NHL 2K3 Review

NHL 2K3 sets to correct this with some awesome gaming that certainly caught our eye somewhat here at HQ.<br><br>Extracting the greatness from Ice Hockey and leaving the crap is a chore in itself, but somehow the god like Sega team seems to have pulled it off perfectly. The minute the controller is cradled in your hand and the game begins, you’ll feel yourself being sucked in and in into the game without a single second thought; the simple but expansive control system is undeniably intuitive and rapidly you’ll be sweeping round players like a … um… kinda pro. However, as with most games, there are ‘levels’ of play – sure you can pick up and play, but to pick up and WIN is another story all together – it soon becomes apparent that you’re not going to be winning by any large margin for a while.<br><br>The game takes the structure of most sports games; a simple ‘quick play’ mode for the impatient (read: the staff here) which delves you straight into a single game – whether you probe into the more complex options such as positions/lines is your choice, but it’s certainly not essential. Herein lies the beauty of 2K3 – you don’t need to touch advanced ‘sim’ options if you don’t want to, and often you won’t be worse off for it, with the game simply turning slightly more ‘arcade like’ in a seamless transformation.<br><br>Want to just play a pass and shoot game? Sure, just play like that and you’ll feel the game ‘moulding’ to your play – no matter to what degree you choose to play 2K3 at, it always promises massive enjoyment all round. We love it.<br><br>Game modes wise, this game is nothing madly innovative – sports games have been pushed to their limits and now fit a pretty heavy standard. 2K3 features the aforementioned ‘Quick Play’ mode, plus ‘Exhibition’, ‘Season’, ‘Playoffs’, ‘Tournament’ and ‘Franchise’, with the latter deserving most attention – taking after many of the other Sega sports game franchise modes, the mode is bound to add some extra longevity to the game, however it is missing the graphical enhancements that the mode received in NFL and NBA 2K3 received; the manager’s office for one, is absent, and instead we are thrown into a massively ugly text based system of old. Ah well, maybe next year?<br><br>Graphically, 2K3 is no super model by any means; the character models don’t have any real high definition to them and the players faces lack the detail to really make them recognisable – we’d like to have seen some animation (eyes etc) in their faces, but maybe this is to come in a year or so. However, overall, the game has a nice feel – the stadium looks nice from a distance and the overhead view looks lovely, with some sweet effects such as scratches in the ice. Nice. <br><br>Animation is stunning… just lovely. Although not fully apparent whilst playing, check out the replays and you’ll see your character weaving in and out of other players, snaking the puck round the course with absolute precision - just generally looking bloody marvellous. It’s refreshing to be able to enjoy replays, watching how your players reacted to a challenge or checking how ‘that’ was REALLY a goal; definitely a great feature for showing off when your mates are complaining that the game is ‘glitchy’ and that you ‘lost’ when in fact it was their goalie knocking the puck back into the goal. Hoho, how you can laugh.<br><br>As expected from a Sega title, commentary wise, this game is also excellent with absolutely brilliant chatter coming from the yanks in the box. The two guys speak with massive vigour, shouting as a goal is scored or has a near miss with pure feelings of excitement. Banter also accompanies this, with the speakers rambling on about all the stats, telling us how ‘Team B have ‘this’ or ‘that’ strength” in the midst of play; it’s all rather lovely and fits in perfectly, however on the downer side, the same sentences come round all too often and it would certainly be nice to see a bit more variation. Alas, we can’t have it all.