Customer Reviews

NHL 2004

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off, let's explain what was wrong with last year's NHL 2003. The game lacked any element of realism, the scores were constantly in the double digits, and the hitting was oh-too-easy. Real NHL games do not contain 75 hits per team. After last year's disaster of a game, this year's installment was a breath of fresh air.

This year, EA dumped the silly arcade hockey idea, and decided to create a "hockey-sim." Genius. To achieve this, they had to add something that last year's game also lacked: difficulty. It's harder to get a shot off, it's harder to get a breakway, it's harder to hit. Strangely enough, people seem to dislike this. They can't stand a realistic hockey game. If you want arcade thrills, try NHL HitZ. If you want near perfect hockey realism, try NHL 2004 or ESPN.

Remember: This is an NHL, I repeat, NHL game! In case you haven't noticed, the NHL is not easy. You don't see 5 breakaways a game, and you don't see bonecrushing hits every 3 seconds. Sure, this game has its flaws. The AI is sometimes slightly unrealistic, but I would rather an unrealistically hard AI than an unbelievably retarded one. The controls are a bit unusual, but anything worthwhile will take time.

LACE THEM SKATES UP AND BUY THIS GAME

I own NHL 2001 to 2004. I had no complaints for the change to 2002. When I played 2003 it was a little weird but after playing it a bunch of times, it wasn't bad at all. The only problem was the player control...sometimes you would spin 3 or 4 times around the puck before anyone would get it. 2004 fixed all that, it improved on everything, it had a whole new deeking system and board action which is very cool. 2004 is pretty good in the long run but has a few problems. When the computer is coming up to the net my defenders skate away from the player, then after the opposing team passes him, my defender chases them. Another problem is the controller. You arn't allowed to use the game pad to skate with which was huge for me. A small thing is in the menu, when you are choosing teams, unlike all other EA Sports NHL games where you pick a side, then choose a team, you go over to one side, pick that team, go to the other, pick the other team (the game also doesn't remember what teams you play with, it always has ANA @ NJ as the default, which is annouying), and then in the following screen you choose your side, its not that much of a big deal but when you are playing 4 player it gets annouying. And last but not least, the worst part of 2004 is the checking! I use to step up and level guys on the dime. I use to check almost everyone in all the old games. In 2004 I get a good check probably 1/15 times I try to check. The auto check varies from where you are and isn't too powerful, and bruise control is just terrible. First you push the right joystick down, then move it in the direction of the guy you wanna hit. I miss all the time. It sucks. If I were you I would wait and try NHL Rivals 2004.

Having long been a huge EA supporter mostly because there has never been any real competition, I jumped at the chance last year to try out Sega's NHL 2K# in the hopes that it would be superior. Well, it wasn't. The gameplay was dull, the commentary terrible, the lack of enough creatable players frustrating, the franchise mode lacking... all-in-all, EA beat it by a long shot. This year, however, having switched its name to ESPN NHL Hockey, Sega has started to close the gap between the two games, and even beats EA in some aspects. Here is whai is good, and bad about this year's EA game in comparison to ESPN NHL Hockey:

The Good:
1) This game allows you to play and entire season as a team in the German DEL, Swedish SEL and Finnish SM-Liiga. This is something that i've always wanted to be able to do in a hockey game. The rosters are from last season not this season, but everything else about it is real, including all the jerseys. This feature alone makes this game worth 3 stars.
2) The gameplay is simultaneously more fun and more realistic than Sega's game. The goaltenders don't have ridiculously high save percentages, when you shoot the puck out of your zone on the penalty kill you can choose to bounce it off the boards (which you cannot do in ESPN NHL Hockey), you can score many different ways instead of just using one-timers across the front of the net, the defensemen can get shots off from the point regularly, the goalies can pass and not get picked off every time.
3) The franchise mode is incredibly deep. You not only control salary of players, signings, trades and drafts, but also hot dog and seat prices, attendance related things and much more. It is the deepest and most rewarding franchise mode i've encountered in a hockey game.

The Mediocre:
1) The announcers are still pretty durn annoying. They have replaced the overzealous color commentator from the last several years who made wisecrack after wisecrack with Craig Simpson, who speaks only about twice a game. The play-by-play is okay, but can get annoying after playing a couple dozen games.

The Bad:
1) For a game with such a fantastic franchise mode, you'd think that there would be plenty of options for editing players and rosters. Well, if you think that, you'd be wrong. Unlike Sega's game, you cannot edit the ratings and attributes of players. Also, creating players is a bit of a hassle because no matter what their name is, you have to choose a nickname for them to have for play-by-play.
2.) There are a lot of problems with roster moves and editing. First off, you can only save one roster file. Second, there is a limit to the amount of players you can have in the free agent pool. This combination makes it impossible to have accurate rosters for the NHL, DEL, SM-Liiga and SEL simultaneously. You have to choose one to be correct, while leaving the other three pretty much as they are. very annoying.

So, for a game that has such a great franchise mode, it has horrible player and roster editing. My advice, despite the wonderful franchise mode, is that if you like to have complete simulated seasons that you can control, go with SEga. If you just want to play a season as teams from the 3 Euro leagues (which is all I use EA for this year), than get EA NHL 2004.

I don't necessarily think that realism should be the end goal of video games, but the difficulty is adjustable, which is not documented very well in the manuals. You can "boost" your team at the selection screen making them faster and your goalie better. So play a realistic game of dump-and-chase grinding it out in the corners or have 10 breakaways and 20 one-timers a game, it's up to you. Either way, the game looks and sounds great and is a lot of fun.

