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NHL 16 Today! Ek's Initial Thoughts...Your Early Impressions? Tues Buzzcast

September 15, 2015, 11:41 AM ET [102 Comments]
Eklund
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I have played, and I still own, every EA Hockey game that has ever been made. Today is the release of NHL 16 with Jonathan Toews (alone) on the cover raising the Cup above his head.

A few of my early thoughts....

*Controls....

Already, after only a few days playing this game, I do sense this is the smoothest combination of real skating along with playability....I have always wanted all the fun controllability of NHL 94 with the graphics that actually meet today's standards....I feel this game does this.

*Skating backwards...

Skating backwards finally feels like skating backwards....and EA apparently spent more time on the skating mechanic than ever before...and it shows.

*Smarter players...

This is always such a subtle thing, but for the first time I was skating down the wing and my winger dragged a skate to stay onside and wait for me. Maybe this has been in the game before, but my instinct based on past experience was, "Dammit, I threw him offside..." but I hadn't.

*Goalie controllability...

I haven't gotten it down yet, but as a member of the union I always support.


*The Canon in Columbus...

Ok, thats just cool.

*More realistic simulation in game look...

One of the first things I always do is just let the computer play a game against itself and watch it as if I am watching the game on TV. This experience has definitely been ramped up and the skating smoothening has really improved this....
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I still need to delve into the online experience and the create a player/team modes (which is always important to me when trying to simulate games...)

Curious as to your thoughts....

We will be discussing this and much more on the Podcast today at 1pm ET.




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