NHL 15 News Post

NHL 15 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions (Xbox One, PS4)

08:44 PM - August 25, 2014 by Steve_OS

The NHL 15 demo is available now on Xbox Live for Xbox One users. PlayStation 4 users can expect the demo tomorrow afternoon when the PSN Store updates with new titles.

UPDATE: The NHL 15 demo is now available for PlayStation 4 users. If you can't find it, click this link.

Some have had luck going to "New Demos" all the way over to the right. Games>New>Demos>New Demos (all the way over to the right) and grab the NHL 15 demo. Thanks @TheFlopfish)

The demo weighs in at 2.58 GB. Here are the details.

New York Rangers vs. Los Angeles Kings
Full game with three two-minute periods
Play in Madison Square Garden or Staples Center
Gameplay Camera Angles: Dynamic Low, Dynamic Medium, and Dynamic High
Practice Mode: Master the Superstar Skill Stick with a free skate against a goalie
Difficulty Settings: Rookie, Pro, All-Star

If you can't find it, try searching for it with Bing.

Play a few games and let us know what you think of this year's NHL title on Xbox One!

Game: NHL 15Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 16 - View All

NHL 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 181 SVCbearcat10 @ 08/26/14 06:48 PM

After playing a few games, I've come away very impressed with the demo. The graphics are crisp on my tv, player models and stadiums look great. Players feel like they are more weight to them, allowing for more realistic movements. Physics are great (both players and pucks). This has that sense of familiarity to it (probably because it's EA's NHL and the controls are the same) but is better in every way. This is definitely a next-gen game.

Because of how players move, it seems as though positioning is more important. Get impatient on D and the player will fly right by you. It takes a second or two for your guy to stop then start back skating, by then the damage has been done.

In the end, this is a much much better game. Like any game, the experience is how you choose to play it. If you want to find exploits (seem like some are found) and do them over and over, then this game will be unplayable. If you try to play it like its meant to be played (dumping every so often, not intentionally doing glitch goals, etc), then it should be as good as ever.

# 182 ERA @ 08/26/14 06:52 PM

I've quickly fallen in love with this game (as if I wasn't already). At first, I hated the new skill stick. Now that I've gotten pretty good with it, I can realize that its a drastic improvement over 14.

I also really love the physics. The physics are the real deal in this game.

I need this game in my life.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk now Free

# 183 meep316 @ 08/26/14 07:02 PM

Are post game replays available in the demo? I skipped 14 so forgive me if this was changed in that, but one of the issues I always had was that in the post game highlights, each clip was only like 5 seconds long, so you could never really get a good replay of a goal developing because the clips were too short. Are they longer now?

# 184 bowld @ 08/26/14 07:03 PM

Day 1 for me. Cant wait

# 185 Saint Iscah @ 08/26/14 07:16 PM

Playing on PS4....

The choppy play is terrible. I'm pushing through it because I really want to see the "new NHL experience" on next gen. But really, it is BAD.

720p? Really?

Aside from these negative's I feel good about how the game feels and plays.

Hopefully the choppiness and 720p are merely demo issues. I cannot see this game being released w/ this type of choppiness and under 1080p.

We will see.

# 186 Mikey88 @ 08/26/14 07:22 PM

to me this game is going to be a ton of fun in online vs mode
all they need to do is tone down the gameplay speed a bit and shot power
setting up on the pp using umbrella strat feels great!

# 187 Elite49 @ 08/26/14 07:26 PM

My only problems with the demo are two things that someone could probably answer if they are in or fixed in the full game.

Firstly, theres no audio in saved clips of this game on either platform it seems using the consoles dvr features. (PS4 here). Wondering if this'll be fixed in final version because this is a pretty big part of these consoles and that would be awful to exclude. This NEEDS fixing.

Then secondly, another audio issue but with in game replays. Any chance the in game replays could bring back having audio in them like last year? It added to the overall presentation of the games, hearing the sounds on ice during that game winning goal.

Other than those two issues, I've had a blast playing the demo and can't wait for release.

# 188 bigwill33 @ 08/26/14 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVCbearcat10


	In the end, this is a much much better game. Like any game, the experience is how you choose to play it. If you want to find exploits (seem like some are found) and do them over and over, then this game will be unplayable. If you try to play it like its meant to be played (dumping every so often, not intentionally doing glitch goals, etc), then it should be as good as ever.

