NHL 16 News Post

NHL 16 Available Today For Xbox One & PlayStation 4, Post Your Impressions

08:38 AM - September 15, 2015 by Steve_OS

NHL 16 has officially launched for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Get a few games in and post your impressions!

On another note, NHL Legacy Edition is available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers.

Game: NHL 16Reader Score: Vote Now
Platform: PS4 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 0 - View All

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Member Comments

# 281 actionhank @ 10/06/15 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nddurst


	Very well said. I agree with everything. AI really needs to be a major focus for NHL 17 to finally get this series where it needs to be. And not just tweaks--it needs to be re-built for every situation. I bought NHL 16 after not buying '13, '14 or '15 and already I'm getting both bored and frustrated by the same old AI that just gets re-used year after year.

That's why I've been so hesitant to buy the game. It looks great, and the GM Mode finally returning to what it should have been last year looks good...but the AI was and is my biggest frustration. All of the penalties in the world won't mean a thing to me if the AI is still braindead on every difficult setting.

# 282 norml @ 10/06/15 04:42 PM

The biggest problem that needs to be addressed is the skating engine. In it's current state it is broken.

# 283 Splitter77 @ 10/07/15 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nddurst


	Is anyone else not happy with how 3-on-3 overtime plays out in this game? It seems like there is no real urgency by your offensive teammates to find open space in the zone for a good shot opportunity. I've run into many situations where I'll have a single forward playing near the front of the net, and the other two are just hanging back by the blue line. Is that how it plays out in real life?

the whole game is like that.
have you seen how the cpu plays when they pull their goalie??
its like they are trying to play 5 on 5 still. its laughable

# 284 AdamJones113 @ 10/07/15 08:36 AM

Very well said, actionhank. While 16's AI is improved in terms of physical skill and parity, the AI is still very, very poor in terms of mental decision making and mental awareness.

This is something that I really hope for down the line. For NHL 14, goalies finally knew what the score was. No joke. It took that long on gen-3 to get there, but they did get there. "With the power of the next-gen consoles" I hope that all AI players will finally get that kind of awareness.

# 285 jake19ny @ 10/07/15 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJones113


	Very well said, actionhank. While 16's AI is improved in terms of physical skill and parity, the AI is still very, very poor in terms of mental decision making and mental awareness. This is something that I really hope for down the line. For NHL 14, goalies finally knew what the score was. No joke. It took that long on gen-3 to get there, but they did get there. "With the power of the next-gen consoles" I hope that all AI players will finally get that kind of awareness.

I'm not sure why the NHL crew doesn't look at FIFA more for their AI. The sports while very different some ways is also very similar in other ways. When you play FIFA and control one your backs fielders and move up field a CPU teammate drops back to cover that position. It's like that all over the field. The minute you switch to a particular position player the previous player you were controlling immediately moves to a sensible strategic location, be it on offense or defense. In the NHL series that rarely happens and guys are almost never where they should be. This is really evident in your own end of the ice where CPU teammates seemingly have no clue. I believe it's possible for this to be corrected. When I play on the power play and go deep with a defender an offensive player drops to the point position like he should. They need to go back and take a long look at this because if they can do it with special teams play and in FIFA they should be able to do it in the rest if the game.

# 286 AdamJones113 @ 10/08/15 06:55 AM

The more I play this game offline, the more disappointed I am. After initial impressions of this game being a serious gameplay upgrade, the defenders still play like crap, the goalies play incredibly unrealistically, the passing is outrageous at times, and there is just not enough lateral control over your skater. The worst part this year for me is the puck and stick physics. The first seems completely arbitrary, while the later more than seems completely arbitrary. The collision detection system needs a ton of work. The puck pickup system needs a lot of work.

/rant.

# 287 jake19ny @ 10/08/15 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJones113


	The more I play this game offline, the more disappointed I am. After initial impressions of this game being a serious gameplay upgrade, the defenders still play like crap, the goalies play incredibly unrealistically, the passing is outrageous at times, and there is just not enough lateral control over your skater. The worst part this year for me is the puck and stick physics. The first seems completely arbitrary, while the later more than seems completely arbitrary. The collision detection system needs a ton of work. The puck pickup system needs a lot of work. /rant.

I couldn't agree more. My initial impression was very positive but the more time I spend playing offline the more disappointed I become. EAs last set of tuners, which completely jacked up the offline experience, had helped to make something very clear. The vast majority of the work they did on this game was visual. The rest is returning missing modes and essentially the exact same AI tweaked with a tuner. The same problens that plagued this game seem to still be there. In addition to the same bad AI, for the second year in a row, something as simple as season goal totals not showing in your season, goalies not getting credit for shoot out wins/losses, etc....I said awhile back that if this game was just NHL 14 next gen I would be happy, it's not it's worse but with better visuals....it's the old lipstick on a pig saying.

