NHL 14 ... as if you even care!

New developer diary on improvements to skating and dekes

http://www.easports.com/nhl/news/article/nhl14-developer-diary-one-touch-dekes-t-p-s

 

The first next-gen version will be NHL 15. NHL 14 is going to be current-gen only. I think because they share a game engine with all the other sports titles that NHL 15 should be in pretty good shape. The engine and tools they use should be refined by the development of FIFA 14, Madden 14, NBA and their UFC game for next gen.

I think NHL 14 should be very good. They made some big changes to the way the game plays last year, and that ended up causing a few issues, mostly for people who played defense. Seems they've tuned those problems, and the improved the physics should iron out some of the other gameplay issues. It's a refinement on last year, but that's a good thing.

 

Here's the new fighting engine



http://www.easports.com/nhl/news/article/nhl14-developer-diary-enforcer-engine

This sounds like the biggest change to this years game, to be honest. If you run a goalie, or lay a big hit on a star player, someone is going to grab you and start beating the crap out of you. You can no longer turn down fights in certain situations. Having a team with some size and toughness will be important.

 

Goalie improvements http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-gameplay-improvements-goalies



Goal scoring http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-goal-scoring-balance-improvements

And NHL 94 Anniversary mode
http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-94-in-new-york-city

 

Online mode improvements.

http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-online-modes-improvements

The division structure with relegation and promotion from FIFA will be a great fit for EASHL mode. Much better than the loosey amateur, pro, elite system they've had for a number of years.

Edit:

Huge win for people who aren't on a club and just play Online Team Play. Instead of having a two stage lobby where you accumulate players in one screen then ready up, and then select your position in the second screen, this game will just have one screen for both position and ready. In 13 you frequently get 12 people ready up and then they can't get the position they want and they back out leaving you with less than 6 vs 6. In this one you'll drop into the lobby, select the position you want and then ready. People who get matched into your lobby will see their position is taken and leave right away, allowing someone else to come in and take something else. I have no idea why it took them years to figure this out. OTP experience should be more consistent for 6 vs 6, and that's great.

 

Now some stick skill tweaks to improve the mechanics and realism of pokes, chops, passing, dekes http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-gameplay-improvements-stick-skills

 

Goalie contact and incidental contact. Hitting and other contact looks much more realistic. They supposedly took the contact physics over from FIFA, abandoning their own hitting physics they'd introduced over the last few years that were notoriously buggy.

http://www.easports.com/nhl/news-updates-gameplay/article/nhl-14-goalie-and-incidental-contact

 

Demo on August 20th

 

It's demo day. Do it.

 

If you have the EA Season Ticket, you can play NHL 14 this weekend.

 

Menus are redone and a little faster, I think. I only really use the menus for online play though. I don't touch the other modes.

 

I pretty much exclusively play the online club mode (EASHL), so I can't answer many details about franchise modes. Hitting is improved over the last few years. Size matters. If you get lined up by a bigger guy, get ready to be crushed. That's online and offline. The strength, balance and durability stats are important. Physics glitches seem to be minimized from last year, and the end result is the hits look a lot better. As for gimme goals, I don't know. There are a few one-timers that are high percentage, and some wrist shots in good scoring areas around the top of the hash marks, or just inside the top of the circle. There's nothing overly glitchy from what I've seen where it's 100%, and at least you can defend them well. I haven't seen any really dumb goals like center ice goals. I don't fight because I don't like being taken off the ice for 10 minutes, but the new fighting is great. They did an incredibly good job with it.

 

Yeah, they could do a lot more with play on the boards. You can pin people on the boards, and it is a very effective strategy. I just think the pin is too much like a hold, where in real hockey the player you're "pinning" would still be able to move a bit more.

I have my guy set up to resist checks, so unless I get caught straight on, I can usually bounce off. Guys need to get me at a good run to knock me over.

EASHL is a lot of fun. I'm not sure how well it would work for Hong Kong though. I know you can a region for your team, and that dictates which countries dedicated servers you play on. I know there are servers in Europe, but that's probably the only place besides North America.