I bought a PS3 and NHL13 two years ago when i was sick. In between operations, I needed something to do.

Quite literally, I took the NHL13 disk and I smashed it. Methodically and slowly, with a hammer, last winter. When I would play Be a Pro, I could swear the games were scripted. I would watch my team make stupid stupid plays in succession, and then the other team would get the puck. just by watching the play unfold, I could predict who on my team would ignore the puck and then allow the turnover resulting in a goal against. i could also see just how and when a team with a terrible powerplay would score against me, but only when i was on the ice: Pass to the point, clear shot no screen. A sure goal. Clockwork.

I got NHL15 for my birthday over the summer.

It is the exact. Same. Game. They changed BAP to Live the Life. Now there's ratings for being liked and I can answer interview questions and get sponsorships. O....K...but... the same game. New announcers. But game play? Looks identical except for fighting. And the same feeling of being scripted remains.

I just played five games against the same team in Live the Life. Re-started the game each time. In each game, my team takes a double minor or a major in the first minute, when I'm off the ice. The other team scores a goal on the powerplay. Then when it's 5-5, I am put over the boards only to watch the other team score the second my skates are on the ice. Five times, five results like this. This is just one example.

And the game still has the announcers stating my team is killing a penalty when we are on the powerplay, still stating my team has a bad powerplay when it's the best in the league. NHL13 glitches!

I can't get over how the game plays out the same way each time though. The game simply wants the other team to have the advantage so when I'm off the ice, it gives it to them. The infuriating thing is being put on-ice routinely only to get a minus for a play I can't possibly influence.

I never see the CPU team make the boneheaded plays my team makes. I never see them ignore a pass or a loose puck. I also never see them pass a puck to a player that is going to the bench for a line change. My team? All the time.

Can anyone suggest settings that might help the game play issues??

I suggest you never buy an EA NHL game again. I stopped because of these same reasons.

It's a shame. This series used to be great. The last one I bought was NHL12 but even then it was a shell of the game it used to be back in the late 90's-early 2000's.

I take it this didn't happen in NHL '12? Because that's the last one I have and still play Be A Pro in and don't see this behavior happening.

Don't know. Never played NHL12. I wasn't sick then, lol

I had to sim the game and take the loss, BTW

i havent enjoyed an NHL game since the last 2K game.

every year its pretty much the same for BAP Mode... when im not on the ice or even when it's a 3-0 game, etc,

AI takes a stupid shot, scores a goal...

The last hockey game I bought was NHL93
on a Vanilla Sega console.

For the reasons stated above, I gave the
game to a friend along with the console.

Pretty much this. The two greatest hockey games in my opinion were NHL 94 (goalie control changed everything, not to mention one-timers, board checks, shoot-outs and penalty shots among other s) and NHL2K5. NHL '94 was the first with the NHL license, '93 was actually called NHLPA '93 and had the players, but not the teams and logos.

I LOVED the EA NHL games once upon a time. So much so that before there was a season/career mode I would individually sim all the other games and keeps track of stats, records and the like.

But from '94 onward I liked each version a little less. It became what I called race-horse hockey, just a continual series of end to end rushes. It just wasn't hockey. It sounded like hockey, it looked like hockey, but it no longer played like hockey.

The 2K games gave us a brief respite in the middle of the 2000's. Those were right proper hockey games. The puck would actually get tied up along the boards! I know, crazy, but I swear it's true! It had a certain disjointed flow to the gameplay, battles for possession, scrums along the boards, and well, everything that makes ice hockey. Not just a race from end to end over and over again.

Sadly I haven't played a PC or console hockey game since probably NHL '07.

Incidently, there is one player from NHL '94 still lacing them up. Anyone know who it is without googling?

Jagr...lol

Ding ding ding! A winna!

Seeing this thread made me nostalgic. A friend of mine still plays NHL '94 on some sort of emulator. He sends me clips of it from time to time. We had some epic battles. Long nights playing this, Tecmo Bowl and Road Rash. Lots of beer and other err, substances too

that and I had 400+ custom cut, faded and reverbed ditties for 2k, using playlists function etc. EAs games dont work..lol

I liked that in the original NHLPA one you could actually start fights by checking the players celebrating goals

I'll have to fire up the last version I have, had them all from start up till '14 I think and see what's up with it. IIRC if you played on lower difficulties on the later versions your own goalie stunk just as bad as the other and you really needed to pay attention to your shift times. Almost have to play full time games since an AVG shift is @45 seconds and if you play 5 minute periods they want you off the ice almost immediately to change.

I play 60 minutes. Only way to get any points

As a Flyers fan I played as them of course and Tocchet used to fight everyone, didn't matter who, but Tie Domi was a favorite target as I couldn't stand Domi. Still can't haha. Though I can't remember if he was a Ranger or a Jet at the time.

