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Hey NHLGamers, Yesterday EA SPORTS released the fifth update for NHL 20. The biggest tweak as far as 6s goes appears to be the way in which goalies react to passes on net, hopefully meaning they will no longer get locked into a save animation whenever a pass goes near them now. Most of the other fixes will be more noticeable in the 1v1 modes but are indeed very important, such as how the CPU defensemen react to the so-called self-sauce and how the CPU defenseman reacts to odd-man rushes. For the full changelog, please see below. What are your thoughts on the update? Have you had the chance to test it - does it deliver? Let us know in the comments below!

Hey NHLGamers, Today, the 30th of January, EA SPORTS has released the fourth update for NHL 20. Based on the list of changes, there are quite a few fixes that the community has been asking for. The biggest change is most likely the tweak regarding how players will experience pickups from now on, with a greater emphasis being placed on players properly facing the puck to boost the chances of picking up passes. We should also not see those superhuman behind-the-back one-handed no-look interceptions from the opposing team. Additionally, defensive awareness has seen a buff, with balance whilst back skating being nerfed slightly. An important fix comes to the Xbox, as the goalie puck covering issue should now be resolved. Previously you might experience the goalie unable to cover the puck, turning into a poke check-fest in front of your net, eventually leading to the puck trickling in. This hasn't been much of an issue on the PS4, but Xbox players will be happy to get rid of this inconvenience as well. Last but not least, we'll mention the ability to skip the Play of the Period replays. Think of all those saved seconds adding up throughout the rest of your games of NHL 20! For the full changelog, please see below. What are your thoughts on the update? Have you had the chance to test it - does it deliver? Let us know in the comments below!

Hey NHLGamers, On the 5th of December EA released the third update for NHL 20. Unlike the content updates before it, this one looks to explicitly tweak gameplay mechanics, with backskating facing the brunt of their ire. Aside from backskating receiving a potentially substantial nerf, EA claim to have updated their physics interactions with goalies, as well as fixing the zone camera. Furthermore, in EASHL it should now properly show a player's position when they're being highlighted in a replay, as opposed to being listed as center regardless of their actual position. In addition to this, players will now have the option to have Snoop Dogg as a guest commentator alongside James Cybulski, replacing Ray Ferraro. For the full changelog, please see below.

Hey NHLGamers, I had the liberty of visiting the EA offices for the NHL 20 Producer Tour in Helsinki on Tuesday and sat down with EA SPORTS NHL Producer Clement Kwong for an in-depth interview around NHL 20 and the series in general. As one might expect from me, it was another long session across a variety of topics and I'm happy to say we went beyond the short generic replies on many topics and got a peak behind the scenes in how the game is being developed and what the developers have to take into consideration when making the game. Without further ado, check out this podcast type interview below: Thanks to @SUPERVIRTA for joining in and helping out - sorry the audio is a little bit weaker for his part. At the event we had a chance to play the so called day 0 version of NHL 20, which is the version that everyone will get to play when the game releases. This was a play now match between Virta (WSH) and myself (STL) on one console. It's worth noting that it wasn't a very serious game and we aren't used to playing down-screen, so the playing might not be world class - but we had fun! Please also note that this is in fact offline and uses a bit different sliders than online. As you can notice there is a stick breaking during the play and the CPU is rather aggressive with hitting at times, neither of which we expect to be the case online. Hope you enjoyed this and are as excited as we are to get our hands on the game! Check out more of NHLGamer's social media channels at: https://www.facebook.com/NHLGamer/ https://www.twitch.tv/NHLGamer https://www.instagram.com/NHLGamerOfficial/ https://twitter.com/NHLGamerCOM

Hey NHLGamers, On the 25th of October EA released the second update for NHL 20. Like the content update that came almost a month prior, it appears as though EA are sticking to their guns so to speak and are trying their damnedest not to change the core gameplay as much as they can. As such, the bulk of this patch comes in the form of a bunch of miscellaneous additions, although that said there are some that should be highlighted. Perhaps the biggest addition for EASHL players would be the option which now allows players to change which camera they view when in the box or on the bench. For HUT players however, the biggest change would be the inclusion of the new mode 'HUT Rivals'. For players who are still yet to play HUT Rivals, a breakdown of what the mode looks to achieve as well as a rough guide to it will be available shortly - so stay tuned for that! Not mentioned in the patch log, but you should notice the PS4 version play more like the Xbox One version now. The difference is small, but you should notice it's a little bit easier to bump a player off his/her balance from smaller nudges. At least in theory, this should make defence a little easier around the net. For the full changelog, please see below. Is it better? Is it worse? Let us know your thoughts on the new content update in the comments below!

