NHL 20 Buying or Not?

[David71]

will it be on sale for black friday? tried looking at ebgames but theres none. only other games are being half priced

 

[TheShape]

Wish I didn’t buy it. The AI is total garbage trying to play franchise mode. My AI can’t stop a puck, constantly go offside, take penalties, don’t cover their man,etc...while the opposing goalie is the 2nd coming of Dominik Hasek and the skaters land every hit, easily poke the puck away and seem to roll off of me every time I go for a hit.

I’ve messed with all the sliders and unfortunately it doesn’t do much. I’m playing on pro with all this happened but semi-pro is way too easy and I end up winning 10-2. I likely won’t be buying another EA game until they fix this.

I’m an offline player as well, I’ve done the same with sliders. I don’t need to win every single game but you can tell within the first few plays of the game how it’s going to play out. The scripting is on another level this year. EA aren’t going to “fix this” as it’s a staple in their games now unfortunately. Level playing field to attract more casuals.

attributes don’t matter, AI goalie with Spider-Man reflexes and I hit 10-15 crossbars a game. Other games I score from any angle or the D parts for no reason and I get a free breakaway or odd man rush. There’s no logic or merit to anything in this game.

 

[ETTHAKING67]

will it be on sale for black friday? tried looking at ebgames but theres none. only other games are being half priced

It is alreayd on sell on PSStore

 

[John Price]

Typical Thanksgiving sale, 30 dollars on PS4 store

 

[tealhockey]

Did not end up buying and won't this year. I just think hockey is too hard of a sport to simulate in video game form at this point. The play is too fast in real to emulate in a fun way on console if that makes sense. It's why I find it far more fun to play other sporting games such as Madden or FIFA; they are simply easier sports to turn into a fun game that actually feels real.

I regret getting it even for 30 bucks basically because of what you said it's so not realistic that it's just not fun. It really feels like I'm playing a video game and not even remotely what the game is like, and the things they change every year just make it more like that

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

yeah looks like i'm going to skip it. I play NHL 17 and after messing with the sliders (a lot) i got it to where the games are more realistic (realistic scores, relatively even amounts on SOG between myself and the CPU on hardest difficulty) but there are still some really frustrating moments where I feel the control is out of my hands. But it sounds like NHL 20 is far worse. I really wish there was roster sharing or an easy roster editor because I have been trying to keep my game up to date by creating players but the menus are so slow, and I can't play a franchise mode now because its weird having 18 year old Auston Matthews and 19 year old Connor McDavid along with 18 year old Kaapo Kakko and 18 year old Cale Makar, 28 year old Crosby etc

 

[Juniorhockeyguru]

I regret getting it even for 30 bucks basically because of what you said it's so not realistic that it's just not fun. It really feels like I'm playing a video game and not even remotely what the game is like, and the things they change every year just make it more like that

Well surprise surprise....it IS a video game.

 

[Soedy]

I got it recently and must say, with custom sliders it is a lot of fun. I don't care for all the "World of Chel" stuff, etc. I might check out some HUT but online the game is hot garbage IMO.

As an offline franchise player, it is definetly quite a lot of fun. Not very realistic and not perfect at all, there are still some head scratchers.

 

[tealhockey]

Well surprise surprise....it IS a video game.

the point I was making was that with "improvements" every year you would think it would get closer to resembling the real thing instead it seems to get worse and more detached from reality. I don't mind if NHL 94 feels like some arcadey thing but with 20+ iterations I'd hope it would contain a lot more integrity to the real game

 

[Cams]

I used to buy it every year for PC. Finally got a PS4 last year (bundled with NHL19 actually) and just thought it was OK. I do have a question for the more hard core NHL gamers on here......

For me, when I play, I basically want to sim the season (as realistic as possible). Pick my team (Leafs in my case) and just play out the season, and have the transactions, etc with the regular roster updates. Not really interesting in online play, or any of the other modes, etc. Is NHL20 worth it?

 

[CauZuki]

I used to buy it every year for PC. Finally got a PS4 last year (bundled with NHL19 actually) and just thought it was OK. I do have a question for the more hard core NHL gamers on here......

For me, when I play, I basically want to sim the season (as realistic as possible). Pick my team (Leafs in my case) and just play out the season, and have the transactions, etc with the regular roster updates. Not really interesting in online play, or any of the other modes, etc. Is NHL20 worth it?

Yes, just turn off all the smart features and cap , you're going to have lots of fun...If you turn on all the other stuff , I wish you good luck...

 

[CBJx614]

Just bought this for $23 and I still feel like I wasted money. I've pretty much bought it every year since 04/05ish at least and I'm just done. The game has been absolute garbage for almost a decade now and I can't even play a single game without wanting to break a controller. The logic and AI is so flawed and unrealistic I can't justify paying money to play this. Am I the only one who thinks the game is way too fast to have to worry about changing up my play style on the go?

