{"id":99165,"date":"2025-08-27T07:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99165\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T07:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:56:10","slug":"in-nhl-26-alex-ovechkin-will-naturally-set-himself-up-in-his-office-on-the-power-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99165\/","title":{"rendered":"In NHL 26, Alex Ovechkin will naturally set himself up in his office on the power play"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI is impacting almost every facet of life in both good<\/a> and annoying ways<\/a>. Now, it\u2019s being used in the latest iteration of EA Sports\u2019 NHL video game and it could make gameplay even more realistic.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest selling points to this year\u2019s game is that superstar digital players will have the same strengths and tendencies as their real-life counterparts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn NHL 26, ICE-Q 2.0 uses that treasure trove of NHL EDGE Player Data to impact how players perform in game,\u201d EA Sports explained in a deep dive of the video game published to YouTube<\/a>. \u201cFor example, we\u2019ve reviewed Ovi\u2019s historic trends and performance data and use that to update his character\u2019s attributes and tendencies so his skills are aligned with his real-life self. And AI Ovi, will naturally position himself in his patented power-play spot at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll together, that means AI players start to think, move, and play like your favorite stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"GIF: @EASPORTSNHL\/YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

The YouTube shows several example of \u201cAI Ovi\u201d setting up shop in the left circle with his hockey stick \u2014 notably CCM-branded instead of his custom twig \u2014 raised to the heavens eager to clap a one-timer home. \u201cAI Big Pro\u201d (Aliaksei Protas\u2019s digi player, not \u201cBe A Pro Mode\u201d) then slides a perfect pass over to Alexander \u201cVideogamesimulation\u201d Ovechkin for the goal.<\/p>\n

According to EA Sports<\/a>, there are 22 unique tendencies at launch \u2014 \u201chabits, built using NHL EDGE tracking\u201d \u2014 that includes things like zone entires, reaction timing, defensive spacing, and shooting habits. For instance, when you play against the Oilers, you might notice that Leon Draisaitl will often shoot from sharp angles. Or maybe against the Avalanche, digi Nathan MacKinnon will be physical on zone entries. Digi Jacob Trouba will step up in the lane and look to rocket other players into outer space. Digi Sidney Crosby and Connor Bedard will even \u201cfind space in smarter ways, look for their go-to spots, and attack with more identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AI should inform both the digi skaters and goaltenders so that they have greater authenticity.<\/p>\n

For those interested in trying out the new enhancements, NHL 26 will be released on September 12, 2025, on both the Xbox and PlayStation. Matthew Tkachuk <\/a>is this year\u2019s cover athlete<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI is impacting almost every facet of life in both good and annoying ways. Now, it\u2019s being used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-99165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}