NHL18 Information Thread - 3v3, GM Overhaul, Defensive Stick, Expansion Mode

[Muston Atthews]

He's not wrong.

I had an all hero team (god why?) in HUT and made it to Division 2. 75% of the games was you like, fighting against the game engine to get it to do what you want.

It's junk.

I've never had to fight against the game engine. It seems like the people who cry ice tilt are people who feel like they're entitled to win 95% of the time because they have an unreal team

 

[SAADfather]

I've never had to fight against the game engine. It seems like the people who cry ice tilt are people who feel like they're entitled to win 95% of the time because they have an unreal team

It seems like most of the people who say ice tilt isn't real are the people who benefit the most from said ice tilt.

 

[Muston Atthews]

It seems like most of the people who say ice tilt isn't real are the people who benefit the most from said ice tilt.

Because my 2:1+ W/L is all from ice tilt... right. I do like chirping people who have all star teams who quit if way through the game because they're getting slapped by my offense/stuffed by my defense. They usually like to blame ice tilt or me using the "trap" because I collapse a guy in the d zone to take away them cross the middle/short side or back door which everyone spams.

Seems like when people can't spam the easy goals they blame it on ice tilt

 

[Patrik Barkov]

I'm feeling kinda optimistic this year. I feel like AI is actually improved a bit and game feels a bit more realistic. Waiting for the franchise mode news though.

Don't care at all about threes and don't really want to complain about them adding something new, but I feel like they have a lot of basic stuff to fix before introducing us to mascots on LSD playing 3v3 arcade hockey. Guess it's easier to lure new players with that than more realistic zone-entries, goaltending, tactics, you know, actual hockey

 

[Thierry]

You're probably Mad because you had an all hero team and still sucked.

Wow. Here's the guy who gets all defensive because someone doesn't like his videogame!

What I meant by I had and HERO team is that I spent a lot of time on it. Finishing collections, getting my Datsyuk, I was playing all the time. I was in DIV1 all the time. I don't think I was SUPER good, but I was in the top tier, for sure, definitely had more wins than losses.

If you take a look at my posts in the HUT17 thread, I actually defended the mode a lot. You said I was probably mad (I have better things to do than being mad against a video game)... nah, just bored. I never got mad and I have a really tough time with people blaming the game when they lose (we are all playing the same game), but I got so bored... I mean, I stopped playing in march... it's the first time I stop so early.

Maybe I'm simply getting older (I'm 30), I don't know... but I didn't like the game. I'm not impress with the trailers and I won't even waste my time on the beta.

But hey, yeah, it's because I'm mad and I suck

 

[SAADfather]

Because my 2:1+ W/L is all from ice tilt... right. I do like chirping people who have all star teams who quit if way through the game because they're getting slapped by my offense/stuffed by my defense. They usually like to blame ice tilt or me using the "trap" because I collapse a guy in the d zone to take away them cross the middle/short side or back door which everyone spams.

Seems like when people can't spam the easy goals they blame it on ice tilt

Did I say your record was all ice tilt? No, I was just pointing out how silly your post was by showing that it works both ways. So basically what your saying in this post is because so many sore losers claim ice tilt when they lose that means it's not a real thing? Not very good reasoning. The NHL online community can be a pretty toxic place filled with rage messages all the time. Wouldn't take that seriously.

Last I checked I had something like a 102-10-6 record and I'm damn near positive there's some kind of code written into the game to artificially even out the large gaps in skill between users. A lot of the times I can fight threw and still win but it's pretty freaking clear it's still happening. I had one the other day where at the end of the game the puck went off the bar and came down on an angle at a high speed and freakin stuck on the goal line. He scored within 30 seconds of that after my CPU skated directly in front of my lane as I was skating with the puck and forced me to turn the puck over for a breakaway. So much unexplainable **** happens when there's a clear gap in skill level. I don't think that's just a coincidence... especially considering that evening the skill gap is good for business for EA. If it looks like a turd and smells like a turd...

I just don't understand how some people can say without a doubt it doesn't exist... but then again there's people that still believe the world is flat

 

[Muston Atthews]

Unexplainable **** happens when you're winning or losing. I can see if you have a problem with terrible goals going in, sure, they happen a lot. You only notice them when they end up being a detriment however. They happen all the time, you just have to roll with it.

I can see how the game gets boring when all you have an all star team and you exploit the goals and expect shots to go in because you're team is so good. id assume that gets boring. That's why I don't stack my team and score different ways.

Even if you could cycle properly people would still try to exploit the gimme goals so i don't know why people complain "it's not realistic"

 

[Soedy]

I am actually quite interested in the 3on3 campaign mode. Might be the only mode I play this year

 

[David71]

the only thing that fans and customers need to do is NOT buy the game when it comes out. every year its the same Schick. ea development team especially with rammer as head of the team. they are complecent. "they always say Oh we introduce new defensive stick. A.I is better. when really they arent. ea has no competetion. bring back 2k. now that was a realistic game.

