Cheat Index - NHL 2002 XBox Review

Last year's NHL 2001 was EA's first venture for computer ice hockey on the PS2, and was one of the best games that fans of the sport could have hoped for, even if it wasn't perfect. The PC version was even better. Using that outstanding edition of the long-running hockey series as a foundation, EA Sports could just as well have added on a bunch of useless extras and called the new product NHL 2002. And to some extent that's exactly what happened. But fortunately for fans of the series, let alone anyone who likes hockey, there are quite a few excellent enhancements to the gameplay and the computer's artificial intelligence hidden beneath NHL 2002's dizzying array of flashy new features.

NHL 2002 is very similar to NHL 2001, so fans of the previous version will be very happy with this year's installment, too. The AI sliders that made NHL 2001 so approachable and customizable are still available in NHL 2002, and they once again let you custom-tailor the computer into just the sort of opponent you'd like to play against. Other returning features include the rookie draft, the ability to trade draft picks, the "big hit" and deke buttons. The PC version also offers the options to import your own music and photos for custom players. The new features in NHL 2002 are hit and miss. Longtime fans of the series will likely find a few of the new features disagreeable, but to its credit, EA Sports has included the option to easily toggle just about every one of the game's new features on or off.

The first thing many players will want to do is toggle off the new color commentary provided by Don Taylor. For some reason, despite years of trying to assure gamers that the NHL series is a serious sports franchise, EA Sports just gave up trying to be serious when it brought this guy on board. His comments, while occasionally quite funny, rarely ever have anything at all to do with hockey. They are merely one-liners that are included for humor's sake, and they give the game a rather unwelcome comic air. As if trying to keep this flavor consistent across the board, the developers also gave the PA announcer nothing but comic lines, such as, "Tonight's 50-50 number is...not yours." Oddly enough, the PA announcer's comments are often much funnier than Taylor's, but they're still out of place. You can turn the commentary off, but even when you select that option, you'll still hear several of Taylor's lines in each game.

Aside from the commentary, the rest of the game sounds excellent and close to the real thing. For the PS2 you can thank the good people at DTS for that! NHL 2002 is the first PS2 video game to incorporate DTS (Digital Theater Sound) into their actual gameplay. I'm here to tell you, you won't believe your ears! The crowd is all around you, and you can hear body checks and organ music in full 5.1 channel sound. This means you get seperate sounds from the not just the front left and right speaker, but the rear left and right speaker seperately as well! It's awsome! Now this means if you want to play it this way you need the right receiver. And for the Xbox players, as you know by now, Dolby Digital is the standard, and it sounds just as good as the PS2 version, not to worry. Awesome job EA!

NHL 2002 adds a lot to the game, including an in-game NHL "trading cards" book, similar to the ones found in some of EA Sports' PlayStation 2 games (Madden Football 2002 for example). You can accumulate points by completing various specific objectives, such as scoring a hat trick or reaching the 20-goal plateau in a season. These points can then be spent on trading cards, which in turn unlock other special features. The most common of these is the ability to turn the player on the card into a hero for varying periods of time. Others include unlockable goal celebrations and arcadelike power-up items, such as superfast shots. As with the commentary, most hard-core fans of the series will likely prefer to ignore a lot of this stuff, aside from the fun of trying to collect all the available player cards.

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