Rsandersr47 review

General gameplay

It's fun, better than 25 but not by much. Overall it seems far more arcade-like. Shots going in more, goalies playing worse, hits being wildly easy, silly looking, and over dramatic. I've lowered my stick checking as low as possible (only use DSS) and increased my hitting attributes in WoC. 

I'll hold off on more gameplay as I know an update is on the way that is supposed to fix some of these issues. We will see if this happens.

EASHL

Only big change was the player builder.. I like it. EASHL needs some big updates though. Not bringing back match my room size is pretty inexcusable. Then simple asks like allowing club uniforms in threes for 3 years now, still going unheard? Not good. I hoped for a little more. Hopefully this is the primary focus for 27, it should be this year or next I would assume.

BAP

Haven't played but I've heard good things and bad things. Ive seen people losing lots of XP or having a hard time getting playing time. I can't comment on it but it sounds like it went untested. I'll probably try it at some point. Maybe wait until some patches go through

Replay presentation

Honestly one of the best updates to 26. Love the new angles, love the data, really well done. It was much better than the NHL edge 2.0 gimmick, but probably not back of box worthy. I wasn't even aware it was something they were working on. My only issue with the new replay system is that it goes into this EXTREMELY slow animation that works with some shots, and is WAY too slow for others. Now just revert back to the old cely system that didnt zoom in on the player and we're set!

HUT

I saved the best for last. Honestly I've always hated HUT and would quit after a few days. Might actually play this up until deployment. The salary cap is great for a lot of people with a job, family, other hobbies and allow them to keep up. Typically I end up going on a 2 week training trip or something and can't play and in these types of modes its just too easy to get behind, so I stick with WoC, even in that many leagues and clubs expect you to make your games so this new version of HUT will allow me to play when i have time and still keep up for the most part.

I do however understand the frustration from players who only play HUT.  I hope they keep the cap but perhaps have 1 mode where there is no cap AND no rank so it will both allow people who have ranked up too much to find a game (I've heard some are having trouble finding games do to ranking too high too quickly) but also use their dream team. For the rest of the modes the cap will be used. If you win games in the dream team mode while being cap compliant maybe you get more rewards.. I think this would fix a lot of gripes. There would be no ranks in this mode, no punishments for losing.. just play..

I would also add squad battles or just also have this be part of the dream team mode(but not like the squad battles from before, and if this is already in the game and I've just not found it, I'm sorry for suggesting this) in College football you can team up with 2 other humans. In CFL one player is O coord and you use his offense, 1 is D coord use his D, 1 is HC use his team colors. In this game it should be something similar.. maybe 1 does forwards and 1 D... but when you play the game it would be cool if 1 player was center/ goalie, then one controlled left wing and D and one controlled right wing and D. This could also be part of the dream team mode from above. Also, if that mini arcade mode isn't played in HUT this would also be cool. Have each player bring 1 card to play arcade hockey when WoC is playing it.

I dislike BND's. More choice packs, less 1 player packs. 

The line bonuses are a great idea, adding new one's to keep changing the meta would be cool. Personally I'd also love if I could have a full theme team and get bonuses. Big bonuses for uncommon nationalities would be cool. Giving bonuses to US and Canadian born players is too easy to fulfill imo. Gimme a German line with a big boost! Lemme set theme team for 1 NHL team and get +1 if I get 6 players +2 to all if I get 12 and so on.. then you can decide where to put those points cap/ points/ ovr. But you could also add other theme teams. Pwhl theme team, German theme team, Czech theme team, any other theme that wouldn't allow a team to be too easily maximized. No Canadian theme team, or if so the boosts would have to be a lot smaller than that of teams and small countries. 

There is still a lot you can do with this mode.. I like that it's different. Having fun making new lines. I've been changing my lines and team strategies up every game to see what I like. 

I'm very critical of this game but I think the changes to HUT makes the mode feel fun. Hopefully we find a way to make everyone happy between the casuals and the sweats though.