 

[PG Canuck]

Lol trying to test this game out and EA's servers are crapping the bed as usual.

Just great stuff here.

 

[Bubba88]

I agree with everything you said. I like how when 2 players collide something has to happen. It's just frustrating when "goalie pull" mechanic can ruin breakaways somehow. The sad thing is, my second time I did slow down and I tried going to the other side, but the goalies leg clipped me, causing me to tumble and lose the puck. Meanwhile the goalie recovers the puck, makes a pass and returns to his net before I can even get up.

I've been playing for years and this is the first time someone has done this. I totally understand in verus when someone controls the goalie and poke checks. That actually requires some motion and effort on their part. But when the opponent is on a breakaway and you command your goalie to be pulled and he can take the puck from you? That just sucks. He doesn't actually try to save it, he just takes it somehow. It doesn't even make any sense, and you shouldn't be able to pull your goalie when the opponent has a breakaway.

The worst part about this is, my friend was trying out the beta. He hasn't bought an NHL game since like NHL 10. He really enjoyed the beta but these stupid little things turned him off. He saw it happen to me twice and then it happened once to him. I'm not saying this single thing turned him off from the game, because he enjoyed parts of it, but it's just annoying that EA would let you pull your goalie from all the way on the other side of the ice, when a breakaway is in progress. It's amazing.

I don't even think it's unreasonable to think that way. If you are annoyed because of Little stuff than it's totally understandable with EA.

I don't think the biggest Problem is the game itself, it's the Players that exploit what EA has given to them.
I hate Players that only try 1!! way to score a Goal because it's working this year. It's not EAs fault that Players are that bad and annoying. It's not EAs fault that there are Players that only slow down and go in circles until they get the minor Penalty.

Sure, EA gives them the Option to do stuff like that, but this doesn't mean every stupid child has to Play this way. Problem last year and why I didn't like HUT that much was because EA hasn't given you the Chance to defend like you Need to. Playing the Beta I think it'll be more fun again.

He's not wrong.

I had an all hero team (god why?) in HUT and made it to Division 2. 75% of the games was you like, fighting against the game engine to get it to do what you want.

It's junk.

That just sounds like you aren't that great. If you are good and have a Hero Team, you'd be in D1 all the time with a demotion every now and then just to come back up.

I hated HUT for gameplay reasons and for users that were trying to annoy. Most of what sucked for me seems to be not working as much as it did in NHL17. Just hope those overpowered Slappers are back to normal.

 

[Cloned]

HUT gameplay is repetitive and boring.

1. AI doesn't know how to cover the trailers.

2. Slapshots are overpowered.

3. Combine 1 and 2, and it's a chore.

At least it looks like they fixed the glitch wrap for 18. One less exploit to defend against.

 

[BruinDust]

IMO NHL 11 was a very good game. From there though EA decided to go in a different direction which ruined the game. Instead of fixing the bugs and glitches in 11, they spent a year working on TPS, which basically reset the development cycle because it took them about 3 years just to get TPS to a working level, and it's still buggy to this day. It ruined hitting and took a lot of fun out of the game.

Along the way they've done some other things which IMO also reduced the playability of the game:

- removing player attribute customization and upgrades in EASHL (yes I know a lot of people were actually FOR this change but removing the carrot and making all the player classes beer league quality skaters was a big mistake)

- making goalies completely live and goaltender interference (buggy as hell and also exploitable)

- removing charged passing

- some of the goalie AI they've introduced to try to nerf cross-crease has made goalies extremely exploitable in other ways

My favorite NHL of that generation, and the last one I really truly enjoyed. It went off the rails in 2013 with the new skating mechanics and has been playing catch-up ever since.

Also agree with your take on EASHL, I enjoyed the player progression and tinkering with my skater to get the most out of him. Gave you something to work towards. Once they took that away and decided to use generic skaters, I lost interest in the mode.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Here's a question. Can you and your friend play online versus on the same team vs. an opponent if you're not in the same location? i.e. at someones house. I could not do that last year and it seemed pretty ridiculous to me since we were in the year 2016.

 

[Oil Gauge]

Here's a question. Can you and your friend play online versus on the same team vs. an opponent if you're not in the same location? i.e. at someones house. I could not do that last year and it seemed pretty ridiculous to me since we were in the year 2016.

I believe you will be able to do it this year.

 

[Blitzkrug]

I don't even think it's unreasonable to think that way. If you are annoyed because of Little stuff than it's totally understandable with EA.

