Maple Leafs' NHL 27 face scans are getting roasted by fans

EA's NHL 27's face scans have gotten a lot of backlash, and the Maple Leafs players aren't exempt from the oddly unfamiliar look the game has given its players.

There's certainly a lot of criticism that can be directed towards EA's NHL video game franchise, though that tends to lie on the side of gameplay, communication, and the issue of microtransactions though one critique has stuck out like a sore thumb recently.

The player face scans for this year's upcoming game have left a lot to be desired, with some players like Seth Jarvis, Alex Ovechkin, and Mason Lohrei getting some very off-putting doppelgängers:

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Matthews, Nylander and Tavares show how inconsistent NHL 27's Leafs faces really are

However, they weren't the only ones who had some less than desirable scans, and the Maple Leafs are a team full of them. Firstly, you have Auston Matthews who seemingly has dyed his facial hair light brown, with a spiked head of hair and a thousand-yard stare:

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Next up was William Nylander, whose bearded gaze looks as if he was auditioning for the next Blair Witch movie as opposed to playing hockey - as he seems genuinely terrified:

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Matthew Knies' looks a bit more appropriate though he doesn't have his usual goatee, and as David Alter pointed out - looks a lot more like Tyler Bozak than anything:

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Honestly though? The winner of the worst scan has to go to John Tavares. The former captain and beloved Maple Leaf looks absolutely nothing like he does in real life, with his eyes looking oddly dilated and a different colour - and it looks like they didn't even complete it fully before displaying it:

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The Tavares image appears to have been tied to a visual glitch rather than his standard model, so it should not be treated as the cleanest example of the broader face-scan problem - but it's still scary to see at first glance.

For a billion-dollar company with the top scanning and motion-capture technology at their disposal, it's perplexing as to why they decided to completely disregard arguably one of the key facets of the entire graphic design of the game.

The backlash stands out even more because NHL 27 is selling authenticity as a major upgrade

It's not hard to find fans who are also likely as perplexed as the players and the entirety of social media has been filled with posts regarding just how bad EA made these scans:

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It seems like every team has at least one player scan that gives fans reservations and they may have some more frustration towards EA given their Madden NFL scans look near lifelike:

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And compared to the other three major video game sports titles, NHL is severely lacking in the scan category:

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EA has made authenticity and presentation a major part of NHL 27's pitch. That is why these face-model complaints matter more than a few funny screenshots: if the game wants to look and feel more like the NHL than ever, recognizable star players have to be part of that promise.

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