NHL 2003

"Good game, not amazing"

NHL 2003, it's in the game. EA Sports has done it again, a hard hitting hockey game, sent right to your front door. Now's your chance to play with all the greats Lemieux, Yzerman, Sundin and all the up and comers Iginla, Gaborik and Coliacovo. I hope you enjoy this quick review.

The gameplay is very good, you can choose how hard the computer plays (Rookie, Pro, All-Star.) It's very easy to net goals, if you try your best you can get atleast 10 on pro. The only factor is it's pretty hard to play defence so watchout for high scoring hockey games. Your goalies may sometimes let in some stupid goals aswell. Another thing aswell it shows replay's of something that has never happened, and it never shows player stats. I am about 65 games into my first season and, I'm not very addicting but, I don't feel it's a chore to play. If it's fun to play, do so.

The sound is okay. You only have 3 main songs at the start, but you can get more by downloading EA Trax. There is lots of ingame music so that is good. You get the on ice sound, where you hear sticks slapping the ice, slamming of the boards or cheers of the load crowd. Good job on the sound overall an improvement from NHL 2002.

No step up in, the graphics, I could swear they are the same as NHL 2002, cool new menu screens that help the PC feel, it's alot more mouse-friendly. Another thing is that the players faces look absolutely nothing like what they do in real life. That annoyed me and most players don't have hair. The graphics are smooth and great though. When players skate around you can see they left a mark. The crowd is pretty bad and sometimes can't even be seen, EA needs to work on the crowd, but other than that good job on the overall graphics.

If you want to go from NHL 2002 to NHL 2003 here are some of the games new features, new cool dekes, such as putting the puck through the defenders legs and skating around. The new gamebreaker where you build up a meter and you can deke out all the defenders and go 1 on 1 with the goalie. The goalies do make some pretty cool new saves. Another thing, it's the same commentators, could be good or bad.

Well, my final verdict is that it depends on YOU. If you want a hockey game first of all, then it depends if you want a realistic one or a arcade type one. If you want a realistic one I recommend NHL 2k3, if you want a fun arcade one then NHL 2003 is the one you should definately buy.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/24/03, Updated 01/24/03