NHL 16 News Post

NHL 16 EASHL Beta Gameplay Livestream Notes (UPDATED)

05:00 PM - July 29, 2015 by jyoung

EA Sports just hosted a live stream on Twitch, showing off some gameplay and answering a few questions about the NHL 16 EASHL Beta, which will be available Thursday, July 30 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users.

The broadcast is now over and has been archived here.

If you don't want to spend an hour watching the whole thing, here is an overview of what was discussed:

Notes

EA has advised fans to not stay up past midnight, since the Beta download link is likely to go live Thursday morning or afternoon, whenever Sony and Microsoft update their respective marketplaces.
Each player class will have its own default height and weight that cannot be changed. This should help make the gameplay more realistic, and will prevent people from exploiting the height/weight system by gaining extra speed for a power forward or additional toughness for a sniper.
Any player class can accept a fight, though the more physical classes (grinder, tough guy, defensive defenseman) will have more stamina and more powerful punches.
The "playoff beards" feature will work during the EASHL's monthly playoffs. Created players' beards will become thicker as your team progresses from the opening game to the final game. The playoff tournament is four games long.
The positional indicator colors are back to the old system of red for center, dark blue for right wing, green for left wing, light blue for left defense, yellow for right defense, and purple for goalie.
NHL 16's menu music will once again be an original orchestral score. The licensed soundtrack will only play inside the arenas.
EA has fixed a bug that prevented players from aiming five hole in previous NHL games.
YouTube users are allowed to upload Beta footage.
The Beta will only let EASHL teams choose from the official NHL jerseys of this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs semifinalists. The final version of NHL 16 will let EASHL clubs pick from any jersey that's available in the game. You cannot create custom jerseys.
Fans will leave the arena early if the home team falls behind by a large margin.
Celebration animations are still limited to two-person interactions in NHL 16. Five-man celebrations are being considered for future versions of NHL.
Three-on-three overtime will not be immediately available in the EASHL, but EA is looking to add it sometime after NHL 16's release.
Each EASHL team is currently given three pauses per game, but EA will be monitoring this situation in the Beta to see if it's worth changing for NHL 16's final release.
EASHL teams cannot practice. The only way to play with your club is by starting a full, normal game.
In the Beta, all EASHL player classes will have the same skating attributes. Keep in mind, however, that height and weight also affect skating ability. Fan feedback will be used to determine whether or not this system should remain in the final version of NHL 16.
There will be a post-Beta survey where fans can give EA direct feedback. The developers will also be checking EA's official forums every day.

Game: NHL 16Reader Score: Vote Now
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Member Comments

# 41 AdamJones113 @ 07/29/15 06:24 PM

Bigwill, this is 6 v 6

# 42 bad_philanthropy @ 07/29/15 06:31 PM

The penalty box view actually does a good job showing off the animations and fluidity of the game. The overhead perspective can make it look a bit janky, but the view when someone was in the penalty box looked pretty damn good when it came to the way the game animates.

# 43 Steve_OS @ 07/29/15 06:47 PM

OP updated via jyoung, for those that missed it.

# 44 j483beale @ 07/29/15 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	A few quick thoughts, in no particular order: Game seems to be tighter, with the movements of the players and the pucks. Positives: +Hitting is way toned down. Looking like only certain builds can really knock people over at will. +No more people laying all over the ice from collisions +bank passes were back, somewhat +passes were picked off when they should be +poke check worked to get the puck off of the d-man at the point Negatives: -face-offs were a mess. At least 3 times in one period the puck was won back on an offensive zone draw and flew the whole way back to the defensive zone. -Passing in the offensive zone was non-existant. It is just skate around the perimeter and blindly throw that pass into the slot again. -puck physics are bad again. Tons of rolling pucks on end for icings. It is hard to get a puck to roll like that for that long in real life. No pucks out of play off of shot deflections, again. -Someone missed a one-timer from the bottom left circle and the puck bounced off of his stick, in the air, and went all the way back to his own goalie. -Computer player skated unrealistically, again. Turning away in a way that is impossible to skate, with no momentum, from attacking players when it was protecting the puck. Humans couldn't get the puck off of it. -Computer easily ran down a small forward that should have been on a breakaway. Overcame him and just took the puck off of him. -Computer player puts the puck in its own net with nobody around it.

