- NHL 27 hit early access Friday and the face scans are all anyone can talk about
- A Sharks fan account looked at Will Smith’s in-game model and said she would sue
- Read below for the Canadiens screenshots making the rounds
Nobody is talking about the gameplay in NHL 27.
EA’s new hockey game opened to early access buyers on Friday, and within a day the screenshots flooding hockey Twitter had nothing to do with dekes or goalie animations. They were player faces. Faces that do not look like the players.
Will Smith might have gotten it worse than anyone. A Sharks fan account put the San Jose forward’s in-game head next to a real photo of him, and the verdict ran four words.
“I’d sue tbh,” she wrote.
Take a look at the game model, a blond stranger who looks about 15 years older than the real thing, sitting next to an actual photo of Smith:
She was not even sure the model was supposed to be him. Pressed on it in the replies, she said the guess came down to process of elimination.
“To be honest… I’m still not sure if it’s really supposed to be Will, but I can’t think of any other Sharks player it could be,” she said.
The game went live September 4 for Deluxe Edition buyers, with the full release set for September 11 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. A week of early access has turned into a week of roasting.
Montreal has taken the heaviest fire. One Habs account spent Saturday posting screenshot after screenshot, and the blue line was the low point. Mike Matheson, wearing the A, looks like he aged three decades overnight, and most of the group next to him is barely recognizable.
Goaltending somehow came out worse. Samuel Montembeault is a loose approximation of himself, while Jacob Fowler and Jakub Dobes look like created players from a menu. Check out the crease:
Brendan Gallagher survived. He came out looking like Brendan Gallagher, which by Saturday counted as a win.
Fans are taking it straight to the developers. One replied to an EA staffer’s launch-day giveaway post with a simple request:
Smith’s summer highlight was a home run at Oracle Park. His September lowlight is a video game face nobody can identify.