Hey there NHLGamers, Coming sometime today (1st of October) will be the first content update (often also known as a patch) of the year for NHL 20. Contrary to last year, EA will not be releasing a tuner just yet. Releasing tuners often is something they have done for the past few years, which especially last year was criticised by many players for changing the game for the worse or simply too often. As such, the main focus of this update will be to fix bugs that have been reported across many modes, from World of Chel to Franchise. That is not to say that there are just bug fixes, as they have tweaked some aspects of the game in order for the user to have a better experience when playing the game. In the content update notes the community manager "Clappy" gives the details about the update, but also points out the development team in Vancouver are monitoring and would like feedback about: Interceptions from behind Inconsistency of low relative speed hits from console to console Puck loss when pivoting at high speed The team is also looking at the ping (=one way of measuring connection quality) in Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) not reflecting the user experience in responsiveness of gameplay. Be sure to give your opinion in the comments below. On the updated side of things, there is a lot of added art and fixes to things such as presentation and lots of "nice to have" things, but there is also a good amount of things that could really improve your gameplay experience, such as: Fixed a case where players could get their limbs stuck in the net Fixed multiple cases where the puck could go through the goalie’s pad Improved cases where slap shots would be missed when taken near the boards Various goalie animation fixes Fixed cases where goalies were sometimes trying to perform controlled/redirect saves when the puck had a high chance of being deflected and would leave them more vulnerable than they should be Improved goalie tracking when the puck is behind the net Improvements to shot angle selection logic for some rare cases Improved cases where players on loose pucks would perform a snap shot when a slap shot would be expected Fixed rare cases where one-timers would miss the puck completely There have also been many fixes to issues such as the game crashing or the game desyncing (often called looping or the "faceoff loop" and competitive HUT players will be happy to hear that the opponent name will not anymore be visible before the faceoff, so the ability to dodge players by leaving without a loss against tough opponents should be much harder to pull off now. Below you'll find the full changelog for the update: What do you think about these changes? What else would you like fixed? Let us know in the comments below.

Hey NHLGamers, Let me start off by thanking you - our community - for once again providing excellent feedback that you submitted based on the NHL 20 Beta! Tomorrow (Tuesday 27th) we will have a great opportunity to talk to some of the EA SPORTS NHL producers face to face in Helsinki. Like in previous years, we are aiming for another interview compiled from your feedback and specific questions about the NHL series. This opportunity is truly a great way for everyone to voice their opinion and to keep our community and its members recognized as a valuable source of direct community feedback for the development team in Vancouver. How do I submit the feedback/questions? Easy in many ways! 1) Use the comment section below or 2) Write to us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram! (Pro tip: Use all of the channels to increase your chance of making it to our list of questions!)

This year’s iteration of EA NHLs franchise mode has tried, more than any before it, to radically change the way in which the player builds their team. They have attempted this by shifting the “meta” of the mode away from the idea of just getting the highest rated players, to a much more holistic approach, where in order to have a good team you will need to juggle a host of intertwined factors. Heading up this radical change is what EA are calling a “coaching overhaul”. In NHL 20, coaches will effectively be ‘players’ behind the bench, they will have their own set of attributes, goals, statistics, even a generated face to put to the name, both in game and in the menus. It should be noted here, that the statistics screen for both coaches and players will now show which team they ‘played’ on for each year, a minute change, but a very welcome one for sure. In fact, players can retire and have their likeness preserved in game if they decide to 'become' a coach, using the same system that allowed players to retire and become scouts in 19. Coaching Overhaul Coaches with a penalty kill attribute for instance will effectively act as a ‘buff’ for penalty killers on the team. Whereas, a bad attribute here will result in a detrimental impact on the ability of the penalty killers. In addition to this, coaches will now have a ‘teaching speciality’, what this means is that each coach will have a bias towards how they grow (or even stagnate / decline) skaters (offensive or defensive), or even goalies. This is tied quite heavily with the ‘teaching’ attribute. In essence then, certain coaches may be good on a rebuilding team, where the teaching attribute will be valued highly, but will have reduced ‘value’ on an older, more established team, as there are less players to ‘grow’. Furthermore, it sounds as though that with good teaching, a coach may in fact be able to increase a player’s