You are right. And that is the issue with this game, the main issue that I have with this game.

I shouldn't have to handicap myself from playing real hockey to win at this game or score. I have already found nearly the same gameplay as there was in the prior versions of this game. There is never a need for me to dump and chase. I rarely need to cycle. I do these things because I want to, that is fun to me. Replicating a sim experience is my goal.

But the problem is that these are not rewarded like they would be in real life. And what is rewarded is carrying the puck in along the boards and spamming speed burst to get it in deep and then firing a one-time pass across the ice for the far wing.

Watch any video that is mostly what people do. They fly up and down the ice as fast as possible and try and try the same things over and over again. Why? Because it works too often! Why do any of the hard work and real style plays if you can just cheese the game all day the same ways that have been in for 5+ years?

This is especially a game killer online. You can set up the most beautiful plays in the world and make your opponent look silly, but the AI will compensate and cover for them and the goalie will dive across and make the miraculous save. Or, you can just skate over the line as fast as possible, one on two, and do a one-touch deke and gain the slot and curl your wrists over to send one top corner all day long. What do you think everyone is going to do?

The point is it should be on EA to have fixed these issues by now. They are not new. They are eyesores and ruin the immersive realism. I shouldn't be responsible for fixing their mistakes or handicapping my skills or IQ to try and get a realistic outcome.

If a baseball game had it so every time you bunted you got a base hit, or a football game had it where every toss right to the halfback was an automatic first down people wouldn't be too happy. That is what the NHL series is suffering from most, in my opinion.

# 189 Spongedaddy @ 08/26/14 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saint Iscah


	Playing on PS4.... The choppy play is terrible. I'm pushing through it because I really want to see the "new NHL experience" on next gen. But really, it is BAD. 720p? Really? Aside from these negative's I feel good about how the game feels and plays. Hopefully the choppiness and 720p are merely demo issues. I cannot see this game being released w/ this type of choppiness and under 1080p. We will see.

I was all for it until the demo. I did not see much of a difference between the demo and last year's game on my PS3. I loved it last year, but did not feel like there was much of a leap. Game play may be different in final version, but I doubt the graphics will. I did like the idea of the live pre-game commentary.

# 190 spidertour02 @ 08/26/14 08:00 PM

I finally got into the demo on PS4 a little while ago. Since I didn't play NHL 14, this feels great and new to me. I like how the stick handles (deliberately avoiding one-touch dekes), and it looks great ...

... but am I the only one having problems with a strange, choppy-as-hell framerate? I had to stop after the first period to come here and see if it's a common problem. I'm using True Broadcast without the auto-zoom, and it is VERY choppy. It's like the demo has a strobe effect or something. I think I have a headache.

# 191 bigwill33 @ 08/26/14 08:02 PM

After playing a while longer, and on both the PS4 and Xbox One, I have found a few other issues that are bothering me.

When trying to adjust the settings for your defense during a play stoppage one of the prompts is the same button that is used to skip over the stoppage and advance to the face-off. Who decided that was a good idea? And how did this get past testing?

But my main issue with the demo so far is this:

The gameplay is boring me already because we have been there and done that. Meaning, to get positive results you do the same things over and over again and these things are the same things that you had to do for the past 5 years with this game.

There is no dynamic movement without the puck on offense. No dynamic lanes that open up in the zone. I know exactly where my players will be and where the defense is positioned and that never changes! I can never set up a PP in the zone and go from the lower left wing boards and pass across the ice to the far point. I can not expect to cross corner a fly in dump and know that my far wing is crashing to get it. I can't pin the puck holder on the boards and hope that my teammate will be the second guy in to support me and win the possession.

These are the types of things that wear on a long time player of this series. That and the same goals going in, over and over and over again. Almost all of my goals given up are because the CPU beats my guy under the goal line, usually because of clunky controls such as a failed board pinning or wonky skating animation, and then they quickly center it to someone that is not being tied up in front for an easy, point blank shot. Why can't my backside d help tie up their stick? Give it a quick lift or clamp it down? Why are they not even positioned correctly?