Interestingly, fighting had to be removed from NHL Hockey as the NHL wouldn't sign on unless it was. Leading up to release, EA showed the game at the Stanley Cup finals in Pittsburgh to assorted NHL bigwigs and media types. Present in the room was then-commissioner John Ziegler. Suddenly someone playing the game said aloud 'I got Gretzky in a fight!". Everyone gathered around and sure enough the Face of Hockey was bleeding on the ice. Ziegler was furious. No one is gonna be beating up The Great One!

So it was either fighting in the game or no NHL license. Problem was, millions of copies were being made already in Japan and ships chartered to carry the cartridges around the world. What to do? In steps player's union boss Bob Goodenow. He says he will give them the NHLPA license and he wants the fighting to be as realistic as possible. And actually it was pretty good I think. And so EA and the NHLPA stuck it to the NHL, and NHLPA '93 was the result.

But by the time EA was ready to make NHL '94 they knew they needed the NHL license. Also slated for release that year were Brett Hull Hockey, NHL Stanley Cup and Pro Sports Hockey. EA needed every edge it could get. So EA made peace with the NHL, and removed fighting. And got their license. And the rest is gaming history.

Here's an update-

So I am trying, playing "good hockey", to get through the WHL to NHL draft day. Of course, with my team doing inept things whenever it hurts me most, I'm having to play defense which is OK with me, but I cover my man well enough that the only play is to the man covered by my defensive partner, and I can do nothing about HIS idiocy. Grrr.

I'm with Spokane. I just like the uni. We are playing Swift Current. Their goalie is great. My goalie stinks but with my defensive play, he leads in GAA and save % . And my team is murdering Swift Current, 7-0 in the last five minutes of the third. It should be illegal to outplay another team this much. I have points on each goal: 3 goals and 4 assists. Best game of my WHL career. I am crushing any player coming into my zone with the puck, etc. I'm like Orr taking over Steven's body.

4:38 left. I am on a breakaway while killing a penalty; nice play blocking a shot and the puck stayed with me. I'm over the offensive blue line....And. The game. Freezes. 15 minutes later, still frozen. FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU.....

OK, I replay. Swift Current pummels me 6-3. How? I am experiencing exciting things like this now:

1) I'm put on the ice. My player is there but is controlled by the CPU, not me. I watch my shift come and go as my player does things just as ineptly as his partner. Goal. Against.

2) Several times, a defenseman comes to the bench so I can go on, and he just keeps skating into the boards next to the bench door, until there's a whistle. Usually, the whistle is becasue of a goal against due to the continual 5 on 4 the game just gave the other team. This was three times in the same game.

BRILLIANT!

There are a few companies I absolutely refuse to buy games from. EA, Codebastards and UbiSoft. None of those guys ever see a dime.

...I play every game of the junior season. I like hockey, I want to do it.

I just played 72 games in the WHL with that offensive defenseman. Really good points, hits, PIMs, +/-, the works. Really good.

Tourney time! And the game freezes up when loading the first tourney game. The loading cut screen freezes the HDD light goes off. I can play other games and I can play other LTL saves with the right wing I have but that's on an easier difficulty and I want to play defense anyway. This latest one is the only problem.

I brought the PS3 back to factory settings. Never used any custom music etc. Just a completely corrupted save. I have tried simming past the tourney, the only difference is that I get drafted #1 and then first NHL pre-season game the loading screen freezes. I've tried making a new save instead of the old one. I have tried simming to a day after the first game, and then a new save. Same result. 14 weeks of building up this player.

I want to fight.

I pulled up and played an old save that had 8 games to go in the season. I played them all out.

I ended up with 301 points, +/- of +265, 534 hits, 34 PPG 16 SHG. Lead the WHL in takeaways, PIMs, shots, blah blah blah.

When I finished the last game of the season, I saved a brand new save instead of over-writing. I was hoping that this new save will somehow work since I reset the PS3 to factory.

I sim to the first post-season game. My agent never talked to me about the playoffs. Usually it's "playoffs are important too etc etc". Nothing this time.

However team management gives me the old pep talk as usual, and I get bonus EXP as usual

I go to play the first tourney game. NHL15 locks up during the game loading splash. HDD light goes off too. Turn off the PS3, as usual.

Start it back up. I sim through the games. My team is out in four games, I had 5 points. Hardly a no-show effort.

Then I sim to draft day, and this time it works. But I'm not drafted. At all. I go un-drafted even though I was the dominant player in the league. I sat through every round looking at names. Guys who have a body temperature and hockey IQ slightly above a puck bag are being drafted. I can't even get a job as zamboni driver apparently.

OK, new season, in the WHL of course. Fine, I'll hone some skills and get my abilities pumped. And I check my player's stats. He aged, but he did not grow or gain weight (he was 17 and now he's 18). Still at 5'11" tall 188 pounds. That's odd.

I check the awards for NHL and WHL. Get this: the previous season doesn't exist for awards. The game has no awards and no stats for anybody for the previous season. And that's the season the game locks up in. I guess that season was a universal lock-out.

And my player, who has not gone to the NHL yet, in his career stats shows a season in the WHL, a playoff in the NHL, and the current season in the WHL.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over! I'm going to sim through the season on a fresh save to see if my player can ever join the NHL.