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Hey NHLGamers, it's that time of year - NHL 19 full Feature Reveal! In the early hours of the morning (from a European perspective), at the NHL Awards, EA Sports dropped perhaps more information than usual regarding the upcoming NHL, detailing not only the cover athlete but also a whole host of features / modes in order to spice up the game and drive sales. Without further ado however, here is the official reveal trailer. The Cover First and foremost, we will begin with the cover athlete for this years upcoming NHL. P.K. Subban has been chosen to grace the cover of NHL 19, whilst there was some speculation regarding whether he was even eligible as he had appeared on a cover previously (NHL 13, Quebec exclusive), it seems the NHL either overlooked this or felt that this previous inclusion was not perhaps official enough? The Features Moving on to the nitty gritty of what NHL 19 will entail, and boy is it a lot, so sit back and relax because this could be a while. For ease of access, the main points chosen by EA on their website will be listed below: WHAT'S NEW In NHL® 19, play on outdoor rinks and journey from the ponds to the pros in new and returning game modes. Compete with and against 200 of the greatest hockey legends to ever hit the ice, highlighted by Wayne Gretzky. Powered by cutting-edge new gameplay technology, experience explosive-edge skating that delivers more acceleration, speed and responsiveness. OUTDOOR HOCKEY IN WORLD OF CHEL For the first time in franchise history, step onto the pond and compete in the EA SPORTS Hockey League, NHL THREES, Play Now and the brand new modes NHL ONES and Pro-Am. In NHL ONES, you and two other players compete in a 1v1v1 free-for-all gauntlet. Showcase your skills and creativity with no rules, no stoppages, and no limits. RPM TECH With RPM Tech, Explosive-edge skating enables more control over how you generate speed using edge-work and crossovers. With all new animations, you'll experience more responsiveness in acceleration, high-speed skating, and pin-point turns. SELF EXPRESSION Stand out on the ice with over 900 customization options from authentic NHL apparel to pond hockey lifestyle clothing from some of the biggest brands in sports. Express yourself like never before with thousands of combinations of fresh looks. Stay up to date with the latest NHL® 19 news and never miss out on gear for your avatar. LEGENDS HAVE ARRIVED Play with or against over 200 hockey legends spanning 100 years of NHL history and build your dream team. Superstars of today's game playing alongside historical figures of past seasons is a defining factor of one hockey. PLAY NHL® 19 Pre-Order NHL® 19 today and get three-day early access, HUT packs, Cover Athlete items and more through the Ultimate and Legend Editions. Outdoor hockey in World of Chel Seen as the teaser, well, teased it, it would seem then that starting off with attempting to understand what exactly "Outdoor hockey in World of Chel" entails would be a good starting point for the analysis part of this article. The trailer does not show the specifics of how this feature will work per se, however their feature list does attempt to illustrate what form it will take. It seems that the 'world of chel' will take place perhaps in conjunction with EASHL. To further cement this similarity between the two areas is the inclusion of two new playable modes, namely "NHL ONES" and "Pro-Am". NHL Ones appears to be a free-for-all type of game where 3 people can face off against each other at the same time against a goalie (unfortunately AI only from what information we can gather). An example of an NHL ONES game in action can be seen below. Additionally, based on their wording it would seem as though the beautiful setting seen above will be available in NHL threes, Play Now, EASHL, as well as the new mode "Pro-Am". Unfortunately there does not appear to be much information regarding this "Pro-Am" mode, however Polygon stipulate that it is in fact a practice mode. Rather curiously enough though Pro-Am is seemingly an online mode, whether this means EASHL now has a true practice arena / area again, or it is simply a place to admire the scenary is up for debate. Although, Gameinformer has tried to illustrate the purpose of "Pro-Am" further by stating that it is a place where players can "hone their skills against A.I before jumping into real competitions", potentially meaning that the NHL series may have a FIFA arena-esque minigame available to players prior to joining an online game. RPM Tech RPM Tech appears to be another attempt by EA to further raise the quality of the skating engine used in NHL. Note, this is not part of a port over to the Frostbite engine, as from what we can tell they will still be using Ignite based on a lack of information stating otherwise and from the trailer showcasing as much. RPM stands for 'Real Player Movement', any FIFA players amongst us will probably have a slight feeling of déjà vu as RPM was introduced to that series last year (Polygon). What this means however is that a host of new animations have been added in order to create a much more fluid and explosive skating experience, with EA anticipating that players will feel more "responsiveness in acceleration, high speed skating and pin-point turns". Furthermore, in an interview with Polygon, Will Ho (NHL 19's creative director) relayed that RPM is especially attuned at blending different animations together, in order to facilitate smoother transitions between the two. Perhaps most important