NHL 15 News, Strategy Guides, Screenshots & Videos

Some minor updates and fixes make NHL 15 into what 14 should have been last year but is essentially a roster update for $60 which is obviously not even close to being worth that amount. I would recommend getting it if possible at a much cheaper price since the base modes are all still there but there are still recurrent gameplay issues with no penalties ever being called against the AI and the skating physics are still as quirky as ever. AI players seem to have this invisible bubble around them that prevents you from ever landing a solid check or getting the player off the puck yet they can do it against you with such ease. Many of the goals they score seem to be scripted in that no matter what you do whether you poke check, clear puck or somehow separate them from the puck they always seem to keep possession or take the puck back with ease. In essence every single legacy problem or issue you had with NHL 14 or in previous versions have not been fixed or even touched upon whatsoever. The skating is still clunky and unrealistic and appears to be widely programmed instead of relying on more physics which they swear upon is how the skating works. There is little to no speed or acceleration difference between players as someone of the likes of Bertuzzi can backskate and accelerate up to speed with those of Patrick Kane. The momentum of the skaters is also extremely over exaggerated as its almost nearly impossible to stop yourself from crashing into the goalie while skating at the on a breakaway or something as simple as cutting to the net. The AI strategies and hockey IQ is still at the level of that of a 2 year old in the sense that they still do not cut to the open areas of the ice and do not utilize different approaches versus their notorious skate in circles around the blue line, pass a few times and then dump it into the corner strategy in which they also somehow always seem to be able to outskate your defenseman and recover the puck no matter who you have paired against them. I won't even go into the goaltending as absolutely nothing has changed in regards to their skill levels. Top shelf glove side is still almost guaranteed every time and clappers from the point will find their way in more times than not. The only difference is that the AI goalie is as unstoppable as ever in most games making the most absurd saves imaginable every other shot you put on goal. Player likeness is still ignored to the fullest extent with only 10 or so faces added to the game out of the purported 300+ scanned player faces they claim to have. Even this years newly added rookies Ekblad and Reinhart have the wrong hair color and the helmets are gargantuan in size making them look ridiculous on ice. I have yet to play this on PS4 or Xbox1 systems and all signs point to those renditions of the game being even worse than the last gen. It's a really sad and upsetting thing to see a game that has previously had high quality releases with such a loyal fanbase being fed nothing but empty promises and lies without any real explanation as to why major game modes such as OTP or something as simple as an "edit player" option being completely left out of a game that is touted as "next generation quality". With little to no updates being released for either game on either platform, except for those major "free added content" releases on PS4 & Xbox1 that add measly things such as "3 stars of the game" and the ability to draft your own players in Be A GM mode, I do not see any improvement coming from this franchise other than to fully invest into the cash grabbing machine that is HUT. Its a shame that such a great game is being sacrificed in quality and content for the sole purpose of focusing all attention in how to extract the most out of the fanbase using HUT as the juicer. Some say that the developers are not at fault for the problems in NHL 15 but when the "greatest day in EA Sports NHL history" is the release of some meaningless mega HUT card pack who are you kidding. They know exactly what they are doing and what kind of product they are putting out and releasing to the public and the fact that they hid all of the shortcomings and missing modes from the players, any and all sympathy for them was immediately lost in my mind. Overall I give it a 4 because you can not get much lower than NHL 14 if you do not attempt to make any changes to it in the first place. If this is the type of product we should expect to see in the future from EASNHL I hope they discontinue it sooner rather than later instead of putting us through the misery of seeing such a great franchise go from being so high to plummeting straight to the ground. They do not deserve the privilege to make a hockey game on a sport that has some of the most loyal and passionate fans both in the virtual world of NHL game series and NHL themselves.

Great game! Love the NBC Presentation. Game plays great!

I'm going to say 6.5/10 here. I enjoy playing the game. It looks great. The missing modes really hurt it (even though I don't typically play them). Overall though, I'm pleased with it, but I just can't rate it higher with all the things they left out, especially drafting in the BeAGM mode.

ugh

Fun gameplay, nice puck physics. I think everyone is piling on instead of rating the game on the ice. Suffers from poor AI at times, but still plays a good game of hockey to me.

One word! BAD! Presentation and Graphics are it's strong points and after that it's downhill fast. EA with Madden and NHL and 2k with Basketball are getting to complacent with no competition. It's hard to believe EA was so close with Live 10 and Madden 11 to having amazing games and have fallen so behind since. Was really looking forward to NHL on next gen especially with the extra year they had to complete it. So final thoughts- game is bad and they should've done what Live did last year and sell it for 30 bucks! I'll be returning mine for something else.

Too many missing modes/features

Edited: Gameplay is fun but with all the modes missing, its time to send EA a message and show them they cant keep ripping us off. Im not buying it

Really not hyped at all. I almost forgot the game was out this week!

Nope. Too much missing. Will not pay full price for half azzed effort.