EA has finally blown the lid (well, slightly loosened the lid is more accurate) off of NHL 15, the first hockey game on the new generation of hardware. They didn't exactly show much, but they sure did a lot of telling. You can see the teaser trailer here, and the game page outlining all of the details is here. There's also a cover vote going on, and you can make your wishes known on this page. GameInformer also wrote up a big piece on the game, so I'd suggest checking that out, too, as I'll be referencing it here.

As I figured, EA played it fairly coy in terms of showing their cards (even though that trailer sparks some good emotion), but they did do a lot of hype-building, specifically as relates to gameplay features and presentation. There are a lot interesting details in what they said, so let's take a look.

If you really think about it, this is taking FIFA 14's "four players going up for a header" to the next level. Looking back, previous NHL games have not had any kind of solution for multiple players occupying the same space. Sure, you get great one-on-one hits and moments along the boards, but when players crash the net, it's usually one guy bailing into the goalie and the other player(s) just kind of standing there. There hasn't been the frenzy of several players colliding around the net or along the boards, and I think this could actually go a long way to making all of the players on the ice feel more connected to one another. We'll have to see how much of a role it really plays.

I know a lot of fans have wanted new puck physics for a while. EA has actually hired a scientist who worked on the Hadron Collider in Geneva to help model their puck physics. The claim is that the puck now behaves as a completely independent entity (I know, I know… they always say this) and that goals will now squeak passed the goalie or roll off of the new cloth technology that powers the jerseys (more on that later). The developers have even said that certain animations from before (since there obviously would be some) are more dynamic, since the puck ends up in places it never did previously, resulting in crazier desperation saves. This feature intrigues me the most, and I'm really curious to know how the whip of the shot is affected and where the puck ends up when bouncing off of legs, boards, goalies or the net.


Similar to FIFA 14 or EA Sports UFC, this new cloth tech should certainly help the jerseys and equipment seem more lifelike. It will be neat to have the puck actually deform the jerseys when a player gets struck or have a jersey flap when a player is moving fast. The fact that everything is independent should work really well in tandem with the new collision and puck physics.

Borrowing the face technology from EA Sports UFC isn't a surprise here, and NHL series producer Sean "Rammer" Ramjagsingh says they've got 250-300 players with their unique heads. I always figured that they'd go with this tech but with slightly less fidelity (with more players on the ice than a two-person fighting game). I assume they'll use their editing tools and basic photos to model some of the lesser-known athletes and depth players, but who knows.

This sounds like a minor evolution of the existing skill stick, with shallower dekes that don't require "going to the extreme." A lot of these will be more subtle cuts when weaving through the opposition, and that should be a good thing. It sounds like one-touch dekes are returning, as is the old method of deking (two-tick), with some slight alterations.

This (along with crowds, which are mentioned below) was the first thing I expected out of the new console horsepower. It seems like there's going to be a big emphasis on lighting, and the geometry and features of each arena will be truly distinct (including the tunnels). EA is actually trying to work with the NHL to get the plans for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which is where the New York Islanders will play in 2015. All of this sounds really promising, but EA is going even further, trying out a new camera angle so that you can take in all that the arena has to offer. Sounds interesting.


The most requested feature for the NHL series has arrived: a new commentary team. It sounds like EA really took the constant criticism to heart, as they've gone all out. There's now a three-man team, including TSN's Ray Ferraro providing coverage between the benches. They didn't get specific about Ferraro, but the NBC Sports pair of Mike Emrick and Ed Olczyk will actually be green-screened into the game (rather than avatars), which could actually be pretty neat. Rammer claims that they've recorded 35,000 lines of dialogue for the trio. Even better, the idea is that they've recorded different situations and intensity levels – way more than before – so that the commentary doesn't feel as much like a script. A great idea, but we'll have to hear how it sounds.

As long as there is enough diversity in the intros, this is certainly a cool idea. It's always jarring to have avatars representing real-life announcers and such, and this gets around that. All of the NBC bells and whistles sound like a nice facelift for the presentation as well. They plan on doing arena externals, too, which worked very well in FIFA 14. I'm hoping this means entirely new replay packages, interstitials and cutscenes, too.


This (along with the arenas mentioned above) was pretty much the first thing I expected the new technology to be able to deliver, and it seems like EA agreed. Having 9,000 unique characters sounds like tremendous variety in crowd models, and I'm sure the fidelity is meaningfully increased. Anecdotally, Rammer said: "We have that person in the front row not paying attention in the game and taking a selfie and reacting late to the goal being scored. We've got the super fans for the home team and the away team as well, that guy that we all know that's in the crowd doing his unique animations and taunting the crowd around him. It allows us to have things like secondary point of interest so we have 95 percent of the crowd watching the action and then 5 percent around that paying attention to the away team super fan. We've got the vendors walking up and down the aisles. We've got the security. If you're playing in a place like Madison Square Garden, which is a very unique arena with people walking around along the boards because the seating doesn't go all the way to the glass, we have those guys in there."

It's certainly a bit curious that EA has left the AI at the very bottom of the list, but at least they did mention it. This has long been the whipping boy of EA's gameplay engine, and it seems like the developer plans to address some concerns by having players play with their heads up and actually face a player to receive a pass. There also seems to be an emphasis on increased puck support along the boards (the board play will not be revamped except for lessening of the "suction" effect), so free players should be able to help there, which has been sorely lacking. Also, they paid some lip service to defenders closing the gaps on attackers, which should result in more pressure and less leisurely blue line play. Still, we have to wait and see on a lot of this.


I'm quite happy with a lot of what EA announced, particularly the revamped puck and collision physics, new commentary team, distinct arenas, big crowds and enhanced player realism. A lot of these things were kind of a given, especially with what FIFA 14 did and with what EA Sports UFC will likely do, but it's nice to see it in writing. I'm excited to see more in June at E3, so hopefully EA is ready to show this one then.