of all regarding this new 'tech' is that EA claims to have "solved" a massive issue plaguing the last few NHL series entries, namely puck pickups and their inconsistent nature. In fact, Ho went as far as saying that "We’ve basically completely addressed this issue" (Polygon). Self Expression One thing that almost anyone will notice when watching the trailer above is the attire of the players involved, most (if not all) are wearing clothing unique to them, ranging from flannel to camo designs. This is of course the 3rd 'feature' on EA's list, "Self Expression". In an attempt to perhaps catch people's attention and add in something that people can grind for to unlock, EA has decided to add over 900 customisation options for your personal pro, in addition to this starting amount it seems that EA will be adding more options throughout the year to further raise the amount of customisation options. Whether this broad range of choice carries over into 6s EASHL however is again up for debate as little has been released regarding the overlap between the "Outdoor world of chel" and EASHL outside of shared personal 'characters'. Legends Have Arrived Now on to quite possibly the least game-changing addition, Legends. Over 200 players have been added, spanning across the 100 years of NHL history. Who these legends are however is again subject to discussion and conjecture as very little information has been released regarding this feature. It goes without saying perhaps that these players will be available across all offline modes, as well as Hockey Ultimate Team (as was the case with the legends inclusion in NHL 12). Pre-Order Options For select countries there will be three pre-order options available, namely: Standard, Legend, and Ultimate. Each come with their own differing bonuses, as well as cover art. (What "Hockey bag" means will be outlined further down in the article) In addition to these pre-order bonuses, there will also be special 'loyalty' rewards for players returning from previous NHL iterations. Previous owners of NHL® 16, NHL® 17, and NHL® 18 pre-order now and receive special rewards in HUT 19. 2 HUT packs for your first year of ownership, 3 more packs for your second year of ownership, and 5 more packs if you own all three. 1 HUT Cover Athlete item per year of ownership, Jonathan Toews for owners of NHL® 16, Vladimir Tarasenko for owners of NHL® 17, and Connor McDavid for owners of NHL® 18. 1 World of Chel Hockey Bag per year of ownership Note: Currently the varying editions are named incorrectly/differently on both the PSN & Xbox store, whether or not this error will be attended to is unclear at the moment. On the PSN and Xbox stores the Legend Edition is named the Deluxe Edition and the Ultimate Edition is named the Super Deluxe Edition. Extra snipets of information regarding 'The World of Chel' If all of this seems a bit confusing regarding how 'The World of Chel' (TWoC) will interact with the already established mode of EASHL then allow me to clear up some of this mess. If I was to have a crack at trying to predict how TWoC will actually play out, I would say that perhaps the best parallel existing in other games right now would be 2K's NBA series, where you create a character that will be available throughout most online modes and has the opportunity to be customised to the extreme. What this could also mean unfortunately is a quite sudden retreat back to microtransactions that were found in within EASHL on last gen NHL titles. This is evidenced by the inclusion of "Hockey bags" which are proposed to be used as a means to pay for gear to customise their personal player with (Polygon). It of course should be noted that players will still be able to earn 'Hockey bags' through winning NHL ONES games. In addition to this, you will also be able earn points / currency by playing any of the other three modes under the TWoC 'umbrella' (EASHL, being one of them). Furthermore, it appears as though EASHL players will still have to choose player types prior to starting a game (e.g. power forward spam). What is new however is that there is now a trait system where players can pick two to slot in to two very distinct slots, namely Primary and Secondary. Primary traits will be more heavily weighted than Secondary traits, resulting in more powerful effects on their player; additionally it seems as though you can choose to activate either of these traits mid game via new UI indicators (Gameinformer). In addition to this, Gameinformer also stipulate that there are "Specialisations" that players can select from that are typically context based but can in fact benefit your teammates as well as your own player (e.g. extra energy gained in the dying seconds of a period). To help players juggle this myriad of options, EA is reportedly allowing players to save 'loadouts' to quickly select a prefered build based on the opponent they are facing. GM Mode Last but not least, EA looks to have done a semi-overhaul of how scouting works within GM mode. Not only will you have the ability to handle amateur and pro scouts within your franchise, but the scouts themselves will have biases towards different regions of the world. For instance, one scout within your organisation could be excellent as discerning players within the Scandinavian region but absolutely pants at figuring out how good players are from Russia. All in all then what do you think about these features? Will the trait / specialisation system be strong enough to force more people away from the power forward, or will it just serve to power it further?