bruins72

Anyone play any of the hockey games for the PS2? I'm looking to pick up one
of the new 2004 ones. I think there could have been a thread where this came
up a couple months ago but can't remember for sure. From what I've been
reading online, the ESPN one seems to be pretty good but I used to play the
EA ones in the past and those were always good. Any suggestions?

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Bruins72

rich reitman

I have NHL 2004 (EA Sports)...its pretty good with a new "Dynasty Mode". It
allows you to play a season but also make decisions as a G.M. (ie. negotiate
contracts and sign free agents, increase/decrease ticket prices, allocate
revenue for marketing, locker room and practice facilities, etc.).

The only downside for me is that you have to use the left joystick to
control player movement, as opposed to the four directional buttons. But,
once I got used to it, the game seems pretty good.

Rich


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bruins72

That sounds pretty fun. I've always enjoyed the management aspect of some
simulators (like Eastside Hockey Manager). Does this mode go for more than
one season? If so, do you get to do an entry draft?


Hmmm... I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I could probably deal with
using the joystick. I know I hated in 1st person shooter games when you had
to use both joysticks. That screwed me all up! I'm more of a computer game
guy but there are 2 types of games that I love on the console; hockey and
fighting. I figured my PS2 was collecting dust and needed some use.

BTW, I heard the ESPN one has old-time teams. Only problem is that on those
teams you only get jersey numbers, not names. I guess they had problems
getting rights to use the retired guys' names.

BTW, thanks for the input.

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Bruins72

lardass

I've only played EA's 04 game, i haven't seen ESPN out here in the sticks.
EA seems to have an even year curse in my opinion, 00, 02 and 04 aren't too
high on my list, the GM features are nice but the game itself doesn't play
too well. I own NHL2k3 and enjoy it more although the graphics are dated, i
hear that ESPN 2004 has a nice look and you can add in the names on the
classic teams but i also hear that the jersey numbers aren't always accurate
(like maybe #4 for the '72 Bruins isn't Bobby) but i can't say for sure.
Rent 'em both, then decide

bruins72

That's probably what I'm going to end up doing. Most of what I've read has
praised the ESPN one as the best hockey video game to date. The problem with
EA is that you've got some people that stick by it because they've played it
for years and then other people that trash it because it's been the big dog
for so long. The one thing about this year's EA is the dynasty feature that
Rich mentioned. I'll have to rent them both.

Thanks for the input.

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Bruins72

disillusioned ez

I've been playing EA (pc) for years, and I have to say 2004 ****s. I can't
stand the game play. I think I've only played it like 10 times since I
bought it and went back to an older version.

bruins72

Yikes! That's not good to hear. How are the older versions on the PC? What
do you use for a controller? Do you use a gamepad or a joystick? For some
reason I've always just stayed away from sports games and fighting games on
the pc. They just didn't feel right there.

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Bruins72

disillusioned ez

on

The older versions are fine. I still play 2000 sometimes even. I've owned
almost all of them back to 96. I use a Micro$oft Sidewinder gamepad.
2004's gameplay just ****s IMO. Besides, there's a bug (at least on
Win2K/ATI Radeon 8500) that after one game, the taskbar kind of flickers
through the game display and makes it all choppy. You have to exit the
program and start again each game :-(

bruins72

Maybe I'll try the 2005 version on the PC if they pull their heads out on
that one. I've never bothered getting a gamepad for my PC. I usually only
play 1st person shooters and RPGs on it. BTW, if you're into 1st person
shooters there is a great one online for free. It was originally going to be
an expansion pack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein but they scrapped it.
They had the multiplayer part done, so they released it free to the public.
It's called Enemy Territory. Great game!

I used to play the EA hockey games on all the old systems like Sega, SNES,
and PS1. I never bothered with any of the hockey games on the PS2. But then
again, my PS2 had sat for about a year until I just started using it again
recently.

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Bruins72

disillusioned ez

Half-Life 2 is coming...