NHL 15 Demo

[cmdrdredd]

Didn't want to clutter up the XB1 thread with Hockey talk but I've been playing the trial on EA access and the amount of stuff you can do with a created player is great. You can choose your helmet brand and style, visors, tint on visors, stick brand and model, skates, even the color of stick tape. Being a hockey fan and having played in a league for a couple seasons I know the gear and the skates and sticks are all modeled accurately. Everything from the curve of the blade to the rocker profile of the skates is accurate. You can even set the name the play by play will use for your created player which is cool(the commentators will actually call you out by name during the game). I haven't seen that in other sports games.

Playing with the sliders is proving interesting. The game speed slider is all the way up and it feels...slow. Not super slow, but not as fast as hockey should be. Then I messed with player acceleration, that really helped. Turning that up and turning pass speed up really made the game seem faster. Also noticed that turning the puck size and glow to small made the game feel faster, but it was also more chaotic for me. I couldn't get hold of where the thing was lol. There are some minor framerate issues outside the gameplay, but the play is always smooth. I hate the fights. Using the analog stick to punch is just terrible IMO. They are also way too frequent even for players who never fight.

The crowds are great. I was playing away and there was a fan dressed in my team's colors with a gaudy mohawk helmet on and when I scored a goal he turned around to the home fans and did a little dance, taunting them. The guy sitting behind him was shaking his head, looking disgusted.

Love the game and for me it's a shame that it comes out this Tuesday. I'll be picking up my new PS4 and Destiny at that time and won't be playing much else for at least a week or so. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the ads for when I can grab this game during some holiday sale perhaps.

 

[Wordplay]

I cancelled my pre-order for this game after the reviews from the early access came out. 6 years and counting since my last NHL game purchase.


List of features missing:

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

 

[cmdrdredd]

ok, but you didn't play it. The game is solid, the graphics are good, controls fluid, animations spot on, and above all...it's fun.

God forbid we actually worry about whether a game is fun and not what checkboxes are ticked on some worksheet. People who have nothing better to do than to tear down games they have no intention of buying post a bunch of crap you'd only find out if you spend a couple hours simming everything and never actually playing the game.

If they put all that extra stuff in there they wouldn't have worked on the physics and game engine at all. It would be trashed for another reason. Give me a break. I'd rather have a game that is fun, looks and feels good, and plays great than a game that ticks a bunch of fanboy checkboxes. Also, this is the full game on EA Access but they never said it has every game mode. They said previously that the game is the full game from early access but may only be a few game modes available to play in the trial. No specifics, yet people just want to act like crusaders.

I have to laugh at all the dopes on Operation Sports who are crying because they sold their 360 and bought a PS4 or XB1 and now they won't buy NHL and have a wasted system. I mean FFS...there's more than just this game.

 

[Wordplay]

ok, but you didn't play it. The game is solid, the graphics are good, controls fluid, animations spot on, and above all...it's fun.

God forbid we actually worry about whether a game is fun and not what checkboxes are ticked on some worksheet. People who have nothing better to do than to tear down games they have no intention of buying post a bunch of crap you'd only find out if you spend a couple hours simming everything and never actually playing the game.

If they put all that extra stuff in there they wouldn't have worked on the physics and game engine at all. It would be trashed for another reason. Give me a break. I'd rather have a game that is fun, looks and feels good, and plays great than a game that ticks a bunch of fanboy checkboxes. Also, this is the full game on EA Access but they never said it has every game mode. They said previously that the game is the full game from early access but may only be a few game modes available to play in the trial. No specifics, yet people just want to act like crusaders.

I have to laugh at all the dopes on Operation Sports who are crying because they sold their 360 and bought a PS4 or XB1 and now they won't buy NHL and have a wasted system. I mean FFS...there's more than just this game.

Well you are right I have not played the game. But I am not going to purchase a game that is severely lacking in features the previous versions had. This early access does have every game mode available, it just that the game modes are missing a lot of features.

One reason why I am cancelling is because you cannot sim between shifts in Be a Pro mode. You have to sit there and watch the game play until your next shift, which is stupid. NHL 14 you could sim to your next shift, but I guess that was too much for NHL 15.

GM mode you cannot draft players. How are you going to be a GM but not draft players? Supposedly this will be patched in later but it should not be patched in later, it should be part of the game from the get go.

The game play itself might be good, but missing key features is absurd. Maybe I will purchase the game once everything has been patched in, if possible, and is at a reduced price come the holiday season. Until then, my pre-order is cancelled.

 

[TeknoBug]

I cancelled my pre-order for this game after the reviews from the early access came out. 6 years and counting since my last NHL game purchase.


List of features missing:

I get the lack of OTP and EASHL, but the others... what the actual F?

... canceled my preorder.