Just bought the game - Really disappointed

[CoyotesHFNHL]

A few things I wanted to mention and see if those of you that have played the game for a while feel it's improved or if i'm just wasting my time trying to get used to it.

The biggest thing is the skating. I like to move the sliders up for game speed when I play with others, but in HUT and stuff like that it can't be done. But i've found it tolerable in previous years. Now it is just ridiculously slow to skate and move around. It's supposed to be realistic, but when you have a great skating defenseman and it takes him like 5 seconds to build any speed, it's just stupid.. They always seem to say they want to take the opinions of their customers but did anyone really contact them and complain that the skating was too smooth and needed to be more "realistic" to slow everything down? I find the speed of the game really difficult to play with.

The next thing has to be the passing. When I would play I move the puck alot, I like to use hard D to D passes to evade situations, and I cycle the puck. I find in this game for one if I try to make a hard D to D pass the puck goes flying against the wall. The only pass that works D to D is a soft one which could be picked off for a goal depending on the situation. In general I find it a lot more difficult to make passes, and it makes the game really frustrating when it becomes very difficult to complete simple puck movement plays.

Third would be the checking. I can't count how many times I've had a big physical 6'4" NHL forward forward hit a 5'10" junior player in the HUT tournaments at full speed and the small junior forward being hit by the big NHL forward it ends up making things better for them?? So I try to stick check more.. and that results in penalty after penalty. So how do you get the puck from the opposition? Physicality is one of the most effective areas of real hockey. So why in the world does it seem the more physical I play the more chances the opposition gets and the more difficult it becomes for me to win? The hitting doesn't seem to go both ways either it's been laughable at times how small of contact knocks my guy off the puck.

My final issue is with the AI. It wouldn't bother me if they didn't promote it so prominently that they've improved it and it's the best ever. So why do my guys stand around and just watch the other team pick up a lose puck unless I'm controlling them. Why do they let opponents walk around them like pilons? It really doesn't seem very improved it seems the exact same from the last few years which wouldn't be an issue if they didn't promote the improvements so heavily. The difficulty in the skating and checking is what makes it more noticeable because I find that I rely on my computer players a lot more because it takes so long to be able to get going anywhere skating wise.

So I guess in part this is a vent, but this is also me wondering if I'm just wasting my time if I keep playing the game that it's not going to get any better in the end and i'm just going to keep pulling my hair out. This is really the first time since I think 2002 that I bought the NHL series and just couldn't believe how brutal it was to start. I'm kinda pissed off I spent money on it, and I primarily just play the HUT so I'd appreciate if some of you who have played for a while can let me know that it becomes more managable and you get the hang of it, or if after months it still just becomes so frustrating to deal with. Thanks.

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[UpGoesRupp]

First off, The game does become managable. Once you get the hang of skating you can be quite elusive. The only flaw I found is that the physics engine isn't as good as they hyped it up to be. As you were saying with a big guy hitting a small guy.

However, the frustrating thing for me in these NHL games has become the parity.
No matter how good your team you can lose to a crappy team. Whether it's GM mode or HUT or whatever. It seems as though some games you can't score and I'm all sold on that part. However, when the other team has 8 shot and you have 30+ and you lose 2-1 it seems a bit irrational. Another thing with that game play is that if you play someone who doesn't know hockey and has never picked up the game they can actually beat you just on random bounces etc. I understand hockey is a game with a lot of player errors but sometimes it's ridiculous.

Aside from that, I've found the game and a lot of the modes pretty fun to play. It definitely grows on you.
The shootings better,passings better, control of players is better and more realistic.
However, I'm all for the game being more difficult to play rather then anyone being able to pick it up and win easily.

 

[Spitsfan67*]

Yup the game gets worse and worse every year..every year they try and make it better and the make it a bit worse IMO at least, I mean the new skating is garbage for EASHL unless you play 6vs6 I mean most people just max out there speed and acceleration and they fly past the CPU defense for breakaways about 10 times a game and it isn't fun for people who want to be a power forward or who aren't that fast, along with the match making like wtf I your an amature team you shouldn't be Playing against a top 100 team and vise versa it's really BS... And Be a GM trading is just stupid, some people say its more realistic well it's not..I offered Stamkos for a 1st Rd pick from the middle of the standings team along with 2 Prospects that were in there 60's one with 3 stars and the other with 3 and a half potential and the declined it saying that "we can accept what were getting but were giving up way to much" or something like that like what? Any Gm would do that trade every day of the week laughing....and the scouting is just terable there about 30 players every draft that are 6'6+ or the weigh 230+ at the age of 18/19 like unrealistic. This game sucks badly and I hope they actually make the next game better instead of doing nothin really to improve the game.