After having officially unveiled EA Sports NHL 26 earlier this month, EA Sports has now revealed more details about the upcoming hockey title with a new trailer providing a deep dive into its gameplay. The trailer, which you can check out below, gives us new details about the ICE-Q 2.0 system that is powering the hockey game this year, and how it will affect gameplay.
ICE-Q 2.0, itself powered by the NHL Edge data gathered from real-world matches, will ultimately result in smarter AI and give them better internal tools to make decisions. Some of the NHL Edge data used by ICE-Q 2.0 includes skating acceleration and top speed, shot location and velocity, save percentage by zone, heat maps of player movement, puck possession time and zone usage, and body orientation and reaction time. This data is gathered through 14 infrared cameras, puck sensors, and jersey tags. Ultimately, this data all feeds into the game’s player attributes, Tendencies, and presentation.
While player attributes are fairly self-explanatory, Tendencies essentially encapsulate how players behave in a match. As described in the official post accompanying the video, Tendencies are player habits rather than being simply stat boosts. All in all, EA Sports NHL 26 will feature 22 unique Tendencies at launch, and might get more through post-launch updates. Presentation, on the other hand, will make matches feel more immersive thanks to new overlays, broadcast visuals, smarter replays, and stat-driven analysis.
Goalies are also getting an upgrade with the new Goalie Crease Control System. The aim of the new system is to provide more reactive goalkeepers that feel like they could be more capable of handling defense. To help this, more than 80 new animations have been added for goalkeepers saving a goal. This, along with new save logic and more positional awareness for AI-controlled goalies lets them pre-emptively fill out gaps in their team’s defenses.
Positioning for goalies is also now being tied to a player’s size and style. Juuse Saros, for example, known for being a more aggressive and smaller goalie, will challenge shooters and work at taking away their angles more actively. Larger goalies like Darcy Kuemper, on the other hand, will take advantage of more positional plays, staying deeper and relying on their own larger bodies to block shots.
The last of the big features of EA Sports NHL 26 is the fact that its X-Factors system is getting reworked. Having been built anew from the ground up, new X-Factors – numbering at 28 in total at launch – are built around specific gameplay identities, and will feature visual triggers and tactical outcomes. Each X-Factor now has three tiers of effectiveness, with abilities getting more pronounced the higher the tier gets.
EA Sports NHL 26 was announced with a new trailer earlier this month. The ice hockey game is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 12. Along with this, EA has also detailed a Deluxe Edition for EA Sports NHL 26, what kinds of in-game bonus goodies players will be able to get.
