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Even though I was born in the UK, I've always been a massive hockey fan over the years, and it all stems from playing EA Sports' NHL 98 all the way back in the big box PC days - I've played pretty much every entry in the series since.
It's been a little hard to get overly excited about NHL in recent times though, mainly due to the relatively few improvements that are made from year-to-year. The series evidently operates on a much smaller budget compared to the likes of EA Sports FC and Madden, and therefore the development team hones in on one or two key features for each new release, and everything else remains mostly the same.
With NHL 27, the two key features are Connected Franchise and an overhauled presentation suite. I haven't been able to try the former yet (NHL 27 isn't even out until September 4th in early access and September 11th for everyone else), but I'm pleased to say that I'm loving the presentation upgrades in this year's game.
Basically, what they've done here is added new intros, new replays, new close-up crowd reactions, a refreshing new commentary team (long overdue!) and most importantly new specific elements to each NHL arena, making it feel much more like you're playing in unique locations.
They've even gone one step further and licensed official goal songs and other hype songs that add a ton of immersion from a presentation perspective. We're talking songs like Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation, Rock And Roll All Nite by Kiss, Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis, Song 2 by Blur, and so many other legendary hockey tunes. You'll hear all of these in the menus and during team-specific goal songs, but some of them also crop up during mid-game cutscenes where the jumbotron flashes to "Make Some Noise!" and you see the crowd getting into it. EA also says that they'll be adding official jumbotron graphics for various NHL teams over time.
Just have a look at this soundtrack! It's easily my favourite NHL soundtrack of all time:
And yes, this reminds me of a classic Xbox 360 feature - the ability to rip CDs and add custom music back in the day. I still play the likes of NHL 14 and NHL 2K11 simply because they support this feature natively, and used to spend hours generating 30-second music clips with just the right amount of reverb to make everything feel authentic for goal songs, break-in-play music, penalty music and everything else. It's a massive shame we don't get this anymore, but NHL 27 is easily the next best thing for people like me in the modern era.
As for the gameplay itself, it's pretty similar to NHL 26 but with a few neat improvements, such as the addition of "Contextual Strategy Shifts" where you'll be prompted to switch strategies with a single button press if the coach suggests it, and the AI will do the same as well. When the AI switches strategy and goes on the offensive while shortening their lines to try and get a goal, the added aggression and pressure that comes with it is noticeable.
EA Sports is also making a big deal about new Playbooks that have been added to each team to make them play more authentically, and you definitely feel a difference between certain tactical styles, but perhaps not as much as EA wants you to. Still, it's a decent new feature all the same, and it works in tandem with on-the-fly strategy changes.
I'm still of the belief that the Frostbite Engine has never been a beneficial thing for EA's modern sports releases — it can look so clunky in terms of animations and that definitely applies here as well — but in general I think NHL 27 plays a decent game of hockey that I'm certainly having fun with so far. It's a tiny bit buggy (based on pre-release code) and there are still some goals and offensive plays that feel slightly unrealistic at times, but it also largely feels competitive, varied, balanced and enjoyable against the AI - on Superstar difficulty at least.
I know you probably want to hear more about Connected Franchise, which is the online franchise mode that only supports human players and not AI right now, but I'm going to need a bit more time to dig into it and find a league to be active in. It's definitely something I plan to play a lot of this year, but I'll need to locate some dedicated people for it!
At the moment, I'm just playing Franchise Mode and Ultimate Team for the most part, which to be honest are generally identical to last year. That probably sounds a little dull on paper, but all of the presentation improvements have really elevated my experience and made me want to actively play NHL 27 compared to recent entries in the series. I really hope they keep adding to this in NHL 28 and beyond, and I'd love to see them go one step further and add official intro music, real arena announcers, even more authentic crowd reactions, and various other things.
Listen, I get it when people complain that NHL isn't at its peak anymore and EA Sports isn't putting enough attention on it these days, but NHL 27 is quite easily my favourite hockey game of the Xbox Series X|S era, and that's even without diving into its most notable new feature in Connected Franchise. It's a game that was built for people like me who crave more immersion in their sports titles, and even though there's still loads more room for improvement across the board, I'm suddenly planning to play a lot of Xbox hockey over the next 12 months!