It's as simple as this: If you play hockey on your PC, you play EA Sports' version of hockey. The last serious competition vanished years ago, bullied out of existence by the increasingly powerful, increasingly dominant EA juggernaut. Today, the NHL series is judged only against previous installments and the real-life sport. This year's iteration, NHL 2004, is one of the most interesting in quite some time, offering more innovations than most recent efforts and providing decidedly improved realism. Despite a few glitches--some which are quite glaring--the latest NHL is the finest, and certainly the most challenging, NHL to date, and it's a real step forward from last year's rather complacent NHL 2003.

Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson cranks one from the slot.

Strictly from a gameplay standpoint, NHL 2004 represents a major turning point for the series. Gone are the unrealistically fast, stylish laser-beam passing and shooting drills of past editions. Those brilliant 10-pass relays culminating in light-speed one-timers to the top corner? They're very rare indeed. Instead, the development team, EA Black Box, has built a game based on today's NHL. As anyone who follows the sport will tell you, the National Hockey League is now a tight-checking affair where humungous, highly talented players battle tooth and nail with other humungous highly talented players for every inch of a too-small ice surface. To advance the puck through defenders, into the slot, and eventually on the net, gamers must use a combination of foresight, skillful gamepad manipulation, and plenty of hard, bruising work around the perimeter and along the boards.

Like it or not, this is the current state of affairs in the real world, and it is reflected in the game. Now, hooking and bumping and clutching are paramount. The battles along the boards are tenacious, prolonged, and, sometimes, just plain hurtful. Fortunately, skaters aren't the only players blessed with new and improved humanness. Black Box didn't forget the goaltenders either.

Depending on their level of competence, goalies will give up dangerous rebounds that may find their ways to an opponent's stick. They'll occasionally muff a save, by getting just a piece of the puck and letting it dribble in along the ice or by letting the puck bounce over their sticks and past their shoulders and into the net. Furthermore, they're forced to endure the probing sticks of enemy players, who realistically poke away at the puck even when it seems to be safely covered up. Unfortunately, the developer has not instituted any new goalie controls beyond "save," "pass," and "clear puck." A "smack upside the head" control would have been nice.

The kicker is that none of the above is easy. Although NHL 2004's easiest difficulty level still allows rookies to win their fair share of games just by using basic gamepad controls, all other levels require substantially more knowledge and practice than ever before.

As the commander and overlord of your team, you must make use of every button and button combination to prevail. Complex deking maneuvers, shot blocks, hooks, poke checks, body checks, an assortment of variable speed passes and shots, and precise positioning are the new weapons of NHL 2004. With judicious use of the right analog stick (presuming your controller is so equipped), you can even control the exact direction of your check or body check so you don't miss your desired target. In fact, if you don't master this new option--deemed "bruise control"--throwing a solid hit is almost inordinately difficult.

The truth is that fans of arcade-style wham-bam hockey may never warm up to the new challenges. Certainly they won't be happy to know that Black Box has altered the user control set so that the "speed burst" and "body check" actions are now activated by separate buttons, hence making those monstrously crushing body blows of the past nearly impossible. However, hardcore players willing to put in lots of practice time should come to love the significantly altered new approach.

Black Box has also rid the game of some its more annoying foibles. For example, you can no longer count on your AI-controlled opposition to consistently flub their breakaway opportunities. More often than not, a breakaway will result in a goal. You can now no longer complete a successful pass unless the intended recipient is oriented to the puck carrier and is free of nearby rivals. You can't delay an outlet pass from the defensive zone and expect your target player to prevent a two-line offside call by magically tap dancing just inches from the center line. And, thankfully, the only time you'll see an AI goalie freeze the puck for a play stoppage is when you've completely cut off all opportunities to clear it.

NHL's new and vastly improved spectators add a new sense of realism and drama to the series.

Still, some problems remain. On more than one occasion we've been hung out to dry by a goalie who meandered behind his net and became stuck there, somehow unable to return to his proper position until the next whistle. We experienced several phantom offside calls and were none too pleased to discover that the most effective defensive technique still involves hammering opponents to the ice illegally, even if they aren't carrying the puck. Sadly, the one big problem hampering every NHL upgrade to date has not been wholly rectified. As in past versions, the latest game leaves you with the feeling that the programming code exerts too much control over which scoring opportunities are successful, which are not, and, sometimes, which team will eventually prevail. Furthermore, the software seems to go to exaggerated lengths to ensure a close, exciting finish.

Indeed, we were surprised at the number of times we were able to tie a close game in the last few seconds on a seemingly feeble shot and were then able to win it on another easy shot in overtime. We were also surprised at the ease with which our AI opponents scored three or four late goals in the span of just a couple of minutes to knot an otherwise one-sided contest. Proven goal scorers hitting the post of a wide-open cage from point blank range and massive shot advantages that don't pan out on the scoreboard are things that just don't happen in the real world. It is clear that the game engine attempts to duplicate the sense of good or bad luck and emotional swings that permeate many NHL games, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Happily, the frequency of these predetermined instances has decreased enough so that gameplay is generally a positive experience.