I don't think the biggest Problem is the game itself, it's the Players that exploit what EA has given to them.
I hate Players that only try 1!! way to score a Goal because it's working this year. It's not EAs fault that Players are that bad and annoying. It's not EAs fault that there are Players that only slow down and go in circles until they get the minor Penalty.

Sure, EA gives them the Option to do stuff like that, but this doesn't mean every stupid child has to Play this way. Problem last year and why I didn't like HUT that much was because EA hasn't given you the Chance to defend like you Need to. Playing the Beta I think it'll be more fun again.


That just sounds like you aren't that great. If you are good and have a Hero Team, you'd be in D1 all the time with a demotion every now and then just to come back up.

I hated HUT for gameplay reasons and for users that were trying to annoy. Most of what sucked for me seems to be not working as much as it did in NHL17. Just hope those overpowered Slappers are back to normal.

Do keep moving the goalposts. It can't be the game sucks, everyone else is wrong and we fan boys are correct.

Keep feeding the EA machine.

 

[PALE PWNR]

The biggest and best argument for the fact that ice tilt exists especially for the HUT mode, is $. Having a system that helps players that are lesser skilled versus more skilled opponents if only to keep them in the game not even to win but to give them a chance makes sense because people are more inclined to play when they feel like they have a chance to win all the time. If you had a bunch of people playing with hero teams that also had a clear skill advantage over everyone and blew everyone out every game the mode would die because the casual player who doesn't have a stacked team and doesn't play all that often but often enough that they might spend some $ here and there would not play anymore. Why play a mode that you are just going to get destroyed in all the time? It also works in the opposite. If you are a player with a higher skill cap than most and you have a pretty stacked team because you play a lot or bought a lot, the fact that some games are difficult and you face a lot of adversity keeps making you think, well if only I had a better defense, if only my best LW was a little better, if only I didn't have a ****** goalie. What do you do to rectify that? You buy more packs.

Everything about HUT is a money grab. A system that punishes good players and helps bad players puts everyone on an artificial even playing surface, leads to a more competitive environment that has more people than ever looking to get an edge or a leg up on their competition and ultimately that means more $ being invested into the game. Frankly EA would be stupid if they did not have such things. And they will never admit it because they have no obligation to do so and it would only hurt their brand.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I believe you will be able to do it this year.

Good info. Thanks!

 

[Lays]

Has anyone figured out the rating system from last year? Since EA does a bad job with the ratings I go out of my way to give out new potentials and overalls to every prospect and player and is it just all the ratings dropped by 3-4? Like would an 82 offensive awareness be an 85-86 in the old game? Also would help if anyone knew exactly how many points off it is. Wouldn't be having this problem if EA actually knew hockey thanks in advance

 

[Muston Atthews]

Do keep moving the goalposts. It can't be the game sucks, everyone else is wrong and we fan boys are correct.

Keep feeding the EA machine.

Have fun playing NHL 14? Lol. A lot of nitpicking going on here.

On another note, people do the pull the goalie thing on the breakaway all the time. The guys who exploit it won't do it every breakaway so it messes up your timing not knowing when the goalie will move out. It's the same as switching to the goalie and quickly switching back, I can't time it out properly but if you do that it basically makes it harder to score on the breakaway.

I score most of my goals on the breakaway so that's probably why I see it however. Leg kick forehand backhand all day or backhand forehand. I've only played the beta a few times but the goalies seem much more aggressive with the pokecheck making it harder to do it. It's probably a good thing because my breakaway percentage is through the roof just doing those two moves

 

[HabsCowboysOwn]

EASHL 3's are fun but when it comes to drop-ins, people quit the game after being scored on in the first period 8 times out of 10. I played something like 8 games in 30 minutes this afternoon, it'd be nice to be able to complete a game at some point.

 

[Glennsoe]

I got kicked out of a game via a pop up Message saying I've been a bad team player after hitting every opponent at least 3 times.

I didn't get any penalties, just a pop up Message saying I've been replaced..

 

[Deku]

I'm still annoyed that they got rid of the glide dekes and I don't get why they did. Backhand glide deke was my go-to breakaway move in 17. It was better than FH/BH or BH/FH

 

[Draft Guru]

3v3 arcade is a blast

But versus is the slowest piece of junk of a hockey game I have ever played in my life

I don't understand the vision of the dev team. Hockey is a fast game. Why oh why every year do they dumb it down?

Hear 6s is brutal too

Glad I was the best in the world at the only year that mattered, '09. Been downhill ever since. Sad too because I thought the franchise was ready to explode

 

[Bubba88]

Do keep moving the goalposts. It can't be the game sucks, everyone else is wrong and we fan boys are correct.

Keep feeding the EA machine.

that's your Argument against?

I see it many times that bad Players blame the game.