# 288 actionhank @ 10/08/15 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJones113


	The more I play this game offline, the more disappointed I am. After initial impressions of this game being a serious gameplay upgrade, the defenders still play like crap, the goalies play incredibly unrealistically, the passing is outrageous at times, and there is just not enough lateral control over your skater. The worst part this year for me is the puck and stick physics. The first seems completely arbitrary, while the later more than seems completely arbitrary. The collision detection system needs a ton of work. The puck pickup system needs a lot of work. /rant.

That's what worries me. I was thinking about picking it up, but at $60, I just worry it will be like NHL14, where I enjoyed it at first, but the old flaws started to show.

# 289 AdamJones113 @ 10/08/15 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jake19ny


	I couldn't agree more. My initial impression was very positive but the more time I spend playing offline the more disappointed I become. EAs last set of tuners, which completely jacked up the offline experience, had helped to make something very clear. The vast majority of the work they did on this game was visual. The rest is returning missing modes and essentially the exact same AI tweaked with a tuner. The same problens that plagued this game seem to still be there. In addition to the same bad AI, for the second year in a row, something as simple as season goal totals not showing in your season, goalies not getting credit for shoot out wins/losses, etc....I said awhile back that if this game was just NHL 14 next gen I would be happy, it's not it's worse but with better visuals....it's the old lipstick on a pig saying.

Yep. I thought it was completely overblown, but as I go further and further in my season I see how annoying it is. 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by actionhank


	That's what worries me. I was thinking about picking it up, but at $60, I just worry it will be like NHL14, where I enjoyed it at first, but the old flaws started to show.

Yeah. I would have advised you to pick this game soon, but now I'd suggest waiting till it goes on sale. There are just too many old issues that haven't been fixed.

# 290 TDKing @ 10/09/15 11:33 AM

We really need a thumbs down option on these forums.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

# 291 THESHAMISASHAME @ 10/09/15 06:58 PM

I love hockey to much to quit on this game so I just decided to do what I always do and play on Allstar near default with a few tweaks to goalies and Penalties and then sink or swim and stop making excuses and try to play better .

I set it up to where I can beat weak teams regularly and struggle against good teams so Im pretty happy ! Pre 9/28 tuner happy ? no but its still a blast of a game .

If you look at the game closely it does so many things right and then if you tweak sliders slightly it does some things better but then it can also screw many things up ? .

What Im saying is if you change one thing like shot accuracy as a loose example it should then effect goals scored/shots and goalies and nothing else but thats in a perfect world and their sliders in most cases dont work like that.

All in all I still say if you wanna enjoy this game for what EA NHL has created you gotta stay near default on your level because with all the momentum and tilted ice it just to hard to balance so if you cant tweak it beat it .

Randomness as an example: I had 1 pp as Chi at the Leafs and I couldnt draw anything and lost 3-0 and in game two at Chicago I have 4 PPA in the first period and a 5 on 3 and that kinda randomness is nice to see and I do feel like I earned them through hustle and even the Coaches feedback confirmed it.

Gonna start posting some NHL 16 Playoff Mode Photos soon

UPDATE !
I won Game #2 in OT on the PP Kane to Toews on a tip in screen Chi 4-3 vs Tor my most satisfying game yet as I really felt like I earned it and beat the AI at their own game .

# 292 jake19ny @ 10/10/15 01:17 AM

You know what's funny in a "I can't believe it" type of way. We all talk about ice tilt and have our own idea of what it means. Some believe it exists no matter what, some believe it's not real, and some believe it's in the tuners but according to the EA forums, EA said it doesn't exist. The EA forum mods have decided to post a warning that anyone who creates a thread about "ice tilt" the thread will be deleted and you will be banned. Anyone who mentions "ice tilt" in any thread, will be warned once then banned. Welcome to tryannical style EA media control. Drink the kook aid or else...Hey EA...Maybe if you don't want people to discuss ice tilt, stop making tuners that create it....or at the very least don't have your in game announcers say "this ice is tilted right now"...

# 293 Splitter77 @ 10/10/15 11:00 AM

There is def ice tilt on superstar and whenever you have CPU difficulty above 0.
All-star seems to be no ice tilt with CPU difficulty at 0.

But the goalies suck and the defensive ai sucks. So you have to jerk around to make games close.

