• ID = PS0635
• STYLE = Hockey
• DEV. = EA Canada
• PUB. = Electronic Arts
• R-DATE = Sep-03-2003
• ESRB = E / For Everyone
• PLAYERS = 1-2 players
• LIST PRICE = $49.99
  

It's been called the Fastest Sport on Earth and the faster the players, the tougher the contact. NHL 2004 brings professional hockey to life like never before, with crisp passes, searing slap shots, and a variety of new ways to check your opponent to regain control of the puck. With the addition of international leagues and a Dynasty Mode that lets you build a powerhouse, NHL 2004 is the hockey fan's dream comes true.

It is more physical than ever before, with new Bruise Control, with a new fighting system, more realistic player collisions, and powerful visuals like popping helmets and breaking glass. Total player control allows you to direct 2 button touch sensitive passes anywhere on the ice, call team strategies on the fly, and aggressively tie up opponents against the boards and in front of the net. Go Deep Into Dynasty Mode; Take on the role of GM for till 20 seasons, drafting and trading players, negotiating contracts, and managing the financial bottom line of your franchise. Earn valuable experience points to upgrade your GM office and buy improvements to staff and facilities, thus improving your teams on ice performance.

Features:

• Hard-hitting NHL action, now more physical than ever
• New Bruise Control fighting system features more realistic player collisions and powerful visuals
• Total player control allows you to direct 2-button touch sensitive passes anywhere on the ice
• Take on the role of GM for up to 20 seasons, drafting and trading players
• For 1 or more players

Amazon.com customer reviews:

Difficult, but fun, but much room for improvement! , September 26, 2003
Reviewer: Scott Kelly (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews
If you liked the past EA NHL games because it is easy to win 13-0 every time you play, then don't buy this game. If you want to be challenged every time out, then go get this game fast. The GM Dynasty mode is great. Gameplay takes a lot of getting used to.

The players do not respond as quickly as they used to, and checking is very hard. However, this is called REALISM! If you actually watch hockey, how many open ice bone crushing hits do you see? Not many. That is the case here. If you want to score, shoot early and often. No more of this scoring on every breakaway crap either, not this year! You are lucky to even get a breakaway.

Room for improvement: The computer gets away with WAY TOO MUCH obstruction hooking. This can be very annoying at times. Line changes are also difficult to make on the fly, becasue you can't cycle through lines anymore by repeatedly hitting the R2 button. You have to use the D pad to call out a line after you hit R2. This makes it hard to skate and do this at the same time. There are also two different buttons for flat and lob passes. The old was was better, where you hold down for a lob pass. Also, you must aim each pass exactly now. No more aiming in the general direction. The pass goes where you point it to go.

 NHL has done it again!!!

good game, could be a lot better.

  Good Game , July 17, 2004
Reviewer: A gamer

• Left analog stick == move player.
• R1-button = speed burst.
• Triangle-button or right analog stick = body check.
• L2-button = hook, pin, tie up.
• L1 and triangle-button = dive.
• L1 and square-button = block.
• R3-button = charge up a hit.
• X-button held down = last man back.
• X-button = change player.
• Square-button = poke.
• L1-button = shift button.
• Right analog stick: bruise control.

• Left analog stick = move player.
• Right analog stick = manual maneuver.
• X- button = pass and face off.
• Square-button = saucer pass.
• Circle-button = slap shot.
• Circle- button = wrist shot.
• L1 and triangle-button = spin.
• Triangle: button = auto maneuver.
• R3-button when tap or circle-button = manual maneuver shot.
• X-button = manual maneuver pass.
• R1-button = speed burst.
• L1 and shift-button = fake shot.

NHL 2004 HINTS & TIPS
From the Manufacturer

DYNASTY MODE
Even before you start playing, think about what kind of GM you want to be. You are given three upgrade points to start with and you should put those points into the areas that suit your GM style.

If you are a GM that wants to win right away:
 • Go to the free agent pool and sign some quality free agents.
 • Trade your draft picks for a star player or two.
 • Put your upgrade points into your facilities.

If you are a GM that wants to win in the future:
 • Trade your older players for draft picks.
 • Put all of your upgrade points into scouting and coaching.
 • Get rid of any high priced players so you rank first in profit margin at the end of the year.

Profit is by far the most important factor for calculating the end of season GM ranking. While you as the GM care about winning games, the team owners care about making money. The overall GM ranking at the end of each season is what gives you the most upgrade points. A team might be very strong for the first few years, but unless the GM is ranking high enough each season, his team will quickly fall towards the bottom of the pack.

The Dynasty lasts 20 years. Use short, medium, and long term goals. For example:
 • Short term goal [1 year]: Trade for first round draft picks, make the playoffs, and finish first in profit margin.
 • Medium term goal [3 years]: Do your short term goal for 3 seasons and use those 12 or so upgrade points and put them into scouting and coaching.
 • Long term goal [7 years]: All of your first round draft picks should be stars by now. It's time to start winning some Stanley Cups.

When setting practices, use common sense. After 2 games in 2 nights, give your team a day off. When there are 3 days off in a row, throw in a long practice. Remember that practices will only raise attributes as high as your upgrades will let them. So, 10 long practices in a row will not boost your player's attributes to 99. Look at player morale when setting practices. If your team's morale is low, give them a day off or two.

It pays to have 2 great goalies. When simming a bunch of games, your coach will play the back-up when the starter is tired. If your back-up is weak and you are losing a bunch of simmed games in a row, this might be the problem. This is especially true when your team gym upgrade is at a low level, since your players will tire faster. Your goalies are the key to winning simmed games.

All free agents receive a 10% signing bonus. Building your team through free agency can start to lower profit margins.

