No thread yet? Man this franchise is dead. So anyways, they're having an EASHL beta for the first time from the 30th to the 6th. That's a major departure from the middle finger we got from EA last year. To get access I believe you need a copy of NHL15 since you get the beta key through the menus. I'll probably pick up a used copy this weekend and then return it immediately after I download the beta.

I have fond memories of my former glory days playing EASHL so there's a part of me that's really excited. I just hope the game isn't a lag fest like NHL15 OTP was because any improvements they make to the product will be for nothing if I have to put up with a half second delay on every movement I make. But who knows, maybe they'll surprise me and everything will run smoothly. That's possible, right? RIGHT?

Any east coast XB1 people who want to team up for the beta send me a message on XBL. GT: IBYCFOTA

Just subscribe to EA Access, $30 for the year (or $5 per month, but $30 is the way better value.)

NHL 15 is in "The Vault" therefore it's free to download and play as long as your EA Access membership is active.

Also with EA Access you will be able to download the NHL 16 early-release - for NHL 15 it came out the Thursday before release day. They've capped the early releases at 6 hours of gameplay, but it's still worth it to get your hands on it early. Plus 10% off purchase price of EA games and 10% off DLC.

I'll add you on XBL next time I fire up the One. Gonna be at Parx from the 30th-2nd but definitely would hop in for some games when I get back.

- DoMiNaTioN x21 BABY WHAT

Good call on EA Access. I'll sign up for a month to get into the beta (not too interested in the service otherwise).

Google the steps to cancel it, it's a subscription so it's going to bill you every month until you physically sign into xbox dot com and hit the unsubscribe button that's not easily found for the average joe

I might keep it for another month to get early access to the game and a discount, but that's only if the beta delivers.

Speaking of, there is no drop in feature for the beta so you need to be on a team to play. I want to test the game out 6v6 as much as possible so we should try to organize a team if we can, otherwise I guess I'll just find random teams on reddit to play with. You still got them CHAMPIONSHIP connections Dom? If so then I could probably get a few guys that I used to play with back together and we could put together a decent 6 man team.

Can't wait for the Beta. Got selected by EA to take part in a study during and after the beta which hopefully means getting my copy early. Wouldn't mind getting an early start getting ahead on the 1v1 leaderboard.

Leave it to them to ruin it last year by taking out eashl only to take out the second best mode this year with GM connect.. I've had a 30 person league all over Canada/USA since it came out. Such a shame

I had no idea anybody played GM connected.

GM Connected blows

Let us EASHL

I was legit excited to see you post in here until I remembered that you and Vagos both took a dump on Bill Gate's face and bought a PS4.

GMC had no money invested in it could tell. But was still fun to play, with 30 + guys all over the world for years. I could see it being **** to someone who didn't have big group to play with

Oh and eashl this year might blow as well. Everyone gets pre slotted stats. Can't custom your ratings how you want. In an effort to make more fair.. Lame

I've been playing a decent amount of 15.

I'm at like 100-60-30 in online play, not great but not terrible.

This is going to be amazing.

Especially if you're good at the game.

Yeah everybody with the same ratings is going to be just fine for those of us who are actually good. Also, XB1 is the worst console I have ever had the misfortune of playing and PS4 is infinite times better.

Having everybody on the same playing field is obviously good. Why anybody would want to return to the grossly unbalanced micro-transaction riddled pay to win system of previous games is puzzling.

That said, I wouldn't mind some degree of customization where everybody gets a certain amount of points that they can apply to whichever build they prefer as long as it doesn't go any further than that. There's still plenty of ways they can botch the new system though, like forcing people to play with certain player types to get a high faceoff rating or puck control or whatever. Supposedly they're going to be tweaking those numbers based off feedback from the beta so I'm not too worried about it yet.

Looks prettttaayyyyyy sweet if you ask me

Also disappointed Rammer didn't invite me. No respect for the captain of the inaugural EASHL Champions? Disgrace!

I can't believe LT Jim Dangle didn't get an invite!

LOL

Video looked promising, but then again they were playing on LAN. EA's garbage servers could throw a wrench into things, and is really my only big concern heading into the beta. Another year of crippling lag and I'll pass.

Yo,

it's kind of off topic but I didn't want to create a new thread for that. I saw my first hockey match and started to play NHL15 at the same time, I really like this game though my roommate is just crushing me 90% of the time and often scores more than 50% of the time per shot whereas I can go tens of shots without scoring, it's incredibly frustrating, he started playing with me but is way better than me at team sports. The problem is that I have no idea how to get better at this game, it seems that the gap between what I'm doing (playing my roommate using the NHL94 controls) and what I should be doing to get better (playing online and/or vs the PC using the Skill Set) is huge. There are like 6 tabs of controls to learn and even then I would not know when to use what. I haven't seen any tutorial mode and Practice mode seems useless. What do you suggest me to do?

(I hope it doesn't sound too much like "how should I play AK" )

Edit: He plays Russia, using default strategies and lines etc. I'm getting crushed no matter what team I take, usually it's Canada/Red All-Stars/LA Kings - default settings as well.

Most settings don't work properly anyway. Maybe he should play with a lesser team to try and make things a little bit more fair.

Cannot wait for the boys to get back out there and grind em to dust

You and Vagos on PS4? Prob gonna have NHL16 for both systems, def down to check out some competitive EASHL on the PS4

Meh, he won't play with anything else than Mother Russia. I started with the Skill Stick controls, it's quite challenging but it seems that it will be way more fun than the NHL controls. It's really weird that there's no tutorial mode.