potential, raising their value to a rebuilder even further. Not only will coaches now have individual attributes for you to weigh the value of, but they will also have specific strategies that they would like the team to use, as well as a general bias of how offensive / defensive / physical they want to play. Of these ‘strategies’, there are three distinct types, namely: Line strategies, Team Strategies, & Scheme Fit. The last type is not strictly a strategy, rather it’s an indicator of how well the team’s composition and the coach synergise with each other in a way. Line strategies effectively signifies how the coach wants each line to play. For instance, in the video ‘Coach Toms’ wants the 1st Forward line to play an overload strategy, with a carry and shoot bias, with a balance between efficiency / energy, and don’t block / blocking of shots. With the 4th Forward line however, ‘Coach Toms’ would rather that that line played a much more direct style of play and ‘crashed’ the net. These line strategies pair with an individual players’ propensity to play a certain way, to give us ‘Line chemistry’, which we will cover later. Moving on to the second type now, we have Team Strategies. Generally speaking, this is how the coach wants the team to setup as. For instance, ‘Coach Toms’ wants the pressure exerted by the defensive and offense in 4v4 and 5v5 to be ‘normal’ and ‘standard’ respectively. Whereas, in 3v3, he wants the offense to be aggressive. Additionally, the team strategies page also lists the coach’s individual style in how he wants the team to be set up. Apparently, the four styles at the moment are offensive, defensive, balanced, and finally physical. Which style the coach ‘subscribes’ to will determine in turn which individual strategies he wants to use, as well as affect how he assigns ice time. For instance, a physical / defensive coach is much more likely to rely on his bottom 6 than an offensive coach is. Finally, we have Scheme fit. Essentially, scheme fit is a representation of how well a coach thinks a player (as well as the team as a whole) fits into his preferred style of playing. In other words, an offensively geared coach will prefer offensive players to balanced, or even defensive players. As far as gameplay impact goes, it does not seem as though that having a bad scheme fit in and of itself results in anything, instead it simply gives you a quick way to check how well everything synergises, since having a higher team / scheme fit can be an incredibly useful thing thanks to another new feature in Line Chemistry. Line Chemistry looks to add more depth to line-up creation for players. Instead of the only challenge in assembling a ‘good’ line being cap restraints, players will now have to contend with the line strategies set by the Coach, and the preferred way that the individual players would like to play. Maximising line chemistry can be especially important, as a poorly managed line can result in an extreme penalty of -5 ovr across the three players, whereas a line that works well together can receive a +5 ovr boost. In addition to this, players will also receive negatives for chemistry is they play in the wrong position (e.g. a RW on LW), as well as if they are set up with player types that don’t mesh together very well (e.g. three snipers, instead of twf, grinder, sniper). What this means in practice then, is that it should be worth having ‘role’ players that fit with the coach’s ethos that are technically not the best, but can easily slot in and out of the line up across all lines, as a way to give a ‘boost’ to a line that maybe does not have the greatest chemistry to begin with. Finally, with an overhauled conversation system, players can now conduct interviews with coaches that you may want to hire, in order to see how interested they would be in joining the team, as well as what strategies in particular they subscribe to. For example, some coaches may have a preference for teams with a large (or even small) fan base. In fact, with the said conversation system, coaches can come to you the GM / owner with suggestions of how to better the team. You will then be prompted with three main options (Agree / Disagree / Persuade), with a fourth option in ‘Promise’ being available after the first statement has been replied to. The persuade option in particular has a likelihood of failing dependent on the subject of the conversation. Additionally, if you promise to make a change, you will receive morale, however if you fail to carry out said promise, you will lose double what you gained in morale for the coach. Scouting To help with finding players that could be a good fit with your team, the scouting for franchise mode in NHL 20 has been updated as well. Pro scouting now provides you with a readout showing how well a certain player would slot into your team, naming which lines in particular would be a good fit for him. For instance, in the video Vancouver’s pro scout assessed Hampus Lindholm and decided that the only lines he would fit in with ‘Coach Toms’’ strategies would be on the power play, whereas Getzlaf would fit in on the power play, as well as the 1st line. Additionally, pro scouts will now provide information on which strategies a certain team employs. As far as pro scouting goes, this appears to be the main changes, so with that let’s move on to Amateur scouting which has received a bit of a facelift. To help inform the player on prospects, there will now be two additional pieces of information that a player will have access to, namely: NHL ETA, and Scheme