-face-offs being won back and going all the way down the ice is a result of the center not aiming the draw correctly, not the game

-the one-timer was whiffed and the puck was batted out of the air.

# 45 cmc2of3 @ 07/29/15 10:29 PM

Is the archive down for anyone else? Anyone know of a mirror?

Edit: Nevermind. Browser was forcing me to the twitch app. Figured it out.

# 46 06woz @ 07/29/15 10:33 PM

Skating and pick ups seemed majorly improved.

# 47 jyoung @ 07/29/15 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter_OS


	2 player celebrations after a goal only. Come on EA you could do much better than this. Looks kinda of awkward and funny at the same time, seeing the rest of your players skate to the bench after a goal while two players are celebrating the goal.

Unless they've fixed the "hug bug" from NHL 15, it should still at least be possible to have unintentional three-man celebrations:

# 48 AdamJones113 @ 07/30/15 12:12 AM

The puck pickups and strafing looked really good, especially when used in concert (I remember one very nice play where the point man positioned himself well and received the puck very realistically). The goalies looked fairly unwieldy and their animations looked staggered, but there's time for a tuner before the game is released.

As others have said, while the gameplay doesn't appear to have gotten a major overhaul, it does appear to play tighter and much better than 15.

# 49 ericromain @ 07/30/15 12:25 AM

-Passing seems to look decent.
-Turnovers and breaking up passes looks like it is much closer to where it should be.
-After 4:30 when the Lightning score. Thunderbug is watching the game from the zamboni door, and it looks so great how he seamlessly translates from watching to celebration. I like seeing him bang on the glass, it kind of reminds me of the fan banging on the glass in NHL94/95.

EA NHL didn't seem to learn their lesson from the NHL09 clown gear. The neon and bright visors/tape/skate chassis look awful. Every 12 year old is going to want it. Still not as bad as the skull and flamed gear that you could get.

I haven't played EASHL since NHL09. Hopefully the beta converts me.

# 50 bigwill33 @ 07/30/15 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJones113


	Bigwill, this is 6 v 6

In the first game I saw Chicago had a defenseman without the icon over him. Unless I'm mistaken.

# 51 AdamJones113 @ 07/30/15 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	In the first game I saw Chicago had a defenseman without the icon over him. Unless I'm mistaken.

Yeah, I think I saw that too for a few in-game minutes. But I don't remember him getting into the action too much.

# 52 Pezell04x @ 07/30/15 09:51 AM

Honestly, I liked what I saw. I hope it is more fluid than NHL 15 which I feel is like people skating in mud. I am excited to log on with my NHL 14 EASHL club or the OS club and get going.

# 53 nddurst @ 07/30/15 01:25 PM

I've watched a few videos on YouTube of beta gameplay.

It definitely looks improved overall, BUT, AI defenders and goalies alike look kind of dreadful. I'm seeing a lot of human players easily getting around non-human defenders who are in good position. Goalies seem lost.

The game looks fantastic when it's 6v6 because AI is taken out of the equation. But man, in other instances CPU players are really standing out (in a bad way). I think this might be a rough game to play as an offline gamer.

# 54 Drakar @ 07/30/15 01:28 PM

I didn't see EA address issue like human goalie quitting in the middle of a human vs human goalie game without any sort of penalties.

They didn't address the "pause" syndrome

They didn't address player going AFK and ruining the game.

# 55 bwiggy33 @ 07/30/15 02:53 PM

The goalie movement looks soooo much better! I still hate they have the snappy warp like animations but at least it's a step in the right direction to see the movement get a total retool. I'm hoping this applies to the CPU goalies.

The game did look much more tightened up but we will see with the actual beta today. I'm very interested to play this. What sucks is not being able to see if the CPU has changed at all. I'm thinking not.

# 56 G_e_e_z_e_r @ 07/31/15 10:19 AM

They nerfed the heck out of the pull back wrister! Great news from my perspective. The most op shot in the game which required no skill.

I hope the "extended stick" snipes got the same treatment.

# 57 green94 @ 08/01/15 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyoung


	[]Celebration animations are still limited to two-person interactions in NHL 16. Five-man celebrations are being considered for future versions of NHL.*

Blows my mind that this still isn't in the game.

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NHL 16 EASHL Beta Gameplay Livestream Notes (UPDATED)