GameCube

NHL 2004

It's an improvement over the last NHL game from EA but definitely a big change in direction for the franchise. There's plenty of room for improvement but it's clear that the effort has been put into NHL 2004 and the most serious hockey fans should get a kick out of it. Casual fans will either become serious hockey fans or break their controllers trying.

Es ist schon interessant, wie sich die jährlichen Updates aus dem Hause Electronic Arts weiterentwickeln. Die diesjährige Version hat sehr viel Neues und sinnvolle Verbesserungen zu bieten. In Sachen Gameplay hat sich auch einiges getan. Das Geschehen läuft nicht mehr ganz so arcadelastig ab, was bei vielen Spielern vielleicht eine Zeit der Umgewöhnung verursachen dürfte. Aber alles in allem können Eishockey-Fans getrost zugreifen und auch kräftig Manager spielen.

In addition to bringing realism back to the franchise, NHL 2004 also introduces several new features. New to NHL 2004 are Bruise Control, all-new fighting system, Online Play, EA Sports BIO, and new elite leagues. Bruise Control allows you to power up your hits before unleashing them on your opponent. EA Sports BIO is the system used across all EA Sports games to track your playing time and achievements in game, and it also unlocks special treats. As for the other new options, I am going to go a little more in depth on those now.

Although NHL 2004 does fall just shy of beating out the competition, any previous fan of EA's NHL series will find very little to complain about in this installment.

With plenty of throwback jerseys and international teams coupled with simple, solid controls and a deep Dynasty mode, NHL 2004 impresses us with the change and offers hardcore gamers and button mashers a good time on the ice.

NHL 2004 does a fantastic job for the hardcore hockey fan with endless hours of play in Dynasty mode, but it can’t quite match the competition when it comes to delivery and mechanics. The lack of online play for Xbox owners once again makes me want to holler at EA for their irritating deal with Sony, but despite its small faults, NHL 2004 is still one hell of a hockey game.

Dans cette édition 2004, NHL devient à la fois plus technique et plus spectaculaire. Tout en conservant la même base, EA a su incorporer de forts appréciables innovation de gameplay. Quelques petits manques et regrets mineurs sont à signaler. Sans refondre totalement sa formule, NHL s'enrichit et confirme son statut d'excellent jeu de Hockey. Rendez-vous l'année prochaine.

NHL 2004 skates back into contention with some innovative new controls. After several sputtering, rocky seasons, EA Sports overhauled its hockey series with solid results, and NHL 2004 benefits rippingly from a new development team and a new focus. Some of its ideas are brilliant innovations, some are wisely appropriated standards, and some just flop?but the overall result is fun, action-oriented, authentic hockey with a few troubling flaws.

Online play is simply not a component if you don't have a PS2, so multiplayer is strictly an on-the-couch affair. Granted, that's a lot of fun, with options for split-team play amongst a group of four, as well as the standard one-on-one mode. The wide camera angles serve really well here, keeping the action full-on and fast paced. It's remarkable that EA has managed to catch up to the incredible effort from Sega in a single generation, and if it weren't for an overly trying physics engine on the ice, the two would be in a dead heat. Even so, NHL 2004 is a highly impressive game, recommended for detail-oriented fans and lovers of hockey in general.