I know EA hates “Copy and Paste” but…
As a consumer, it’s really hard not to look at a finished product and want to compare to last years purchase. If someone posts a picture of the BAP main screen from NHL’26 and NHL’27 and put them side by side, could you tell the difference? Im being honest here, would only the devs be able to tell the difference?
I said I wouldn’t buy the game unless EA fixes what was obviously broken. I dont require ground breaking improvements or innovations. I hoped that some issues from NHL’25 would be fixed in ‘26 and they weren’t. Shame on you. If EA is wondering what things were broken? There are many posts and lists that needed to be addressed. Nothing difficult, nothing that needed devs to be sitting for weeks fixing because they functioned in previous generations of the game that are broken now.
Quick example: The BAP goalie. The character animations looked better in 25 v 26. In ‘26 in certain goalie stances the glove side arm would look like a tentacle and extend to the ice when moving thru the crease. The controller settings couldn’t be saved so every time you reloaded the BAP file you would have to pause the game and fix your controller settings. This wasn’t an issue in NHL’24 and before.
Goalie style of play selection broken: Attributes for a goalie in NHL’25 and before varied based on the style you selected. Butterfly you had started with a good 5 hole and low stick and low glove rating but a weak high glove and high stick attributes. Stand up, you stared with a fantastic High glove and High stick rating but a really weak 5 hole. Hybrid goalies were balanced with the glove and stick high and low. In NHL’26. Regardless of goalie style you chose, they all had identical attributes and it was the stand up goalie attributes. So you started with an 86 glove high and stick high but a 66 5 hole rating. Why would a butterfly goalie have a 66 5 hole rating while sporting an 86 glove high? So one of the most important parts your character’s creation and development is broken. And the weekly energy points that needs to be reimagined.
And as discussed before. Cant create a BAP goalie, go thru the tourney, draft, offseason and use the most current NHL downloaded roster
There are other issues that I would like to see, but aren’t broken, like new masks, the ability to design your own mask, change your goalie stance at any time, why does the goalie only have 5 X-factor traits when other players have 4 times more to choose from, but thats a wish list over fixing something.
So thankfully there are several BAP goalie players that post their careers on YouTube and I noticed a few things. 1. The Calendar didn’t return. And 2. The attributes beginning of a career were identical to last year. I saw a guy select “Hybrid” goalie but had the 86 rating for glove high and stick high and a 66 rating for the 5 hole. Proving to me that it wasn’t fixed. Thus cementing my decision not to buy the game.
I like the “reimagined” intros that made a comeback, but other than that, nothing for EA to convince me to buy because it appears to be the same game. Im not going to be Charlie Brown thinking this time Im going to kick the football.
