I said it on Facebook, but I like some of the new features/improved features.</p>
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The skating engine is great as it is in 13, so hopefully the "improved" skating engine in 14 is actually improved and not a re-haul. They really needed to improve the collision physics in 13, so hopefully it is a major improvement in 14 like they claim. I can care less about the fighting engine. Online season mode sounds cool.</p>
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Other than that, I couldn't give a shit about new features. Just fix the Player AI/Goalie AI. I know you can set up your own systems but even if you put your team on an aggressive forecheck they don't really implement any system. Defensive AI is retardedly brilliant at times, and retardedly Special person at other times. I'm sick of skating into the offensive zone and having one of the opposing defenseman take the puck off my stick if I get within 1 foot of them without any defensive motion, it's like they have a magnet in their stick at times, yet when I control the defenseman that never happens and I have to execute a pokecheck, body check, or stick lift to try and gain possession of the puck (and it never ends up directly on my stick with any of that anyway). Also, it's a bunch of bullshit when I lay my stick on the ice, or sprawl out, and the opponent is able to get the puck through me without a saucer pass (sometimes even stick handling through me, stick and puck glitching through and all), it just glitches through my player. </p>
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Goaltenders, another huge problem. I feel like many games I have an upwards of 30-40 shots, many high quality, pressure in the offensive zone all game, and their goaltender has the game of their lives, while mine lets in 5 goals on 15 shots outside the slot. Mind you, I play with team Austria so our goaltender naturally sucks... but still, I've picked better teams and it's really not that much of a factor. My goaltender routinely has a save percentage under .800 and I'm not kidding, every once and a while I'm lucky enough to get a decent-good game from my goaltender. I still win a majority of games but it's almost ridiculous how much more work I have to put in than the opponent some games. </p>
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So yeah, goaltenders need to improve on the soft shit, as well as toning down the ridiculous saves — I don't know how the game decides which goaltender is going to stonewall the opponent, but it has to improve. One key factor in this goaltending problem is their side-to-side movement, which is ridiculously unrealistic. At times, the goaltender doesn't even lift their leg to give that "push" and they still glide across the ice, it makes them look like robots/puppets. No matter what, they should have to give that push in real-time, no fast forward animations... which is another problem with the goaltenders, they tend to speed up the animation of a save just so the goaltender can make an amazing save, which makes it look entirely unrealistic and laughable at times. Just cut the crap, it's not humanly possible to move that fast, so don't allow the animation to speed up!</p>
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There's just small tweaks they need to make, but right now those are the ones that bother me the most. It doesn't sound like they want to improve on things like that, they just want to add gimmicks. I'll still end up playing 14, but please, one day EA I hope you pull your head out of your ass and work on the actual game play rather than adding new features. It's frustrating because the game has so much potential, but every year it is released the game mechanics feel like a beta release.</p>
