PS2 NHL 2003, any reviews yet? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Adams]

All this talk about Madden and 2k3 has got me excited about the 2 other big EA sports lines coming out in September. My favorite game on any console at anytime is the NHL games. I absolutely love the NHL games. However I was kind of dissapointed with NHL 2002 on the PS2 last year. I don't think it was realistic enough. I think it had too much of an arcade type of feal to it. The atmosphere was circus like and just silly. And don't get me started on the awful, repetitive commentary. It was some of the worse I have ever heard. I like realism. I like when the commentating is in conjunction with what is going on on the ice. These guy's would just blurt out pointless crap that wasn't even funny. It seems that they were never serious. Has anyone got a chance to play this years demo? Are some of these shortcomings of last years edition going to be changed?

 

[Dave Bennett]

It doesn't come out until 9/17 but I know IGN and Gamespot have been doing some previews of it. I too had some problems with NHL 2002, the gameplay was very arcadey to me and seemed too fast even with the speed on medium. Also, I hate how it's all a joke now and the commentator and arena announcer just say random stupid stuff. I think I'm probably gonna pick up NHL 2k3 as from everything I've heard NHL 2k2 was one of the best and most realistic hockey games out there.

 

[Jeff Adams]

Yep Dave, totally with you. Gamplay was just so unrealistic. One thing that I do have to give them credit for was the great player animations. The players look so real. They look exactly as they do on the ice. I am an Avs fan and I am telling you, Sakic, Forsberg, Hejduk, Drury. They look so real. I still don't know why Madden 2003 does not look as real. As far as the players faces go. They look better but not nearly as good as th NHL game. I just hope gameplay is alot better and the commentary is better this year.

 

[Rob Varto]

I loved NHL 2002 on my XBox (although the comedy routine-like commentary sucked) UNTIL I found the scoring glitch. I forget what it was right now, but I could literally score 20 goals a game if I wanted to. That's what I hate about (most) sports games - you can usually find an AI glitch and abuse it... even though you don't want to. Old NHL games were notorious for the "deke" goal and NCAA 2k2 was notorious for the "out pattern". Hopefully NHL 2003 will have a little more sim / AI and a lot less stupid commentary and weak goal scoring.

 

[Conroy Tesa]

Ok this bothered me.
If the Xbox architecture is very similar to a PC and NOT a PS2 why did they port the crappy PS2 rather than the PC version (import sound tracks etc)
The PC version is a better game.