After eight years of Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, Electronic Arts finally replaced their dated booth duo with some relevant announcers: play - by - play man Mike Emrick, colorcommentator Eddie Olczyk, and bench reporter Ray Ferraro. Though Emrick and Olczyk are employed by NBC Sports, you won't hear any NBC music or see any NBC overlays in NHL 15, unless you're playing on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions are stuck with the same generic, brandless presentation package. The pregame introductions also recycle familiar warmup scenes that have been in the game for years, only now Mike Emrick adds one or two nondescript sentences before each identical-looking puck drop. Doc's delivery in NHL 15 sounds uncharacteristically wooden, as most of his lines lack the energy, fluidity, and poetry that hockey fans are accustomed to hearing on television. His partner, Edzo, stays unusually silent during the live action, chiming in only during the occasional stoppage in play. TSN's Ray Ferraro gives the best performance of the three, though he, too, is barely heard outside of instant replays.

 

Circuitous menus and long loading times make navigating through NHL 15 a persistent annoyance. GM Connected, which hasn't received any new features or options for NHL 15, still runs incredibly slow when switching menu screens or advancing to the next scheduling period. Be A GM also suffers from sluggish simulation speeds and frequent pop-up messages, making it tough to get through 1 season, much less the maximum 25.

 

All of that sounds welcome to myself and other fans of the series, but you also have to keep in mind that developers tend to promise these revolutionary upgrades every year. The games usually do get better with each iteration, but rarely does a title suddenly become so hyper-realistic that you won’t have complaints. As such the A.I. will likely to frustrate you at times, even though it will undoubtedly be smarter than before, but you can at least see what the developers are aiming for and judge for yourself when NHL 15 releases.

 

 

Don’t let the allure of authentic arenas and improved NBC-branded commentary fool you - NHL 15 is a colossal disappointment. Missing modes like the six-on-six EASHL, GM Connected, and Live the Life, NHL 15 starts the game down a man. When you add the fact that existing modes like Be a Pro and Be A GM have been fundamentally stripped of essential features, it’s downright insulting to hockey fans everywhere.

 

Not all the items are disposed equally. Rare items like jerseys or the players become less general than the other items. The item category in NHL Hockey Ultimate comprises both uncommon and common items. Infrequent items are recognized in more glowing color in comparable to the frequent items. When the gamer does have the visible item, it brings a five-point rarity-rating bar. This bar indicates that might signal exactly degree of exceptional item that is linked to the other items in the identical class. As the rating is getting higher, it becomes harder to find the item in the packs. The uncommon items can introduce luck in the Auction House. The trading of rare item can be successful. The successful trading of an uncommon item can introduce the other items. Hence, these items can enhance the strength of the squad.

  

At first glance, Be A GM looks like a fresh new experience thanks to its new menus. Spend a few hours with the mode and, like an undisciplined hockey club, it slowly starts to reveal its flaws. The RPG-style upgrade system for your GM is gone, as is the ability to play games with your AHL franchise. You can scout for prospects during the season, but EA inexplicably removed the ability to control the fate of your franchise in the draft. Why you would have one without the other is mystifying. The mode also lacks the ability to start with a fantasy draft. Overall, NHL 15 is a bittersweet event. It regularly exudes shades of brilliance and heightened moments of action that truly captures the best parts of hockey. But alas, it's soiled by a harsh truth: NHL 15 is missing an awful lot of features.