# 294 THESHAMISASHAME @ 10/10/15 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splitter77


	There is def ice tilt on superstar and whenever you have CPU difficulty above 0. All-star seems to be no ice tilt with CPU difficulty at 0. But the goalies suck and the defensive ai sucks. So you have to jerk around to make games close.

Its obvious on Superstar and I even think EA once said the Hu is at the disadvantage on that level but whats lacking is theres no variance in cpu players as everyone becomes robotic Bobby Orrs and its a cheap way to use boosts or non responsiveness alone to increase the difficulty of the game .

Quote:

Originally Posted by jake19ny


	You know what's funny in a "I can't believe it" type of way. We all talk about ice tilt and have our own idea of what it means. Some believe it exists no matter what, some believe it's not real, and some believe it's in the tuners but according to the EA forums, EA said it doesn't exist. The EA forum mods have decided to post a warning that anyone who creates a thread about "ice tilt" the thread will be deleted and you will be banned. Anyone who mentions "ice tilt" in any thread, will be warned once then banned. Welcome to tyrannical style EA media control. Drink the kook aid or else...Hey EA...Maybe if you don't want people to discuss ice tilt, stop making tuners that create it....or at the very least don't have your in game announcers say "this ice is tilted right now"...

Anyone can call it whatever they want but I dont know any other way to explain it ? and after those 9/28 tuners they brought it back into the game for me on default and probably only because of online play

EX: When its tilted or whatever you wanna call it my whole team cant skate , stop a simple shot, block a shot or control the puck at my feet or even make a 5 ft pass and just because Kane got hit on the 1st line it now effects my whole team and they only way to get it back to normal is to hit back or fight ?

I would prefer they use smarter AI and positioning then just boosting or cheats and then my only choice is to Big Hit back or fight to balance the game back to normal ? Seems unrealistic in 2015 NHL dont you think .

So as I said above if you try to lessen it in the game I find it wrecks the game so I just lowered cpu/hu hit power to try and limit the Intimidation factor through hitting and its funny in my 4-3 OT win over Toronto they out hit me 36 to 12 ?
I was shocked at that stat as it didnt feel like it in game but its obvious the AI was probably trying to tilt the ice with big hits but with limited big hit power I balanced it in a way.

I cant really tweak it as Im not a slider guy but I still think alot of it can be made to play pretty realistically if you know how to counteract each slider adjustment but Ill just take it like a challenge every game win or lose and Im having a good time again but I have to be ready to adjust and adapt to succeed .

# 295 MQ91 @ 10/11/15 07:39 PM

How useful is the Coach Feedback in comparison to the Be-a-Pro feedback and intermission scouting reports from previous years?

# 296 actionhank @ 10/11/15 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJones113


	Yep. I thought it was completely overblown, but as I go further and further in my season I see how annoying it is. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Yeah. I would have advised you to pick this game soon, but now I'd suggest waiting till it goes on sale. There are just too many old issues that haven't been fixed.

I check around every now and again to see if anyone's got it on sale for the PS4 at a cheap price. I'm sure I'll find it used somewhere.

# 297 THESHAMISASHAME @ 10/13/15 05:17 AM

Some more impressions as I normally only play playoff mode but I just think the 3 on 3 in play now and season mode in OT is a blast.
Im more a purest and even prefer ties as I dont really care for the shootouts but kudos to the NHL on this new rule and for EA implementing it so well

# 298 BL8001 @ 10/16/15 10:18 AM

Yep they need an online 3-3 mode.

The entire game 3-3. Hell, let us set it up 2-2, 3-3. 4-4, whatever way we want.

It would even be wild to play someone 3-4. Options, they make everything better.

# 299 shogunofharlem3 @ 10/16/15 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by THESHAMISASHAME


	Some more impressions as I normally only play playoff mode but I just think the 3 on 3 in play now and season mode in OT is a blast. Im more a purest and even prefer ties as I dont really care for the shootouts but kudos to the NHL on this new rule and for EA implementing it so well

I also like the 3 on 3. But in my franchise or whatever, I like to do continuous overtime. I hate shootouts, not ea shootouts, just straight up real NHL shootouts.

So I usually do 5 on 5 continuous. Would love a 3 on 3 continuous option. So much open ice!

# 300 THESHAMISASHAME @ 10/17/15 10:57 AM

Hey is anyone offline noticing the horrible puck/environment detection ? I didnt notice it on release other than two guys battling for the puck on the boards and it goes through the bottom of the boards sticks too ? and then the announcers said it hopped over the glass .

Goalies going through nets and it looks really bad on saves and those I havent noticed early on but who knows as I see it alot now .

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