NHL 15

[Mr. X]

Whelp, looks like I'll just have to play NHL 14 on PS3 until NHL 16. They honestly should've delayed the game if they truly are cutting all of those features from this release.

[Draevyn]

I normally only play the "Be A GM mode" but they've even stripped that it seems. Fuck it, I guess that's one game that won't get my money.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Even worse? The PS3/360 version is rehashed as fuck. Like, SAME MENUS, NO NBC OVERLAY. Fucking nothing.

The Ps3/360 version seemed like a possible saving grace if you wanted a full feature set but holy Christ. I get that they were trying to get the PS4/Xbone versions on their legs but they could have atleast kind of tried for the 360/PS3 versions.

This whole thing has become a mess and a lot of people on both generations of consoles are gonna get fleeced on Tuesday and that feels really skeezy.

It's all about that NHL 2k10 Franchise Mode I've been playing since the game came out/NHL 2004 on PC with mods for me.

[Plubby]

Can you imagine releasing a car without a CD Player in it?

"What happened? You had the CD Player in last year's car...?!"

"Didn't...feel like it."

[apsham]

Ohhh darn, yeah that's an entire game changer.

[Meacon Keaton]

It's like they have the bug that the Madden developers had a few years back. Hopefully sales will bomb and they'll get a fire under their ass to at least put back everything they took out for next year's game.

[Twist]

I'm still buying because the only feature that upsets me is that you cant draft for yourself BUT I'm bloody awful at draft features anyway. I only do career mode, I enjoyed the demo and ill get a lot of play out of it regardless i think.

[apsham]

I would've done Be A Pro if you could skip god damn shifts that weren't yours.

[Twist]

I would've done Be A Pro if you could skip god damn shifts that weren't yours.

I can't see this being the case for too long. I'll think skipping shifts will be patched in pretty quickly.

[Gabriel]

The UFC team has done a great job at patching in features and fixes, but it's a whole different ballgame there. The NHL team historically has been awful at addressing issues in the games, even game breaking ones.

I'm not throwing away $80 on the off-chance that they fix the issues that make the game undesirable for me. If they fix some things, I'll start thinking about it again, but as of right now, I'm putting a $20 limit on what I would pay for what we are getting at launch.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Yeah. I would pay $35 or so for this post-patch(es), even with all the horrible omissions because the gameplay and presentation are still solid, but I most definitely am not buying this for full-price without seeing the results of multiple patches.

And yeah, the NHL team is kinda notorious for not patching shit. I can't remember what year it was (it may have even been NHL 14), but there was some pretty God-awful exploits in EASHL that just legit never got patched despite the development team knowing the exploits existed. I have faith that eventually, say, OTP will be patched in considering they promised to do so, but I'm not gonna hold my breath for stuff like simming shifts to be patched this year. It should be/hopefully will be, but I won't be overly-surprised if it isn't.

[Cole]

There are even exploits in the normal game style from last year that people use all the time in that EA Arena thing that just shut down where you play for money

[Plubby]

EA have announced a list of features to be patched into next-gen NHL15. Amongst other things...Coming soon...THREE STAR SELECTIONS!

THEY RELEASED A HOCKEY GAME IN 2014 WITHOUT THREE STARS

[King Ellis]

Minus three stars.

That's both a missing feature and a review score.

[Gabriel]

So, they've changed the way drafting is done and are adding it in a later patch... but they have no timetable on re-adding Edit Player. I don't understand that really, because Edit Player is Create-a-Player, with some of the options blocked out because they're real life players. That's not exactly backbreaking work to do.

So, EA essentially has spent all of their time and efforts on making the game look good, instead of making sure that it plays well. How many of us really care more about having hundreds of different crowd models and animations, than about having depth and features?

Their priorities are all fucked, especially when you consider how many $10-$20 indie games that look like they're from twenty years ago that we love.

[PatDaMan]

Even with the patches, I don't know that I'll be getting this. Probably wait until next year when the stuff is there and working properly from the start.

[Gabriel]

I'll get it when I can buy it used for half price, or if I get a free copy, which EA sometimes does for game stores.

I just don't want to give EA my money, and what's there isn't worth $80 to me when there are other games coming out that deserve my money and time way more.

[TGWL]

EA have announced a list of features to be patched into next-gen NHL15. Amongst other things...Coming soon...THREE STAR SELECTIONS!

THEY RELEASED A HOCKEY GAME IN 2014 WITHOUT THREE STARS

Yup, it's absolutely ridiculous. You can't justify that with "This is a new system". There's just so much taken out of this and the PS3 model is like NHL14 with updated rosters.

They're also patching in a tournament mode - which is basically their playoff mode. Hopefully, it will be patched in to replicate a real world tournament and not just NHL teams. I was considering buying PS4 because this is one of the few games I get every year, but this is insane. EA knows they released an incomplete game here.

[Cole]

Probably still going to get this tomorrow, but...

Minus three stars.

That's both a missing feature and a review score.

[RoyWill Rumble]

So just... don't get it tomorrow. If you're really adamant about getting it, wait until the patches come out in October. I guarantee you can grab a used copy for, like, $40. And though it still won't be half as feature-complete as it should be, it'll be much better post-patch.

The lack of timeline for Edit Player/no sim a shift in BAP being patched in is MIND-BLOWING. And I love how the post about patches has actually, in fact, revealed MORE missing features like no 3 Star Selections.