NHL 2003

"Step down from NHL 2002, next hockey game I get isn't going to be made by EA Sports."

Overall, I was dissapointed with this game and you will see why below. Waste of money I say, although I like it, too many problems with it and too little improvements from previous years. Most of the problems are not hard things to fix, but they aren't fixed.

Gameplay:
Terrible, overall it is a lot of fun, but its the little things that make a huge difference. The one that really gets me is goalies. I play franchise in Medium as the Montreal Canadiens, they have a goalie with a 95% rating. He can stop almost nothing, I outshoot, outplay the other team, and I end up losing misserably. I could play easy, goalies still suck, but I can get lots of goals to make up for it, but then I always win. To make it worse, they removed the golie and player boost from franchise mode, leaving no way to fix this problem. The other gameplay if alright, but unrealistic. Taking the puck away from the other team is so hard, a big hitter can do it by checking, but there are few of these, and the pokecheck sucks. Also it tends to be that only big hitters know how to check, and other players can't do any checking. Fake deekes, setup, checking, goaltending and everything else makes it so unrealistic. Don't even get me started on the fights, quite possibly the worst part of the game.

Graphics: Okay, although not great, they work. Impressive looking faces, looks like real player. Nothing special!

Sound: Some people hate the commentary, I say its okay, and the sound isn't too bad in my opinion. Good Soundtrack!

Improvements in this version: Nothing useful, modes handicapping and annoying the user. Such as the Gamebreaker in 2003, and breakaway cam and nhl cards in 2002. Other than stuff like this, the only useful upgrades were goalies making better saves, and forwards moving along side other forwards. Also, goalie masks looking real is good, although it only works on some goalies. need real coaches.

Loading times: Slower and slower, not much more to say, every little thing takes a little while to load.

Navigation: Absolutely terrible, picking between auto and manual line changes requires switching a few screens, which takes time, instead of sticking them on the main screen like 2002, in the game controls cannot be changed, I could go on and on about how terrible the navigation is in this game, slow and an inconvinience.

Off-ice: Season mode still allows little control over team. Roster upgrades don't work with seasons, face pictures missing on some 6th year prospects. Need big upgrade packages to fix these problems.

Player skills: Unrealistic in many cases, some of teams best players have low ratings, and highest scorers aren't even snipers or big shooters. Needs playmaking and faceoff skills. Sometimes they seem okay.

Custom teams: can't go in season, lost uniform maker from 2002, not worth making team.

Online play: simply, didn't work for me

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/24/02, Updated 11/24/02