New voices for a new generation. NHL 15 welcomes the NBC Sports commentary team of Mike 'Doc' Emrick and Eddie Olczyk to the broadcast booth. TSN analyst Ray Ferraro will provide game insights at ice level. Combined with Real Life Broadcast Integration that will feature real-world pre-game video commentary with Doc and Eddie set against in-game visuals, NHL 15 takes a revolutionary step forward in sports videogames; where the lines between the real world of sport broadcast and the game are blurred.
A welcomed change of voice, we'll see how that translates into the next-gen. Would love to see Jim Hughson and Ray Ferraro one day calling the plays. Among some of the improvements, the CPU-controlled players on the ice will be smarter, the Skill Stick, and the NHL series' right-stick control method, will provide skaters with more control. But other that HUT, the only mode that's going to be played to death is EASHL with the Dragons.
10spro wrote:A welcomed change of voice, we'll see how that translates into the next-gen. Would love to see Jim Hughson and Ray Ferraro one day calling the plays. Among some of the improvements, the CPU-controlled players on the ice will be smarter, the Skill Stick, and the NHL series' right-stick control method, will provide skaters with more control. But other that HUT, the only mode that's going to be played to death is EASHL with the Dragons.
They've used Hughson before. Doc and Edzo will be a nice change of pace for at least a couple of years but my first choice would be TSN's Gord Miller on PBP or that guy that does the Jets games on TSN Dennis Beyak. Intersting that Pierre McGuire wasn't signed on to be the 3rd man. It would be great if they could chane the commentary up every couple of years to keep the game fresh.
10spro wrote:A welcomed change of voice, we'll see how that translates into the next-gen. Would love to see Jim Hughson and Ray Ferraro one day calling the plays. Among some of the improvements, the CPU-controlled players on the ice will be smarter, the Skill Stick, and the NHL series' right-stick control method, will provide skaters with more control. But other that HUT, the only mode that's going to be played to death is EASHL with the Dragons.
They've used Hughson before. Doc and Edzo will be a nice change of pace for at least a couple of years but my first choice would be TSN's Gord Miller on PBP or that guy that does the Jets games on TSN Dennis Beyak. Intersting that Pierre McGuire wasn't signed on to be the 3rd man. It would be great if they could chane the commentary up every couple of years to keep the game fresh.
Nothing wrong if you bring back the best call by call play again IMO. Looks like Ferraro will be indeed the third guy commenting only on the next gen consoles. Presentation is to get an upgrade too and here's the website for your cover boy vote.
-New announcers
-The game will be called NHL 15
-It will come out in the fall
Moving on to the website info
-Player collision physics. Okay could be nice.
-Real puck physics. Sounds good, but where the rubber hits the road is the player puck control and pass collision. We'll see.
-Authentic player & equipment models. Don't really care.
-Unprecedented player likeness. Don't really care.
-Superstar skill stick. "arsenal of sweet dekes" ugh, too much stickhandling in this game already
-Authentic arenas. Don't really care.
-New commentary team. Don't really care.
-NBC sports game day presentation. Don't really care.
-Living crowds. Don't really care.
-Vision AI. Smarter teammates is where the money is. Hopefully this delivers.
I liked Thorne and Clement, but at least this ensures fresh material for the new game. The rest of it looks fine and seems to be taking advantage of next gen as we had hoped Madden had done.
Day one buy, once again.
Last edited by Aristo on Mon May 05, 2014 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The devs are also overhauling the puck physics from the ground up. To help, they hired a former scientist who worked on the Hadron Collider in Geneva, where they fire particles together at mach speed and create black holes. "He came over and joined us about 10 months ago and he's working on our puck physics, rebuilding it from the ground up," Ramjagsingh says. "What we're seeing now is bounces in the game that we've never seen before. It's all real-world physics running in our game. We're seeing shots squeaking through the goalie with our new dynamic cloth technology. We're seeing goals squeak through the goalie between the inside of his arm and his chest. We're seeing new saves that have been in the game but we've never seen before because the puck was never in the position for him to do a desperation reach back."
Think of the world of possibilities this opens up! Car Wash Hero, anyone? Maybe Euro Busboy Simulator? Or is it going to be the long-missing last piece needed for us to enjoy a truly interactive needlepoint experience?
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
NHL 13 is the greatest hockey game ever.. I'm so pumped for NHL 15 on the XB1.
Might as well get this preordered.
-Player collision physics. Yes please
-Real puck physics. Finally
-Authentic player & equipment models. Will big physical players now be noticeable or will Perron still be able to knock Chara on his butt?
-Unprecedented player likeness. Much needed
-Superstar skill stick. Don't care much about this one
-Authentic arenas. Much needed
-New commentary team. This is huge for me, FINALLY
-NBC sports game day presentation. Will add to immersion
-Living crowds. See above
-Vision AI. Smarter teammates is where the money is. Hopefully this delivers. Agreed
Bill Clement and Gary Thorne served admirably as the commentary duo over the course of the last generation, but it's time for new blood. The premiere NBC team of Mike "Doc" Emrick and Eddie Olcyzk now man the booth. Thankfully, EA chose to skip the master of useless commentary - Pierre McGuire - in favor of TSN analyst Ray "Chicken Parm" Ferraro.
The trio has recorded more than 35,000 lines of commentary.
Given the chance to start from scratch with new hardware, EA is taking a new approach to recording commentary. "No longer do we put a script in front of talent and say 'okay, read,'" Ramjagsingh says. "What you see with that is you try to turn the commentators into actors, and they don't sound like themselves. What we've done with all the content you're going to hear in the game this year, aside from some very specific things with player names, we just give them a situation. We did 30,000 lines of giving the situation: 'Daniel Sedin scores a goal top shelf in the last two minutes of the game. Give me 10 samples of that.' They pause for two seconds, think about what they would say, and they rattle it off. Doc and Eddie have worked together so long they just know how to play off each other, and the stories that they can tell that we've incorporated into the game is fantastic."
Expect more varying degrees of intensity with the commentary as well. "We've been able to add more levels of intensity than we've ever had in the game," Ramjagsingh says. "In the past we've had two and a half, three different intensities for commentators. Now we have almost seven different levels of intensity that Doc and Eddie can go to."
I'm a fan of Gary Thorne, but that is because his work with 2K has taught him how to sound natural. If they stole 2K's secret sauce, it's all gonna be good. I've liked the feel and flow of the commentary in all of 2K's games, and I think Thorne has been great in 2K baseball, and I thought he and Clement were fine in the NHL series. But they needed to go in and come up with all new voice work regardless. It was getting stale and dated. As long as it doesn't sound like the stilted crap you get in most sports games, I'm good.
Good god??!!??!!!??! When are they gonna bring back Darryl Reaugh? When I hear him it makes me think of an authentic CBC broadcast. He has the best voice, IMO, to do play by play for this series. Besides, hearing his voice takes back to the early of the NHL series when I first developed a passion for this sport.
Unless Rob tells me the Fifa guys are switching to PS4 its going to be xbox one for me just because of online team play in both games, its all i do any more as far as gaming.
