NHL 16 will coming out in in September 2015
The NHL 16 has come with much more improvement and remarkable features. There were outnumbered rumors about the features list of NHL 16. After the officially confirmation of the features by NHL, rumors descended and reality is in front of us, and guess what! Reality is far better than rumors. The new NHL 16 page on the EA Sports website doesn’t go so far as to name an exact release date for the game. Instead, potential buyers of the game have to be satisfied with a relative window of sometime this coming September. EA Sports Hockey League will make its return with NHL 16. According to EA, it looked to its hockey franchise's biggest fans to shape the next version of the game. "Their most requested features and modes are in NHL 16," EA said, adding that it's also added new experiences that make the game "bigger and better." One such addition is single-player, offline season play in Hockey NHL 16 Ultimate Team mode.
The biggest feature added to NHL 16 seems to be an updated EA Sports Hockley League, EASHL for short. The developer describes this as an “online team mode” for sorting gamers in classes and letting them player each other based on their raw talent and skill. EASHL seems like a pretty bold move to balance the online multiplayer experience in the game. Most first-person shooters use a similar technique to make sure that casual players are playing against other casual layers and those who tend to dominate matches are playing against someone just as good as they are.
Last year's NHL 15 was the first for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but shaved out numerous features that had been present in NHL 14. This year, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners can buy NHL Legacy - basically a repackaged version of NHL 15 with a roster update. There are reports that the EASHL will not allow for player progression and instead give a level playing field to all players by restricting the skaters to set builds. For instance, a sniper would shoot well, but might be easier to knock down. All the attributes for skating, however, will be even across the player types.
Other additions for NHL 16 are Season Mode, an improved Be A GM mode, and updates to the Be A Pro mode. In NHL 15, fans were displeased with the inability to simulate through shifts in Be A Pro, but will get that option this year as well as a brand new method of progression through their digital careers. One of the best traditions in sports is the pro hockey's playoff beard, a superstition that dictates players not shave their beards during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Started by the famous Islanders teams of the 1980s, decorum dictates that once the regular season ends, the players are committed to whatever happens with their facial hair. The results can be glorious, as demonstrated by former Calgary Flames co-captain Lanny McDonald in the image above.
With the NHL playoffs in full swing, the legendary tradition of the playoff beard is thriving. Every year since the 1980, when the New York Islanders donned beards to win the Stanley Cup, pro hockey players have been growing burly post-season beards until their team is either knocked out of the playoffs or they finally hoist the coveted championship trophy. Remember last year when everyone FREAKED OUT because the pretty great NHL 15 on PS4 and Xbox One shipped without many of its assumed game modes thanks to the port over to the new systems? Well, hoo boy, has EA Sports made up for it– this year announcing the full slew of game modes and features, like, three months early.
Tuesday, EA Sports announced the all of the new features that will be included in NHL 16, which releases in September. The lengthy list of additions had a number of highlights, including the much celebrated return of EASHL, but one feature stood out among the rest , at least to us (on a superficial but still oh so excited level) -- PLAYOFF BEARDS. What makes NHL 15 fans more excited is that NHL 16 is coming out in September 2015, Available only on Xbox One & PlayStation 4.
