NHL 2003 vs NHL 2004

[IHaveNoCreativity]

NHL 2004 was insane, I still play it for the dynasty mode. I finished a 20 year run and made the hall of fame a few months back. EA needs to look at that.

 

[Hisch13r]

04. I never liked 03

 

[BruinDust]

Reading this thread makes me sad I missed that entire 2002-2004 era of NHL games. I basically went from playing NHL 98 and 2001 on PS1 to playing NHL 05 on PC. I'm sure I played 04 at a friend's house one weekend but it's hard to remember much about the game other than I had Todd Bertuzzi added to my Bruins team.

For me, 98 is my favorite of all-time, followed by 05, 11 and 93. 2005 was interesting to me for a number of strange reasons. One, there was no create-a-player. I believe they were working on overhauling the create-a-player for PC and it wasn't ready for launch day so they just held off on it until 06. So you were limited to the players from the leagues in the game, which made team building more interesting to me as I now considered a large pool of players rather than just creating Bruins prospects. I also liked how the Dynasty mode made it beneficial to manage teams with low salaries, so guys like Eric Stall and Nathan Horton were my 3rd line guys as they had low salaries for the first few years. Keep in mind this was before the salary cap era. I also enjoyed the Free-4-all mode.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

NHL 2004 was insane, I still play it for the dynasty mode. I finished a 20 year run and made the hall of fame a few months back. EA needs to look at that.

Best dynasty mode to date

 

[JackFr]

Gotta love a game where time slows down, a spotlight shines on you and Queens of the Stone Age plays when you get a breakaway. Hockey realism right there.

Remember the "Hero Line"?

NGL, the Hero Line thing needs to come back, sick of NHL 20 chucking 4th liners out when down a goal with 30 seconds left

 

[TheShape]

NHL 2004 and it’s not even close.
Funny because the first time I played NHL 20 I laughed to myself at how much it felt like I was playing the ultra arcade NHL 2003.

NHL 2004 was ahead of its time on so many different levels. Deep GM mode and simulation gameplay was perfection.

I remember there was as a theory back in the day that there were two different crews who worked on the NHL series. Odd years was arcade gameplay and even years was geared to more of a simulation style.

03,05,07 Arcady. 04,06,08 all pretty similar.

Top to bottom NHL 2004 was the best game ever made. From a strictly gameplay perspective, I would give the nod to NHL 08.

 

[filip85]

04 by far. Game was so realistic for the time it was released. I enjoy it sooo much !!! Hopefully EA include remastered version along with NHL 21 for next - gen.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I actually still play NHL 2002 to this day and prefer it over 2003 and 2004. But between the two choices, 2004 was the better game.

NHL 2002 was easy, and the focus seemed to be lighthearted entertainment. NHL 2004 was much more difficult and realistic. I still enjoy both (depending on what I'm looking for).

Some of the silly (but fun) features in 2002 included:

• An overriding feature of the game was the task lists. You need to perform specific tasks, and would earn points. They ranged from really easy (score a goal; throw a big hit; win a game) to incredibly difficult (win three consecutive Stanley Cups; beat team Canada using team Japan; score 100 goals in 50 games with one player). There were four different task levels, and four difficult settings - so effectively you had 16 task lists (each with about 15 tasks). You'd earn points (more for tougher feats) and could use them to buy cards. I'm not sure if I ever got every single card - but this is a good throwback to childhood.
• Most of the aforementioned cards give a specific player a boost for one, two or three periods (bronze, silver, gold). But a few of them were really fun. My favourite was "last man standing". This card (which can be used indefinitely) changes game play so that any time a player is hit, they remain down on the ice until the next whistle. It was easy to create 5-on-1 situations with some careful checking - completely unrealistic, but really fun to play.
• The commentary had lots of silly banter between the two announcers. Even the rink announcer had some funny one-liners. They must have recorded a ton of lines, as there seemed to be a lot of variety. (In 2004, the commentary was strictly business, and I found it much more repetitive).
• The gameplay was generally good. The main bug was it was incredibly easy to score goals off deflections. These were often physics-defying (the opponents rarely took advantage of this).
• You can choose shootout mode from the main menu. I never understood why this was removed in 2004.

Some of the tougher & more serious features in 2004 included:

• The game play was challenging. The opponents were aggressive, and were proficient in blocking shots and breaking up passes (even after tweaking the AI options). In most other versions of NHL, it eventually became easy to consistently win, even on difficult mode. The hardest level in 2004 remains a genuine challenge. Players have "hero" ratings, which is supposed to show if they're clutch scorers. This is a double-edge sword - it helps if you have Lemieux, Sakic, etc - but it also felt like opponents would seemingly score at will late in the third and in overtime.
• This was the first game in the EA series to have a deep franchise mode (this extended out 20 years). Eventually the salaries became unrealistic (15 years in, every player was rated 90+ and demanded $10M+ annually) but this feature was far ahead of its time.
• One significant improvement (which is absolutely essential for the franchise mode) is the seasons simulate much more quickly. Simulating an entire regular season (I'm still playing on a PC from 2008, give or take) requires 10-15 seconds. In NHL 2002, it would require five or ten minutes.
• In 2002, the game length was fixed (I usually set it to five minute periods). In 2004, the game slowed down so that any PP/PK, and the last minute of the third, was played in real time. This was a huge improvement as it made the final minute of regulation meaningful. In 2002, a two-minute PP in a game with five minute periods only lasted 30 seconds. In 2004, this makes PP opportunities meaningful (and PK's challenging), since they'd actually last two minutes. I think this was rolled out in 2003, but I'm not positive.
• Teams from certain European leagues (I think it was Swiss, German, and one more) were added. I never really cared for these, but still a good feature for some fans.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

his was the first game in the EA series to have a deep franchise mode (this extended out 20 years). Eventually the salaries became unrealistic (15 years in, every player was rated 90+ and demanded $10M+ annually) but this feature was far ahead of its time.

Yes! The scouting system was on a whole different level. I've been playing it over and over during this quarantine period and the fact that you can get 99 potential ability players in the fourth and fifth round is unheard of. As long as you had your assistant coaches and scouting boosted up, you were consistently able to get gems.

 

[rent free]

Nhl 03 sucked tbh. I only liked the gameplay because of the players in the past. The soundtrack was great though.