NHL 21, the 30th entry in EA Sports’ annual hockey franchise, will be released on October 16 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Electronic Arts announced Monday.
Alexander Ovechkin, the certain future Hall-of-Famer from the Washington Capitals, will be the game’s cover athlete. It’s Ovi’s second time covering an EA Sports NHL title; he previously appeared on the box office for 2006s NHL 07, ahead of his second year in the league. Ovechkin, who will turn 35 next month and sports salt-and-pepper hair these days, is arguably the biggest clean sheet in NHL history. He has averaged 706 goals over 16 seasons, and – as an incredibly enduring player, having never missed more than 10 games in a season – he has a real chance to surpass Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 career goals ( a Gretzky brand set over the course of 20 seasons).
‘It’s a great honor to be on the cover NHL 21 for the second coverage in my career, ”Ovechkin said in a news release. “More importantly, I’m glad I’m looking just as good on the cover this year as I was in 2007 !!!”
NHL 21The debut trailer, which you can watch above, is all about Ovechkin, who chronicles his rise to fame as a scoring machine (including recordings of some of his most jaw-dropping goals). Ovechkin, the captain of the Washington Capitals since 2010, has spent his entire career there since the team ranked him at No. 1 in 2004. 1 in general; he led the Caps to their first Stanley Cup in 2018.
The EA Sports NHL developers at EA Vancouver have “mapped out the game’s innovation against the change in the game [Ovechkin] has been involved in the sport, “EA said in its news release. This year, it takes the form of what fans of the franchise have been emphasizing for centuries: an overview of the single-player career mode, Be a Pro.
“Our community demands an immersive Be A Pro experience that puts them in the same spotlight as their favorite NHL stars, such as Alex Ovechkin,” said Sean Ramjagsingh, executive producer of NHL 21. “The legacy of Ovechkin’s gameplay, on and off the ice, helps us bring the next generation of EA SPORTS NHL gameplay to life with NHL 21. ”
Integrating ice action into Be a Pro is a natural evolution of the mode. It turns out that this year’s iteration has cuts – one of the screenshots released Monday is a broad shot of the Capitals’ capital – and interactions (such as press conferences and team staff interviews) that offer dialogue choices. can shape your player’s career. Here is EA’s description of Be a Pro in NHL 21:
A brand new Be A Pro experience gives you the chance to live the life of an NHL player, on and off the ice. Impress yourself at the front office, go early on draft day, and chase greatness as you earn your spot on the front line, compete for the Stanley Cup, and become the next best of the league. Recognize future with a pro be in NHL 21.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21811942/NHL21_SVECHNIKOV_MICHIGAN_3840x2160_FINAL.jpg)
EA Vancouver is also promising improvements to gameplay, such as the ability to remove high-quality decks (and more pedestrians, such as a quick move to slip past a defender after you have chipped the puck for yourself). As for the defensive side of hockey, NHL 21 Players should expect goals to score even harder.
Other new features in NHL 21 include the arrival of the trade date as an event in the franchise mode; classified seasons, which will be available in all four modes of play in the online suite, World of Chel; and HUT Rush, a “streamlined version” of the Hockey Ultimate Team mode.
NHL 21 comes only to PS4 and Xbox One. Unlike Madden and FIFA, the two much more popular annual EA Sports franchises, it will not make the leap to next-gen consoles this year. (EA treated the previous generation transition, in 2013-14, the same way. That did not go so well for NHL 15, the first release of the series on today’s consoles, but we’ll have to see how things play out this time around.) The Xbox One box art for NHL 21 notes that the game will be playable on Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility. Sony has not yet announced details on how the PlayStation 5 will handle the PS4 games.
In case you were wondering, yes: October 16th is about a month later than EA typically releasing their NHL game. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the entire world and the sports world in particular, of course. The playoffs for the 2020-2020 season of NHL are happening right now, and the league has tentatively scheduled the start of its 2020-21 regular season for December 1. So it’s not surprising that things are a bit hinky this year.
Update: Asked about NHL 21The later release date said a representative of Electronic Arts, “COVID has affected everyone and we had to make adjustments to WFH, which has affected our timeline for development, but we are proud to have that and how we got more time around us. release game. “
The spokesman also said that EA did not disclose NHL 21 so far, because the event around the company usually places its reveal – the NHL Awards, which typically take place in June after the playoffs close – was canceled this year.
