apocalypse

It's an old game... it should be only a couple of bucks. You can probably find it from Amazon or Ebay for very cheap... or some game shops, even.

Here is a "bird view" from the Bell Centre. Yeah, even the jumbotrons have been rebuilt. More jumbotron screenies

Yeah... but the older ones are seriously dated. For some reason 2004 has the most "professional" look in it. Believe me, I've played them all... for all platforms... and the realism, game stats (SOG totals, etc.), game flow & speed, board play, player agility, etc. are absolutely the BEST on NHL 2004. And the one thing that really puts it above others is the challenge. You can never master it fully... there are no cheap AI goals and things like losing a game in OT will affect your team spirit and fatigue levels in the next season/dynasty game. This development team went to design NHL 2k5 ESPN for XBox, which is a legend among the HC players. But that game looks seriously blocky by today's standards. 2004 has been possible to modify extremely well (graphics wise). Like I said... ANYTHING that EA put out after 2004 for PC isn't even from the same planet (AI wise). XBox version of 09 is very pretty but it has some serious problems when you play solo against the CPU. I have the 08 mod for MVP 2005 and it made me a baseball fan...!! And I'm European and I've never even seen baseball in my life...!! I'm quite sure the MVP guys could respect what our community have done for this game. ;)

Well, as longtime hockey/hockey gaming fan I have gone through all platforms: Starting from NHL 94, temporarily lovin' the base (unmodded) EA NHL 2004, then buying the original XBox and played all 2k games to 2k5 passionately. Last year I bought a XBox 360 and all games for it... 2k7, 2k8 and the new NHL 09. Guess what game I always go back to... NHL 2004 for PC. It's one of the best sports games ever made for PC... along with MVP 2005, Pro Evolution Soccer 5/6 and rFactor. We have rebuilt everything: Graphics, rosters, AI, interface + the game has some radical realistic gameplay tricks... it truely plays like a simulation and the mod community is very passionate and "hardcore". Our community might be not quite as big as yours, but there are many similarities. Fortunately, NHL 2004 is much easier to modify than MVP 2005 because the interface is fully made in html/JavaScript... and thus, very simply to adjust. That has been quite a blessing and we have managed to install some remarkable features to the game. In my opinion, with mods it's the best hockey game ever created... for any platform... the graphics can't quite compare to the next gen 360 games but the feeling, atmosphere, realism and AI certainly can. And the statistics are ridiculously better: the game has full box scores, scoring summaries, full team reports, detailed player profiles, career stats for the dynasty, etc. etc. We even have individual music for all teams. Everything is up to date. Arenas, rosters and even boxscores referee information. If you're a hockey fan you should definitely check this game + mods out. Especially if you don't own XBox 360... all new EA's PC hockey titles since 05 have been less than stellar. And I thought the hockey fans among the MVP 2005 players might want to see it... we actually have a few guys from this community onboard. Here is the installation thread. Here are some screenshots of the game in its current state. Here is some gameplay footage. For some reason the video is a bit jerky (due to YouTube.) Please watch in HQ = high quality. Thanks for looking... and a warm welcome to everyone! Any questions... well... throw me a pm...!!

Great work!