The NHL 25 Crisis

An in-depth look at what EA NHL needs to address for the upcoming NHL 25 release. Including some wishlist items, rants and improvements for EASHL NHL 25.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:14 Gameplay
5:08 Customization
10:01 Presentation
11:52 Population
12:51 Computer AI
15:15 Miscellaneous
18:36 Outro

[razzledazzlesnhl]

Let us know what you thought of NHL 24 and what EA can do to get back on track with the NHL series.

[michaelkeller]

I only play franchise mode. After about 6 years the game can't even count properly. It shows players records that arent even close to accurate. If the game cant count properly i just have no hope for this game

[mattmorris]

The biggest travesty of 24 is the pressure system. That had potential to reward teams for playing actual hockey, but it's been nerfed into the ground. It was a bit too much at the beginning, but it was nice to actually have it matter. Getting too much pressure from "shots" in the neutral or even defensive zone is also an issue. Proximity to the net, power of the shot etc. doesn't matter. If it hits the goalie, it's a "great shot" and you get like 20% pressure off of it.

To add on to the issue with the AI, they play exactly the same regardless the situation and always have. Up a goal, down a goal, penalty kill, power play, 30 seconds left, 8 minutes left etc. NONE of it matters. They will play the exact same way. Make the strategies actually do something.

[otcelly]

It’s a small detail, but I’d love to see them implement something that College Football 25 did. Decrease the crowd size based off the team performance. Last place teams having sold out barns for an out of conference game on a Tuesday night is dumb.

Small details is all I want. Franchise and BAP have lacked them for years.

[HerbGrowingLegal]

NHL, MLB, NBA & NFL should have 1 game per 3 years that bring out yearly updates. These games are the exact same year after year and sometimes getting worse. Game developers should get more than 1 year to create a brand new game. F

[christabbernor]

As an Eashl original here's what we need:

NHL 13 character customization and practice modes with targets and everything. Used to be able to decide your stick curve, flex and skate blade length.

NHL 23 matchmaking. It was great and worked.

You covered the rest.

[DougieBoy]

All the suff you said is 100% on point, butI can add to this. Fix the division system, people that are low rank should not be playing blue, purple or red ranked players. So many glitches that I'll only name one, unable to finish a fight (no matter what, you can't take down the opponent, they become invincible), add the ability to change goalies (give us the option to put a backup goalie in if our is sucking. Reduce the amount of menus (it's insane how many menus you must go through just to get to the eashl), permanent injuries, no more of this 2 mins and your fully healed BS, game misconducts, if you do a dirty hit then you should be ejected for that game. I could go on and on but I don't wanna write an essay on what EA needs to fix.

[MYNHLNETWORK]

gonna comment as a competitive / esports eashl player here. Most points are spot on. Only reason EASHL has a fanbase now is due to LeagueGaming, and other 6s leagues. can confirm right now it’s about as dead as ever in the chats. sure some teams play, but it’s just the game is so stale and bad. need 25 to be a massive improvement

[donte]

Let us edit players attributes on franchise mode don’t know why they took that out take anyway it gives franchise mode more depth and customization for a player you want fast or really strong or to shoot better

[SJSharks]

The way they nerfed clearing the puck has got to be the dumbest thing a sports game has ever done. D just catche it at the blue line everytime

[gootvansquid]

I turned off glass breaking. My biggest NHL 24 gripes; no box scores(25 has it <3 ), contract extensions not listed in the player details menus, just tells you they have "1 year left" - the terrible lag on the menu screens that has caused me to click the wrong thing numerous times... then a bunch of little things, (Example: my stick glitched through a wall as i scored a goal - i'd rather not have the space to shoot hard because i'm against a wall than get that goal. ) - But my biggest gripe?
MY BIGGEST GRIPE?? One of my CPU players brushes an opposing player with his thumb as he skates past, and i get an Interference penalty. SO MANY Interference penalties. If the game wants to make sure penalties happen for realism so they use Interference penalties if you aren't committing any heinous acts; fine. I'll accept that, if they also have the opposing team get penalties as well. I get a power play like once every 8 games in franchise mode, but I have multiple PKs per game because of those crooked Interference calls :P Stop it, EA. Just stop it.

[DarrenHowseMusic]

Honestly we gotta stop with this whole "fixing small/medium issues with current game modes" thing. Stop pre-ordering and buying their garbage on day 1. Stop buying packs. They're not going to fix a game that's still making a huge profit on microtransactions. They need to take several years off, scrap mostly everything, and start fresh.

[Aidan_minotti]

2 things we need
Less penalties like when I lift a stick it’s a penalty
Ai needs to get more penalties than 0 a game

[pistolpete]

Worst part is they nuked the skating and puck possession when the engine got updated for 24. It feels so bad to play the game compared to previous titles.

[avenger]

Having not played the NHL series since 2014, its laughable how everything you talked about it, is why I quit 10 YEARS AGO

[ImReca]

A feature chel could benefit extremely from copying is what 2K has in their ProAm mode which lets you shoot around while queuing. FIFA used to have this and for some reason thought taking it out for longer pregame presentation was a good idea when we all skip that anyway.

ALSO OPEN THE GAME TO PC FFS

[chrisambs-ruxh]

Basically if they could change the franchise mode to be more like the NBA games (allow us to control MORE things such as expansions in later years, rule changes, etc along with allowing us to control what every team is doing if we want).

Being able to edit the names and stats of coaches and GM’s is incredibly satisfying.

Other than that? Fix the AI after year 5-6 and give the game enough memory that we get video packages (these can be pre loaded) for rivalry games. 20 seconds of maple leafs-Habs throwing big hits and scoring against each other can’t be that big an ask.

[AsGoodAsFunny]

I always thought in eashl you should be able to go to the bench mid shift for a "change" and switch your loadout

[mikes]

I won’t be buying nhl 25, it’s going to be crap

[Laffy_ill]

I feel like it would be sick to have the ability to have a clubs winter classic with your team along with nhl goal songs. I’d love to have my online EASHL team play a winter classic game vs a random team and then score and have our own goal song from a real team like Chicago or Boston instead of using the soundtrack.

Or for the goal songs just get the rights to previous goal songs like the old panthers one sweetness and the old Montreal goal song. Players want to actually hear the goal song instead of fucking odyssey or when the boom goes.

Lastly make a real soundtrack that people won’t mute immediately.

In EASHL clubs we need the ability to have like a 1-2 minute warmup prior to the games and the occasional winter classic game. We need a real entrance to the game like you said the old EASHL hype up. They need to prioritize offline and online entrances for clubs instead of hut.