NHL’s Realistic Gameplay: Capturing the Essence of Ice Hockey
NHL, The National Hockey League, is one of the world’s most iconic sports. It is unique in its own special way in how it is played. With NHL, Electronic Arts (EA) captures the intensity, strategy, skill, and speed of the sport with their realistic game play. The development team of NHL works incredibly hard to ensure that their game mirrors the real-life effects as closely as possible.
NHL creates an immersive experience for their players with innovative features and realistic animations. Players are able to feel the essence of the game as they move around the rink, shoot, pass, check, and block, as if they were really on the ice. NHL’s physics engine is modeled to represent a real NHL game, meaning the speed, force, momentum, and weight of the players are all taken into account when simulations are run.
The Artificial intelligence of NHL players has been developed to capture the variability of a real hockey game. The AI works closely with the physics engine to create realistic player movement off the ice, while also taking into account factors such as puck possession, and stance to determine a result.
The game play of NHL goes even further by providing an incredible amount of customization options for the player: They are able to customize their own teams, players, equipment, arenas, and games. As well as customizing, they can create their very own playbooks, strategies, and lineups. This provides a huge amount of replay value as players are able to create multiple game simulations for different playing styles.
NHL’s goal is to capture the intensity and authenticity of ice hockey. By simulating every crisp passing, fast breakaway, last-ditch save, and game-winning goal of a real NHL game, NHL creates an unparalleled experience for the fans. Their mission is to exceed the expectations of fans around the world by providing an even closer to real experience of their favourite sport.