Fit. NHL ETA mostly does what it says ‘on the tin’ in a way. It tries to make a guess on how close / far away a particular prospect is from making the NHL, whether he’s ‘NHL Ready’, 1,2,3,4, or even 5 years away. Whereas for scheme fit, the amateur scout tries to decide how well the prospect in question would fit in with the team / coach quite simply. These two new categories combined should make the entry draft even more important than in previous iterations, as players can now make more informed decisions regarding who to draft, since if you happen to be contending, it may be better to draft someone who can play almost immediately and make some form of an impact. Whereas, if you’re a rebuilder, you can afford to take the hit of not getting any impact from the players for a few years before he’s properly NHL ready. Furthermore, with the scheme fit element, it may promote players to select slightly lower potential players, if they will fit in well with the team once they grow enough, in turn raising the chemistry of the line they happen to find themselves on. Finally, players will now have the ability to conduct draft day interviews with players. Similar to the interview that can be conducted with prospective coaches. Trade Finder Moving on to quite possibly the biggest feature for playability and reducing annoyance, we have the trade finder. Previous to NHL 20, if you wanted to trade a player, you would just have to flick through all the teams across the league, and just start plugging away, throwing in players and draft picks, getting rejected a bunch of times, before finally arriving at a deal that the AI would accept. Now, instead of having to go through that arduous affair, players have the option to select what they want to trade, then simply hit “Find trade (Open block)”, and voila, the game will go through each team automatically and give you a list of trades that each team can do with the players you selected being the principal pieces. In addition to this, the logic behind trading has been updated. So, it seems as though that rebuilding teams will be much more likely to take on cap dumps (provided they receive a good enough ‘sweetener’). Furthermore, AI teams will be able to make use of this as well as human players, meaning that teams will prioritise shifting cap burdens in order to make space for their expensive UFAs / RFAs. Misc. Tweaks Users will now find that players who have yet to play in an NHL game but have a decent enough overall (e.g. ~84), will no longer ask for a contract around the 3-4mil mark, but instead will ask for a contract around the 900k-1mil mark, as they have not in a sense ‘proven’ that they are worthy of such an expensive price tag. Carrying the topic of price tags, players will not be priced based on their performance in the last season, and not just their overall. So, if a player scores at a point per game pace but is a fairly low overall (say, 80), then they will ask for a larger contract the proceeding off-season compared to NHL 19. This also goes the other way as well, in that a highly rated player will ask for a lower than usual contract, if they just so happened to have a pretty poor year previously. For goalies, this is also the case and they will go off of SV%. Additionally, there are now exempt contracts. Specifically, players that are signed to entry deals and currently play in the OHL, WHL, and the QMJHL, will no longer count towards the 50-contact cap, instead they will now have their own internal cap of 40. This means that players will no longer have to let prospects walk because they simply don’t have enough space, furthermore it means that the AI will have some flexibility now that has not been afforded to them in the past, leading to potentially more AI - AI trading. Better goalies will now be more likely to appear later in franchise mode than years past Goalies and wingers by default will have less trade ‘value’ than centres and defenders. Although, if a goalie has a high rating (90+) for instance, their trade value will be comparable to that of a similarly rated centre, however, as the goalie’s rating falls, his trade value will drop off very quickly and no longer be comparable to an equally rated centre. Players on 1yr deals will have reduced value as the year goes on, being significantly lower on draft day. This should make rental deals much more attainable and affordable. Additionally, teams will no longer reject trades on the day of the draft if a player with an expiring contract is involved. There will be fewer franchise and elite goalies available in the draft An ‘auto-owner’ mode will be an option; in case you do not want to have to deal with the upkeep of the stadium and its facilities Players will now receive trade alert pop-ups The efficiency of scouting has been reduced, making it harder for players to find ‘gem’ and franchise level players as it will take longer for the scouts to compile a complete report. By default, there will be more 100pt scorers in the simulation. However, players will now have the option of changing the rate of scoring league wide, ranging from High, Medium, to Low. Finally, franchise mode will have ‘Icon Integration’, allowing players to play against legendary ‘all-time’ teams, such as Gretzky on the Oilers. For the full write up by EA, click here. Additionally, you can find @Tougie24's take just below!

