch for NHL 14 yet it's still nhl 14, a patch is not worth 60 bucks.

# 4 SVCbearcat10 @ 09/11/14 01:37 PM

I think we may under-estimate the amount of work that goes into redesigning the presentation and commentators. I would imagine redoing all the audio would be very time consuming and changing to the NBC overlays would be too. I think that ate up most of the budget and time for the NHL team for both generation of consoles. It couldn't have been cheap to get NBC and those guys. Maybe they should have took resources from NBA Live (which only has potential because the bar is so low) to a game that could truly be great. Remember with NBA and NHL, there were no exlusive agreements. NHL is the only game because 2k couldn't put out a good enough product to compete and vice versa for NBA (unlike Madden and MLB2k when they purchased the right to be the only game).

EA would rather have an average quality product in all genres/sports rather than be great at a handful. With lack of a consumer base to support multiple titles per sport, it makes better business sense.

# 5 MavsUCCB @ 09/11/14 02:09 PM

I skipped 2014 last year because I didn't see any real significant improvements to 2013 and quite frankly I wasn't going to have the time to play it last year. After seeing the reviews and videos I was happy to go out and buy a used copy of NHL 14 knowing that I'm not missing anything from this years effort.

# 6 bad_philanthropy @ 09/11/14 02:35 PM

Fair and accurate review.

# 7 drj32 @ 09/11/14 02:50 PM

you trash the game and then give it "above average"? please.

# 8 peter21 @ 09/11/14 03:40 PM

This is about what I expected. The days of me automatically shelling out $60 for a game are over and this review seals the fact that I will be saving that money for something of more value to me.

# 9 mcavner @ 09/11/14 08:29 PM

Pretty simple fix for the progression system and goofy created players for the draft and all the ratings issues... just open up the game for offline players to edit stuff. Seriously, it's ridiculous to lock it up. And another wise move would be to allow access to the hundred of generated faces you can use for your created player and let you put those faces on the players in your GM or Season modes. If you're only going to add 30 cyber faces in two years EA, at least let us do something about it so we don't have five guys out of 20 have the same damn face. Ridiculous to keep that stuff locked up for offline gamers. That we have to crack games with programs and codes and all sorts of community projects just to make it playable - just open it up and let kids play with their toy the way they want to play with it.

# 10 jyoung @ 09/11/14 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drj32


	you trash the game and then give it "above average"? please.

GM Connected and the EASHL will mask many (but not all) of the gameplay issues that are detailed in the review, which is the main reason why the game still scored as high as it did. Without the ability to sub-out the AI and play with 12 humans players, the final score would be much lower.

The other reason is that we don't factor price into a game's score; we just mention it in the text of our reviews, if a game happens to offer more or less than what you'd expect from its price. The score is merely a reflection of the quality of the content in the game, without considering what it's being sold for, or how much of that content has gone unchanged from one year to the next.

# 11 bad_philanthropy @ 09/11/14 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyoung


	GM Connected and the EASHL will mask many (but not all) of the gameplay issues that are detailed in the review, which is the main reason why the game still scored as high as it did. Without the ability to sub-out the AI and play with 12 humans players, the final score would be much lower. The other reason is that we don't factor price into a game's score; we just mention it in the text of our reviews, if a game happens to offer more or less than what you'd expect from its price. The score is merely a reflection of the quality of the content in the game, without considering what it's being sold for, or how much of that content has gone unchanged from one year to the next.

I personally like the tweaks, and NHL 15 360 will have longevity for me this year, but the game should have been a $30 "legacy edition" for sure.

# 12 jromano99 @ 09/11/14 10:40 PM

I�ve been a fan of the series since NHL11.I believe this is the best (primarily as a result of all the �tweets� from editions up until now)The current �tweets� have just added to the game.1) The new commenter�s, Doc and Eddie, provide a fresh sound to the game.I�ve been playing with the commenter�s turned off for the past two editions.They even add some history to the game, i.e. �Duncan Keith and Ryan Miller played together in college.2) The crazy puck bouncing is gone, adding more realism to the game play.3) The slot area is more accessible passing.4) Running into the goalie now causes a penalty and at time may result in a roughing penalty against each team. Penalties now seem more frequent. 5) Board play seems more involved and detailed.6) Goalies have new animations and the pads have been upgraded (at least to last year�s) 7) you can now collide with a player on your own team.While the layout and menu are still the same as last year the over all game has a much better feel to it.Worth the purchase !!!

# 13 Dazraz @ 09/12/14 04:59 AM

I agree that this should not have been a full price release.
That said I'd rather pay for the 360/PS3 Version with all the modes intact rather than the stripped down next gen option.

# 14 NHLandPESFan @ 09/12/14 01:43 PM

Outstanding review, you really hit on all the gameplay issues this game has. With this game getting trashed in reviews, I wonder how it will sell but I would rather have the series die than continue on like this. If it doesn't change year to year, it's dead already.

If EA doesn't feel this title is worthy of a decent budget, then they should at least have the decency to start releasing this every 2 years instead of every year and put some time into improving the product. NHL 2k8 had a better franchise mode including users able to control multiple teams and that was SEVEN years ago!

# 15 Steven547 @ 09/21/14 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jromano99


	I�ve been a fan of the series since NHL11.I believe this is the best (primarily as a result of all the �tweets� from editions up until now)The current �tweets� have just added to the game.1) The new commenter�s, Doc and Eddie, provide a fresh sound to the game.I�ve been playing with the commenter�s turned off for the past two editions.They even add some history to the game, i.e. �Duncan Keith and Ryan Miller played together in college.2) The crazy puck bouncing is gone, adding more realism to the game play.3) The slot area is more accessible passing.4) Running into the goalie now causes a penalty and at time may result in a roughing penalty against each team. Penalties now seem more frequent. 5) Board play seems more involved and detailed.6) Goalies have new animations and the pads have been upgraded (at least to last year�s) 7) you can now collide with a player on your own team.While the layout and menu are still the same as last year the over all game has a much better feel to it.Worth the purchase !!!

