10 new features in EA Sports NHL 25
By Brian Allen
The wait is over. EA Sports NHL 25 is now available for everyone, whether you purchased early access or not. If you're unsure if you want to buy this year's game, EA Play offers a 10-hour trial. Here are 10 new features that may help you make a purchase decision:
1. Next-Gen Vision Control: This allows for more responsive, user-controlled skating. Players can walk the blueline, square up to the puck carrier, and lock on goal. In previous iterations, sometimes it just felt like your players (especially the AI) were tooling around the ice with no real plan in mind. Now, a player with the puck in an offensive zone will skate with the goal in mind.
2. Empowered AI: New advances in technology give AI players better awareness of the other skaters on the ice. They'll use Chel strategies including Behind the Net, Overload, and Crash The Net to better replicate the product we see every night on the ice.
3. Reactive Actions: According to NHL Senior Creative Director Mike Inglehart, the "Keystone Cops" animations in the game are gone. New collision avoidance animations allow players to swim past each other instead of getting stuck on each other. Panic turns allow players to change direction quickly if they've been beaten, and they'll even stick out their legs to block shots or passes if they're close enough.
4. Skill-Based One-Timers: Often in sports, it's a matter of how well a player succeeds in those brief windows that change the game. Hockey's best example of that may be the one-timer. In NHL 25, a visual cue will let you know if a teammate is a good one-timer target. The window is dynamic and takes into account factors such as puck speed. If you hit, it was all on you. Unfortunately if you bork up the timing and miss the opportunity, that's on you too.
5. Goalie Overhaul: Goalies have needed work for a while, and NHL 25 has done some major changes. Among them are increased save range, goalies no longer staying in butterfly position if they have time to get back up, and improved decision making for positioning.
6. Grudge Match: No matter what the coach says, some of these games just hit different. NHL 25 keeps track of well-established rivalries, and in-game events can also create new ones. Each Grudge Match will have an Impact Player from each team, and that player will receive a special X-Factor. This is one of my favorite features.
7. Franchise Mode Revamp: As sports fans, we are often convinced we can run our favorite team better than the billionaire in charge of it. Franchise Mode is your chance. This year it adds a streamlined franchise hub so you can quickly digest info such as box scores and awards.
8. New HUT Progression System: Now all the XP players get in Squad Battles, Rivals, and Wild Card are combined into a single progression path now. You'll get the same rewards for whichever HUT mode you're playing, and they'll unlock instantly.
9. World of Chel Creation Zone: Some of us spend hours creating our character, others just use the default and start skating. Now there's a feature that will allow you to copy and paste created characters across different character presets including Casual Goalie and Pro Skater.
10. Infinite Camera System: New camera angles include broadcast, drone, and other static cameras. It will also make new replays possible all over the ice.