NHL 15 Gameplay Trailer released at Gamescon

[Guest]

Just released today from Gamescon is a trailer for NHL 15 with gameplay footage. It isn't even two minutes in length, but it does provide plenty to look at and dissect right now. Lets jump in!

From the start, you can see substantial differences in the crowd before the initial faceoff. Throughout the trailer, we catch a glimpse of crowd interaction, including fans cheering big hits, a fan with a beverage in his hand and best of all, mocking a player currently in the penalty box. The crowd also went nuts on Patrice Bergeron's goal on a penalty shot. With MLB: The Show, we saw some nice additions to stadium atmosphere in next-gen sports games, but it seems NHL may take that to a whole new level.

Tangent: if they have the Green Man suit guys from Vancouver represented in the game, I may call this the best sports game of all time just on principle.

I also see the new physics engine hard at work that I caught glimpses of about a month ago. From the gameplay trailer, we see some bone-crunching hits that certainly look different than past NHL games. I liked seeing a hit that resulted in a player falling into the boards, and we also see Bergeron tripped and falling into the goalie. Those kind of falls, while they might seem small, actually really add to the realism for the game, because those are the hits that happen in an NHL game.

It's also interesting to point out, on the same hit where we see the Penguins player hit and driven down into the boards, the player who hit him also takes a fall. A big hit like that will often affect both players, and it is nice to see that it may be accounted for.

We even get to witness a fight. The NHL has been trying to eliminate fights for a few years, and we are seeing less emphasis placed on the "enforcer" player than ever before. It is nice to see that EA is recognizing fighting still and are showcasing it in a gameplay trailer. A fan being excited over his team's fight makes it even better.

I would have liked to see some more offensive gameplay to see what they've done with the deking system, but there is only so much you can do in a two minute video, and EA had to showcase the major things they've been working on. I definitely want to see more.

What are your thoughts on the gameplay trailer? What are you most excited to see?

[Price]

Will be the best looking sports game out there.

[Guest]

Will be the best looking sports game out there.

Agreed.......the level of detail put into the crowd is insane. I really hope it transitions well to the actual game.

[Price]

Agreed.......the level of detail put into the crowd is insane. I really hope it transitions well to the actual game.

Definitely, seeing the fans mocking the players in the penalty box was great,

[Boss AZ]

If rumors are true and there are no EASHL or GMC who cares about what it looks like.

Would also be nice to have some actual game play videos by now.

[Price]

Overhead gameplay comes out today.

[ryne candy]

Overhead gameplay comes out today.

I never played EASHL, so that wouldn't deter me from buying it. I will wait some time after release to get a gauge on the game, once the hype/hatred has died down.

[leaffan]

No eashl =

2nd year in a row I won't be buying a title that I bought basically every year in a row for 15+ years.

[ryne candy]

No eashl =

2nd year in a row I won't be buying a title that I bought basically every year in a row for 15+ years.

I'm one of the few that has never touched EASHL but still looks like I'm going to stick with my PS3 (for now).

[leaffan]

I'm one of the few that has never touched EASHL but still looks like I'm going to stick with my PS3 (for now).

Honestly if you don't touch EASHL or even OTP there's still plenty of game there to be had but the trouble is EASHL probably makes up maybe 35%-40% of the reason people are buying the game now and its also the only reason people will play the game well into June/July because even at that point you're still trying to fight to get into the top division for when the monthly playoffs come rolling around. The best memories I've had playing the NHL series over the last few years all pretty much stem from EASHL play so cutting that component out for a large part of the fan base is really troubling. A huge concern is how much focus has been put on the presentation of it. It's all well and great they focused on getting the NBC overlays and the opening sequence for some arena's (which are then skipped basically every time after you see it once) but when it's now showing that all that work has taken away from other area's I just feel that money was spent in the wrong area's.

My other issue with the game has been gameplay. NHL13 wasn't hockey to me imo in the sense that I felt like I was playing a really slow game. That combined with some major game play flaws in the beginning really hurt the game play experience to me and resulted in me not even getting NHL14 because when I played the demo it felt even worse. I'm going to do what I did with Madden and just wait a few years. I didn't buy Madden new from 07 till 12 then went back to it in 13. I'm only on year 2 of no buy for NHL so we will see how long I can hold out for.