Am I the only person who thinks NHL16 sucks?

[LordNeverLose]

My GM Mode crashes every ****ing time I finish the draft. So ****ing done with this game. I don't like any other game mode other than GM Mode and it's ****ing broken.

I will not be getting NHL 17 unless GM Connected is re-introduced.

I had this problem as well. Turns out the problem was I had too many unsigned players on my roster (limit is like 25 or something). Trade some of your unsigned players or your picks away before the draft and it'll work.

 

[janesy12]

Or people have actually played other sports games and know how many years behind NHL is?

The fact you say it is in depth with so many modes says you haven't seen what a game like MLB the Show or NBA 2k are putting out there.

The Show is by far the best sports game. The Show 16 could be one of the best games I've ever played. It is absolutely fantastic. Year after year this game rocks. They are so far ahead of NHL its incomparable.

 

[Dangles78]

The Show is by far the best sports game. The Show 16 could be one of the best games I've ever played. It is absolutely fantastic. Year after year this game rocks. They are so far ahead of NHL its incomparable.

Yup. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I've bought The Show the last 2 years. It's just flat out embarrassing how bad EA is with the NHL franchise. There's no depth to NHL 16, presentation is weak and gameplay is meh. However, I do think '17 will be an improvement...I mean, it has to be right?

 

[Ermo20]

Yup. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I've bought The Show the last 2 years. It's just flat out embarrassing how bad EA is with the NHL franchise. There's no depth to NHL 16, presentation is weak and gameplay is meh. However, I do think '17 will be an improvement...I mean, it has to be right?

Hopefully 17 will be an improvement. Not a big one, but probably some kind of improvement (they'll probably add a meh new feature and market it like it's a big deal, like player morale). The NHL series is far behind all of the other major sports video game franchises. NBA 2K's franchise mode (or myLeague I think) has things like mock drafts, scouting that actually works, you can see who's in the running for league awards all season long, stuff like that, and NHL isn't even close to that. I do like the game, but they need to add more features.

 

[belair]

Hopefully 17 will be an improvement. Not a big one, but probably some kind of improvement (they'll probably add a meh new feature and market it like it's a big deal, like player morale). The NHL series is far behind all of the other major sports video game franchises. NBA 2K's franchise mode (or myLeague I think) has things like mock drafts, scouting that actually works, you can see who's in the running for league awards all season long, stuff like that, and NHL isn't even close to that. I do like the game, but they need to add more features.

The BeAGM game mode could be a different game in itself. There are so many things that could be added to make it more interesting. Focus on scouting, more in-depth statistics in the junior/int'l leagues, US college signings, interactive prospect development. There endless things that could (but never will) be added.

As for the game, the hitting and passing are completely broken in 16. The AI is dumber than ever before and the game rewards puck-hogging, which is the complete opposite of real life. They have a lot of work to do.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Admittedly, I am not a gamer I used to be with this series. I used to play BAGM from like NHL 04-13 and I loved it. But since 14 I haven't played it at all. I tried this year, just couldn't. Not the games fault I think I just outgrew it. I dipped into BAP this year, wasn't really fun to me, because I find career modes that aren't NBA 2k's boring because of how great it is. I am strictly an EASHL player, and I absolutely love the game.

It has its flaws, the CPU's are either god's or complete idiots especially with breakouts. You fumble some easy passes sometimes, but that happens in hockey. There's really no glitch shots that aren't unstoppable. All in all I really do like the EASHL portion of this game, which is all I play, so I will continue to buy and play as long as it stays the way it is.

 

[thepoeticgoblin]

My biggest pet peeve is that regardless of what team you play - they play the same way. I also don't like that it doesn't matter if my team is 95-95-95 or 88-88-88: we will do about the same anyhow.

 

[perronist]

this franchise is insulting. the last one i played was 14, and except for a re-skin (mascots! i'm so glad they addressed that over gameplay) and more awkward skating/passing, the game is the exact same. the animations are the exact same. the goals are the exact same, the ai is the exact same. the get sucked into board play when you are going full speed and the other guy is standing still is the exact same. pucks and sticks going straight through bodies is the exact same. every player and every team feeling the same is the exact same.

what's the point of having scouting if your scouting reports are never accurate? why can't you control player progression or training? why can you still not re-sign players in season? the failures are too numerous to list.

bought the game on sale but hate that i paid anything for it. definitely not spending money on another ****** roster update.

