hockey

NHL 2003 is by far EA Sport's best new game. As my mom was watching play she was awed by its amazing graphics, as I am. The controls make it easy to feel like the player. Amazing dekes make your jaw drop. Plus you can manually deke! I love the Create A Player option. To add on to what I have already said the NHL Cards option is so neat. With Easter Eggs, a Task List, and special celebrations you are just plain awed. I also like the feature that you can choose your team's uniform. You have a choise of an old, alternate, or home/away uniforms for most teams. There is also an International Game Mode. There are also many more moves by the goalies. The fighting is real too, with three different types of punches. There is also a gamebreaker. If you fill up your meter and press Z, the play slows down to make you feel captured in the moment. If i were you, I would buy it, NOW!

Some people will like this game. Those people will like this game because of the meticulous statistics, the tedious attention to the detail, right down to what the players' faces look like up close.

But most of us that buy this will buy it for the game play. Those of us that do will be disappointed. The first few days I played NHL 2003, I was impressed. Good graphics, acceptable audio -- and it's OH so much fun to just bash the guy with the puck into the glass in a head-on collision. But then it started slipping.

I was noticing how, on the easy level, I was constantly ahead by 50 goals at the end of the game. (No, I'm not exaggerating.) I tried medium and hard. Hard is impossible. The computer is just too fast, I couldn't keep up.

There is no defense in this game. If your opponent shoots, the only thing to stop the puck from going in is the goalie. It seems random, when the shot goes in and when it doesn't. It doesn't even matter the situation, it's just a roll of the dice.

Those are my two biggest complaints in this game. Those two things take so much of the strategy out of the game that it just doesn't seem worth playing anymore.

Good for a few hours of fun, but save the money.

What's crazy is that I think this is, by far, the best EA game yet!! I have to laugh at all the negative reviews others have givin this game...are we all talking about the same game?? When you are half way into your third season and still hearing new commentary which by the way is hilarious I think that says something...It is a riot to play...alone or with a friend. I've had countless hours of pure enjoyment and I plan to have many more with a real classic!!

One more thing...It's waaaaaaay better then the new 2004 edition!!