Yesterday EA SPORTS released the most wanted thing of the summer by releasing the NHL 20 Open Beta. As always, there had been a lot of talk and rumours around the web on whether it would come out or not, but it eventually did and the first impressions around the community - especially after having been presented with a list of improvements since the beta - have been cautiously positive. The tuning to the left trigger, the new animations to the goalies and the revamped shooting especially around the 6vs6 game mode has been mostly received well. But it's still early on and we've barely scratched the surface. This is of course a beta and a lot of improvements are still to be made. As one of the biggest NHL gaming sites in the world - not to mention the amazing talent and passion of our community members - we want to help out. So here's the deal: We want to hear what you guys think, so we can forward it to the producers and developers at EA SPORTS in a well structured and articulated way. We hope you take some time and write about your experiences (both the good and the bad) and possible issues and solutions that you have run into and hopefully this will help us all get the greatest NHL version yet! In the case of reporting bugs, we also hope that you include screenshots or short video clips to explain them better. Even if someone else already posted the same bug - it might be worth getting a 2nd or 3rd example of it and perhaps from another angle. Please note that the official EA Answers HQ forum is also live and taking feedback and that is the official way of providing feedback of the beta. You can find it by clicking this text. We here at NHLGamer want to discuss these things as a group and compile the feedback and bugs to the developers in an easy to chew form. You may write your feedback in any format you want, but we have included the below structure, edited from last years version. NHL Ones NHL THREES Drop-In (Arcade Threes) EASHL Drop-Ins (Please specify if it is in 3s/6s/both) EASHL Club 3s EASHL Club 6s AI skaters in World of Chel (specify mode + how many AI) AI goalies in World of Chel (specify mode) AI goalies in EASHL (specify if in 3s/6s) Customization: Player Classes + Traits/Specializations Customization: Gear (Casual + Pro gear + Gear Bags) Other World of Chel related feedback Online Vs. AI Skaters in Online Vs. AI Goalies in Online Vs. Skating Hitting (Collision Physics) Pokechecking Shooting Offensive Play (i.e. how did it feel to play offense? How easy was it? Was there a skill gap? Were there limitations?) Defensive Play (i.e. how did it feel to play defense? How easy was it? Was there a skill gap? Were there limitations?) Human Goalies in EASHL The new presentation and scoreboard (if you're having problems with it, let us know if you did the configuration properly when starting the beta for the first time) Other (anything not covered here) We would prefer your thoughts in English, as it will make the process quicker and make for a better discussion here in the community, as all can participate. However, we know there are those who can express themselves better in their maternal language, so for this purpose, we have made this topic discussable in some more languages in their specific topics: English (this news story) Finnish German Russian Swedish

A few weeks ago we learned that NHL 20 will feature Auston Matthews as the cover athlete. Now the cover athletes for the Nordics have been presented, as Patrick Laine and Elias Petterson will be the gentlemen starring on the respective covers of NHL 20 on the store shelves and in the online marketplaces in Finland and Sweden. Laine also appeared on the cover of NHL 19 in Finland and that makes him the first athlete in EA SPORTS NHL history to be featured on the cover for two years in a row. - It was great to hear that EA SPORTS wanted me on the cover again. The new cover is even cooler than the previous one! This sort of recognition brings me the drive to prove on ice that I'm really worth all of the hype, says Patrik Laine. - I'm sure everyone knows that I've been a passionate EA SPORTS NHL fan since I was a kid. A season in the NHL is very tough and playing the new NHL game on the Playstation with my friends is a great way to relax, Laine continues. Laine was picked as one of the superstars that have a NHL 20 Signature Shot in the game. The Signature Shots are - you guessed it - recognizable shooting styles that have been carefully modelled after the biggest stars in the NHL. If you'd like to read more about the features in NHL 20, you can read our previous Full Reveal article and Gameplay Article. Both players got their own short trailers and you can watch them below: Screenshots of both players in-game likeness were also released: Patrik Laine, Winnipeg Jets Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks Don't forget to send us your NHL 20 Beta feedback! Do you think these players were the right call for the cover? Who would you have picked? Discuss in the comments below. Source: EA SPORTS press release

