NHL

EKI about NHL20: I absolutely love how the game feels

Despite the scheduled official release of NHL20 on September 13th, a few selected players were invited to EA Studios in Helsinki to test out the yet unreleased game and give feedback to developers. Eki was one of those invited players so we decided to ask him a few questions about the new game.

• Hey Eki. You were invited to the official NHL20 Preview Event in Helsinki, organized by EA Sports. How was the experience?

“Experience was really good. It was my 2nd time there now and I’ve really enjoyed it both times. It’s always nice to meet the people behind the game and give them your feedback.”

• You and a few selected players had a chance to talk with the developers and give them feedback about NHL20. What did you say?

“I feel like my role is basically to talk to them from the competitive side of things and tell them how I feel about the game competitively. In NHL 20 there is still some “glitch” goals in the game that I don’t think are good for the game and the devs may not even know they exist so today I just tried to pretty much find and show them those. Overall I loved the game.”

• You got to play the the demo version for some time and now you finally played the full version. What major changes did you notice?

“I didn´t get to play a lot of the beta because of the Finnish Champs at the time but they drastically improved the new shooting and passing animations to be more realistic which had some issues in the beta. Otherwise it’s pretty similar It’s pretty much just fixing the stuff that’s broken in the beta.”

• NHL19 vs. NHL20?

“NHL 20 by a mile. The new animations to passing and shooting are a game changer, you have a lot more control of what you can do with the puck. The drastically nerfed the backskating as well which I thought was a huge issue in 19, It was no where near realistic in 19. Today it seemed pretty perfect so It’s much more harder to protect the puck with one player and because of that you have to move the puck more which is how hockey is supposed to be played.”

• What is the next gaming event for you?

“I’m not actually sure, we have to see what tournaments get announced when NHL 20 gets released.”

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NHL20 features in a nuthshell (tested in Open Beta):

Speed and Shooting Upgrades with RPM – The new RPM-Tech delivers a new look to players and animations. This is most evident when you look at Superstar players with distinct swing styles. This also allows you to keep the skating pace while picking up the puck, taking shots and passing.

New Goaltender AI – Smart goaltenders will do a better job evaluating the threats and positioning to better defend the goal.

Upgraded Broadcasting – You’ll get new play by play and new color commentary as well as upgraded scoreboards, overlays and motion graphics to bring you deeper into the game.

Hockey Ultimate Team Squad Battles – You can now play Squad Battles, a favorite mode from FIFA, that will let you compete in offline battles for big rewards. You will see squads created by NHL players, musicians, hockey influencers and superstar athletes from other sports.

Hockey Ultimate Team Icons – There are new playable hockey icons that you can collect, bringing the roster up to over 400 players.