Please Vote! Beta 20 Impressions

Pivoting speed is what helps separate good d men from bad d men. I haven’t really noticed it being an issue even when play on west, at least on the defensive side of the puck

 

Shooting's in a good spot as far as I'm concerned outside of some of the "I'm holding backhand and getting a spinaround wrister instead", Slapshots can be blown by goalies but they are easily disrupted and take a long enough time to get off that it feels balanced. Largely the shots that I've been seeing go in are either from in tight or goalies being off with their positioning. Wristers feel dangerous enough that you can pick goalies in tight if you get to scoring areas but nobody seems to be getting picked from too far if they aren't just sitting on their line. Even one timers you've already seen the better goalies start using the sticks and making aggressive pushes to take the net away.

Passing I'll reserve judgement on until the final product since it's being addressed, but the charging and pass speed are very inconsistent and unpredictable plus the number of interceptions when guys aren't looking is high for my liking.

I really like that when saucer passes or attempted clears get deflected in the neutral zone, it's an actual deflection and not just knocking the puck down. Same with holding the RB and getting a stick in the lane, I've seen more contested shots deflected into the stands in 3 days than all of 19. Not the biggest or most fun thing they've ever done, but with how you can shoot off the dekes it's a nice little cat and mouse game between shooter and defender.

Bumps are in a good spot you can't really bump someone from behind when they're skating full speed, but if they aren't moving and let themselves be crashed into it has it's uses still.

Once the passing is adjusted, this could clean itself up, but I do think the defensive attributes need to matter a little bit more. If people are able to lock it down and intercept everything with playmakers and Danglers then what good are the TWF, Grinder, or any of the non Puck Moving D builds. It's great that Dangler and Sniper have noticeable strengths, just think the lack of defense they offer needs to be a bit more apparent than it has been early in 20.

 

I strongly disagree with this. I don’t care what your defensive awareness or stick checking is, if I’m in the lane, I expect my guy to pick off the pass 100% of the time. And if I’m d skill sticking and I swipe the puck, I expect to take it away regardless if I have 75 stick checking or 85. If you make the stick checking too high on the bigger d builds it could lead to spamming. I personally don’t see anything wrong with fwd builds being the meta on D. It’s just a lable you see in the lobby before the game starts

 

Like I said, I'm curious to see how this plays out when the passing inconsistencies are addressed. To me it boils down what constitutes being in the lane, if you're coasting backwards and directly between the receivers stick and my pass trajectory, absolutely should be a no brainer interception regardless of my input. However, if you're skating to your forehand side and I put a pass to your back hand side your guy shouldn't react to a hard pass from someone with high passing, assuming the pass still isn't directly at you (the reaction time and radius is what I think can be fairly addressed with attributes). Similarly if you're defending near the net front and I time my pass so that it's going to go behind you, those shouldn't be reacted to. Same with some one touch plays, you get a 2 on 1 down low make the first pass the defenseman reacts to it and steps to defend that guy but in doing that is also in position to take the pass away. That's the kind of thing IMO that needs to be better balanced in the beta, and it totally could from from the passing inconsistencies being addressed.

 

I

I agree with this

 

I'm... Underwhelmed by the BETA. On the one hand, hey! It's a BETA so: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On the other hand, I was expecting... Better?

It took me a while to find the trick to skating on defense, though I don't see that as a good thing. More so than in NHL 19, the BETA shows that NHL 20 will reward skating FORWARD on defense even more. Which is a stupid thing, but I guess that's what works so you either do it or you get coned. Puck pick ups are still a pile of hot garbage with hit or miss instances that are frustratingly annoying. I was pleasantly surprised that goalie stats got a boost in EASHL, but then I noticed that skaters also see their stats boosted, especially the shot accuracy, so again... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's a lot of new little animations that were added, like a skater receiving a pass while in the wrong position, having to turn around to shoot (reminds me of NHL 2K) instead of the warping and taking a perfect shot like in NHL 19. I also saw the goalies make more stick saves that redirect the puck to the corners or out of the rink. But I also saw too many times where the goalie redirects a weak shot directly into the crease for a juicy rebound goal chance.