Gestern veröffentlichte EA SPORTS den heiligen Gral mit der Open Beta von NHL 20. Zuvor gab es bereits viele Spekulationen ob diese überhaupt erscheinen würde - doch nun ist sie hier, und das erste Feedback innerhalb der Community - speziell nachdem eine Liste mit Verbesserungen seit der Beta veröffentlich wurde - waren vorsichtig positiv. Das Bearbeiten von L2, die neuen Torhüter-Animationen und das neu gestaltete Schießen besonders im 6vs6 Modus wurde sehr wohlwollend aufgenommen. Allerdings dürfen wir nicht vergessen, dass es sich aus gutem Grund noch um eine Beta handelt, und noch viele Verbesserungen ins Haus stehen. Als eine der größten NHL Gaming-Webseiten - ganz zu schweigen vom enormen Talent in der Community und unserer Passion - liegt es auch an uns, den Entwicklern detailliertes Feedback zukommen zu lassen. Lasst uns also eure Meinung hören, die wir dann in gut strukturierter Weise an EA SPORTS weiterleiten werden. Je mehr Zeit ihr euch dabei nehmt um über eure Erfahrungen zu schreiben (gut und schlecht), desto mehr werden wir an der hoffentlich besten NHL-Version bislang mitwirken können! Selbst wenn ein Problem schon einmal genannt wurde, nennt es ruhig ein zweites und drittes Mal, dass man so viele Blickwinkel und Eindrücke wie möglich auf das Problem erhält. Wir weisen darauf hin, dass es ebenfalls das offizielle EA Answers HQ gibt und ihr dort den offiziellen Weg beschreiten könnt, euer Feedback zur Beta abzugeben. Benutzt ihn indem ihr auf diesen Text klickt. Wir hier von NHLGamer wollen die Dinge als Gruppe diskutieren und ein gebündeltes Feedback inklusive der Bugs erstellen, dass es die Entwickler leichter haben sie zu bearbeiten bzw. zu beheben. Ihr könnt euer Feedback schreiben wir ihr möchtet, aber anbei bieten wir euch eine gewisse Struktur, die ein wenig zum letzten Jahr bearbeitet worden ist. NHL Ones NHL THREES Drop-In (Arcade Threes) EASHL Drop-Ins (bitte in 3s/6s/beides unterscheiden) EASHL Club 3s EASHL Club 6s KI-Spieler in World of Chel (bitte in 3s/6s unterscheiden und angeben, wie viele KI-Spieler üblicherweise bei euch auf dem Eis sind) KI-Torhüter in World of Chel (bitte in 3s/6s unterscheiden) KI-Torhüter in EASHL (bitte in 3s/6s unterscheiden) Individualisierung: Spielerklassen + Fähigkeiten/Spezialisierungen Individualisierung: Ausrüstung (Casual-Ausrüstung + Pro-Ausrüstung + Ausrüstungstaschen) Weiteres Feedback bzgl. World of Chel Online Versus KI-Spieler in Online Versus KI-Torhüter in Online Versus Skating Bodychecks (Hitting Physik) Pokechecks Schüsse Offensivspiel (z.B. wie hat es sich angefühlt? Ist es einfach/schwer? Kann man sich durch sein Können abheben? Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten? Einschränkungen?) Defensivspiel (z.B. wie hat es sich angefühlt? Ist es einfach/schwer? Kann man sich durch sein Können abheben? Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten? Einschränkungen?) Menschliche Torhüter in EASHL Die neue Präsentation und die Spielstandsanzeige (falls ihr Probleme damit habt, lasst es uns wissen ob ihr die Konfiguration richtig gemacht habt als ihr das erste Mal die Beta gestartet habt) Weiteres Feedback (alles, was bisher nicht abgefragt wurde)

The NHL 20 Open Beta is available for download now on PS4 and XB1! https://store.playstation.com/en-fi/product/EP0006-CUSA16390_00-NHL2020BETAGAME1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/nhl-20-open-beta/bnlzc97wc6s9?activetab=pivot:overviewtab The download size for PS4 users will be 24.391GB. Whereas, users on the XB1 should expect to see the download only come to 22.98GB. While your download is in progress why not have a read through one of our most recent articles in which we went over what you should expect in the Beta, as well what changes did not make the final cut for it. Are you not able to play it yet? Do you have any questions about the beta? Please, feel free to ask in the comments below

Hey NHLGamers, Anyone keeping up with the NHL 20 news over the past few days and weeks no doubt has been subjected to the widespread speculation regarding whether or not there would be a beta, as well as when said beta would become available. As a response it appears, EA have announced that there will indeed be a beta, albeit with some fairly extreme caveats. Additionally, whilst the release date has not been officially confirmed just yet, it seems as though that it will in fact go live today sometime during the "evening", which timezone this evening is 'set' in is anyone's guess, but it certainly lines up with the idea that it will be playable from 15:00 EST (or 21:00 CEST) onwards. So, all we can say is keep your eyes peeled as the upcoming evening goes on! Anyway, probably most importantly I would like to take a minute and go over the caveats that I spoke of previously. EA have been rather uncharacteristically forthright about the upcoming beta, stating that “… we cut the beta build eight weeks prior to today, meaning that there are 8 additional weeks that you’re not going to see and feel in the beta. You’re playing an early, work-in progress version of the game. Some of our new gameplay features were not fully ready to be included in the beta build …”. In essence then, this beta, more than any before it, stands as more of a proof of concept than the ‘finished article’. Despite this disconnect between what we will be playing and where the game actually is at, EA have tried their best to assuage the problem by attempting to get the general feeling of the main three additions (Shooting overhaul, Explosive Transitions, & Goalie Intelligence) in the beta, at the potential cost of stability. Therefore, with the disclaimer that there will be some “inconsistencies”, players should expect to see the following improvements over NHL 19 in the NHL 20 Beta: As always, we will be setting up bug reporting threads that we will then compile and send to EA once the beta has concluded. Furthermore, these threads will be available in English, Finnish, Russian, & Swedish. In addition to this, the full (and especially extensive) post-beta changelog is as follows: Again, please note that the changes immediately above will NOT be visible in the beta. We will let you know the moment the beta is released. Edit: The beta is now available for download!