I mean seriously, you practice for weeks if not months to play a certain style(2-3, 1-3-1, etc) you're not just going to change that up mid game. Just let me chose whether I want my offense or defense to play conservative, normal or aggressive. I'm so sick and tired of players not making a simple play just because they are stuck in the logic of playing to a certain scheme. Half of the time playing online feels like I'm playing f***ing squirt hockey.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Just bought this for $23 and I still feel like I wasted money. I've pretty much bought it every year since 04/05ish at least and I'm just done. The game has been absolute garbage for almost a decade now and I can't even play a single game without wanting to break a controller. The logic and AI is so flawed and unrealistic I can't justify paying money to play this. Am I the only one who thinks the game is way too fast to have to worry about changing up my play style on the go?

I mean seriously, you practice for weeks if not months to play a certain style(2-3, 1-3-1, etc) you're not just going to change that up mid game. Just let me chose whether I want my offense or defense to play conservative, normal or aggressive. I'm so sick and tired of players not making a simple play just because they are stuck in the logic of playing to a certain scheme. Half of the time playing online feels like I'm playing f***ing squirt hockey.

There's no cycle or significant movement in the offensive zone and it makes offense really boring if you're not trying to cheese. The only reliable thing i can count on is if a dman has the puck at the top of the blue line and they skate over to the other end of the boards, the other dman will switch sides with him and get open.

Cycling is really hard as AI D coverage is suffocating to the puck carrier and the guys without the puck don't move to get open. I feel like i can hold the puck along the half wall, pass it from the W to the D, and then not much else. Few options going behind the net either. The best options to score are either off the rush or dangling through everyone. Boring.

 

[CBJx614]

There's no cycle or significant movement in the offensive zone and it makes offense really boring if you're not trying to cheese. The only reliable thing i can count on is if a dman has the puck at the top of the blue line and they skate over to the other end of the boards, the other dman will switch sides with him and get open.

Cycling is really hard as AI D coverage is suffocating to the puck carrier and the guys without the puck don't move to get open. I feel like i can hold the puck along the half wall, pass it from the W to the D, and then not much else. Few options going behind the net either. The best options to score are either off the rush or dangling through everyone. Boring.

For those of us that actually play and try to setup and play realistic hockey this game is a joke. The AI are absolutely clueless. And after seeing the types of animations and gameplay available in 2005 that are miles ahead of anything that EA has put out in the last decade, it's just solidified my choice to never buy another EA NHL or Madden game again. I'm literally going to go buy a 360, ESPN 2K5(football), 2k10(hockey) and NCAA 14 and not buy anything new until complete overhauls are put out. I'm done buying roster updates.

 

[mattihp]

Bought it yesterday and I am very disappointed. The game mechanics are pretty much identical to NHL 18. The only difference I can see is that any poke check or crouch block where the stick barely touches a player results in a penalty in HUT. Worst spent $30 this year. Feels like a legacy game.

Did they pull the new coke trick in that NHL 19 was far worse than NHL 18 so that people liked NHL 20 because of the similarities to NHL 18?

They need a strong competitor like now.

 

[russ99]

Gonna skip next year, with the assumed delay in the Ps5 launch due to the coronavirus, EA has extra time to get there stuff together for next gen where they need to rebuild all the code from other EA devs’ better codebases and get it right for once,

 

[mattihp]

One more incentive not to buy: Snoop Dogg. Three times a period he talks about halftime shows...

 

[clunk]

One more incentive not to buy: Snoop Dogg. Three times a period he talks about halftime shows...

You can turn it off in the settings. I agree, ****ing terrible though.

This is really a terrible game. Haven't played an NHL game since '14 and thought I'd splurge and play a bit but the AI is just so bad, and I find myself having to crank the penalty sliders down and sometimes turn penalties off completely (in the playoffs) to even enjoy the game slightly.

So many stupid gimmicks like Snoop Dog and pond hockey when all I want out of one of these games is AI that actually plays simple hockey.

And ****ing forcefields are still prevalent in this game. It's 'better' than the past but it's still so stupid. So glitchy and incomplete.

I regret spending $40 on this game. I wouldn't have spent even $20 if I could go back.

I hardly ever get mad playing games but this game I genuinely don't enjoy.

 

[mattihp]

You can turn it off in the settings. I agree, ****ing terrible though.

This is really a terrible game. Haven't played an NHL game since '14 and thought I'd splurge and play a bit but the AI is just so bad, and I find myself having to crank the penalty sliders down and sometimes turn penalties off completely (in the playoffs) to even enjoy the game slightly.

So many stupid gimmicks like Snoop Dog and pond hockey when all I want out of one of these games is AI that actually plays simple hockey.

That they put money on such a weak gimmick is embarrassing when they still haven't fixed the god mode/swiss cheese goalies...
Or the fact that d-men still go for the change on a one-on-one..

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

Its truly insane how bad the coaching system is in gm mode. Not only is it down right bad its crazy broken. It could have been patched but they havent even done that. This game will be the last a buy for a while. I have said it in the past but this time their is no turning back. I built a bad ass gaming pc last month and sold my playstation. No going back now. f*** EA FOREVER. Seriously that company is the single worst thing to ever happen to video games.

 

[mattihp]

They don't have competition so they put in no effort. It is like a legacy version on an older system.

HUT is flooded with oversouped cards of players who never were stars and those who never will be.