Last year's NHL 2K3 saw the debut of the series on Xbox Live, and ESPN NHL Hockey follows suit by providing online play for both the Xbox and PS2. Both games essentially have the same online features, with rankings based upon the difficulty of games and opponents you play. Both have downloadable content, with the skills and mini-rink games available for play. And both offer normal online gameplay. In terms of performance, the Xbox version appears to suffer from significantly less lag than its PS2 counterpart, which tends to stutter on just about every network configuration. Additionally, the PS2 appears to suffer from more connection drops than does the Xbox. To be fair, though, it is of note to mention that connection drops seemed to have presented more problems as the game was hitting shelves than they are presenting today. (It appears that Sega has implemented some fixes on the server side.) Unfortunately, the lag problem hasn't really gone away. Another, slightly more minor issue to note is the fact that the game doesn't save your preferred settings for online play. This means that your control scheme, line-change, strategies, and similar setups will always return to whatever the game defaults to upon your first play. Each time you enter a new game, thereafter, you have to change your settings. This oversight is not a huge deal, by any means, but it is a bit of an annoyance. Issues aside, the online play is still a lot of fun and is most certainly worth your while.

Last year's game saw the debut of the series on Xbox Live, and ESPN NHL Hockey follows suit by providing online play for both the Xbox and PS2.

One of the biggest sticking points about NHL 2K3 was the fact that while the gameplay was great, the game's visual presentation simply lacked in just about every conceivable way. ESPN NHL Hockey features a fully redesigned graphical engine. The end result of this overhaul is a much improved overall look to the game. The game's player models are really great--especially when it comes to player faces. Nearly all the top NHL players have extremely realistic-looking facial maps. Details that range from accurate facial hair placement to proper missing teeth have all been implemented. The game's arenas are all equally superb-looking, with fully-degradable ice, new particle effects that reflect more realistic ice spray, and all the basic details you expect to create a realistic-looking hockey arena. ESPN NHL Hockey also features lots of really excellent animations--especially in cutscenes. All player movements, both during the game and in cutscenes, are extremely realistic and very well motion-captured. In fact, none of it seems out of place or extraneous. Between the Xbox and PS2 versions of the game, the Xbox version is definitely the better-looking, as it demonstrates cleaner textures, better lighting, and a slightly higher capacity for storing replays.

Besides the basic in-game graphics, ESPN NHL Hockey really lives up to its namesake by including much of the same style of ESPN presentation that ESPN NFL Football does. The game's stat menus, the overlays, the cutscene transitions, and the ESPN SportsCenter desk (displayed on the game's main menu) all mimic the look and feel of an ESPN broadcast to a wonderful degree.

Visuals aren't the only aspect of ESPN NHL Hockey that do a fantastic job of re-creating an authentic ESPN NHL broadcast, however, as the game's audio presentation also does a truly top-notch job. This is especially true of the commentary. Veteran hockey commentators Gary Thorne and Bill Clement provide the voice work for the game, and, hands down, their commentary is simply the best ever found in a hockey game. It could arguably be the best commentary work in any sports game period. Their dialogue is practically flawless, with well-put-together play-by-play action and a perfectly designed dose of color-commentary, where necessary. Additionally, player-specific discussions and statistical data are handled incredibly, and rarely will you ever find a hitch or editing mistake of any kind. The commentary isn't the only aspect of the game's sound that's well-done, though. All of the in-game effects and crowd sounds have been given a huge boost this year. Crowds are extremely responsive. They actually boo and even fall silent when goals are scored against the home team and chant incessantly when momentum is building. There's also plenty of new in-arena music that plays during a game, including Queen's classic anthem "We Will Rock You." None of the game's remaining music is recognizable in any way, but it still works well.

The game's player models are really great--especially when it comes to player faces. Nearly all the top NHL players have extremely realistic-looking facial maps.

Though it's not impossible to find fault in ESPN NHL Hockey, you'd be hard-pressed to find enough faults to call this game anything but excellent. Its extremely well-crafted gameplay, host of new modes and unlockables, upgraded presentational aspects, and truly amazing commentary easily outdo any issues the game might suffer from. The sum of its parts add up to one of, if not, the finest hockey games ever created. If you're a fan of the sport of hockey, you owe it to yourself to add ESPN NHL Hockey to your collection, as it's simply too good to pass up.