EA Sports finally unveiled their new hockey game! According to the official reveal trailer, the new game will be released on October 16th, however, NHL 21 won’t have a version for the next generation consoles and will be released only on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

As you might’ve guessed from the trailer, the star of the game will be a famous Russian player Alexander Ovechkin which will be featured on NHL’s game cover for a second time. He previously appeared on the box for the NHL 07 game as a rookie of the year in 2006’s season. Now, Alexander is a beloved Washington Capitals player (he joined the team in 2010) boasting 706 goals over 16 seasons in the biggest hockey league in the world.

In a press release, Alexander Ovechkin expressed his excitement about becoming a cover star for the new game:

“It’s a huge honor to be on the cover of NHL 21 for the second cover in my career. More importantly, I’m glad I’m looking just as good on the cover this year as I did in 2007!!!”

As for the game itself, there will be some new features and additions to this year’s installment. This time around EA Sports promised to overhaul single-player career mode called Be a Pro. Sean Ramjagsingh, an executive producer of NHL 21 game stated:

“Our community has been asking for an invigorating Be A Pro experience that puts them in the same spotlight as their favorite NHL stars, like Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin’s gameplay legacy, on and off the ice, is helping us to bring the next generation of EA SPORTS NHL gameplay to life with NHL 21.” 

Apparently, this year’s Be a Pro mode will feature more cutscenes, more dialogue choices, and more. This will allow fans to better shape a player’s careers and witness how their actions influence their avatar on and off the ice.

In addition, there will be some more improvements to the other aspects of the game. You will have more trick moves while navigating on ice, goalies will be way smarter, meaning that truly skilled players will have way more options to outplay other individuals.

Other new NHL 21 features include the arrival of the trade deadline in franchise mode, more options to play ranked seasons, World of Chel, and a streamlined version of the HUT (Hockey Ultimate Team) mode.

All in all, NHL 21 seems like a way better game than its previous iterations, so it will be a real shame that the game won’t be released on the next-generation consoles. However, Xbox Series X players will be able to enjoy NHL 21 thanks to backward compatibility.