NHL 27: A Shocking Backslide That Could Change the Game Forever

The computer no longer attempts to effectively clear the puck while on the penalty kill. Even in 5-on-3 situations you’ll see a defender try to skate it out of the blue zone, even over the center line when there are three forwards on the forecheck. It ruins the flow of powerplays to where a majority of powerplay goals no longer happen because you set up good puck cycling or crowding the goalie, instead you’ll poke check it away from a skater who never should have been trying to bring the puck up the ice, and have an easy breakaway.

John Buccigross made waves when he revealed that in addition to him doing commentary for the game, EA Sports was also using generative AI to flesh out more lines. In theory, I have no problem with that, so long as it comes with the announcer’s blessing, because it should mean more live diversity and fresher commentary — but not only is the commentary in NHL 27 terrible and sounds disjointed as if generated by AI, but it’s also extremely repetitive.

It’s one thing to make a comment about a 2-1 game being low-scoring in the third period, but you hear the same line every single time when fewer than four goals have been scored. The exact same line about “the tradition of thanking the fans” happens after the game, no matter which team you play as. In past years games we’d get the same line after each game, but at least it would be targeted more towards each individual fanbase and their traditions — rather than blanket comments.

This is when the commentary is remotely accurate, which too often it’s not. Far too many times I’ve poke checked the puck away only for the commentary to say that the puck carrier poked it away. During a Hurricanes game at home Buccigross commented about how many empty seats there were, and that “this franchise has struggled to fill the arena.” The Carolina Hurricanes have sold out every home game since the 2021-22 season.

The ugly

We’re going to discuss the player models, because they have been mocked endlessly online since the game released. In NHL 27‘s defense the face scans aren’t as bad as the internet would have you believe, with most players being decent-enough representations of their real-world counterparts. Some are just abysmal …