Rocket League is getting mutators, including hockey

Rocket League is obviously meant to be a version of soccer played with rocket-powered battle cars, but it's always felt more like hockey to me. You've got the battles in the corners and along the boards, clearing, checking, and momentum to consider—and that's not lost on Psyonix, because soon the dev is going to add a puck.

As much as I love the basic, competitive version of Rocket League, something more whimsical (more whimsical than cars playing soccer, yes) sounds like a wonderful, less competitive way to kill a couple hours making cars do unlikely things. I'm excited.

But as a hockey fan, I'm most excited for December, which is when we'll get the hockey mutator. From the looks of it, hockey mode turns the field to ice and the ball into a giant, ridiculous-looking puck. I was sort of hoping it would further emulate hockey by adding space behind the goal, but that'd probably be a bit much (and possibly entirely unfun). I'm not so sure about the puck, actually. Trying to steer that biscuit looks onerous, as if it outweighs the cars and is more likely to smash them than go anywhere. But we'll see! It might be fun to have new bounces to learn, and to deal with a puck's endearing habit of spinning and flipping and generally being a pain in the ass to put in a goal.

The mutator update will be free. There's no word on the exact date of either release, but we might find out on Thursday, when Psyonix will be livestreaming a demonstration.

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.