Be a Pro Mode

[MillanDynasty]

Well a lot of their games seem to be badly optimised (like Sims 3 that plays like ******* even on a good computer) but it seems very odd that my NHL games become unplayable and break down after a few years. I can still play NHL 10 and 11 but for some reason, my copies of 13, 14 and 15 (digital AND on both generations, PS3 and PS4) are basically destroyed.

I take good care of my ****. I can still pop GTA IV in my console (CD) and it plays just like it used to, almost 9 years ago, and I abused this game for years.

 

[flash46201]

Wonderful

After game 55, I am leading the league with 118 points. My 'agent' has just informed me I am 'likely to go in the top 5 in the draft'. I should get to the draft in time for the real draft at this rate...

 

[MillanDynasty]

Ended the season with 203 points, played every playoff game, won it all.

I got drafted 15th Overall at 81 ovr. 20 ovr jump from September to June.

This game is dookie.

 

[flash46201]

Giveaways/Takeaways

I don't know if anyone else is paying attention to this stat. I have only started this final OHL season, and it's crap. Of course there is the usual thing where I enter the zone and either try to make a deke, or a turn to pass back to the point, only to have the puck mysteriously fly off my stick...instant turnover. Or the defenseman who just gives me a bit of a push as I enter the zone, which leaves me paralyzed to pick up the puck that's in between my skates...instant turnover. Or passing it around the boards behind the net to a teammate who is facing the absolute wrong way, and the puck is picked up easily by the other team...instant turnover. I think I am doing quite well at this point that my GV/TK aways are 223/132 after almost a whole season...considering the ways mentioned above that the computer sets me up to fail.
Anyone else paying attention to this?

 

[MillanDynasty]

What difficulty do you play at ?

 

[flash46201]

Difficulty

What difficulty do you play at ?

I play on Superstar for everything. I did move the sliders slightly to make pokechecks slightly less effective, but I think most of the others are 'as is'.

 

[nguava]

How do some of you guys have such high ratings from simming?! I read some of you simmed to a 90 overall etc?

I simmed maybe 2 seasons and I only went from a 72-77 overall.
Turned off sim penalty, and during the week I usually just practice wrist shot or power skating ....

 

[MillanDynasty]

Okay so, I'm lost for words now.

I'm in year 3 of my Be A Pro career with the Calgary Flames, a few weeks away from trade deadline and my GM has just made this move:

To San Jose:
Mark Giordano - EXACT Top 4 D - 89 Overall - 35 years old

To Calgary:
Jack Doughery - Medium Top 6 D - 72 Overall - 22 years old
Rudolfs Balcers - Medium Top 9 F - 72 Overall - 21 years old
Tyler Parsons - AHL Starter - 70 Overall - 21 years old

What kind of ****ing trade is that ?! We went to the conference finals the year before and we're leading our division up to the trade deadline. Why is our GM trading away our best defenseman for useless players that have no potential to ever achieve any success with our club? At LEAST get a 1 round pick for him.

This is our defense core right now:

Thanks. Thanks a lot GM. Really helping our crew making that final push for the playoffs. What a stupid ****ing game. Thank god my pro is now a 50 goals scorer or we'd be damned.

EDIT: I checked, and Giordano isn't even an upcoming UFA so there was no real rush to trade him away, especially for that pile of garbage.

 

[flash46201]