Hi NHLGamers! Earlier today EA released a gameplay trailer for NHL 20. Among the 'innovations' shown were: RPM tech 2.0, Signature shots, Contextual shots, Explosive transitions, & finally Goalie intelligence. Of the five innovations, around 2.5 have been already been loosely shown off by EA previously in the reveal a few weeks ago, namely the new signature / contextual shots, as well as some improvements made to the RPM tech which debuted last year. Anyway, the trailer in question is available just below so let's get straight into that... Per EA, here is the rundown for the RPM Tech Speed & Shooting as shown in the trailer: In addition to the RPM tech, they also released a "deep-dive" regarding Goalie Intelligence. Once again, this is per EA. NHLGamer SHORT TAKE The puck pickups have been one of the most debated subjects in recent years, although almost annually promised to have been improved, very little has actually happened on that front. RPM tech was an exciting and positive overhaul of the skating in NHL 19 and can be expected to greatly increase the flow and speed of the game now that it's being implemented in shooting and puck pickups too. Goaltenders will also receive some new tools to combat rebounds and crease bounces too - a much welcomed addition. In the end, it comes down to how well these animations respond to surprising in-game events. We'd expect nothing less than for our community to work out these kinks and provide some valuable feedback in order to fine-tune the end product eventually. Finally, we'd like to provide you guys an opportunity to ask some gameplay related questions. Eight of the EA Game Changers had an opportunity for a hands-on experience with the game in the development phase at the EA HQ in Vancouver. @Kenu as our inside man made the trip in late April and might have some insight to your questions. Shoot your thoughts and questions in the comments section below!

What's up NHLGamers, it's that time of the year again - the full reveal of this falls NHL! As is tradition, in the early hours of the morning (for us Europeans), at the NHL awards EA released a bunch of information pertaining to the next iteration of their NHL series, ranging from details such as who the cover athlete will be, to general tweaks / additions made to specific game modes. To kick this off, here is the official reveal trailer for NHL 20, which will be released on the 13th of September 2019. The Cover As always, we'll start this deep dive into the game off with a brief introduction to the cover athlete. This year, the star chosen to grace the cover is none other than Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. There was some speculation that the honour would have gone to Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues instead, simply due to the much circulated picture of him hoisting the Stanley Cup, as it was perhaps the most 'photogenic' cup photo of late and was of course a fitting end to an unforgettable run by the Blues. Of course, there was also the option of going with Nikita Kucherov due to his incredible performance over the past regular season, putting up a ridiculous 128pts in 82 games (resulting in some serious hardware tonight). The Features Anyway, let's get into the real meat and potatoes of the reveal, namely the features. It may not perhaps be as 'extensive' as last years; however it is still fairly sizable. For ease of viewing, the full run down for each 'feature' will be posted below via EAs website, but as a quick guide there are five distinct additions as cited by EA. In EA SPORTS™ NHL® 20, your favorite NHL stars now look and feel more authentic with new Signature Shots and over 45 new shot types that make every attack a threat. A new broadcast package celebrates your biggest plays as you take on all-new game modes, including the new winner-take-all Eliminator mode where you play solo or team up with friends to take down the competition. Speed and Shooting Fueled by RPM Tech NHL® 20 introduces the next major innovation in RPM Tech-powered gameplay with Superstar Signature Shots. Your favorite NHL stars now look and feel truly authentic with the trademark shooting-styles you recognize from the real world. Additionally, over 45 new contextual shot animations make shooting more lifelike as players use new tools to get the puck on net. RPM Tech also ignites more speed to gameplay through revamped animation blending that allows players to execute shots, passes, and puck pickups without slowing a skater’s pace; creating faster, more skilled and more fluid plays up and down the ice. Finally, new goaltender A.I. includes full offensive threat analysis, allowing goalies to read the positioning and threat level of every attack before actively controlling rebounds and redirecting pucks away from danger. A New Generation of Hockey Broadcasting A revamped broadcast package delivers fresh new play-by-play and color commentary to NHL 20, paired with overhauled scoreboards, overlays and motion graphics; all built to put you at the center of the game’s biggest moments. See your most memorable plays come to life in new Play Of The Game highlights designed to put your best skills on a pedestal for your teammates and your opponents. New Mode and Icons in Hockey Ultimate Team™ Hockey Ultimate Team™ introduces a new way to play in Squad Battles, the fan-favorite mode from EA SPORTS™ FIFA that allows you to compete and earn big rewards in offline battles. New opponents are refreshed every day, including weekly Featured Squads assembled by NHL players, hot musical artists, hockey influencers, and superstar athletes from other major sports. Squad Battles introduces a brand new way to compete, earn and collect your dream team as you take on the best teams assembled by the biggest names in sports and entertainment. Hockey Ultimate Team also welcomes a new roster of playable hockey Icons, bringing the total number of collectible and playable Icons to over 400. New Ways to Play With Friends NHL 20 adds an all-new competitive game mode: Eliminator. Inspired by the winner-take-all competition in battle royale, Eliminator is a new way to compete in NHL ONES and NHL THREES that pits up to 81 players against each other in a survival