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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: game review
Comment: I havent played this game yet, I put it away for present but delivery was very good and package in great condition.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Hockey Game yet to date!!!
Comment: One word for this game: Spectacular!I'm a big Hockey buff so of course i went to get this game. I was a little disappointed with NHL 2002 so I wasn't so excited to get this game at first. When i played it, I was stunned! The graphics are awesome, the music is excellent and the gameplay is off the hook! EA Sports really outdid themselves on this game. Take control of your favourite team in the Franchise Mode. Skate to the top and win the prized Stanley Cup! Think you can win it? Try out the Playoffs Mode and win your way to the Stanley Cup! Also, think your team can become the world champs? Well if you think so jump into International Mode and take control of a team such as Japan or Italy and become the world champs! Create your own player and it'll be like your skating with the pros! You cannot pass up this game so find a copy off the shelf and get it into your system!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: pretty good game
Comment: i think this was a pretty good game because of the realism. i espicially liked the manual deeks and the automatic deeks as well. you have full control of the game settings. you can choose how fast the gameplay is and many others. i think this is the best hockey game out there today. i would also recomend you buying this awsome game.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good & Bad
Comment: Normally I would give this game 4 1/2 stars, but i have to give it 3: the gameplay is great - will not disappoint. I haven't played 2002 though so I'm not sure how worth it a new purchase would be. Very cool camera views that accomodate any taste and settings can be changed to make scoring, etc. as difficult as you want it to be. Gameplay and graphics are very impressive overall, and as usual, EA NHL is still a cut above the other hockey games.The reason it only gets three stars is because of the franchise mode. For many, this is the most fun part of EA games - if you're used to frnachise/fantasy modes of other new games (like EA Madden 2003, Tiger Woods, etc.) you will hate this one. Player comparisons and selections are difficult to navigate, and as a result, it will take longer than it should and give you less info than you'll want to see on the screen at one time. Also, player attributes are weak - no AGE or INJURY prone type stats given for players which would make the game so much better. Lastly, most people don't actually play all 83 (or whatever number you set) games, and you cannot simulate more then one game at a time. Overall, if you compare the franchise mode to a game like Madden, that are so many drawbacks that it ruins the experience.
Customer Rating:
Summary: unfortunately, this is the best hockey game of 2003
Comment: When i finally got an Xbox this year and decided the first game i needed was a hockey game, i looked to Amazon.com and EBGames.com for help with customer reviews. on both sites, it seemed like the overwhelming majority of hockey gamers liked Sega's NHL 2K3 better than EA's NHL 2003. so I decided that, despite the fact that I have played and enjoyed EA's hockey line for about 10 years now, I would go ahead and get Sega's game. Well, that was definitely a mistake (see my review of Sega NHL 2K3 for further info). i don't see any conceivable way that someone could like that game better than EA's NHL 2003 unless they are a masochist of some sort. the only explanation i can think of for people writing positive reviews for Sega's game is that maybe they are people from some sort of Sega "street team" that get free swag for putting positive reviews on websites. other than that, i am at a loss. so after playing about 50 games of NHL 2K3, i sold it and bought NHL 2003. it is clearly a better game in every respect.
however, just because NHL 2003 is better than NHL 2K3 doesn't mean that this game is perfect. in fact, it is far from perfect. there are numerous changes that need to be made for NHL 2004, and several problems that need to be fixed:
1. there is still a bit of a play balance problem with EA's game. when you play five minute periods against the computer, you rarely get power plays, but the opponent gets many of them. you can get the settings so that you get the right amount of shots on the opponents goal, but the computer rarely exceeds 15 shots on you (which is very low). which leads me to...
2. you're goalies are horrible even when you have the game on beginnner level and shot accuracy all the way down. i have played one complete season and my goaltenders had a combined save percentage of .823, while facing the fewest shots of any tandem in the league, which is totally unrealistic.
3. the create-a-player system still has some bugs to be worked out: a.) there need to be more options to tinker with your players attributes, b.) there needs to be a way for you to see what the player's total attribute rating is WHILE you are creating him not just afterwards, c.) for some reason, no matter how low of a rating you give a created player, when they are assigned to a team they are automatically made a starter at the expense of a default roster player with a higher rating.
4.) the default rosters and roster settings are horrendous. there are players like daniel lacroix, pat falloon, rudy poeschek and sandy moger still on teams when they have been retired or playing in europe for 2 or 3 years now. some players are rated way too high and others way too low. there really needs to be, in franchise mode at least, a way for the user to set default line combinations, so that when injuries occur, the computer doesn't just set what it belives are the teams' "best lines." when i play a season, i want to make it as accurate as possible to the actual NHL season that is occuring. so i create all the players i need (including minor league call-ups and veteran players) and, if necessary create new versions of existing players with different attribute settings to reflect how the guy is playing this year. but, i can only do this to a certain extent and the computer, without fail, finds a way to muck it up for me during a season by changing the teams default lines around after an injury or something.
5.) graphics and playability-wise there are problems also. the graphics, although it doesn't make a big difference to me, seem to have taken a step back from NHL 2002. there is a pretty bad and annoying slowdown problem when there are a lot of players on the screen at the same time. the games, no matter how fast or slow you have the settings, seem very choppy and uneven.
6.) there are still no injuries to goalies, no penalties called on goalies and no random bench minors (like too many men or unsportsmanlike conduct) called.
well, that's it for the bad stuff, so how about what i like about this game:
1.) they now allow you to create a player that can be above a rating of 86. i remember when Mario Lemieux first made his comeback and i could only use create a player in NHL 2001 to make him an 86 rating, and i was furious. although anything like that is unlikely to happen again this year, it is nice to know that you now have the option.
2.) there are fewer checks that send guys flying through the air. most checks either just bump a guy away from the puck or lightly knocks them down. only occassionally (as in real life) do players absolutely level somone.
3.) penalty calls are much more accurate this year. if you hit a guy when he is not in possession of the puck, you'll probably be called for interference. if you use the big check button on a guy, you are more likely to get called for roughing or cross checking. if you dive out in front of a guy and he falls, you might get called for tripping.
4.) the stat tracking in season mode is excellent.
5.) it's really pretty fun to play over and over again.well, i guess that's all i have to say. it's not a perfect game, and there is plenty of room for improvement, but it's the best we have this year. enjoy.
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