Update

After my final year in junior, the playoffs, and the Memorial Cup, I went to the draft 92 overall. Was drafted first overall by Vancouver. Not my first choice, but I only had a 1 in 30 chance of being drafted by MY team, so I was prepared. Replayed the final few games and Memorial Cup a couple times more, but each time was drafted first overall by Vancouver. Just had to accept it.
After the first few games of pro, I now realise what a soul crushing experience this game is. My goalies (Miller and Markstrom) are even worse than the OHL goalies I had to deal with. First pre-season game? Miller lets in 4 goals on 11 shots, and I finish the game with a 28% defense rating. Thanks Miller.
Have played a few regular season games, and I feel like I will never score a goal. I'm sick of entering the zone and there are 5 of the other team's players in a bunch in the slot. I can't get anywhere near the net for a decent shot. Never an odd man rush, never a slow defenseman. I am now 92 overall, and have 92 speed. When is this going to get easier??? I should be Crosby or Ovechkin quality, but feel like a fourth liner.
Speaking of which, I have started the season on the 3rd line. Vancouver's top line centre (Horvat) is an 85 overall! I get a bit of powerplay time, but am mostly killing penalties. I HATE killing penalties.
The gameplay is so tedious! ALL the computer does (either team) is dump it in, dump it in, dump it in. Defenseman picks it up. Gets pinned on the boards (even if he has all day to move it). Puck gets kicked out, usually to someone on the other team. Other team scores. I get blamed.
I realise I'm not so enthusiastic about playing now, since I'm playing for a team I care little about...but right now all I want is my first goal trophy, my 50 goal trophy, and my SC trophy. The first one will happen, I am not so sure I will have the patience to make the other two happen. It's simply a grind now, even more so than when I was in junior (assuming I still don't get sent back down to junior!!!)
Thanks EA...for nothing.

Edit: As an example of what I'm up against: Markstrom makes a save. I'm standing beside the net waiting for the whistle. He (for some unknown fkn reason) decided to throw the puck straight into the slot, straight to a guy on the other team who promptly scores. My fault, ten percent off my defense score.

Edit: About 5 minutes after posting this, finally got my first goal. Wasn't a cheapier either. Nice wrister from the slot (can't believe I got that open). At least it was a nice touch that it showed a teammate saving the puck for the trainer. I have the commentary turned off (can't stand that doc guy) so not sure what was said. Oh well, I got my trophy.

 

[nguava]

After my final year in junior, the playoffs, and the Memorial Cup, I went to the draft 92 overall.

Did you play every single game in juniors, playoffs and the memorial cup? And how did you get your speed to 92?!

Have played a few regular season games, and I feel like I will never score a goal. I'm sick of entering the zone and there are 5 of the other team's players in a bunch in the slot. I can't get anywhere near the net for a decent shot. Never an odd man rush, never a slow defenseman. I am now 92 overall, and have 92 speed. When is this going to get easier??? I should be Crosby or Ovechkin quality, but feel like a fourth liner.

What difficulty do you play on? Sometimes playing passed all star is nearly impossible to win ... haha

 

[flash46201]

Answers

Did you play every single game in juniors, playoffs and the memorial cup? And how did you get your speed to 92?!

I played probably 180 out of 204 junior games in full...all 3 periods. I got my speed that high by putting every training session to power skating...all 3 years worth, plus summer training. Speed and acceleration are the few attributes that can't be improved in game, can only be done through training. It sucks.

What difficulty do you play on? Sometimes playing passed all star is nearly impossible to win ... haha

I play on Superstar, full sim. Yes, it seems impossible to win at times, but I feel like winning with anything less isn't worth it.

Edit: I simmed quite a few playoff games. It seemed the difficulty was cranked right up in the playoffs which made it very frustrating. Would usually sim the first 4 games of a series then finish off the rest.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

Okay so, I'm lost for words now.

I'm in year 3 of my Be A Pro career with the Calgary Flames, a few weeks away from trade deadline and my GM has just made this move:

To San Jose:
Mark Giordano - EXACT Top 4 D - 89 Overall - 35 years old

To Calgary:
Jack Doughery - Medium Top 6 D - 72 Overall - 22 years old
Rudolfs Balcers - Medium Top 9 F - 72 Overall - 21 years old
Tyler Parsons - AHL Starter - 70 Overall - 21 years old

What kind of ****ing trade is that ?! We went to the conference finals the year before and we're leading our division up to the trade deadline. Why is our GM trading away our best defenseman for useless players that have no potential to ever achieve any success with our club? At LEAST get a 1 round pick for him.

This is our defense core right now:

Thanks. Thanks a lot GM. Really helping our crew making that final push for the playoffs. What a stupid ****ing game. Thank god my pro is now a 50 goals scorer or we'd be damned.

EDIT: I checked, and Giordano isn't even an upcoming UFA so there was no real rush to trade him away, especially for that pile of garbage.

