NHL 16 video shows off the literal small steps the game’s taking

On Frozen Pond

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon isn’t always going to zoom up ice, spin around Blackhawk blue-liners, and leave Corey Crawford looking for his jock in the rafters. I mean, that’ll happen a good chunk of the time, but not all the time. Every now and then he has to settle for lighting the lamp on the man-advantage, and side-stepping between the circles is so important then.

That’s the gist of this new NHL 16 gameplay video: positioning. Lateral movements, blocking shooting lanes, quick puck pickups — all that stuff that makes hockey look like hockey. EA Sports inches nearer to realism with every installment.

Last year’s game played well enough, but the option stripping was cause for concern. EA told us at a press event in May that the developer’s adding most of it back in for NHL 16. The movement shown in this video makes for a nice degree of polish, but they’re relative baby steps compared to adding those features that fans sorely missed.