As for the Game Modes that were available: I found ONES Eliminator the most fun. Sure, everyone made fun of the whole "Battle Royale" tag EA tried to place on it, but that's what it was in NHL 19, you just didn't see the entire playing field being whittled down like you can now. Also, I can see that the same thing that made ONES stale last year, will also make it so this year with BIG builds having such a huge advantage with being able to HIT, SKATE and SHOOT with ease making them overpowered. The poke check spam is another problem in that mode as you don't get a penalty for just machine-gunning it at the puck holder, there's no position penalty or recovery period if you spam it either. Also, the same exploit to score at will on goalies exists, unless the AI goalie decides to torment you and stop all your shots while allowing the other skaters to score from 50 feet out on a floater. Still fun for a quick jaunt though. And it's a great way to learn how to beat other skaters one on one and the AI goalies (especially in the later rounds as the AI Goalie difficulty gets ramped up).

VS. was pretty much the same as last years. Again, my main problem was adjusting to the defensive part of the game and the first few games I found myself getting smoked by other players just whizzing by my guys. After I adjusted, it was pretty much similar in every aspect, except for the new animations EA added.

I only played one CLUB game... All I'll say is that it was a disaster on defense and I didn't stay long enough to "enjoy" it. Again, goalies with bad defense are gonna have a field day in this game.

I didn't get to try THREES or ELIMINATOR Pro because, welp I got pretty bored of the BETA and uninstalled it after having played a few games on Friday, then a few more on Sunday. To me it was just more of the same as NHL 19, and I uninstalled that shit 2 weeks ago. And before that I had uninstalled the game late November last year, only to re-install it and play again in late February.

Is the game terrible? Not really... But it's just more of NHL 19, which was like NHL 18, which was like NHL 17, etc... I'm just tired of it. Maybe once the game hits the Vault next year and the game's had a chance to be patched. Hopefully not into oblivion, but hey, it IS EA we're talking about. LOL!

 

I truly hope EA doesn’t listen to people like you.

 

Unfortunatly , it always happens.

 

Don't worry, they only listen to people like you; the "elite"... and you wonder why the game is in such a terrible state. *Sigh*

 

honestly, every time you write something it is completely inaccurate or flawed as you don’t want a game of but a game of handouts. Why do you have a problem with defense having to time back skating? Why do you have a problem with defense when there are many other players who have success every game. Sorry but you are the exact reason the game has been losing followers every year. Adjust or play offline.

 

I don't. If you had actually READ what I said, I said that it took me a bit to get used to the defensive controls. Here, I'll quote it for you since obviously your reading skills must match your actual hockey knowledge:

Look, I didn't even make any suggestions, because it's clear that this is just a BETA and an old build to boot, so suggesting ANYTHING at this point is a waste of time. And clearly, the game is built as an arcade experience, so naturally the game modes that shine the most are those that take advantage of that like ONES and Pro AM and such. That's where I had the most fun with the BETA.

To each his own. I've been playing hockey, REAL hockey, for over 30 years. The sport may have evolved over the years, but the basics are still the same as they always were. Basics which, I feel, EA's NHL always lacks. But again, that's my opinion. If telling me "well you're just bad, that's why you hate it" is how you think you make yourself feel good and superior, be my guest. But I'd like to see you lace up skates and come meet me on a real ice rink and see where you stand against me. Then come talk to me about good and bad...

 

Please don’t listen to this guy

 

Goalies great. Besides the dumb animation you get locked into on dumps, passes, etc. I hope they leave it as is.

 

I haven’t played it very much but from what I’ve seen I think some adjustments are needed to make the game pretty well off.

The scoreboard should be an option for the old style. Pretty obnoxious to have a scoreboard the same length of the screen. I always thought they could implement a rocket league type of scoreboard where holding select would either toggle or temporary show the scoreboard. That would be useful I think.

The rebounds are pretty odd to me. Wristers for turds are almost too good. Whereas the slap shots from the point get saved by the goalie and flies out of bounds pretty frequently. I’ve always thought they need to more often have the goalie kick rebounds out to the corners.

Backhand on the breakaway tends to randomly go to a spin around forehand shot.

I think there needs to be a little more leeway like 19 when it comes to a charging penalty.

This is just in general nhl franchise change but, the AI awareness when it comes to them breaking for the opposing blue lines, they do not need to straight line and carry themselves offsides before receiving the puck. Make it realistic and hug the line with some momentum and position yourself to receive the pass. And for the love of god add something so tips are user controlled, not just random when EA decides to let it happen.

 

If overall it turns out to be better then nhl 18 and nhl 19 I'm happy!

 

Surprise surprise skill gap is back and the shitters start complaining