 

[Zobitembois]

Please EA, backward compatibility for Legacy Edition. I'm tired to switch between the 360 and the One.

 

[RememberTheName]

The game is so-so, but what really annoys me is player morale. I mean I know EA is trying to make the game more realistic but this just takes it too far. It is always someone is unhappy because they got 20 seconds of less ice time than the game before, or somebody I just claimed off waivers gets traded. There is a point where it just gets so frustrating that i just cant even play the game anymore. Last year I would play BeAGm all day, and now I can hardly play it for a half an hour

 

[Unhealthy Scratch]

this franchise is insulting. the last one i played was 14, and except for a re-skin (mascots! i'm so glad they addressed that over gameplay) and more awkward skating/passing, the game is the exact same. the animations are the exact same. the goals are the exact same, the ai is the exact same. the get sucked into board play when you are going full speed and the other guy is standing still is the exact same. pucks and sticks going straight through bodies is the exact same. every player and every team feeling the same is the exact same.

what's the point of having scouting if your scouting reports are never accurate? why can't you control player progression or training? why can you still not re-sign players in season? the failures are too numerous to list.

bought the game on sale but hate that i paid anything for it. definitely not spending money on another ****** roster update.

I wouldn't mind NHL 17 being virtually identical to 16 in every other aspect if they dedicated the entire year to fixing the AI.

For years the Online Versus mode has more or less just been a competition of who can do a better job exploiting the godawful positioning, gap control and general awareness of the CPU players.... which wouldn't even be so bad if you could count on the 'switch player' button to switch to the player closest to the puck every time. Alas it still has its occasional lapses where you're just hammering the R2 button waiting for it to change to the right guy and by the time it does, the puck is tapped in as the CPU d-man you just switched to stands in front of the net not doing anything in particular.

They need to seek the help of some actual professional coaches or something and design some realistic-looking breakouts, regroups, defensive zone coverage, forechecking systems, etc. It'd be nice not having to switch from player to player so frantically just to try and keep them vaguely in position and actually attacking the puck carrier, defending passing lanes, etc.

Also it'd be cool to have the CPU become smarter and harder to play against on higher difficulties, rather than being equally as awful as they are on Pro, but with a new magical ability to make perfect tape-to-tape passes all game and score on six of every nine shots they get.

 

[gorangers0525]

I waited for it to come out on EA access to bother. Fun like all of them, major problems like all of them.

 

[mattihp]

Autosave for Be a GM would be preferred... Paused the game in the 1st period of the fourth straight game... Then dad came over to the coffee. The PS went into wait mode and I lost progress for 4 games...

 

[TheWitcher]

I also dont like it. It is buggy as hell and the improvements over the last one are minimal. Really disappointed....

 

[belair]

Play EASHL.

I play defense in EASHL and shocker...my team rarely loses and the cross-crease pass never occurs.

The AI is a glaring flaw in this game, especially on defense. Pair that with the 'ice tilt' mechanism to try and make every game a photo finish and you've got a shining turd of a 1v1 online game.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Yeah, i shacked up with an EASHL team and the differences are staggering.

The only game mode that plays well because it does exactly what you pointed out; it takes the garbage ass CPU out of the equation.

 

[jorbjorb]

I have no complaints with this game. HUT, online verses, be a GM, EASHL are all sweet.

I'm not playing against the computer though because it's too easy/CPU dumb.

 

[Drugs Delaney]

I've recently found that playing an enforcer in eashl is pretty fun. Injuring the other team's forwards seems to keep games pretty low scoring and tight, if they don't quit.

 

[jorbjorb]

I've recently found that playing an enforcer in eashl is pretty fun. Injuring the other team's forwards seems to keep games pretty low scoring and tight, if they don't quit.

lol I always use grinder to lay people out.

 

[Drugs Delaney]

lol I always use grinder to lay people out.

Grinders are nasty too. I just seem to injure players quicker with full force enforcer hits. The offense is just isn't there other than that although I'll get garbage goals from time to time just hanging out in front of the net.