tournament bracket to be crowned the ultimate winner. Compete solo in ONES Eliminator, or squad up with friends in THREES Eliminator as you attempt to win three back-to-back elimination rounds against increasingly competitive opponents for ultimate bragging rights. Also new to NHL 20, last year’s fan-favorite outdoor free-for-all mode, ONES, is now available to play in local multiplayer. You and two friends can select from an elite roster of your favorite NHL players, each with a unique class-based playstyle, and compete on eight outdoor ponds from the comfort of your couch in the ultimate party mode. An Ever-Expanding World of CHEL New to World of CHEL are CHEL Challenges, weekly in-game events across all of your favorite modes that unlock unique customization rewards, character XP and more. Adding to the robust character customization options introduced in NHL 19, World of CHEL now offers over 2,000 unique customization items to craft your look and your playstyle - from gear and equipment, to lifestyle apparel from hockey’s biggest brands. Four new outdoor locations bring the game to never-before-seen ponds in remote wilderness and city landmarks inspired by iconic locations. Feature Impressions Unlike last year EA appear to have been quite a bit more open regarding how much information they have released about each 'feature' this time around, dare I say they have almost been fairly self-explanatory? Let's start with "Speed and Shooting Fueled by RPM Tech". This feature in particular game should bring quite a large QOL (quality of life) update thanks to the "Superstar Signature Shots" which will add some level of immersion to the game when you are playing, as it should differentiate various 'upper echelon' players (such as Subban for example) from more 'average' players. Additionally, they have included 45 new contextual shot animations which will help raise the realism element of shooting as a whole. Furthermore, EA have added upon their 'RPM tech' for the second year in a row, which they state will improve the fluidity of the game as players should be able to blend animations together to a much higher standard, as well as pick the puck without having to slow down too much. Moving on to "A New Generation of Hockey Broadcasting" which is probably the most ambiguously written piece of the whole article. They state that the broadcast package has been "revamped", including "fresh new play-by-play and color commentary". This signifies EA completely ditching their experiment with the 'NBC' package, and have changed out the commentators of Mike 'Doc' Emrick and Eddie Olczyk for a local Vancouver radio personality in James Cybulski as the new play-by-play, as well as 'promoting' Ray Ferraro from in between the benches to color commentator. Taking up Ferraro's old role will be the infamous Pierre McGuire. The reason for the change is purely logistical it would seem, as EA are now able to get the new team in a couple of times a week to record new lines, something that was a challenge before, as Doc and Eddie were often on the road across the country from each other, and critically did not have enough time to spare. In fact, it EA appear to be pushing the boat out and will have guest appearances in the booth from hockey icons like Don Cherry & Wayne Gretzky, to musicians such as Chance the Rapper and Drake. Included in this presentation overhaul is a tweaking of the score clock location, instead of being placed in the top left it will now be visible at the bottom of the screen. Additionally, they have also included a new element to the whole presentation with a "play of the game highlight" reel. How this interacts with the whole package however is yet to be seen, although it will apparently be akin to Overwatch's play of the game system, just playing at the beginning of every intermission instead of at the end of the game. All information not visible in the EA release within this section has been sourced from Game Informer. Next up is "New Mode and Icons in Hockey Ultimate Team™" which headlines with the main change being a new mode within HUT called "Squad Battles", something that fans of FIFA should be able to recognise. Aside from this, there has also been an expansion on the raw amount of collectible and playable items within the mode, going to over 400 for this upcoming year. On to possibly the most interesting addition for NHL 20, "New Ways to Play With Friends" which signifies the expansion of The World of Chel with an entirely new mode called "Eliminator" which pits up to 81 players (yes, that is not a typo, 81... 8-1) against each other in a tournament bracket based battle royale. You can compete as either a solo player in "ONES Eliminator" or as a "squad with friends in THREES Eliminator". The goal is to win four straight games against ever increasingly more difficult opponents for "ultimate bragging rights", whatever 'that' specifically entails. Furthermore, fans of offline play will be happy to know that you can now play the 1v1v1 mode of 'Ones' offline with friends now, with a choice from various NHL players. Finally, we move on to "An Ever-Expanding World of CHEL". This seems like EA have recognised their mistake from last year and have added ways for players to gain XP when they are max prestige with the inclusion of "weekly in-game events" (named "CHEL Challenges) seemingly across all modes within WOC. As well as this, they have raised the amount of "customisation items" to over 2,000 within the mode. In addition to EA have included four more outdoor locations which will most likely be rotated through in online games (e.g. Ones and drop ins). For an even deeper dive into the features above, as well as additional information regarding Franchise Mode then please click on the following link to an article by Game Informer. Pre-Order Options As usual, EA will offer three different pre-options. Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. The latter two offer the ability to play the game three days prior to it's official release, therefore they will have access from the 10th of September 2019. Additionally, those with an EA access subscription will be able to play the game for the usual 10hrs from the 5th of September onwards.