PlayStation 2

NHL 2K3

If ESPN's Hockey Falls commercials make you inadvertently hose innocent bystanders with your recently sipped beverage of choice, NHL 2K3 should be the next hockey game you buy.

For years, Electronic Arts has been the king of video hockey with its NHL series. While there have been contenders to the throne, no one who was serious about their hockey would play any game that didn't have the EA Sports logo on it. EA has traditionally been the 600-pound gorilla that sits where it wants to, and whom no one could possibly budge.

There are three things that make the winter bearable for the non-skiing, snow-hating northerner: college basketball, thoughts of the upcoming baseball season, and console hockey games. This year, PS2 owners have their largest choice yet of ways to shoot and deke their way through the dark winter, as Sega Sports enters the multi-platform fray with NHL 2K3. And, while most gamers consider EA Sports' NHL series to be king of the rink, 2K3 might just be the one that'll keep your thumbs busy until it's time to fill out your NCAA hoops brackets and listen to RealAudio broadcasts of grapefruit league exhibition games.

With the release of some pretty stellar sports titles recently, this has been an especially great year for hockey gamers. Both EA Sports (NHL 2003) and Midway (NHL Hitz 20-03) have presented their own brand of awesome NHL action and thankfully Sega Sports has stepped up with its own offering. If you think a hockey game just can’t get any better, think again sports fans. NHL 2K3 has come to the PS2 and it comes on stronger than ever.

Hockey and Sega have an interesting history. Everyone's favorite ice game never had more prominence in the console world than when EA's NHL series was king on Sega's Genesis. Now EA and Sega are bitter sports rivals. With EA's NHL 2003 released a month earlier, the challenge to do EA one better is going to be tough for Sega. However, developer Treyarch has done a masterful job with the game of hockey, creating a unique blend of accurate simulation and arcade smack.

NHL 2K3 may be slightly late to the party, but don't hold that against it. Sega has done an excellent job of adding new features and polishing existing ones to make the game worth the wait. Now that the series has moved on to all platforms, no one will have an excuse not to play what has become the best hockey game series on the market.

Most people who play video games like sports, I think that's a fair assumption, and most people own sports video games, in fact most people own several. Some people like soccer games, some like NFL games, some tennis, some basketball, some baseball, the list is endless. Hell, it's the running joke amongst my friends how much I hate Brian Lara Cricket on the PSX. I don't know why, I just think it's so dull I can't stand it. Mind you, I don't like cricket but pretty much all my mates do. Go figure.