When simming games, players sometimes get injured, and your coach will call up a player from the minors. If you are losing a bunch of simmed games, check the edit lines screen. A player who got injured is not automatically called up.

It is tough to win at the beginning of your Dynasty. If you take a top team like Colorado or Detroit, you can win lots of games, but it will be tough to make a profit since team salaries are high. With a high team salary, make sure that you go far in the play-offs, since that can add up to $25 million to the bottom line. If you take a low rated team like Columbus or Pittsburgh, you might not win many games during the first few seasons, so concentrate on profits and getting upgrades.

Since profit margins count for so much of a GM's experience, the marketing and legal upgrades are very important. A high marketing staff level can raise attendance by 2000 fans or more per game. A high marketing staff level can lower a team salary by a few million dollars.

Check your team finances screen often. You can change ticket prices at any time during the season. If your team is on a winning streak, you might be able to raise prices a bit. In the playoffs, fans will pay more money during the last 2 rounds of the playoffs. For the final round, just keep raising the ticket price until just before it is no longer a sell-out. Remember to lower these prices for the next season's playoffs.

Player morale is based on:
 • Team Points over the last 10 games [starts 10 games into season]
 • Locker room upgrade
 • Player Ice time [starts 5 games into season]:
     Players with overall ratings above 90 want at least 20 minutes per game.
     Players with overall ratings above 80 want at least 17 minutes per game.
     Players with overall ratings above 70 want at least 10 minutes per game.
     Players below 70 want at least 7 minutes per game.
 • Players that are injured or in the minors are not affected by morale.

GAMEPLAY
Size, speed and the players checking attribute all determine the power of the check.

Use a saucer pass to get it by a defending player who is in your way while trying to pass.

To beat a defending player trying to block your shot or is in the way of your shot path, wind up with a shot and wait until the defending player goes down to block it, then hold the shift button to fake the shot and skate around the defender. You can also try beating the defender by using a manual deke putting the stick to either side to change the shooting angle towards the net.

To be successful using the Behind the Net strategy, try and move the puck to the player behind the net by a direct pass or a pass off the boards. This will give the player behind the net with the puck some time and space. Then move the puck-carrier out to either side of the net and look for a player breaking towards the net to pass to and set up a one-timer play.

If your down by a goal late in the game and the other team has the puck, move your Offensive Quick Play to ‘All out Attack' and your Defensive Quick Play to ‘High Pressure' to put maximum pressure on the opposing team so you can get the puck back in your possession.

If your up by a goal late in the game and the other team has the puck, move your Offensive Quick Play to ‘Defend Lead and your Defensive Quick Play to ‘Protect Net' to put make sure all your players are back playing defense. This eliminates being out numbered through the neutral zone and defensive zone and forces the opposing team to shoot from the outside giving you a better chance to win the game.

You can change your Offensive and Defensive Quick Plays before the puck is dropped during a face-off.

A great way to defend a one-on-one against the puck-carrier is to try and poke-check the puck away first before trying to hit the player giving you two attempts to stop the oncoming player.

On a break-away try and beat the goalie by holding the stick to one side using the Manual deke and just before you reach the goalie move the stick to the opposite side and press the Manual Shoot Button.

While on the rush using the Crash the Net strategy take the puck-carrier and skate along the boards. Then as you see your other team-mates skate towards the net, take a shot low to the far side of the net creating a rebound so the players skating to the net can shoot in the rebound.

A successful way to break out of your zone is to take the puck-carrier behind the net and stop. As soon as the opposing player chases you behind the net start skating in the opposite direction and look to head man the puck to a team-mate who is skating up ice.

While in a manual deke you can steer your player using the left analog.

You can one-time a loose puck by pressing the shoot button just before reaching the loose puck. You can also wind up to one-time a loose puck by holding down the shoot button when the player is close to the puck.

While winding up to one-time a loose puck you can steer your player using the left analog to move your player in position to shoot the puck.

Speed burst should be used in quick bursts or when needed like going after a loose puck or trying to beat a defensemen with speed to the outside. If it is held too long the player will fatigue quickly and lose the bursting effect.

CPU team's strategies will change depending on the score of the game. If they are up by one or more goals they will sit back and protect the lead and if they are down by 1 or more goals they will pressure the puck-carrier to get the puck back.

A good way to stop an opposing player from getting a shot on a break-away is to skate close to the puck-carrier and before they shoot press the dive button to dive and sweep the puck away.

CREATED TEAMS
Custom teams can be taken into Dynasty mode so choose wisely. You do not want too high of a team salary to begin with.

If you want to replace a team in a league and do not want duplicate players, create your team with all the players of the team you will be replacing, choose free agents, or choose elite league players.

Watch the credits and create development team players. Many of these players have a high potential rating.

These are hidden players in the game from the bands Alien Ant Farm and Gob:

Last Name	First Name	Status
Gobzinakis	Theo	GOB
Metal	Gabe	GOB
Stomper	Gob	GOB
Whacker	Tom	GOB
Wolfman	Pat	GOB
Would	Craig	GOB

FIGHTING
Counter punches (off a block) [hi or low] are the most powerful punch – so don't just button mash the 2 punch buttons, try to block & counter

There's a ‘lucky punch' possibility if you do a successful counter punch. A lucky punch means that the player would do almost double or triple the damage of a normal punch – so you could knock out the opponent with that one big punch.

The high and low punch buttons are double mapped, but are the same punch moves.

A player's Toughness rating affects how much damage each punch thrown does, as well as the amount of damage each punch on them inflicts.

Don't just button mash… try to anticipate your opponents move and block their next punch and then counter punch.

EA SPORTS BIO
The Hours Played counts time in-game AND in the Front End.

EA SPORTS bio will be backwards compatible -- so your accomplishments, titles played and hours spent playing 2004 EA SPORTS titles will carry over into the 2005 games.