Thoughts on the Beta so far: Pros Presentation Package is the best its been in years. Love the featured highlights and the new look and feel to presentation. Goalie feels more 'Natural' overall. I don't feel like I'm playing to a game mechanic so much so as I'm actually playing the position. Pace seems more realistic. Ice appears to be covered more accurately, e.g. there's less space to maneuver/force the puck when teams are positioned properly. Defense feels more natural this year, pass/shot blocking is better. Cons Goalie camera on Penalty Shots is fixed on the skater and doesn't allow goalie to see their position relative to the skater. Goalie animations on slap shots/passes from other offensive zone are overly slow which leads to potential for "glitchy" type goals. Some instances where the goalie rotates on post inside of own net. Some issues around butterfly saves, specifically when the puck goes under the pads. Some issues around puck physics. Hits could be worked on, Not to the level of bumps in 19 but positional hits with differences in player weights should affect how the player is on the puck. Overall, this is the best title I've seen in a long while. I'm hoping that they keep improving and getting us closer to a simulation game.
Shit goalie here but i feel like im getting stuck in animations that dont allow me to move or keep up with the puck. Ive noticed several times that when the puck goes behind the net my goalie makes an animation and doesnt give me time to react. Ive also noticed i get stuck on the post more and there is little reaction time to up close shots. This could all also be me needing to adjust to the game. I feel like with all the extra shot animations for skaters if you take the 19 goalies with the 20 skaters the playing field would be very balanced.
for the first time in almost 10 years i will NOT be playing EAids NHL product. The one thing I'm glad the BETA did is prove that EA will never learn and its made my decision much easier to take. Maybe when NHL 20 hits the vault i'll be back...
So for my actual feedback, The game feels like a polished NHL 19 with some better animations. That being said some of the shot animations are delayed to the shot. The poke and stick lift are a little improved. Puck pick ups are still questionable. Goalies that are catching right look like they are using the glove as a blocker. The skating is very smooth now north south. A little clunky when trying to move east west. Also the scoreboard is in a terrible place. Overall it feels improved the thing that scares me is that EA tends to go downhill from the beta. They could be using a way better engine to make this game more functional. Still doesn't feel like simulated play compared to other sports games. I also really hope that they do connected franchise at some point.
I love how some of the non Goalies are commenting on how good the Goalies are and those who play Goal are commenting about how bad G is. As EA said... improved saves for G who are in position and in control... I.e. not moving around and square to the shooter. Definitely not the case. Here is my G experience so far. Short side is brutal. Unless the G is hugging the post it is easy to snipe short side... even if you are square to the shooter and in control. Hell the G does not even animate or attempt to make a save on short side. Basically it hits you or it goes in. If you hug the post and they pass across the G is slow as hell getting off the post to attempt a save. Faceoff in our end. G immediately drops into a butterfly and wont move. Guy passes to a player 5-10 feet to the right of my net. G animates into butterfly and wont let me move to cover the post. Guy breaking in and going for far side post. Push stick right to come across and cover the side he is driving for... G sits there and doesn't move until after the guy has blown by and the puck is in the net... then he moves. I actually had time to first hit the left stick to move and when he doesn't hit the right stick to try a desperation slide across... neither action worked. Puck sitting behind me. Hit R2 for autocover.... nothing. Hit triangle for manual cover... nothing. Spam the hell out of the triangle... finally tries to cover. Guy to my right in close is looking to fire short side. Hit R2 / L1 to reverse VH and face shooter to block out the net. G goes into butterfly and slowly animates out of the net for an easy tap in. G needs more speed to move across the net, or at least responsive controls so that when he does try to move the G actually moves. G needs to have better ability to stop a short side when square to the shooter and in control. Not sure I will play G next season if this is what life will be like for a G. I get that there will differences and a learning curve to adjust... but there is nothing skill related about bad controls and animations.
If anyone is wondering what the differences in builds base stats are from NHL 19 to NHL 20 here you go. I think it's pretty eye opening as to what EA has really focused on here and what they're really trying to make the game be. Literally every build has a base drop in Shot Blocking and everyone but playmaker and enforcer D had drops in Defensive Awareness but almost everything is boosted offensively for almost every build. On top of that every build is dropped in Speed, Acceleration, Agility, and Endurance.
Will they be extending the beta so we also get to play the updated version of the game? Hard to give feedback on a game that has already been patched up and fixed and we don't know if these fixes are any good or not. My biggest complaint is players picking off passes they shouldn't be. Players can have their back to you and pick a pass off clean as if they were looking at me and I passed it right to them. There was also a glitch where if you are the goalie and go behind the net you'd get stuck on the boards. I've only seen it twice but thought I'd mention it.
After last night I have to agree with you, there was some improvement on the tendy side, back in the old form of being able to make 2-3 consecutive saves on rebounds, which is a nice sight. I think that ea is truly moving fwd, finally lol I do have a question though, I wonder if it would be possible to remove the squaring of the netminder on a cross crease, that animation make the tendy move in an angle rather then straight out, which more often then not will make the puck bounce in net instead of straight out
I'm still rattled about deeking in the beta. When you try to deek someone, the puck sometimes randomly stays behind without any contact whatsoever on your opponent stick/skate. Also the puck handler shouldn't be losing the puck so easily after a little push that shit grinds my gears.
The worst nhl ever for first time I'm not sure to buy that it's crazy pass it's terrible goalie to slow breakaway camera for goalie it's crazy lift stick and puck control it's more difficult I do t like this version I'm probably recycling to NBA 2k next year
I haven't really tested it out in the beta but the server assignments when matchmaking needs to be fixed. If there's a significant mix of east/west players, the game should be on Central servers. Searching first shouldn't select the server, the locations of the players should. I don't think I can take another season of connection forcing and it's a really bad look for the league. It's been beaten to death but a small scoreboard in another screen position needs to be an option. I'm fine with the scoreboard redesign in terms of aesthetics. Just use the Pro-Am scoreboard as a template of where the scoreboard should be and of the size. Other weird goalie stuff: There are situations in which auto-cover doesn't activate when it should and the puck just sits there. Goalies sometimes try to make saves on passes far from the net. Sometimes butterfly slides go out of control (this might be related to bad tracking of the passes?).
Scoreboard sucks balls and needs to be smaller and less distractive. Also needs to be out of game play. Passing is super DELAYED.
This is the major point with the 5 holes. 5 holes goal should be happen only when goalie move to chnge is positioning and the shot come during this time. Other than that, game is great and the way you have to play goalie is much more realistic now. Other could be better is when goalie goes out of their zone, the skating is weird and for that, playing the puck on a dump and chase is impossible.
Fix backhanded flip ( same animation than wrap around ) Maybe 10%/15% more impact on hit - Opinion from D