NHL 15 Available Now For EA Access Subscribers, Post Your Impressions

[rudeworld]

Quote: Originally Posted by CRIXUS81

I love it so far! Downloaded the game at midnight and I'm pretty sure I have already burned through 3 hours Played a few 'Play Now' games and I noticed that the ice tilt/insane scoring from the demo is gone. I was ending demo games with scores like 3-5, I was worried I'd end up having high scoring games like 12-9 once I started playing in longer than 2 min periods but thats not the case. So far the games have been an average of 3-4 goals in 5min periods. Decided to say what the heck, with the lack of EASHL I figured I'd mess around with HUT and on my very first pack (not the starter) I pulled Gabriel Landeskog, I was like WOW!!! I'm glad that the HUT menus are simple, I was worried EA would get carried away with the flashiness kinda like Madden FUT. On my quick HUT game that I played vs the CPU Landeskog scored 2 goals, one while he was on his knees, so yeah I am stoked for the 9th. Quick question: I had the game preordered on Amazon but decided to cancel because UPS usually doesn't deliver anything in my place till 6pm and figured the Xbox one pre download would be way more convenient. How does it work when it comes to EA Access? Do I still need to download the pre download, or can I just use the current game I just downloaded this evening? I know after my 6hrs are up I'll get a message saying my time is up and go buy the game. But if I preorder the game will I just be able to boot up the current game I have now on the 9th?

Yes.... Happened with madden 15.

[18 eighty 5]

Played a handful of games...

Flipping through the NHL team overalls and there is hardly any difference in team ratings across offense, defense and goalies. The lowest teams are rated in the mid 80's whilst the highest range up to the low to mid 90's.

Gameplay is pretty much what we got in the demo. If you liked that you will like the full version. It feels a little unrefined to me, though I preferred the PS4 version so... The vaunted physics don't seem to be always 'active'. You can bump guys and they skate on like in past editions of the series, at other times guys fall over completely like they are just learning to play. It is EA CPU legacy stuff.

Not noticing much difference with the CPU teams, they all try to get to the slot and shoot.

Game looks best on True Broadcast cam but there is a problem in the bottom of the screen angles as the camera doesnt pan far enough into the corners at times to show where the puck is. Ice degradation is nice from this view.

The commentary keeps things very general in the pre game chat and you don't get any sense that they know the teams they are talking about. There is no mention of team names or specific stuff to create immersion. It is only when the game cuts to players on the ice that the commentary mentions player names, just like in the demo.

Whilst there is some fun to be had I can't help feel 15 is reminiscent of 07. It doesn't feel like a full product at all. Menus are threadbare and probably largely due to there being so few features on offer they are also annoying to navigate. Graphics are decent but not amazing. The puck physics are very good. Goalies are what they have always been. Skating feels a bit squirrelly. Game is very up and down. Not the next step in hockey gaming for mine so far. It just feels lacking and slightly vacuous perhaps because I have been here so many times before and the new stuff isn't enough to carry the day.

I am still on the fence and that is probably being generous. Will get back to it another time. But basically, if you played the demo, you played this already. Maybe sliders can bring out something better than the out of the box experience?

[Gagnon39]

Quote: Originally Posted by csamuelsvt

Supposedly the only arenas that aren't licensed were Carolina's and Chicago's

Freaking fantastic! Sheesh!

[rocket82]

can't find NHL15 early access on PSN (Canada)????

[jake19ny]

reading through these impressions I have come to one conclusion. I honestly don't think (as much as we bash them) that EA intends to put out a crappy product. I'm thinking that the game has peaked as far as what they can do game play wise so all they could do is improve the visuals which they did greatly. They improve the look while stripping away many game modes and things like player edit and custom music so moving forward they can slowly bring those things back in with minor tweaks and sell it as a new feature giving us clowns a reason to buy the next version. I mean lets face Madden peaked years ago the gameplay changes very little and they have the same generic player faces in most guys for over 6 years now. They change a kicking meter here and button press there, bring back on old feature while taking away one here and there, update the rosters (poorly) and sell it as a new game. I think we have reached that point with the NHL series. Thanks for the sad but useful info guys.

[rocket82]

...PS3!?!?!?

[Christian9]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake19ny

reading through these impressions I have come to one conclusion. I honestly don't think (as much as we bash them) that EA intends to put out a crappy product. I'm thinking that the game has peaked as far as what they can do game play wise so all they could do is improve the visuals which they did greatly. They improve the look while stripping away many game modes and things like player edit and custom music so moving forward they can slowly bring those things back in with minor tweaks and sell it as a new feature giving us clowns a reason to buy the next version. I mean lets face Madden peaked years ago the gameplay changes very little and they have the same generic player faces in most guys for over 6 years now. They change a kicking meter here and button press there, bring back on old feature while taking away one here and there, update the rosters (poorly) and sell it as a new game. I think we have reached that point with the NHL series. Thanks for the sad but useful info guys.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree, BUT, the lack of player editing is probably worse than all of the other missing modes/issues!!

[rocket82]

can somebody help, plz??? Quick please....can't wait anymore!!!! THX