NHL 17 News Post

NHL 17 Beta: Online Versus and Gameplay Impressions

11:53 AM - August 4, 2016 by RaychelSnr

Like many of you, I've been delving extensively into the NHL 17 beta over the past couple days. Amidst the excitement of the brand-new EASHL customization features and Ultimate Team Synergy system, online versus has gone relatively untouched. Let's be honest: It didn't need a whole lot of work. Nevertheless, there's also plenty to talk about from an on-ice perspective, so let's pick out some highlights.

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# 1 snc237 @ 08/04/16 12:10 PM

Played a ton of ranked and was 10th in the world in ranked on Xbox in the beta. Stick dancing and such still works to a much lesser degree but still wish it was completely gone. A.I. Defensively is better but still lets people into the zone to easily. Getting good shots from the slot is very challenging as it's much easier to lose the puck. Goalies are much improved but still sometimes let very harmless shots in (hopefully still getting tuned). Short shore shots are much harder to score which is great. Plus one timers in the slot are only work if there is practically no defender around. Gameplay much improved in saying that, still a lot of room to grow.
Board play doesn't seem as suction� (which I dislike. If a guys swerving around and gets near the board it was a good way to stop them)however I get a lot of holding calls cause my guy won't let go immediately after I let go of the Y button. Overall I wasn't to excited about this years game but after playing it, a lot of small things that bugged me have been at least toned down which makes the game in my eyes much better and enjoyable.

# 2 Guapo516 @ 08/04/16 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snc237


	Played a ton of ranked and was 10th in the world in ranked on Xbox in the beta. Stick dancing and such still works to a much lesser degree but still wish it was completely gone. A.I. Defensively is better but still lets people into the zone to easily. Getting good shots from the slot is very challenging as it's much easier to lose the puck. Goalies are much improved but still sometimes let very harmless shots in (hopefully still getting tuned). Short shore shots are much harder to score which is great. Plus one timers in the slot are only work if there is practically no defender around. Gameplay much improved in saying that, still a lot of room to grow. Board play doesn't seem as suction� (which I dislike. If a guys swerving around and gets near the board it was a good way to stop them)however I get a lot of holding calls cause my guy won't let go immediately after I let go of the Y button. Overall I wasn't to excited about this years game but after playing it, a lot of small things that bugged me have been at least toned down which makes the game in my eyes much better and enjoyable.

I always want to buy nhl but with 2k madden taking up most my time it's always an after thought. I'm glad I read your impressions of the game it reads like the most fair assessment of an ea game by a game I've ever read. Usually people are going out of their way to either hype a game or bash the game just because it's ea and that's the thing to do. Thanks for the objectivity.

# 3 bowld @ 08/04/16 01:18 PM

I have been enjoying it but 2 things that stand out to me (in a negative way)

1. Goal celebrations still look ridiculous and jerky. A guy will score and all of a sudden just shoot his arms up in the air in the most robotic looking animation. Needs to be worked on

2. The amount of times skaters will just do circles right around a loose puck drives me crazy. In real life if a loose puck was just sitting there a skater would reach with his stick to grab it. In this game the skated just does large circles around the puck until you get to just the right angle where he can grab it. This needs to be fixed immediately as it stands out in almost every game I have played

# 4 shotclockcheese @ 08/04/16 01:26 PM

I don't know why no one mentioned his but, in EASHL playing as a goalie there are now over 40 unique goalie stances you can choose from. I choose the 5th goalie and I wanted to try it out, but after a game or two, I noticed that my goalie's stance does not look like the one I chose, instead it looks more like the default(NHL 16) goalie stance #1. I went to customize my player and it was in fact not the goalie stance I wanted, and I changed it back. During the next game, again I noticed that it was automatically changed back to the default stance.

So it seems like entering a game as a goalie will force you to use the default stance, no matter what stance you chose before. Hoped EA was going to fix this early on in the beta, guess not.

# 5 oilersfan99 @ 08/04/16 06:52 PM

There was a glitch in the beta that didn't allow the goalie stances to save but I read on the ea forums that the developers said that it will be find come release and it's a known problem in the beta

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# 6 MichaelAngeloTMNT @ 08/06/16 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowld


	I have been enjoying it but 2 things that stand out to me (in a negative way) 1. Goal celebrations still look ridiculous and jerky. A guy will score and all of a sudden just shoot his arms up in the air in the most robotic looking animation. Needs to be worked on 2. The amount of times skaters will just do circles right around a loose puck drives me crazy. In real life if a loose puck was just sitting there a skater would reach with his stick to grab it. In this game the skated just does large circles around the puck until you get to just the right angle where he can grab it. This needs to be fixed immediately as it stands out in almost every game I have played

Agree with number two. When I was playing an online game, both of us would circle around the puck numerous times and expect the player to grab control of the puck and we just kept circling.

# 7 acles003 @ 08/07/16 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowld


	2. The amount of times skaters will just do circles right around a loose puck drives me crazy. In real life if a loose puck was just sitting there a skater would reach with his stick to grab it. In this game the skated just does large circles around the puck until you get to just the right angle where he can grab it. This needs to be fixed immediately as it stands out in almost every game I have played

^^ THIS!! Oh my God is it annoying.

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# 8 redsox4evur @ 08/07/16 11:35 PM

They need to fix the glitch where you call for a 3 man change and then you can just saucer pass up the boards for an easy breakaway.

# 9 Madwolf @ 08/09/16 05:46 PM

I played a little bit of everything and heres my thoughts:

- The movement was better. Felt like you could take advantage of people out of position to blow by for the break away.

- AI played better. They didn't feel like such a liability on defense

- Shots seemed to accurate and fast. The goalies played better positionally but the puck seemed to be a bullet sometimes.

- Pushing people of the puck felt better but the game still feels kind of weird on checks sometimes. Players feel a little too stuck to the ice.

- The battle in front of the net increased the need to get the cycle going and made shots from the point a lot more viable.

- The AI gets in passing lanes to stop the cross crease. Makes the current game feel bad when I go back to it. The scoring feels a lot more 1 demensional and defenders are just not as important on the opponents side of the ice.

The computer was better in the nuetral zone, and dumping and chasing was more viable.

- Loved the addition of connection quality in online.

- Menus were smooth and the music was good stuff. Really sets the tone for hockey and gets you in the mood. 15 and 16 will never have the nostalgia factor down the road because these songs aren't burnt into your brain like prior games. 17 brings it back.

- Customization was neat and improved. The color selection process was tedious though.

- Logos were nice, but they need to let us import our own logos NCAAF style. This would put the game over the top for a lot of fans.

Stadium creation was neat. I wish there were options for NFL like arenas with large windows and more dynamic architecture. I realize the NHL doesn't have this yet, but it would be neat to see.

- HUT was nice. The line changes should be more like Madden though where you could quickly move people up and down the depth chart at WR. It's tedious to have to go into menus to swap between a 1st liner and 2nd liner.

- Overall it felt good. Next year I hope they allow for a 2nd expansion team alongside Las Vegas to even out the league.

# 10 Madwolf @ 08/09/16 05:49 PM

- Forgot to mention EASHL. I think this is where customization really shined. It felt cool to build your team up into bigger and bigger arenas. Player customization was near for different areas, but I think the equipment needed a little more to it. The celebrations and the like got me excited, but it's hard to get amped up for a hockey stick that looks like the others. What about unlocking old school stuff like the old Louisville Slugger sticks?

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NHL 17 Beta: Online Versus and Gameplay Impressions