Who cares about my budget in a hard cap league? The AI is better, but not quite good yet Instead of that, why not try to copy FIFA’s idea of having managers invited to run national teams? Imagine being the GM/coach of the Blackhawks AND the GM/coach of Team USA, taking on Canada in the World Cup of Hockey? Maybe that’s actually a dumb idea, but it can’t be any worse than having me schedule bobblehead nights so I can try to add $25,000 to my budget. I legitimately don’t know how any of it got into the real game without anyone asking whether it’s stuff players would actually want to do. In franchise mode, you’ll often be asked by your owner to do various tasks like setting the budget, setting your promotional schedule, and getting feedback from the owner. No, I don’t want to make promotions for my team They made nice improvements to the main menu for NHL 18, so that’s good, but franchise mode would be even more playable if the game loaded faster.
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Simulating games, changing your lineup, looking at statistics or standings, looking at free agents, it all takes an extra few seconds because the menus need to load. There’s way too much time spent staring at the screen, or at your phone, waiting for the game to get on with whatever it’s trying to do.Įverything feels like it takes longer than it should. Menus in NHL 18 still crawl for some reason, and it becomes a real issue in franchise mode when the whole game is basically scrolling through menus for hours on end. So usually this is the kind of thing you only notice when it’s a problem. Threes is EA’s solution to that, and it’s a great way to hop into a hockey game with friends who haven’t played NHL in years without skipping a beat. One of the issues with the game’s move toward hardcore sim gameplay is that it’s made the game less accessible for people who just want to pick up and play. You used to have to do this every six weeks in the sim and it was a pain.
The development system isn’t as good as in Madden’s franchise mode, where your on-field effort directly corresponds to increases in players’ ratings, but developing a team through the draft is much more satisfying in NHL 18 than before.Īlso, you can now turn off notifications for your scout asking where to go. That used to be more difficult in the old game, and it was never really clear why certain players would reach their potential while others didn’t. You can now easily pick players in the top five of the draft who will become superstars in short order, just like we see in the real NHL. This also goes for developing prospects in franchise mode. There’s a wider talent gap in the NHL than the old ratings system had. There are way fewer players in the 82-88 range, and that makes elite players stand out in a more realistic way. They’re not quite perfect, but the effort to make ratings more sensible this year has been a boon for franchise mode. The physics are impressive, the goaltending is much more realistic than older games, and it still captures the speed that differentiates NHL from its FIFA brethren. This is the main thing EA Canada nailed from the start of the transition to this generation of consoles, and the game still feels really good. Let’s go over some positives and negatives, focusing mainly on single-player stuff.
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Between an annual release schedule and the need to develop online and offline modes, you can see how it’s difficult for everything to get the love it deserves.Īnyway, those are some broad thoughts on the future of the franchise, but NHL 18 is still a game worth playing if you’re into hockey.
The game is much better than it was years ago, but it’s still nowhere near as detailed as more popular franchises like Madden or FIFA. So I play primarily single player, and it’s clear EA can be strained in putting the proper resources to those modes along with a robust online game. You either play a lot, or you get your butt kicked by people who do. I’ve dabbled in EASHL and HUT over the years, but the high bar for competition makes playing online, at least if you want to do well, demanding in a way that’s reminiscent of hardcore shooters like Call of Duty. One aspect of this review which, in my opinion, reflects an issue with the game’s development is that I play primarily offline.
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The developers at EA Canada have made some good progress in filling out the game since it’s unacceptably spare launch on PS4 and Xbox One a few years ago, but the game still doesn’t quite live up to its potential as the only console hockey game out there. It’s the latest edition in EA Sports’ annual hockey sim franchise, and if you’ve played one of the recent ones, many parts of NHL 18 will be familiar to you. Over the past few weeks, I’ve put a good amount of hours into playing NHL 18.