NHL 24 Impressions

[Jeffrey99]

One game in…I’m pleasantly surprised. Edited to add…I buy a on a two year cycle. So didn’t play 23, last one was 22.

Not sure I’m gonna like the total control thing. I like it for moving hitting to buttons but now it seems you can’t just move the right thumb stick and move puck for hand and hand hand. Unless I’m missing something. It seems you are stuck with using the oil protect button.

They FINALLY updated the Blue Jackets goalie helmets. No longer do they have a wordmark logo that they haven’t used for over a decade.

I kinda like the pressure overlay. Is it needed? Not really but it doesn’t bother me no where near as much as I thought it would. Same thing for the boards, I don’t even notice them. Same goes for the fatigue circle. Is it needed? Not really but like being able to see it now.

The goalies look better from what I’ve seen. Elvis made a heck of a save sticking his leg up in the air.

The icon passing seems useless. You never have enough time to hold RT to bring up the icons. Would make way more sense for that to have been LT and RT or something like that.

The hitting animations using the buttons look a lot more realistic. Not sure about skill stick controls.

Definitely needs some slider adjusts and slowed down. Game feels like it’s on hyper drive…which is nothing new for EA hockey.

Graphics still look pretty blah compared to modern games.

And my biggest gripe is the pregame. It’s like 10 seconds long and tells you nothing more then teams and their records. Really miss seeing starting goalies and their stats.


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[MizzouRah]

The pressure system does make me want to keep cycling the puck in the offensive end and when the CPU is pressuring me, I'm trying to get it out of our end as quickly as possible.

I also noticed I can't move the puck to backhand/forehand with the R stick using the total control scheme, so I'll need more games to get used the new layout. You can always go back to the old skill stick controls.

The goalies have some nice save animations, but they still have that one where they put their pads to the ice and then freeze for a few seconds, which allows potential goes from the sides.

I like the icon passing so far, I only use it on long/hard passes, mainly getting out of my own end, so the holding of the RT isn't an issue so far for me.

I typically play on 2/6 game speed, but for me, it seems a tad slowed down on default 3/6. (ymmv)

Pregame could use more and after the game ends, it cuts to the bench really quickly.

Crowds are much better, the music and on ice stuff before a faceoff I'm really liking, feels more like a real game in this respect.

[TDKing]

Played only one game 6 minute periods on pro default sliders. Eh.. pressure thingy not making much of a difference need more games to see. Like everyone has said wish we could turn off the on ice meter. On a good note there were 10 penalties called 5 for cpu and 5 for me but I'm sure they will patch this out. Hitting seems a little different. Only one game not sold yet need more time.

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[fiddlerpaul]

Hate how complicated puck protect is now. I used that a lot last year. Everything else seems so the same. They've just tweaked sliders to make the game sloppier but otherwise I don't feel like having this game is any upgrade to last year. I guess if they can't make the actual gameplay feel or look any different they just do all these small things that really don't change the overall experience for the better. Like the pressure system...I mean, really?

[gsize19]

As a game at several hours glance, I like the new animations, the pick up puck logic out of the box. Don't crucify me, I am strictly an offline player but since the Hybrid controls aren't in as of yet, I played a few games in the CHEL side of things. I hate the new control scheme and was never a fan of the skill stick, so it's been a challenge to get maximum enjoyment out of this game, so I will concentrate more on getting rosters close to where they are at now, creating some NCAA rookies, and wait... I thought EA said they were patching the game day one, but I guess Day one means official release day, so really won't be able to get too much gaming in until they finally patch the Hybrid controls in. Again, I realize some love that sort of stuff, the unique dekes and such, I just want to play some hockey and hockey how I have played it since the early 90's... Not sure who made the decision to not include Hybrid controls as their legacy system, but that so far to me was the games biggest fail... Other than that, I am liking the collision detection, skating physics, and the overall game looks awesome...

While the pressure thing is on the ice, I don't even notice it... It won't become a distraction...

[desouza7]

This is already way better than last year. I felt the game was way too easy offline on the hardest difficulties in 23. I’ve played 3-4 games already and it’s been much more difficult on both sides of the ice.

It seems they tuned back everything from the Beta test and looking forward to the additional updates on the Day 1 patch.

My only gripe is what others have said. You can kind of tell the stars from the regulars with X-Factors, but they really need to do a revamp of the attributes so we can feel the difference between them. All the NHL level players have all attributes above 75, or most at least, just so the OVR is higher when really some guys should have much lower speed or stick handling settings. Also agree on puck protect being a little too complicated, but I feel like I’ll get used to it. Would like to be able to put it back on the A button though.

Other than that, I’m surprised I’m liking it so far for offline play. Haven’t tried EASHL yet since my squad hasn’t downloaded it, but looking forward to that next.

[reth316]

After a few games, it's fun. I'm enjoying it. Seeing way more penalties and the audio is excellent.

Presentation is nice with the electronic boards. Definitely need option to toggle off the visual stuff, looks way too arcade like for me.

Goalies have some cool animations but seeing too many desperation dives when not really needed. I'm sure sliders will help with that.

[Cycloniac]

Just messing around in menus and such, one thing I noticed is that there aren't any slider presets? Only see NHL 24, no hardcore/arcade etc.