NHL 15 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions (Xbox One, PS4)

[Inhocmark]

Is it just me or does the commentary sound flat? No excitement in Doc's call at all. Disorienting to say the least

[ThaLiveKing]

What sucks is that NHL 15 doesn't record the audio for clips on the Xbox One.

I have another random video showcasing the demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5LG...WfYMFnywpW_jdg

[spidertour02]

I think I'm going to try and re-download the demo. Even the trailer in the demo has a choppy framerate right now.

Quote: Originally Posted by Inhocmark

Is it just me or does the commentary sound flat? No excitement in Doc's call at all. Disorienting to say the least

I have to disagree. I thought this would be a problem from watching those gameplay videos EA put out, but in the game I just played, that wasn't the case. As the Rangers, I had a 1-0 lead in the third before the Kings came back to win 2-1. He was pretty animated at the end of the third period when LA was making their charge, and he let out a pretty good "SCOOOORE!" when they put the go-ahead goal in the net. It wasn't to his TV level, but it was pretty solid nonetheless.

[Steven547]

My initial impression.

Playing on the PS4.

Graphically:
PRO:
Superb. Nice to have a "next gen" system with a "next gen" graphics finally. Arena's look nice and has that "NBC" feel.
CON:
Who was the brilliant mind behind the cosmetic look of the menus? If you enter settings, and try to set position lock, I had white text on a teal background. You could hardly read it.
When starting the game, at the controller select, the controller has a "red glow" to...right below it is RED text! I had to move close to my screen to see what I had selected. Poor choice of colors.
Team Select screen - Again...white lettering on a TEAL background! Can't read the team names. Poor.
This color scheme is like this in all menus. You can't read WHITE on TEAL! Ugh.

AI:
This is hard to say. I never understood the thought of releasing a DEMO with the ability to only take advantage of 10% of it. I'm sure EA is done coding the AI and sliders, so why not let us have the ability to adjust those. You can't make a solid make or break review for the AI without the sliders.
As of now, not much different than NHL 14.

Penalties:
What? Where???

Announcers:
I'll probably turn it down. Doc gets annoying even after only playing 2 min periods. He has no excitement in his voice, and it doesn't get you into the "feel" of the game. Could be with only 2 mins periods, it's hard to make that call.

Presentation:
Again, finally we have a "next gen".

Now the "What happened to..."
If you're position locked, why do we still have to control every player in the shootout?? This was brought up a few times over the past couple years. Again, no change.

The menu system. I don't want to keep pressing (L2) to get to another menu. Just keep it simple.


I'm sure there are enough improvements to buy this game. But I am disappointed at the color schemes of the menus.

Overall, this game is like McDonalds changing the paper wrapping on their burgers and telling you it's a new burger. It's still the same burger, just different wrapping.

[MizzouRah]

Quote: Originally Posted by merchant1874

TBF your probably used to 720p on the xbox one. Believe me 1080p doesn't look like that. Spoiler joke

HAHA.. I really don't care. It looks great to me.. I don't get all riled up between 720p vs 1080p, etc, etc..

In fact I have a $500 Sceptre TV that is 6" bigger than my piece of crap dead Sony TV that cost me $2000 and it looks better to boot.

[toyo301985]

no ps3 demo??????????????'

[kerosene31]

I only played 2 games on Xbox One. Both all-star difficulty, first one sim, last one hardcore (hardcore was much better)

Positives:
-Puck physics - I really like the puck physics. Not everyone likes poke check "spam" but in hockey the puck gets knocked loose all the time.

-Graphics - look nice!

Not sure:
-Skating - It very well could just be me not having played in forever (seems to happen every year), but I was having trouble skating d-men backwards and keeping close to the play.

Negatives:
-AI - I'm not seeing much in the way of changes at all, and many of the same old annoyances are still there. The CPU defense is still way too passive and allows you to dangle all over the zone to the point where it is comical. Maybe this year they get in a lucky poke check but that's about it. A decent skater can just own the CPU defense. Teammate AI *might* be a touch better. It seemed they were a little more "heads up"

Overall:

I can sum up my impressions in 3 words:

Is this it???? I mean, with some sliders and tuners, this could play a very good game of hockey, but the AI issues still are going to make offline play a lot less fun. For people who play the (remaining) online modes, I could see it being appealing, however for me this is the first year since 2005 I may pass on the game, or at least wait some time. I still want to hear impressions from people who get it early with EA Access.

[Bronco Billy]

After downloading and playing both versions, I'd give a *slight* edge graphically to the PS4 version, but the XONE has better color.

It would be most helpful to know what resolution both versions will run in natively.

Love that my Avs got a little bit of a shout out in the demo with that splash screen.