 

[perronist]

I wouldn't mind NHL 17 being virtually identical to 16 in every other aspect if they dedicated the entire year to fixing the AI.

For years the Online Versus mode has more or less just been a competition of who can do a better job exploiting the godawful positioning, gap control and general awareness of the CPU players.... which wouldn't even be so bad if you could count on the 'switch player' button to switch to the player closest to the puck every time. Alas it still has its occasional lapses where you're just hammering the R2 button waiting for it to change to the right guy and by the time it does, the puck is tapped in as the CPU d-man you just switched to stands in front of the net not doing anything in particular.

They need to seek the help of some actual professional coaches or something and design some realistic-looking breakouts, regroups, defensive zone coverage, forechecking systems, etc. It'd be nice not having to switch from player to player so frantically just to try and keep them vaguely in position and actually attacking the puck carrier, defending passing lanes, etc.

Also it'd be cool to have the CPU become smarter and harder to play against on higher difficulties, rather than being equally as awful as they are on Pro, but with a new magical ability to make perfect tape-to-tape passes all game and score on six of every nine shots they get.

after i made that post i started playing pro evolution soccer, and when i returned to nhl, i found it to be unplayable. it is such a broken game. in a single match, bugs, ice tilt, and ai stupidity would happen often enough to make me rage quit. even at its best, when it's not beset by ridiculous/impossible player animations, players bumping into each other for no reason and doing the dumb drop on their knees animation, and when by some miracle the ai manages to get open, every game of nhl is the same as every other one. in nhl 16, the One Way to Score seems to be to streak down the wing, turn around, and try to shoot it short side or to go for the cross crease one timer. even then, the game is too luck-based, with things like faceoffs, shooting, pass reception/interception, animations, all dependent on 'momentum.' imagine if you were playing super mario, and every time you pressed jump there was a 30+% percent chance it would fail. would that be a game people want to play?

i can't say that i've played two games that were alike in pes. when i play nhl, not only does every game and every team play the same, i feel like my opponent is actually the game and its horrible mechanics getting in the way of what i want to do.

how many times has your ai player turned back on a 2 on 1? how many times has your ai winger inexplicably skated to the middle of the ice when you are trying to initiate a defensive breakout, bumping into the centre, and taking away your passing option up the boards? what happened to the 'all new seamless puck pickups' this year? what happened to 'all new ai'? how many times has your ai skater bumped into your own goalie?

we play a game where pucks and sticks pass through bodies, where every player handles the same (in pes, for example, tevez would feel different and have and display different skills/abilities than griezmann, and barcelona would feel/play differently than bayern munich, etc.), where players have a hard time even shooting a slap shot, where a player with a clear backhand passing lane will choose to pass with the forehand and turn it over when their animation collides with another skater, where the puck acts more like a magnetic ball that snaps onto sticks, and the skating physics (hurtling around on rails) is nothing like skating on ice. we play a hockey game where defensemen can barely pick up d to d passes, where because of that you can't use the point at all, where winning faceoffs often means nothing because the guy getting the puck will get locked in an animation and the opposing player will walk right in and take the puck from you.

somehow, this is acceptable for a $70 dollar game, a game they have been purportedly working on since they released nhl 2013. i agree wholeheartedly with your suggestions, but i do not imagine for a second that ea sports, and especially this nhl dev team, would make the effort to implement anything even close. it sucks becuase hockey is my favourite sport, and i would really appreciate a video game that played like actual hockey.

i also agree w you about the cpu difficulty. it seems like the only thing that the difficulty settings do is buff the cpu with speed, shot accuracy, strength, clairvoyant goalie, etc. the cpu also acts like no hockey team i've ever seen, making 5-6 instantaneous east-west tape to tape passes in the neutral zone before dumping it in. even the red army team didn't do that.

and i know that eashl is much better. i guess i just am mainly drawn to be-a-gm (pretty much broken in its own way) and local multi-player, and single-player gameplay matters to me.

