NHL 25 Better Be Like This

How to fix the gameplay in NHL 24 and EA SPORTS NHL games in general.

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[Chris-qzhd]

we also need a better presentation for the offline modes then I would be satisfied.and we finally need better stick handling and realistic skating animation like in nhl 14 which look smoother than the current ones

[elbon]

Ea hearing this: “thanks but we already have the next 5 chel games ready to go. (Every game is the same with minute band-aid fixes that slightly differentiate them from each other)

[razzledazzlesnhl]

The band-aiding comment might be the biggest takeaway from this video. Just look at the pressure system, instead of fixing how pressure was gained (good shot, bad shots, normal passes, sauce passes, one touch passes) they just change the amount you need. then eventually nerfed full pressure so bad, that it's not even a mechanic anymore.

Great Job Eki.

[ghost_]

I made a post on the EA NHL forum about bad defensive AI being the cause of most of the game's problems, and the community manager responded and told me to learn how to manually defend and stop expecting the AI to do it for me...

This let me know that not a single person at that company knows anything about hockey. I can't control all 5 skaters at once, and one lapse by the AI just abandoning his man for no reason causes a complete breakdown of the defense.

THIS is what leads people to play defense like a constant penalty kill (see also. skill zone).

But like you said, rather than address the root of the issue, they bandaid it another way: make offense clunkier because otherwise the braindead defensive AI would look even worse. Now you've got crap offense and crap defense...and thus, a crap game.

[llamapenNHL]

I was watching some clips from NHL 19 the other day (imo the best of the PS4 era NHL games) and was blown away by how good it felt. Yea the back skating was unrealistic, but it created a skill gap and it was fine because you had the defensive tools to combat it. Keep a close gap, wait for them to face you, and then stick lift them. Now you can't even stick lift or poke check. Imo bring back the back skating cheese, and just lower the puck control and balance of players when they do it. Make them easier to knock off the puck when they back skate and the problem fixes itself. I agree with what you said about the band-aids. This applies to "skill zone" defense as well, or players just standing in front of the net instead of actively defending. If you just make a higher variety of snipes and one timers from more areas viable scoring chances, all of a sudden players will start actively defending. Instead they tried this stupid fatigue system that failed so miserably they scrapped it almost entirely. Their solutions are always just so bad it blows my mind.

[Rcap]

Great list but the problem is this. Product team compiles customer feedback like this, determines the cost / time it would take to implement, bring the project to the board to get approved, but immediately get denied and respond with "The only net new features that we will approve for the game are features that have a mechanism to generate a revenue stream, other than that, it's keep the lights on". Team goes back to the drawing board, realize HUT is the only thing that keeps revenue flowing, and the next proposal consists of events that will make the game miserable for the FTP player (IE, Trade Deadline). To slap a feature tag on it, they will change the color scheme of the menus or add some minor graphics in the arena. The fact that "Be A Pro" was the exact same thing from the opening scene, and amazingly the dialogue engine was broken and worse then 23 is sort of the writing on the wall. It's a slap in the face when your release another iteration of the game with modes that are worse of then the previous year. That shows that they really don't care about the customer experience and they have a very lazy development and QA team who are just going through the motions.

[MichaelKec]

The recent EA NHL games can best be described as feeling like "arcade hockey", flashy abilities, cool looking dekes and saves, and massive hits. But the lack of strategy and fundamental hockey is annoying. AI is either too aggressive or too passive, it has no consistency.

[anthonypierson]

Super on point video. Iva had the exact thoughts about the create your own view. I loved it. And the created plays as well, loved them. I've been playing online since 2006 so I've seen the great evolutions and horrible removal of loved items as well. Thank you eki for bringing these up.

[PowerPlayStudios]

We need full presentation back in this game… bring stuff from nhl 14 and add things we see irl at the arenas from sights and sounds… we need the arena shots back as well just make it feel like tv and move the damn scoreboard back to the normal spot like tv

[BacoTubo]

I couldn't agree more with the ridiculous band-aiding issue. L2 spam, poke checks. I'll throw in the lacrosse goal as well. Spent so much time learning how to hit it. Then, 24, they make it a button press. Now it's OP asf so they nerf the hell out of it so it's slow and unrealistic. Awesome! Now it's pointless to go for whether you use skill stick or toddler control. Great job!

[jipiju]

All the points you make have been in my mind for YEARS. It's good that you finally make a proper video like this. The community doesn't demand enough from EA.

The game should be COMPLETELY overhauled. The AI, THE AI, THE AI, THE AI, player switching, luck elements in every area (goalies, bounces, passes, shots etc) etc. All your points are 100% true and important.

[Perellzy]

Sports games should not be overly realistic. Urealistic with some realistic features is the way to go. Either way I agreed with everything you said. Good video eki

[robertmiller]

Completely agree with you you on most of this. The problem is ea makes so much money they are ok with selling a polished turd and calling it a new game. It's horrible.

[adamrutkowski]

Even if EA addresses all these problems for 25. They will immediately become broken once the first gameplay update releases after the first two weeks of release. It happened with 22, 23, and 24.

[michaelthurman]

You guys comment like. EA or any other game companies care. The business model has changed. Gone are the days where game development mattered. They have literally fired most game development staff and have brought on specialists in human behavior to figure more ways to get microtransactions

[colebalantz]

The new way of shielding the puck ruins stick handling and gets in the way of taking slap shots when you are sprinting. wtf were they

[Vengeance_De_La_Hoya]

I like what u said about goalies. It’s very inconsistent but that is how it is like in real life. Players have really good games and really bad games. I do think there needs to be a mechanic where the goalies and AIs adjust to things. Basically like what u said about the goalies adjusting to how they’re being scored on. I think that’s a fantastic idea and it would mean there would be a variety of different goals being scored bc u can’t just keep on scoring the same thing over and over and over again.

[jrelic]

I play Eashl exclusively. I would love to see more “pro” and less arcade. The games don’t need to be 7-5 every time. Human goalies need to be more fluid—it’s like moving a bus compared to skaters.

Even if we need two different Eashl modes, such as Pro and Arcade, and each has their own tuner depending on the experience wanted, I know of many league players that would love a realistic hockey game.

Getting rid of L2 was a great start—now let’s remove unrealistic hits, fumbling goalies, and skaters that never lose the puck even though they’ve been hit several times.

Get rid of X Factors and Silver Perks for Eashl—the game is so much better when we remove them from skaters during league games.

Great video.

[BettingOnABudget]

This is absolutely spot on. A video game is a video game. If I wanted realistic I would go outside and play! NHL 13-16 best games ever.

[marc-etiennemercier]

Oh yea and they have to find a way so that 95% of the playerbase is something else than a 5'7 160pounds 95 speed 95 accel sniper. It's so boring how everyone's a lightweight this year.