I see other people commenting about their scores for the demo being like 4-2, 6-0, etc. With shots being around 12-16 for their team. How in the heck are you managing that? I fear I know the answer. Most people just cary the puck into the zone and fire, over and over again. And every so often it works. Heck I know when I am going to score if I am giving a clear shot. I can see when the goalie is leaning wrong. That means there is little incentive to play a realistic game. And that is exactly what is like to play online. Just exploits and the same routines over and over. This is because of the unchanged AI.

I could probably fool myself into playing this game this fall after a purchase. I could mess with the sliders and establish my own house rules and regulations to ensure I am not exploiting too much or cheating for an advantage based off of how the game is designed to play, but after half a decade of the same thing I am tired of it. I am bored by it.

Goaltending has hardly been touched since 2006! Not the game, the year. How long will it take until they fix these issues and what faith should I even have at this point that they will even get it correct when/if they ever do?

That is what is so sad about this demo to me.

# 192 Inhocmark @ 08/26/14 08:08 PM

Is it just me or does the commentary sound flat? No excitement in Doc's call at all. Disorienting to say the least

# 193 spidertour02 @ 08/26/14 08:24 PM

I think I'm going to try and re-download the demo. Even the trailer in the demo has a choppy framerate right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inhocmark


	Is it just me or does the commentary sound flat? No excitement in Doc's call at all. Disorienting to say the least

I have to disagree. I thought this would be a problem from watching those gameplay videos EA put out, but in the game I just played, that wasn't the case. As the Rangers, I had a 1-0 lead in the third before the Kings came back to win 2-1. He was pretty animated at the end of the third period when LA was making their charge, and he let out a pretty good "SCOOOORE!" when they put the go-ahead goal in the net. It wasn't to his TV level, but it was pretty solid nonetheless.

# 194 Steven547 @ 08/26/14 08:24 PM

My initial impression.

Playing on the PS4.

Graphically:
PRO:
Superb. Nice to have a "next gen" system with a "next gen" graphics finally. Arena's look nice and has that "NBC" feel.
CON:
Who was the brilliant mind behind the cosmetic look of the menus? If you enter settings, and try to set position lock, I had white text on a teal background. You could hardly read it.
When starting the game, at the controller select, the controller has a "red glow" to...right below it is RED text! I had to move close to my screen to see what I had selected. Poor choice of colors.
Team Select screen - Again...white lettering on a TEAL background! Can't read the team names. Poor.
This color scheme is like this in all menus. You can't read WHITE on TEAL! Ugh.

AI:
This is hard to say. I never understood the thought of releasing a DEMO with the ability to only take advantage of 10% of it. I'm sure EA is done coding the AI and sliders, so why not let us have the ability to adjust those. You can't make a solid make or break review for the AI without the sliders.
As of now, not much different than NHL 14.

Penalties:
What? Where???

Announcers:
I'll probably turn it down. Doc gets annoying even after only playing 2 min periods. He has no excitement in his voice, and it doesn't get you into the "feel" of the game. Could be with only 2 mins periods, it's hard to make that call.

Presentation:
Again, finally we have a "next gen".

Now the "What happened to..."
If you're position locked, why do we still have to control every player in the shootout?? This was brought up a few times over the past couple years. Again, no change.

The menu system. I don't want to keep pressing (L2) to get to another menu. Just keep it simple.

I'm sure there are enough improvements to buy this game. But I am disappointed at the color schemes of the menus.

Overall, this game is like McDonalds changing the paper wrapping on their burgers and telling you it's a new burger. It's still the same burger, just different wrapping.

# 195 MizzouRah @ 08/26/14 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merchant1874


	TBF your probably used to 720p on the xbox one. Believe me 1080p doesn't look like that. Spoiler joke

HAHA.. I really don't care. It looks great to me.. I don't get all riled up between 720p vs 1080p, etc, etc..

In fact I have a $500 Sceptre TV that is 6" bigger than my piece of crap dead Sony TV that cost me $2000 and it looks better to boot.

# 196 toyo301985 @ 08/26/14 08:39 PM

no ps3 demo??????????????'

# 197 kerosene31 @ 08/26/14 08:45 PM

I only played 2 games on Xbox One. Both all-star difficulty, first one sim, last one hardcore (hardcore was much better)

Positives:
-Puck physics - I really like the puck physics. Not everyone likes poke check "spam" but in hockey the puck gets knocked loose all the time.

