Time and again, EA Sports brings another outstanding game, not only in gameplay, but also in the audio/video department. As soon as you pop in the disc, NHL 2004's presence is felt with another outstanding set of audio tracks behind the menu system. In the game, another class act is represented in the announcing crew, as well as within on-ice sounds.

Visually, NHL 2004 is gorgeous, and the animations seem to get more and more realistic every year, despite the fact that EA has been using motion capture for a number of years. There's just something about the intro to each game this year that helps to give an authentic presentation of warm-ups. This year's game doesn't seem to suffer from any overly noticeable hit on framerate either, which makes the NHL franchise even more lucrative.

Although on the surface, this is just another year of hockey within the realm of video games, NHL 2004 does offer even more in terms of gameplay. Sure, you have your standard smash-mouth antics of toothless athletes, but now you can compete against even more teams, in another mode of play, and also take to the ice in cyberspace.

While it's true that North America may (generally) have the best professional football and basketball players in the world, they don't necessarily have the best hockey players. So why not take the challenge of competing around the world. Well, now you can in NHL 2004's new Elite Leagues. Challenge or play as any of 39 international teams in different leagues, including Finland's SM-Liiga, Germany's DEL, or Sweden's Elitserien.

Since you're now on pace to compete around the world, the next step is to take NHL away from your cozy living room. That's right. You can finally challenge your buddy across the street or a random player from across the country, thanks to the PS2's online Network Adapter. You'll have the option of playing with either a dial-up or broadband connection, but I would recommend the latter in order to help with Internet lag time.

The heart of the new NHL game from EA Sports, however, lies in the new Dynasty Mode. Have your ever wondered about the decision-making of your favorite sports team? Well now's your chance to show the world you mean business. In the Dynasty Mode, you become the General Manager of your team over 20 seasons. As the GM, you have total control over your team. You'll be in charge of everything from managing your rosters to setting your ticket prices. Don't worry, though, you do still get to play the games.

Wow! I've never claimed to be good at any of the past games in the NHL franchise, but it seems that every year it gets more and more difficult to do well. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily... if you're playing with a well-rounded team. But if your favorite team hasn't exactly lit up the ice lately, you'll be in for a long season (or Dynasty, if you choose). The gap between the good and the bad is very accurate to the NHL. Just be prepared for a very good computer AI, and hope that your goalie isn't a 'siv.'

The controls of NHL 2004 are very straight-forward. There's nothing tricky, and the button layout works well. New to the series, however, is the Right Analog Stick's Bruise Control. Now you have full control over the direction of every check you throw someone's way. And if you want to really stick your opponent, you can also hold down the R3 button before the check for added impact. The only problem with the Bruise Control is that it becomes hard to use as you will need to constantly use the face buttons to switch players or poke-check, so (at least for me), it tends to fall by the wayside.

NHL 2004 is another great game in another great series. Fans of the sport will be very happy with the gameplay, and passersby will enjoy the fun factor involved with hockey video games. NHL 2004 can be a bit difficult, but once you get a feel for it, this added difficulty will eventually be welcome and add more replay value to the game.

NOTE -- Online plays is only available in the PS2 version of NHL 2004