Why was Parsons on San Jose anyways? He was drafted by Calgary.(and to be fair, he should have better potential)

 

[flash46201]

Update

After game 4 of my NHL career, being moved to second line. In 4 games, 1G 3A +3 GV14 TK10.

Another source of grief for me in this game is when you are rushing towards the net, wind up to take a shot, and it's the old 'swing and a miss'. Instant turnover, -10 for me. I mean, does ANYONE ever see this happening in real life? A player crosses the blue line, winds up to take a slapper, and simply misses, then allows the other team to skate away with the puck? What makes it worse, is this happens YEAR AFTER YEAR in EVERY edition of this game. When are they going to fix it? It's just as annoying as having the puck fly off your stick every time you stop to turn or make a deke. I have played hockey all my life, and you KNOW when the puck is on your stick, and very rarely does it just float away from you. While it's nice that the puck isn't glued to your stick like it has been in years past, they have gone too far in the opposite direction.
More updates to come...

 

[MillanDynasty]

After game 4 of my NHL career, being moved to second line. In 4 games, 1G 3A +3 GV14 TK10.

Another source of grief for me in this game is when you are rushing towards the net, wind up to take a shot, and it's the old 'swing and a miss'. Instant turnover, -10 for me. I mean, does ANYONE ever see this happening in real life? A player crosses the blue line, winds up to take a slapper, and simply misses, then allows the other team to skate away with the puck? What makes it worse, is this happens YEAR AFTER YEAR in EVERY edition of this game. When are they going to fix it? It's just as annoying as having the puck fly off your stick every time you stop to turn or make a deke. I have played hockey all my life, and you KNOW when the puck is on your stick, and very rarely does it just float away from you. While it's nice that the puck isn't glued to your stick like it has been in years past, they have gone too far in the opposite direction.
More updates to come...

I know that feel. My 99 overall Andrew Millan wiffs so many times on one timers and when he does shoot the puck, he lacks accuracy. It's sickening. Then I score a beauty, dangling through five guys with a 73 overall enforcer. Makes total sense.

Doesn't matter who your name is and what's your overall, if the game decides you're not gonna score, you're not gonna score.

 

[flash46201]

Penalties

I'm also getting sick of having to restart games because of penalties. If I accepted every penalty I am given playing this game, my discipline would probably be in negative numbers.
Just played a game where on my first shift I am crossing the opposing blue line, just heading for the front of the net, when my player suddenly lunges to one side, destroys one of the defensemen who is injured. I get ejected for interference. I was in NO WAY attempting to check this guy, I just wanted to get to the net. It was ALL the computer's doing, yet I am meant to accept it??? I'm thinking...no.
Thanks EA Sports.

 

[flash46201]

Passing

I know it's been said many times, many ways:

The passing sucks a$$ in this game. Between NHL 16 and 17 I have likely played at least 1000 games, including all the restarts. From BAP to BAGM to Online Versus to EASHL...maybe more. In all those games, you'd think I would have learned exactly where my passes are meant to go, right???

Yet there are times, at least once in EVERY game, where my pass goes 45deg (or more) in a different direction to where I am aiming. I just yell at my tv 'WTF???'. Whether this is something that EA has thrown in there to somehow 'randomize' the game (as if we need MORE of that) or it's simply their buggy programming, it sucks.

And while I'm on the subject of passing, I cannot be MORE annoyed at the positioning of my defensemen. When the puck is in the corner or on the half wall, it is THE MOST BASIC POSITIONING that the defenseman be on the blue line, against the boards to accept a pass. So what do I do? A lot of the time I can't even see where the defenseman is, based on the camera positioning, but I throw the puck back to the blue line, expecting my Dman to be there. Where is he? In the MIDDLE of the ice! I'm pretty sure 7 year olds are taught better positioning than this, let alone supposed 'professionals'. Again, it is something I have fought from my first day in junior, and am still fighting it now that I am in the NHL.

Ridiculous. Thanks EA Sports.

 

[flash46201]

Jersey Numbers

Ok. Another minor issue that's bugging me.

My usual jersey number is 12. I knew a lot of the older teams had 12 retired, so this time I chose 15. I knew my favourite team hadn't retired that number, so if the 1 in 30 chance happened that I got drafted by that team, I might be able to get it. Well, I wasn't drafted by that team, so the point is moot.