-Graphics - look nice!

Not sure:
-Skating - It very well could just be me not having played in forever (seems to happen every year), but I was having trouble skating d-men backwards and keeping close to the play.

Negatives:
-AI - I'm not seeing much in the way of changes at all, and many of the same old annoyances are still there. The CPU defense is still way too passive and allows you to dangle all over the zone to the point where it is comical. Maybe this year they get in a lucky poke check but that's about it. A decent skater can just own the CPU defense. Teammate AI *might* be a touch better. It seemed they were a little more "heads up"

Overall:

I can sum up my impressions in 3 words:

Is this it???? I mean, with some sliders and tuners, this could play a very good game of hockey, but the AI issues still are going to make offline play a lot less fun. For people who play the (remaining) online modes, I could see it being appealing, however for me this is the first year since 2005 I may pass on the game, or at least wait some time. I still want to hear impressions from people who get it early with EA Access.

# 198 Bronco Billy @ 08/26/14 08:47 PM

After downloading and playing both versions, I'd give a *slight* edge graphically to the PS4 version, but the XONE has better color.

It would be most helpful to know what resolution both versions will run in natively.

Love that my Avs got a little bit of a shout out in the demo with that splash screen.

# 199 Jet Sufferer @ 08/26/14 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	After playing a while longer, and on both the PS4 and Xbox One, I have found a few other issues that are bothering me. When trying to adjust the settings for your defense during a play stoppage one of the prompts is the same button that is used to skip over the stoppage and advance to the face-off. Who decided that was a good idea? And how did this get past testing? But my main issue with the demo so far is this: The gameplay is boring me already because we have been there and done that. Meaning, to get positive results you do the same things over and over again and these things are the same things that you had to do for the past 5 years with this game. There is no dynamic movement without the puck on offense. No dynamic lanes that open up in the zone. I know exactly where my players will be and where the defense is positioned and that never changes! I can never set up a PP in the zone and go from the lower left wing boards and pass across the ice to the far point. I can not expect to cross corner a fly in dump and know that my far wing is crashing to get it. I can't pin the puck holder on the boards and hope that my teammate will be the second guy in to support me and win the possession. These are the types of things that wear on a long time player of this series. That and the same goals going in, over and over and over again. Almost all of my goals given up are because the CPU beats my guy under the goal line, usually because of clunky controls such as a failed board pinning or wonky skating animation, and then they quickly center it to someone that is not being tied up in front for an easy, point blank shot. Why can't my backside d help tie up their stick? Give it a quick lift or clamp it down? Why are they not even positioned correctly? I see other people commenting about their scores for the demo being like 4-2, 6-0, etc. With shots being around 12-16 for their team. How in the heck are you managing that? I fear I know the answer. Most people just cary the puck into the zone and fire, over and over again. And every so often it works. Heck I know when I am going to score if I am giving a clear shot. I can see when the goalie is leaning wrong. That means there is little incentive to play a realistic game. And that is exactly what is like to play online. Just exploits and the same routines over and over. This is because of the unchanged AI. I could probably fool myself into playing this game this fall after a purchase. I could mess with the sliders and establish my own house rules and regulations to ensure I am not exploiting too much or cheating for an advantage based off of how the game is designed to play, but after half a decade of the same thing I am tired of it. I am bored by it. Goaltending has hardly been touched since 2006! Not the game, the year. How long will it take until they fix these issues and what faith should I even have at this point that they will even get it correct when/if they ever do? That is what is so sad about this demo to me.

When will sports game developers (not all) learn that the appeal of sports and why we watch and what we want is unpredictable, organic gameplay??

I can forgive graphics, presentation, socks, etc etc ad infinitum if I'm just given that, it's all I ask of any sports game.

Alas, I guess if they see nothing but 20 page threads talking about graphics, shoes and announcers we will be forever doomed with generic, dumbed down sports games.

# 200 Smirkin Dirk @ 08/26/14 09:01 PM

I think the game is more 'organic'. Im see missed passes, and bobbles and deflections.

It is still too easy to enter the zone along the boards but I am seeing more resistance from the D compared to past NHLs.

Don't forget, we can play on hardcore, but cant change the settings so we can make it play even better.

All I know is that I want to get home and play more.

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