As a 3-decade plus veteran, I've had enough.
Over the last several years, at least, this franchise has been in a decline. It's watered down, too many costumes, forcing real life events viewing (criminals, war, etc.) before the main menu, adding a non-male cover athlete, X-Factor crap that gives the false sense of being a McDavid, MacKinnon, etc., to those that don't realize/care about playing a team sport, and so on. Oh, and don't forget about the numerous "game configuration" errors.
Personally, this game isn't fun. I'd go several days without loading this failure, and then load it, play 1 game, being on a winning team, and then get an error where the game completely shuts down and I have to restart it. Since September 21st, 2025, CE-108255-1 has shown up, on my PS5 Pro, 11 times. With that code appearing 6 times, since January 17th, 2026. And yes, I've done the necessary steps to sort out the potential problem, on several occasions, and it's still an issue. The only other game that caused me this many issues, was "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla", on my former PS4, back at launch. That was nearly 30 times, in a month.
In any case, for me, the game is broken. As soon as I try to get back into this game, after the submitted error code, I get punished repeatedly. Close the game, log out, log in, and restart the game. Then, poor matchmaking, poor teammates, the once filled lobbies have very few players, my reaction time is delayed, even my player emblem and banner aren't at all what I've customized them as. Before NHL '26, both NHL '24 and NHL '25 changed my PSN after leaving a lobby. In other words, my PSN would be another person's PSN, after the game completed, as I backed out of the lobby and tried to rejoin the lobby again.
From this point of view, the writing is on the wall. Sometimes the most obvious information is clear and obvious, and I've been too stubborn to adhere to it and act accordingly. My pointing out of what's wrong, will only equal more flash and trinkets, as opposed to getting back to the roots of what made this franchise great: fun gameplay, rewarding, functional, and worth the price. If any of you have actually played this series, back on the SEGA and SNES, that's what I'm referring to. Graphically, I understand the changes, and I'm all for it. But the rest of the nonsense, well, NO. Gameplay is the most important part of gaming, period. If the game is unstable because of the nonsensical additions, then it's not worth anything, let alone your time. I've been gaming, since the early to mid-80s, on numerous consoles, and I have played many great games that have awesome gameplay. And of those many games, there's been one from the Assassin's Creed franchise, and the last several versions of the EA Sports NHL series that have caused issues. That's a pretty good run, with many great franchises that are still thriving.
Bottom line, this game is rated 3.17 out of 5 from 1635 ratings, NHL '25 is 3.08 out of 5 from 3090 ratings, NHL '24 is 2.75 out of 5 from 12,730 ratings, NHL '23 is 3.53 out of 5 from 1701 ratings, NHL '22 is 3.49 out of 5 from 2,013 ratings, NHL '21 no ratings visible, NHL '20 is 3.93 out of 5 from 5,110 ratings, NHL '19 is 3.92 out of 5 from 4,705 ratings, NHL '18 is 4.02 out of 5 from 4,941 ratings, NHL '17 is 4.09 out of 5 from 3, 337 ratings. The numbers speak for themselves. I can't stand the current direction, much less the bloated trash-o-rama that's unnecessarily infused into this once great franchise. The k.i.s.s. system is purposefully being ignored, and is a segue into the future of this franchise. All of the flashy crap doesn't mean good gameplay, much less enticing a decent group of people tolerating this sort of nonsense. The nostalgia is over, and the due process of this franchise's obsolescence is long overdue.
I have had enough. End of story.