The new NHL is like what the great Don Taylor from NHL 2002/03, thit is the chutney on the somosa. The new nhl provides us with some of the great realism of the game that we love so much. The new bruise control makes hitting a lot more pleasurable as instead of just laying somebody out on there back you can reall FUBAR them up. The only downside to this great game is where the last NHL had the advantage... the kick ass replays of breakaways, saves and hits followed by some excellent music. The commontary on this game also wears thin as the perfect partnership for this game would have still been Jim Hughson but with the comical Don Taylor. Apart from this though the game rates tops. Good job EA Sports, hope 2005 is just as good, GET DON TAYLOR BACK.

I switched over last year, going to NHL 2K3 instead of NHL 2003, and wasn't really satisfied with the whole ESPN experience, so I came back this year to NHL 2004. There seemed to be a lot of features that appeal to me, such as the Dynasty mode and controlling an NHL team down to the last detail. The last detail, however, is controlling how much you can charge for tickets. This is also the ONLY real detail (aside from trading, negotiating contracts, which are standard among most games now). The music is great, it's great to listen to some real music and flip through songs while navigating the menus. The flipside to that, is there's only a handful of songs (maybe 10?). The game itself looks cool, but plays frustrating. Body checking? Nonexistant. You can push the opposing player, but you never seem to knock them off the puck, only taking yourself out of the play and giving them an open scoring chance. If you have the puck, you're always knocked off it, and in the slim chance you're not, the opposition will hook you (which you can also never do to them) and you lose the puck right away. Goaltending flat out sucks, get ready for scores that are 9-7, 12-8, something that almost never happens in a real NHL game. 40 games in the season, Mario Lemieux already has over 100 points, and several other players are in the 90 point mark. Very unrealistic. Players get injured, its part of the game, but there's no menu to tell you what the player is out with, or how long he will be out. Hope you like guessing. There is a long menu of stats though, divided into teams, conferences, then alltogether, and plenty of catagories that cover virtually anything you need to know. Several European teams are offered, which is another pretty cool feature. Overall though, its not enough to save this game. Hopefully, they can clear a lot up for next year.

~First of all the people complaining about it being too hard clearly didn't take five minutes to adjust it. You can adjust just about everything in the game so if it's too hard make it easier duhh. Secondly for realism this game is second to none. I have played all the nhl, faceoff, nhl2k series, since 93 and this is the best. Hitting is easier then they make it seem. All you have to do is move the right analog stick in the direction of the opponent not charge up and hit extra buttons. ~~ Although it takes a little time getting used to the controls they allow for much greater detail. You can play the puck from in between your feet and pull off some amazing moves with pinpoint precision. The franchise mode is amazing, allowing everything from setting practices to investing more money in staff and equipment upgrades, to even adjusting ticket prices. This is the first game where free agency actually means something. I.E you can get real players and being that you also have~~ revenue constraints to worry about you actually can lose a good player. Finally a game that makes a franchise mode worth investing some of your time into. The potential rating allows you to gauge which low tier players are worth investing money into for future seasons and trading draft picks means something. There are admitedly a few flaws. I agree with the not displaying types of injuries and time left remaining on them is plain stupid. Also players do tend to accrue rediculous stats. I~~ am barely half way through and there are guys at 100 points or more. But considering the fact that winning means fans fill the seats so no matter how many 100 point guys the other teams have i'm still number one in revenue and playoff position makes these flaws overlookable. If you have been looking for an NHL game with the feel of the real NHL and adaptability that just can't be found anywhere else then this is the game for you.~

Let me start off with saying this: "This is not a bad game", but there are so many problems with it, I wish I hadn't sold my NHL 2003.

First of all, the gameplay is great. The players look and skate great, and you can control their stopping/starting (no more circling around the puck trying to get it). However, the hitting in this game is impossible. I used to get 60-70 hits a game in 2003. I'm lucky if i get 10 now. Plus my guys are always skating the wrong direction. I'm trying to clear the zone by passing up the boards and my guys are skating towards the net.

Another pet peeve of mine is the speed of the players. The faster players arent much faster than the slower players and even with the speed burst at its max, its not enough to distance yourself for a breakaway. Hit your guy on the fly and the defenseman will turn around and still catch you before you're around him.

The worst part of this game by far though is the end of the period. The time runs out and it's two seconds before the buzzer goes off. Im not kidding! The guys stop playing, the green light goes on, and two seconds later the buzzer goes off. It's brutal.

Wait! I lied. The absolute worst part of this game is penalties. If you play 5 minute periods like I do, how long should a penalty last? :30 seconds right? No. EA Sports has decided that during a penalty, the clock runs at normal speed. So a 2 minute penalty in a 5 minute period lasts 2 WHOLE MINUTES! Try killing off one of those! If you get a major, its equivalent to killing off a whole period!

This game is very fun but needs work. The stadiums are all the same the only difference is the teams logo at center ice. Also they barely have any rookies.For an example i'm a big chicago blackhawks fan and they don't have Toumo Ruutu.He's a awsome rookie for the blackhawks.Another thing when your the home team and you score you can barely hear the goal horn.But I'd still recomend on getting this game.

I rented this game from blockbuster, and now I am buying it. I have had none of the issues with freezing or crashes that other reviewers reported (but I dont deny that it happened) in fact I found it to be a pretty well polished game. The dynasty mode in particular is very good, as you have to set the practices for your team between the games. It really brings to life that the NHL season is a grind, with injuries and exhaustion a fact of life. No there is no xbox live support- that is one of only two complaints I have, the other being that the amount of stats available in dynasty mode is minimal when compared to other EA Sports games.