I agree. I own both versions of the game. I bought PS4 first, with hopes, like everyone else, that we would see a true next gen version. While we did see a next gen version, it was primarily in graphics and presentation. Gameplay was enhanced, but I don't see much difference between the gameplay on PS4 and PS3. There are more player collisions on PS4, but after awhile, it starts to look "pee-wee-ish" with guys constantly falling...at least in the games I played.

I played PS4 and realized how much the little things meant so much. The crowd in PS4 feels like they don't know what is going on during the game. There is no chanting...I hear no "drums" or clapping or much of anything really. That really takes away from the atmosphere of the game.

Playing the PS3 version, those missing sounds in PS4 really make a difference. The ability to see the action tracker is nice, too. Some claim that the PS3 is a faster game play. I think it is on default settings, but you can adjust that.

Is this a copy and paste of NHL 14? Sure is, with a few extra tweaks that should have been in 14....and they even copied over the glitches such as how you have to set the period length before every game. Even though you set it in the settings. This bug, as little as it is, and the lack of features in PS4, makes you wonder what EA really did this past year in development. Maybe they spent all the money they made off of us on NHL 14 to have office parties, and forgot about NHL 15 until the last minute.

NHL 15 for PS3 is, like everyone says, NHL 14.5. It's good, but there was so much more EA should have done. WWE 2k15 was delayed until November 18th because 2k wanted to make sure everything was where it should be with the game. EA should have followed this philosophy. I don't think there is one person here who would have had a problem waiting an extra month for this game on PS3 or PS4, if EA took that extra time to fix what was and still is wrong.

# 16 kornsined @ 09/22/14 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven547


	I agree. I own both versions of the game. I bought PS4 first, with hopes, like everyone else, that we would see a true next gen version. While we did see a next gen version, it was primarily in graphics and presentation. Gameplay was enhanced, but I don't see much difference between the gameplay on PS4 and PS3. There are more player collisions on PS4, but after awhile, it starts to look "pee-wee-ish" with guys constantly falling...at least in the games I played. I played PS4 and realized how much the little things meant so much. The crowd in PS4 feels like they don't know what is going on during the game. There is no chanting...I hear no "drums" or clapping or much of anything really. That really takes away from the atmosphere of the game. Playing the PS3 version, those missing sounds in PS4 really make a difference. The ability to see the action tracker is nice, too. Some claim that the PS3 is a faster game play. I think it is on default settings, but you can adjust that. Is this a copy and paste of NHL 14? Sure is, with a few extra tweaks that should have been in 14....and they even copied over the glitches such as how you have to set the period length before every game. Even though you set it in the settings. This bug, as little as it is, and the lack of features in PS4, makes you wonder what EA really did this past year in development. Maybe they spent all the money they made off of us on NHL 14 to have office parties, and forgot about NHL 15 until the last minute. NHL 15 for PS3 is, like everyone says, NHL 14.5. It's good, but there was so much more EA should have done. WWE 2k15 was delayed until November 18th because 2k wanted to make sure everything was where it should be with the game. EA should have followed this philosophy. I don't think there is one person here who would have had a problem waiting an extra month for this game on PS3 or PS4, if EA took that extra time to fix what was and still is wrong.

In regards to gameplay, which do you prefer, PS3 or PS4?

# 17 Steven547 @ 09/22/14 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kornsined


	In regards to gameplay, which do you prefer, PS3 or PS4?

PS3. It has the "complete" atmosphere and to me, i dont see too much difference in gameplay between the two.

# 18 Solid-Bri @ 09/25/14 11:37 PM

This is by far the best NHL game the series has to offer. Is it basically NHL '14 with some minor changes? Yes. But those minor changes add up to make a much more realistic and enjoyable game.

One of my biggest gripes with '14 was how ridiculous the hitting was... Players were getting crushed all over the place. Thankfully, they've toned it down a bit for '15 and also made the collisions look a lot more smooth and realistic as well.

The only negative thing that sticks out to me is the commentary. Ray Ferraro is awesome and sounds exactly like he does on TV, but Doc and Eddie are painful to listen to at times. I'll probably have to mute them at some point.

# 19 mikegina @ 10/03/14 10:21 PM

i have to say im glad i did buy this game..its better then 14 with the physique and u can edit just like 14 with nhl view im gonna do every player with moose and panther faces and hopefully i will do revamped atributions..alltough i have to agree that the commentary isnt working for me..70euros for gaming at one year..cheap i would say..

# 20 boneman77 @ 11/01/14 05:44 PM

This game is GARBAGE.... why do EA sports bother creating goalies when they are useless?? computer scores on every shot goes right through the goalie and players (cant block any of the computer shots even with sliders all the way up), computer gets every stupid bounce.... meanwhile 9 outta 10 shots u take are blocked from your own guy. every game on gm i outshoot them about 25-4 and win every game 4-3... garbage. doesnt matter if youre goalie is a 99 rating or a 50, they all suck. every big hit i do the computer still manages to grab the puck and score, every time you tip it off their stick or anything, it just goes to their next player! i have yet to see a nice computer goal, meanwhile every goal i score are great puck moving passing plays...computer goals are cheese *** fluttering blue line shots that just goes in everytime anyways.....atleast in nhl 14 you could block shots, thats why i always used big d in that game... this game makes me angry but at the same time i find it a challenge

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