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In-depth at E3: Here’s how NHL 15 has been improved on Xbox One and PS4

Stevivor sat down with EA Sports’ Peter Sobczak, Producer on NHL 15, at this year’s E3 to discuss the changes between NHL 14 on Xbox 360 and PS3 compared to NHL 15 on Xbox One and PS4. Everything’s been done from the ground up, perhaps explaining why the game’s been an extra year in the making.

“Last year, we would have been just right at the cusp [with NHL 14], as we release in September, just before the new consoles,” Sobczak said. “We were really focused then on making that game look as good as we could. That said, we were already thinking about gen four [and NHL 15].

“With us having the power of gen four, we took a look at what we could do, and with gen 4, we have the power to do everything,” Sobczak said, laughing. “We’ve improved the way the player moves, looks and thinks.”

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Player models have moved from a solid, lumpy model – called the “Michelin Man” by Sobczak – to a proper model with a body, then equipment on top of that, followed by a jersey and so on. All jerseys have been imbued with proper physics, so they’ll flap properly in the breeze or react when another player or even the puck come in contact with it.

On the topic of pucks, EA Sports brought in a physicist who worked on the Large Hadron Collider to completely build puck physics from scratch. No longer taking on the properties of a ball, the puck was said to react as a proper slab of rubber should.

“The level of detail we have is amazing,” Sobczak continued. The ice is dynamic, so if players slide on it, they’ll leave marks on it. We’ve got real arenas in terms of capacity and how they look. We’ve so much detail in the players’, with their hands and their jerseys.”

Sobczak explained how much care has gone into recreating rinks inside the game, alongside players and their equipment. Players’ pants have puck marks running up and down their sides; stick marks can be found along the insides of the penalty boxes as players react to getting thrown in the sin bin. Cracks in the stadium’s concrete steps can easily been seen, showing just how old Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena truly is. Al the Octopus is recreated in all his legendary glory as well. “Someone told me the other day they’d put double-paned glass along the boards,” Sobczak exclaimed. “I think people are truly going to pick up on all those little details.”

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The players and even stadiums themselves look ridiculously true-to-life. Sobczak pulled up two different slides for me, showing first a comparison of a real-life Jerome Iginla and an Iginla rendered by NHL 15. While I could tell, the difference in the shots was very minimal. When it came to picking which image of Madison Square Garden was real and which was in-game, I got it wrong.

Arenas have gone from 500 unique fans to a whopping 9,000. Why? Because EA Canada could with NHL 15… and maybe because they had something to prove.

“We had a lot of repeating people and movements [in NHL 14],” Sobczak admitted. “There’s a lot more variety now [in NHL 15].There are guys [in the stands] that aren’t paying attention. Away fans. Guys… sitting there on their phones.

“We’ve also scrapped the old in-game presentation, bringing on a package from NBC Sports.”

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As a game of NHL 15 started behind our interview, I couldn’t believe my ears – it wasn’t the same canned commentary and pre-game presentation that I’ve skipped past for a number of years. NBC has provided their NBC Sports’ graphics to the EA Canada team, and Mike “Doc” Emrick handles play-by-play alongside analysis by Eddie Olczyk and between-the-boards commentary from TSN’s Ray Ferraro.

Both Emrick and Olczyk have been captured on green screen providing unique commentary for each team matchup, so you’ll actually be seeing the real-life smiling faces of both before you start a game. With the pairing alongside NBC Sports’ graphics, exterior shots of a rink followed by interior shots with unique, screaming fans, it’s sometimes hard to remember you’re playing a game and not just watching one.

EA has moved from two-player physics in NHL 14, where the game would detect two players colliding and have them react accordingly, to twelve-player physics. Everyone is connected, and all players react – visibly or not — to each impact. Sure, a goalie at one end of the rink won’t really be affected if there’s a hit down the opposite end, but if six or seven players have ended up in a heap after crashing the net, the game will accurately reflect the results.

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“It’s the best when [those playing] see the collision physics at work causing something random to happen,” Sobczak asserted. “Man, we’re playing the game and we still see something happen that we don’t believe.

“It’s all those emerging plays that keep happening that will surprise and excite you.”

Player AI has also been re-written, using what Sobczak called “Vision AI”. Past games used linear decision making, where in game players would made one decision based on where the puck was at the time. In NHL 15, Sobczak said that “thousands of decisions are being made each second” in NHL 15, with players using their on-ice awareness to then react to the situation in front of them. Players with the puck look for sight lines, deciding if they’ve a clear shot or any number of passing options. Players on the offensive realise they’re not in a proper passing lane and will react accordingly. It works like a real player on the ice would, utilising proper offensive and defensive awareness on the ice.

I was in love with NHL 15 without even picking up a controller to play a proper game (yet). Stay tuned for our impressions of NHL 15’s improvements at work.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.