Nhl 26 thoughts..
The good
Puck interceptions feel absolutely perfect right now (small sample size for all of my thoughts of course) it seems I get lots of picks and when I don't my guy typically at least disrupts the pass if I'm in the lane. It's working exactly the way it should imo.
Passing also feels really good. I've made really tight passes and it feels rewarding. I think I've only been upset with one of my passes but it was a backhand pass near the boards so I put that on myself. Ofc it went straight to the other team 🤣
HUT system- I don't play HUT really but having a salary cap and how the mode is set up, I may play. However, not allowing multiples of lines (theme teams) seems like a miss. I'd love to make an All-Wings team.
Hip checks feel better.
Endurance actually seems to matter.. actually makes things a little more strategic.
The bad
The game feels EXTREMELY arcade like. More than ever before. Between the hitting and the xfactors.. it just feels like Mario strikers or something, it's almost cartoony and seems we'restraying further from realism with every title update this team releases.. the x factors are so big that it almost makes attribute points feel meaningless.
The backhand is still too good (I'm guilty of abusing it a bit ngl) the xfactor that stuns the goalie is SO silly.. a lot of this stuff feels extremely untested and unbalanced.
EASHL Lobbies seem even more broken than before, lobbies will just search forever sometimes.. are we still pretending these are an upgrade to what we had like 10 years ago?
The goalies don't really seem improved at all but this may be an xfactor issue. They still make some CRAZY save attempts. The shot speed with xfactors just seems like too much.
Eliminator- uniforms can be confusing, still no club uniforms, still play to 5 with money pucks, extremely glitchy as I have done 3 tournaments and each have led me to either closing app or repeating round 1.
Focus for 27.. rebalance x factors, rework hitting from ground up, rework goalies from the ground up. NHL hits do not look anything like we see in this game. Maybe goalies improved and its just not possible to know because of the xfactors? Idk..
Maybe I'll add more tomorrow.
