Rating: 
Summary: I played it for a while.....
Review: ...and one day when I went to play it and it wouldn't work!! If I was you (and from what I've found out Im not the only one with this problem) I would just wait until 2004 comes out or get 2003.
Rating: 
Summary: This game 0wnz0rz 1337 h4x0rz
Review: After getting the demo of this game i played it for 8 hours straight. This game has many improvments over 2002. The only problem is that you cannot change your controls settings. You can only run this game in open gl it does not support direct 3d cards. Most of the gforce 3 cards and radeon cards will not run this game. It is a very fun game if you disreguard these minor problems. It has all the hockey teams in the NHL and some hockey teams from around the world(plus a secret afghanistan team)(it has not china team). All in all this game is a great purchase for those people with open gl cards. Please make sure yours is an open gl before you buy this game.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money....stick with NHL 2002
Review: Coming from a guy who has been a huge EA fan since the days of NHL 94 on the Sega, I must say NHL 2003 is very dissapointing. Although the game does have many postives - the graphics, the cool goalie saves and the announcers - it is filled with many, many negatives. What were the guys at EA drinking? To start off with the gameplay is awful. Is seems as though EA has moved backwards in providing the user with accurate on ice controller movements. How many times does the skater have to skate over the puck before he picks it up? On top of that the times where the puck is just sitting in the open and no one is able to get to it is ridiculous, & god forbid the puck goes behind the net. If it does be prepared to have to try and grab it two or three times. 90% of the time the computer controlled team will always get to it before you do. My biggest pieve is the fact that in order to make you player change directions, the game is designed so you have to "swing" him in a large 360. No more changing directions on the stop of a dime. This one point alone is a major reason to not buy the game. Be prepared to control your own line changes. The computer automatically changes your lines just about every time you pass the red line with the puck. This means that everytime you get in deep to the oppostions side you have no backup. The lines are changing. The setup screens are packed with way too much info and poorly designed. The words user friendly do not apply here. The menu screens give the feeling of Windows 95 maybe even 3.1. Yuck! Another negative is that when choosing an on ice strategy option in the coaches section, the game automatically defaults back to its default setting every time. So say if you pick the "rush the net option" the game will not remember that when the game starts. My last sour point about the game is when you play online with someone you are forced to change ALL of the personalized programmable setting every time. So before every online game you have to change things like "no fighting", "no injuries", "game speed", "speed burst %", etc. I wish there was a comments phone line at EA. Things have to change or else my EA hockey collection stops here!
Rating:
Summary: There are some pros and some Cons
Review: first i would like to say this is a great improvment on NHL 2002. Now here are the pros and cons:
PROS:
Realstic Gameplay
Amazing Dekes
No more 110 and up MPH shots
CONS:
Like very hockey game the powerplay set up stinks u just dont rush in and shoot u set up!
Start screen is ugly
Overall this is a very good game though
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment compared to 2002
Review: I have purchased this, tried it out and am sad to say that it is a disappointment compared to 2001 and 2002. As stated in the previous review, the menus are way too busy and hard to get around in. The time it takes to load the game and play it is slower than last year. The game play itself is laborious and not as exciting as last year. As far as I can see, the "face in the game" feature is gone. When I downloaded the game there is no "user" file in which to import ditties and players. There's fewer options in the create a player mode. Only two eye colors, limited skin tones and, as I said, no face in the game. This year's default music is way too loud and obnoxious, catering to 13 year olds obviously. EA has always been on the cutting edge of creating great interactive sports games and up until now they've made the best NHL game. This year's edition, however, is a textbook example of the old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Well EA fixed the game and hurt it in the process. If you want real excitement and lots of creative options, your best bet is to go with NHL 2002. I won't be purchasing 2004 unless they vastly improve it over 2003.
Rating: 
Summary: flawed but fun sim
Review: i only use games like this as coaching simulations - trying to control the players never really works out on EA games. that said, though, for what i bought it for this is a great game.pros - all the teams are here, rosters can be updated once a month through the easports.com site, graphics are mostly spiffy, details of gameplay can be modified fairly extensively, franchise mode is deeper than i expected (amateur drafts, FA signings, you can play ten seasons), you can control more than one team and can switch teams at any point in franchise mode (e.g. switch from playing as the kings to the coyotes in 2006). cons - many little problems but no big ones. the fighting sequences are stupid-looking, you have to turn penalties waaay up to have ANY penalties called, the color commentary gets repetitive (although it improves if you play a few games into a long season), most old team uniforms surprisingly aren't here (e.g. NO kansas city scouts, hartford whalers, etc), 2-D crowd faces the wrong way at the bottom of your screen, crowd animations are repetitive and lifeless (the same 6 people are apparently sitting everywhere in every arena in the NHL), the broadcast cam gives you an upside down view of the center logo at every arena... overall, it's a worthy effort and worth the price i paid for it. still, though, EA Sports is getting lazy with most of its franchises, and i really hope they don't rush 2004 out.