However...being drafted by Vancouver, I am unable to check jersey numbers. I have just spent the last five minutes going through every screen I could find, and have not been able to find out who has jersey 15. I have been given jersey 17, so somebody must have 15. I can't see any way to request that number, let alone see who actually HAS that number, unless I pay close attention when I'm playing games (yeah, I'll watch for jersey numbers instead of trying to win games...right).

I know in the real world of the NHL guys will actually pay someone for their number. Would it be so hard to be allowed to do that??? It's just something as simple as wanting to wear the number I want, if it's not retired.

Yet another minor detail that EA Sports has overlooked, which can be quite important to the player. Thanks EA Sports.

 

[seafoam]

I keep gettinf drafted by the Leafs, and I intentionally sucked in the Mem Cup so I wouldn't get drafted 1st overall and the Leafs still selected me.

Absolutely terrible.

 

[flash46201]

Ugly

I keep gettinf drafted by the Leafs, and I intentionally sucked in the Mem Cup so I wouldn't get drafted 1st overall and the Leafs still selected me.

Absolutely terrible.

Wow, I feel your pain. Makes me happy I got stuck with Vancouver!

 

[MillanDynasty]

I keep gettinf drafted by the Leafs, and I intentionally sucked in the Mem Cup so I wouldn't get drafted 1st overall and the Leafs still selected me.

Absolutely terrible.

I don't think it's that bad tbh. Toronto has quite a good future set up in this game (as in real life). I got drafted in Calgary and had to put the entire team on my shoulders for three seasons before finally deciding to go somewhere else.

 

[seafoam]

I don't think it's that bad tbh. Toronto has quite a good future set up in this game (as in real life). I got drafted in Calgary and had to put the entire team on my shoulders for three seasons before finally deciding to go somewhere else.

I'd rather go to a team that more needs help.

 

[flash46201]

Pattern

Not sure if anyone else experiences this, but I have discovered a very annoying pattern with this game. EVERY time the computer puts me out with just a few seconds left in the period, something BAD happens. NEVER anything good. Either the other team scores a pathetic goal, I get a penalty, or as just happened, I take a check and am injured. It's to the point where I should just turn around and get right back on the bench. Anyone else sharing my misery?

 

[flash46201]

Cover The Open Man

Ok, I'm still totally frustrated with this. I'm now into my first pro season and have NEVER managed to get this, even once. An example:
Just played a game against Pittsburgh. I know the centres I would be up against would be Crosby and Malkin. One shift, the defensemen (as usual) leave the slot completely empty. Crosby is there. I stick lift him once...no play. I stick lift him twice...no play. I stick lift him a third time, pass comes towards him, gets blocked, I grab the loose puck and clear the zone. It THAT isn't covering the open man, then wft is??? Can SOMEONE explain how I'm supposed to get this stupid focus??? Is it just glitched for me? I get plenty of 'cover for defense' but never 'cover the open man'. It's past being annoying, but I can't bring myself to delete the focus, cause I'll never know if I ever DO it!

 

[Nordic*]

Ok, I'm still totally frustrated with this. I'm now into my first pro season and have NEVER managed to get this, even once. An example:
Just played a game against Pittsburgh. I know the centres I would be up against would be Crosby and Malkin. One shift, the defensemen (as usual) leave the slot completely empty. Crosby is there. I stick lift him once...no play. I stick lift him twice...no play. I stick lift him a third time, pass comes towards him, gets blocked, I grab the loose puck and clear the zone. It THAT isn't covering the open man, then wft is??? Can SOMEONE explain how I'm supposed to get this stupid focus??? Is it just glitched for me? I get plenty of 'cover for defense' but never 'cover the open man'. It's past being annoying, but I can't bring myself to delete the focus, cause I'll never know if I ever DO it!

Perhaps they want you to tie him up physically. Triangle on ps4.

 

[flash46201]

Nope

Perhaps they want you to tie him up physically. Triangle on ps4.

All that get me is an interference penalty. Any other suggestions? It also doesn't help that EA Sports (in their usual frustrating way) do not provide any information as to even which buttons to use! They just say 'go do this' and don't tell you how!!!