Can NHL 15’s Gameplay Outshine Its Stripped-Down Features?

When the next-gen gaming consoles were announced, there was anticipation as to which recurring sports games would make the jump. EA Sports’ Madden franchise did, as expected. So did the NBA 2K series. Some franchises decided to wait a year, as coding for a totally new platform provided some obstacles and barriers that would adversely affect the next series of games.

EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour series (they’ve since dropped the Tiger Woods part) was one of the latter. This is what they did during the one-year hiatus from new consoles:

The game is a long way from release, and there aren’t even any demos yet, but it certainly looks like the PGA game is attempting to step up to the challenge of improved consoles. PGA Tour’s cousin in the EA world, NHL 15, took a decidedly different approach.

Players of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions might not notice much of a difference, but XBOX One and PS4 games certainly have. As it happens, NHL 15 has stripped many features from the next-gen version of the game. This has caused quite a stir amongst fans.

Some of the biggest omissions are the GM Connected mode, Online Team Play, and the EA Sports Hockey League. A comprehensive list can be found on Canada.com’s review of the game. Gamers can still play their friends online in a one-on-one style where each player controllers his/her own team, but the ability for a group of friends to play on the same team (each as their own individual player) is now missing for new systems. The GM Connected feature, which allows friends to compete against each other in all aspects of the sports (scouting, minor-league development, free agent signing) as well as playing the actual games is also missing. There are plans to patch some of the missing features in the future, but not all.

On the flip side, NHL 15 has been lauded for the gameplay on newer consoles. While I have only logged a few hours, I can echo that statement. The on-ice play is pretty fantastic, and genuinely a lot of fun. The addition of the NBC Sports presentation of games (now with Doc Emrick!) is also a nice touch and adds to the realism.

Whether gameplay alone is enough to counter such glaring omissions has yet to be seen. No sales figures have been reported as of yet. If the showing from casual fans — those that really only want to play against friends online or in a season as one team — is strong, then perhaps EA won’t take a huge hit. But from the reports circling around blogs and review sites, it seems as if the hardcore players will skip this version or buy it for the 360 or PS4 PS3. When popular features are stripped away, fancy graphics and snappy physics engines can only take a game so far.

(Header image via BagoGames)