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NHL 2002 is the ONLY sports game you need this year. Forget FIFA, you already have every one of them since FIFA 96. Basketball sucks. And (if you have it), what are you doing with Madden and Triple Play Baseball??
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| Bow to your master, Mr. Marchment! | "Ladies and gentlemen... your CALGARY FLAMES!!" |
Okay, I'm biased a little, mainly cause I'm a hockey fan. GO CALGARY! (Look, at least I'm not supporting the Red Wings) But the graphics are just incredible. How good are they? Well for an absent-minded split second, I was wondering how I got a live NHL broadcast on my computer. Yes, if you have a reasonable graphics card (at least 32MB), put it at 1024x768 and max details, get a box of tissues and drool. If you don't have a graphics card worth shit, get yourself a new comp! Ian Tay will be happy to advise you so long as you do not ever mention the words "Intel" or "Pentium".
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| Yeah!!! Yeah!!! Yeah!!! | And another Yeah!!! |
The cut-scenes are especially good. And you can also download a program to import your MP3s into the game so you can hear your music during the breaks in play. Not that the soundtrack is bad, it's GREAT! Sum 41 contributes a lot, and there is also the Barenaked Ladies "It's Only Me (The Wizard of Magicland)" and The Tea Party "Temptation".
The game engine has really improved since NHL 2000 (ok, fine, I skipped a year. So what?). Rather than the old bird's-eye view, 2k2 takes you to the ice level, which gives them more opportunity to show off the great graphics. Also, thanks to the "Face In The Game" feature, the players in the game look uncannily like their real-life counterparts, therefore the "Lemuiex" advertisments, and the Iginla equivalent on the top of this review.
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| Most people didn't notice that Pavarotti had kidnapped and was impersonating one of the players. | Wow!!!! These fans are 3D!!!! |
As always, the motion-capture works well to give very realistic movements of the players. The AI however, has some issues to be sorted out. The computer scores one-timers with insane regularity, simply because the programmers were on heroin while doing the defensive AI. Go watch real-life hockey and see if the defensemen ever leave the slot unguarded. Well, apparently they like doing that.
The passing is improved, but quite unintuitivite (sp). The drawback of the ice-level view is that you can't see enough of the rink to pass to teammates on the other side knowing that they're there. Passing is very important in hockey after all, and sometimes I have the urge to scream "to the left, not behind, you stupid 4th-liner!!"
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| "Will you please stop dipping the pucks in glue?! It's so damn annoying!!" | One of the few photos of the sacred Pengrowth Saddledome. |
The goalies are now quite realistic. Each goalie has his customized equipment as in real life (the helmet is the most noticeable). And "fluke" goals happen less often than they did in 2000, where a hard slapshot from the point had a 10% chance of being deflected by the goalie into his own goal.
And now for the commentary. Don Taylor's jokes can range from extremely corny to the genuinely funny. I'll leave you to find and laugh over them. But there was one time he made me laugh so hard I forgot I was playing and luckily Roman Turek was able to glove Joe Sakic's wrister, which led to the "Game Story" feature popping up and praising him for a "Clutch Save". The "Game Story" feature, similar to the "Storyline" on ESPN NHL broadcasts, pops up when someone scores a hat trick, a goalie makes a great save, a team makes a comeback, a team dominates the other (that's on the back of the box) and other stuff like that.
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| This is how ridiculous Easy Mode gets. | Poor Paul Kariya, always picked on because of his Disney movie sweater... Same goes for the whole Mighty Ducks team. And that's why Teemu Selanne didn't want to play for them anymore. |
One so-so new feature is the NHL cards feature. By doing stuff in the game, you get points to buy cards. Mostly those that make your players "heroes" aren't very useful, just lets you admire the action shots. What you want is to unlock new celebration animations and easter eggs. Not good, but not bad either.
The new Breakaway, Save, and Big Hit cameras are really nothing much but Hollywood special effects. When you're all alone 1-on-1 with the goalie, the screen turns blue and you can only see your player and the goalie and all you can hear is a thumping heart. Very dramatic, and the camera follows the puck into the net if you score. The Big Hit and Save cameras just let you see a bonecrunching hit a few times from different angles, ditto for amazing saves (usually off the blocker).
The realism is a small problem, but this can be fixed up by tuning the AI "sliders" under the options menu. For those who still want to whine that it isn't like real hockey at all, go buy a ticket to a real game and leave the computer game alone. It's fast-flowing and the ice-level view adds atmosphere and gets the blood moving, and that's good enough for me.
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| This is my first playoff goal, and I'm proud of it too. Well what else could I be? | It was the infamous "Players' Tunnel Pickpockets" that finally convinced hockey players not to bring their wallets with them out onto the ice. |
GOOD: Don Taylor does colour commentary. Superb graphics. Quite realistic if you tune the settings
properly. Good soundtrack.
BAD: Don Taylor does colour commentary. Create-A-Player feature screws up your face bad.
Defense AI has some serious issues on default settings.
RATING: 92% (MUST BUY)
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| And this just in: CALGARY FLAMES R0X0RZ!! | About to be gang-raped by the oncoming Edmonton Gay Oilers, the solitary New Jersey Devil had no choice but to go "Matrix". |
Minimum Requirements
300Mhz processor
32MB RAM
4x CD-ROM drive
100MB hard disk space
16MB video card