 

[Drugs Delaney]

after i made that post i started playing pro evolution soccer, and when i returned to nhl, i found it to be unplayable. it is such a broken game. in a single match, bugs, ice tilt, and ai stupidity would happen often enough to make me rage quit. even at its best, when it's not beset by ridiculous/impossible player animations, players bumping into each other for no reason and doing the dumb drop on their knees animation, and when by some miracle the ai manages to get open, every game of nhl is the same as every other one. in nhl 16, the One Way to Score seems to be to streak down the wing, turn around, and try to shoot it short side or to go for the cross crease one timer. even then, the game is too luck-based, with things like faceoffs, shooting, pass reception/interception, animations, all dependent on 'momentum.' imagine if you were playing super mario, and every time you pressed jump there was a 30+% percent chance it would fail. would that be a game people want to play?

i can't say that i've played two games that were alike in pes. when i play nhl, not only does every game and every team play the same, i feel like my opponent is actually the game and its horrible mechanics getting in the way of what i want to do.

how many times has your ai player turned back on a 2 on 1? how many times has your ai winger inexplicably skated to the middle of the ice when you are trying to initiate a defensive breakout, bumping into the centre, and taking away your passing option up the boards? what happened to the 'all new seamless puck pickups' this year? what happened to 'all new ai'? how many times has your ai skater bumped into your own goalie?

we play a game where pucks and sticks pass through bodies, where every player handles the same (in pes, for example, tevez would feel different and have and display different skills/abilities than griezmann, and barcelona would feel/play differently than bayern munich, etc.), where players have a hard time even shooting a slap shot, where a player with a clear backhand passing lane will choose to pass with the forehand and turn it over when their animation collides with another skater, where the puck acts more like a magnetic ball that snaps onto sticks, and the skating physics (hurtling around on rails) is nothing like skating on ice. we play a hockey game where defensemen can barely pick up d to d passes, where because of that you can't use the point at all, where winning faceoffs often means nothing because the guy getting the puck will get locked in an animation and the opposing player will walk right in and take the puck from you.

somehow, this is acceptable for a $70 dollar game, a game they have been purportedly working on since they released nhl 2013. i agree wholeheartedly with your suggestions, but i do not imagine for a second that ea sports, and especially this nhl dev team, would make the effort to implement anything even close. it sucks becuase hockey is my favourite sport, and i would really appreciate a video game that played like actual hockey.

i also agree w you about the cpu difficulty. it seems like the only thing that the difficulty settings do is buff the cpu with speed, shot accuracy, strength, clairvoyant goalie, etc. the cpu also acts like no hockey team i've ever seen, making 5-6 instantaneous east-west tape to tape passes in the neutral zone before dumping it in. even the red army team didn't do that.

and i know that eashl is much better. i guess i just am mainly drawn to be-a-gm (pretty much broken in its own way) and local multi-player, and single-player gameplay matters to me.

I would just like to see the online play be as crisp as the offline play for once. There really isn't an excuse for how bad the lag is. Not in this day and age. I can play Overwatch with a wireless connection and it's seamless. Just a perfect online experience. I play eashl wired in and it's so bad sometimes that I can't believe the game shipped like that. For the love of God, please bring us crisp online play without me having to go into my router to block overseas addresses.

The offline games between my roommate and I are so exciting. I wish I could pull those moves off online without having to compensate for a second of lag.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

There's lots of room for improvement in NHL 17, but I thought NHL 16 was the best one to come out in quite sometime. I really hated NHL 16 and stopped playing it midway during the season (which is completely unheard of for me). I really liked this year's version, although you're right about too many glitches and too much repetitiveness, you gotta remember that it's just a video game, and that they've only had 2 years experience on the new generation of video game consoles.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

I'm not a fan of the stick lift spamming. You just don't see people repeatedly lift the stick in real hockey. They gotta figure out a way for stick lifting to be more about timing than spamming.

 

[hckyplayer8]

The series has steadily been taking steps back since 11 or 12.

Too many aspects of the game have been switched from user controlled to automatically done. Really feels like the game is playing you instead of you playing the game.

Then add in just silly aspects like uneven cpu when playing less than 6v6 and the fact I routinely play games with 2-1 scores where shot ratios are like 1:5 it just becomes a joke.

EA did great things from 09 to about 12 but it's time to **** or get off the pot.