When EA Sports dropped some NHL 19 details during the NHL Awards, a big focus was on their new Real Player Motion (RPM) Technology. Today, the publisher wrote a blog describing what RPM’s function in skating will be.
Anyone who knows anything about hockey knows the importance of skating. It’s the foundation on which hockey is built upon. If you can’t skate well, you’re not going to play the game well. While previous iterations of NHL games have featured some sort of skating mechanic, NHL 19’s RPM technology is about to take it to a whole new world.
EA Sports is touting player size and attributes will play a key role on skating style. Skating style will be different for different players. Connor McDavid is going to skate differently than Milan Lucic. A smaller player is going to be able to utilize their speed and quickness. This won’t translate just to a north-south skate either, as turning has been overhauled by EA’s RPM.
Player stamina and endurance will also play a larger role than in years’ past. Holding down L3 (or LS for you Xbox One players) would make your player skate faster and drain their stamina. The same is true for this year’s version of NHL, but now burning through that endurance also effects pivots and turning radius.
NHL 19 is also touting skating animations as something they’ve overhauled thanks to this new technology. Gone are the days where Sidney Crosby and Zdeno Chara have the same skating animations. Now a guy like Chara will use longer, more powerful strides while a smaller guy will use choppier, more elusive ones.
This new RPM Technology will also be felt in the “World of CHEL”. EA Sports touted over 900 customization options when details first came out. Through height, weight, attribute customization and traits, your decisions will change how your skating looks and feels while on the ice.
Lastly, skating will differentiate when you have the puck and when you don’t. It seems that EA is going to have multiple stick options that will affect all types of motions with and without the puck, including stops, cycles, crossovers and more.
NHL 19 will be available on September 14, 2018 for Playstation 4, and Xbox One.
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