Rating:
Summary: It is great.
Review: I think everything is good exept breakaway cam is distracting and gives you bad veiw. Play is a littel to sllow.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Of EA's NHL Series Yet
Review: I've bought every one of EA's NHL game series since it was first released and I always log in 4 or 5 seasons with each year (400-500 games). Every year they've made considerable improvements over the previous years. However, when NHL 2002 came out, it was the first time the game didn't get better... it actually got considerably worse. Game control dropped a notch, defense AI became worse then it's been in years, and most of the goals scored by the computer were cheap blue line slap shots. Worst of all was the new 'feel' of the game... EA turned much of the game into a joke. This included the stadium PA announcer telling bad jokes and the color commentator who once had intelligent things to say along with player facts, being replaced with Don Taylor who goofs around constantly and says nothing but poor one-liners and dumb jokes. I played about 65 games before reverting back to playing NHL 2001. NHL 2003 sinks even further then the previous year. Player control feels muddled and at times annoying (example: player will skate right over the puck without picking it up). Defensive AI is just as bad as last year (way too many breakaways)... no improvements at all. Although the game seems to have matured a bit since 2002, dropping many of the announcer's bad jokes, Don Taylor is still as annoying as ever. You have the option to turn the color commentary off, however it only cuts down on his comments... he still chimes in quite often. By game number 30, I had to resort to turning the volume of the play-by-play down completely. The new menu system needs some tweaking as well. You don't have as much control as previous years (player and goalie sliders are gone leaving you with a much less tunable game) and some of the game options can only be changed after you start playing the game, which means you have to set them for EVERY game. Overall, playing against the computer is awful. If you play anything above 'easy' the game becomes heavily one sided in favor of the computer's team. Your goalie is always horrible (regardless of who you use) while the computer's goalie is like superman, anticipating where you'll shoot the puck before you do. If you manage to keep the shots down and get close to shutting out the computer, 95% of the time the computer will score a cheap goal in the last 30 second of the game, almost as if it was programmed into the game itself. The computer's team will block your passes and slap shots with incredible ease and will consistently score a goal against you for every 4-5 shots they take. It's unbearably frustrating to fight through two periods only to have 7 straight goals scored against you in the third. Less then 60 games into the season, I've already abandoned NHL 2003... The problem with EA's NHL series for the last couple of years is the overall development of the game. EA seems too concerned with adding cutting edge technology to the game that they forget to fix the problems of the previous year. The graphics are great and the animations are impressive, however that doesn't mean much if the game itself isn't any fun. When my goalie fails to stop five straight 200-foot slap shots or my defenseman gets beaten to the puck by a computer controlled player one step behind him, I really could care less about new 'Game Breaker' and other useless eye candy features. For next year's version, EA needs to dump Don Taylor and restart programming from NHL 2001. They need to worry more about the core of the game. Anything less and NHL 2004 will be the first of the series that I won't be buying. If you play against another person, many of the game's flaws are less evident and the game becomes tolerable. However, if you mostly plan on playing against the computer, I highly recommend skipping this year's version and hoping for something better from EA next year.
Rating:
Summary: Not really worth the money
Review: I've played every EA hockey game since '95. The graphics improve (duh), but some aspects of gameplay get worse. NHL 2003 is not a bad game but not worth the extra cash you'll pay over just buying NHL 2002 from the bargain bin. The breakaway replays are nice, and goals aren't all perfect anymore, some trickle in. On the whole it just doesn't justify spending twice what you'd pay for an older version of the same thing. Determining how hard an opposition you face is much, much worse than before. You cannot choose whether to manual or auto-aim for a season - play on Medium or harder and it's manual (good), play easier than that and it's auto-aim (which is bad). If you want something different you have to manually change it EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU PLAY THE GAME. Unforgivable. The replay cam is available or unavailable for no apparent reason (mid game usually yes, end of game or period usually no). The player AI is maddeningly stupid. My players will skate directly at the puck, and then a foot away turn and move in another direction for no reason. Your ability to pick up the puck is also frustrating - your stick must be exactly over the puck to get it, so you'll often skate past a free puck. Your players and others will teleport through the net. The AI determining who you'll hit is sloppy, often you'll rush right at the puck handler, hit the 'big hit' button, and veer off 90 degrees to aim at some player further away who has nothing to do with the play. Speed burst is much clumsier than prior years, though that gets better with practice. You'll get few shutouts no matter how dominating you are, late in the third the other team will score anytime they shoot from inside your blue line: it's automatic. Your goalie stats will be somewhat better than prior years only because the AI takes more shots. Buy NHL 2002 for much less, and wait for 2003 to hit the bargain bin.
Rating:
Summary: Not cool!
Review: Just gonna say I got NHL Starz 2003 from Serious. Although it's not the PC game, it was a bit more entertaining and in this economy a better value.
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