Are my tastes compatible with current NHL games?

[OT Moment]

So I'm looking for new games to get into. As a big fan of watching hockey, I think getting a current NHL game could potentially be great. However, there's a problem. I stopped playing NHL games because of two pretty fundamental issues I have with the gameplay. The last game I had was NHL 2015, and before that I had NHL '06.

The biggest issue I have with NHL games is that passing is way too easy and unrealistic. There's not much gratification in making tough quick passes that are hard to handle for the receiver. In my opinion, you should be able to determine how fast you want to pass by how hard you press the trigger button, and if you go full power on the pass, there's a high chance of the receiver bobbling the puck. At least have a binary choice of normal speed and fast passes.

The second issue I have is that there's seemingly no need to ever dump and chase. I feel like it should be worth it to try at least once in a while. Would add more strategy.

Anyways, I'm not trying to be picky. I genuinely want to to like playing NHL games and get back into them. These issues just get in the way for me. So any insight on the new games in regards to my concerns would be appreciated!

I have a PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

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[Avs2022]

I have NHL 2022, much different experience than the older versions you had before. I'm not saying '22 or '23 are better, but it is a vastly different game engine than the previous versions.

I also had NHL 2015, and either 2016 or 2017. So I'm comparing those games. I've never played 2023, but play 2022 all the time.

 

[BillyOcean]

Nope. It's an awful game with near zero effort put into the sim aspect

 

[ElectricDreamMachine]

Are you going to play online or offline?
Offline you can customize the game to be more sim and you can find some pretty good guides how to do that by googling.
If you are looking to play online it’s pretty rough if you are looking for realistic experience .

 

[Bluesguru]

NHL 19 is the best game. AI is actually good. All Star traditional mode rocks.

 

[belair]

Of all the problems the new NHL games have, passing is not one of them. It is incredibly unrealistic as OP describes, but the truly unrealistic passes take skill and patience to execute.

You can control how hard or soft you want your passes to be by how long you hold the trigger down. And you can fake passes and change the angle of them by canceling the initial pass. You can choose between normal passes and manual saucers. And if you're crafty enough you can execute a poor man's area pass.

Passing is definitely a skill in the new NHL games. A lot of people don't know how to do it well.

 

[abo9]

I played 14 heavily and a bit of 22/23

The skills are highly transferrable between 14 and the new games. However, still a bit of adaptation. Mostly, passes are a bit more difficult to achieve

But yeah, theyre fun little games probably worth $20-$30 imo.