![]() Plenty of people have wish lists for NHL ’22, and they’d likely be very different from mine. After all, if you wanted to bring your favorite team online, would you be happy facing a loaded Lightning squad, and so on?Ĭounterpoints like these remind you that EA Sports and other developers face challenges. While the ideal is to truly capture the stardom of a Connor McDavid, it could also create grumbling. Granted, player ratings bring things back to be careful what you wish for. In general, the game tends to be a bit too forgiving to bottom-pairing defensemen. (Although at least you could choose which WR you wanted to pass to, albeit at your own risk if they’re outside of that vision cone.) The suction cup/magnetized inevitability is one of the most poorly instituted EA gameplay mechanics since the nightmare QB cones of vision from Madden days of yore. ![]() “Board play” has never really been good.OK, now for an airing of pettier grievances. The above list seems like a good start, though. ![]() You can get deep into the weeds talking about the smaller and biggers ways to make NHL ’22 and future titles more authentic. More nuance in free agency? Basically, we need to recreate John Tavares and his Maple Leafs bedsheet.( How many teraflops does it take to capture the art of the dive?) So maybe it wouldn’t be feasible to add Joel Quenneville, and thus delight fans by rendering his mustache with glorious HDR. Look, the truth is that NHL games don’t command the same budgets as a FIFA or Madden. Adding real-life coaches would be nice.It would be great to see that bit of flair added to contract negotiations and other facets of running a team. It isn’t perfect, yet it’s an improvement. In NHL ’21, EA Sports added some flavor to its trade deadline. But maybe they could allow no-trade clauses to be part of negotiations? Perhaps signing bonuses could make or break a deal, or make a team’s owner get impatient with losing? Maybe it would be too much to ask EA to allow conditional draft picks to be part of trades. While NHL ’21 features a more nuanced Franchise Mode than ones from years ago, there are still some issues.let’s be honest, it would certainly be cool and ambitious. But it was in EA NHL games many moons ago, and people want it. The idea of jamming servers with leagues of up to 31 people - hundreds, if not thousands of them - seems like it’s asking a lot. Bringing back “GM Connected Mode” might be asking a bit much, but people want it.(I, for one, remember the days when Eric Lindros was a star even into his Rangers days.) By allowing users to share custom rosters, you could limit at least some of that whining. Just about any time EA Sports announces player ratings, people gripe. While a part of me fears that custom rosters and other sharing suites might open up the door for racist or profane names, these features are fairly common in sports games. One mostly reasonable idea is to add “roster sharing” for NHL ’22. If you search (gasp) other wish lists, you’ll notice themes (beyond the less constructive griping).Just note that this wish list aims to keep expectations at least somewhat reasonable. No doubt, there’s plenty of room for improvement. In reality, NHL ’21 and its ilk might be flawed, but there’s fun to be had. In a dream world, EA Sports could pump huge resources and staffers into revolutionizing NHL ’22, thus finding a perfect balance between simulation and fun. There have been cancellations, “Starship Troopers"-sized bugs, and cancellations following embarrassments over bugs. Maybe those review scores got to EA, as they tried to revamp their NBA games. For years, the NBA Live series sold reasonably well, even though NBA2K titles were more critically acclaimed. Realistically, it would be better for EA Sports to make incremental progress in those areas, rather than throwing out all of their code altogether (so to speak).īecause making a new NHL game, engine and all, from scratch? That’s easier said than done.ĮA Sports itself suffered through painful lessons with its NBA titles. Artificial intelligence remains lacking in crucial areas, especially with teammates in the offensive zone. Offense really is too dependent upon cross-seam passes and/or one-timers. Frankly, you don’t need to do much digging before you find complaints about gameplay in NHL ’21, and other recent editions.
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