CHEL26 Be A Pro Feedback (Player Growth and X-Factors)
Alright so I gave Be A Pro a try after the update and I actually do like it more than I thought. It’s still nothing compared to NHL19 personally, as you could play two full seasons of Junior and then get drafted, play AHL, no form score, (essentially a sandbox), etc etc but I digress. Regardless, as for NHL26, while I do enjoy lighting up the league, I’ve got some issues and they are primarily tied to player growth and X-Factors. Alright so I go in with my normal build I use for most of my Be A Pros. A 5’7 Left-Shot Sniper who plays Centre. Now I knew I’d have a choice between Quick Release and One Tee, being someone who prefers scoring off the rush and someone who used Schnipe/Shock&Awe/MakeItSnappy from 22-25, naturally I went with Quick Release. Anyways my next objective was to get Wheels, which I did, and then went for Elite Quick Release. Alright, sounds good. My next course of action was Backhand Beauty, by far my favorite X-Factor and a key part of my playstyle as a left-shot Sniper. However despite looking through all the available X-Factors, it wasn’t even in the menu. I hear that different player types have different X-Factors available, yet why is this particular one excluded from a Sniper of all player types? I chose a Sniper partly because I like scoring on the backhand. Yet it’s not even selectable for a Sniper? You have 20+ of the around 28 X-Factors available, even ones you wouldn’t expect for a Sniper like Send It and Hipster, yet one of the primary shooting X-Factors isn’t even available to be used? That really frustrated me, especially when I went into a Grudge Match game and got to use Backhand Beauty for the duration of one game and it felt great, only to realize I can’t even unlock it normally. Alright, nothing I can do about that unless the game gets updated, alright. So I decided to go for Elite Wheels next instead. Only to find out that it is quite literally impossible to obtain Elite Wheels even with a 5’7 Sniper, all speed and acceleration traits unlocked, and all salary perks active, as well as peak health. Heck, you can’t even get All-Star Wheels unless you have literally every speed and acceleration trait unlocked with full health and perks, and you lose it after one game when you go from peak health to energetic. Normally to fix this, I’d turn my attention to the weekly off-ice training, except now that, the one thing that you could use to max out your skating stats, is completely gone. There is literally no way to get more than 90 Acceleration on a 5’7 Sniper, which means it’s impossible to get Elite Wheels and mostly impossible to keep All-Star Wheels. Okay, so what am I saying needs to be done? Well, first off, every X-Factor should be available to unlock regardless of player type. If I want a Sniper with Quick Release, Wheels, and Backhand Beauty, I should be allowed to work towards that. Secondly, there needs to be a way to actually upgrade your base acceleration and speed stats outside of traits. The temporary bonuses from peak health don’t last anymore than a single game, and the salary perks seem more like boosts than anything. Bring back the off-ice training, or let me grind out XP just by hustling during gameplay. The only way you can even increase speed through gameplay is via beating icing, something that is nearly impossible to do consistently. Third, make it so once you unlock an X-Factor, you can always apply it regardless of your stats. They are X-Factors for a reason, they’re supposed to give you an edge. I’m playing on Winnipeg, Kyle Connor has Elite Wheels but only 91 Speed and Acceleration, why do I need 93? Even if I somehow got 93 acceleration (which as I said, is literally impossible since off-ice training is gone), if it was because of peak health bonuses or late-career aging, I’d lose it. I ask kindly that this is updated in the near future. I should be able to work towards an elite version of every X-Factor, and some not even being selectable for certain player types even when it would make sense is absurd. Just let me have Elite Wheels and Backhand Beauty on my 5’7 Sniper. I’d be happy then. Let me grind out my player to 99 base skating stats. Thank You.
NHL 19 Franchise mode crashing
NHL 19 crashes when I try to play or sim a playoff game during franchise mode. It first happened during the 21-22 season somewhere on the second round and I wasn't able play or sim these games. Sure I could advance the days but that's the only thing I could do as prior games would also be broken. I "fixed" it by loading another save that was at an earlier date in the same timeline. Fast forward to the 22-23 season, the one I'm playing right now, the bug happened once again, this time on the third round. Did the same fix and made the finals only for it to appear once again. I play on the PS4 and I tried some other things that did not work like rebuilding the database or making a copy of the save, which ends up copying the bug. I even tried reinstalling the game. Is there any way to prevent or fix this as I don't want to have to save the game after every game and loading an earlier save just breaks progress and immersion I have during my run. Plus I don't have any guarantee that it would turn out to be an unbroken save. One weird thing is that it only happens for NHL games, my AHL team is fine and capable to play/simulate. The other weird thing I noticed is that during a cpu vs cpu game at my third time encountering the bug (for context, during elimination games, I do cpu vs cpu when theres like 10 minutes left during the third period. Also I manage the Avalanche which has Mackinnon on it.), I somehow had 2 Mackinnon on the ice. Obviously I had the one that was supposed to be here, but somehow, I had the Mackinnon of my year 1 as a GM, replacing one of my defensemen on my first pairing, who wasn't injured. We won and made it to the Final where the game broke once again. Do with that as you will with that information because I don't know if this was responsible for it, since I don't remember it happening for the prior 2 times I encountered this bug, because I didn't notice like this time. Like I said earlier, I want some kind of actual solution to this since I wasn't able to find one other than my "band-aid" one. I want to know if you ever encountered this bug and managed to fix it and how did you do it. Pretty sure I have the same problem as this one: https://forums.ea.com/discussions/nhl-franchise-discussion-en/nhl-19-playoff-simulation-issue/9580572
Bring NHL back to PC – Crossplay potential
Hello EA Sports NHL Team, I have been a loyal NHL fan since NHL 07 on PC. After that, I played every NHL game on PS3, PS4, and PS5, buying each new release. But now that I’ve switched to PC, I can’t play NHL anymore, and I really miss it.I truly believe NHL on PC has great potential, especially with crossplay. Many PC players want to play with their friends on consoles, both together in online clubs and against each other. If crossplay works in FIFA and NBA, why not in NHL? Eventually, it will have to happen, so why not now?By not releasing NHL on PC, you are losing dedicated fans who have simply moved to a better platform for graphics and performance. It’s frustrating that I can no longer enjoy NHL with my friends like before. My friend and I used to create an online club—me as a Center, him as a Goalie—and we had so much fun playing together. Now, I have no way to experience that, and I know I’m not the only one in this situation. I don’t want to buy a console just for NHL, and I don’t want to be forced to just watch others play while I sit out simply because I chose to game on PC. Please consider bringing NHL back to PC with full crossplay support. There is a demand for it, and many fans would love to see it happen. Thank you for your time.