Monday, April 25, 2011

NHL 2004 Rebuilt

Before the long weekend, I stumbled across an online community dedicated to - and I mean this literally - rebuilding the PC version of NHL 2004.  I spent most of the weekend installing it and getting it ready to go on my laptop.

First, a little history.  NHL 2004 is widely regarded as one of the best iterations of the popular EA Sports franchise.  I believe NHL 2011 has overtaken that assessment as far as console gaming is concerned, but since EA Sports no longer produces NHL series products for the PC, NHL 2004 remains, in many gamers eyes, the best NHL game on the PC.

One of the really awesome parts of having a game on the PC is the ability to modify just about every facet of the game, from uniforms to game menus, as well as music/sounds.  I remember doing this with NHL 99 when that game was still current.

People have done that with NHL 2004, replacing just about everything they can: rink graphics, jerseys, player faces, coach models, statistics, rosters (rosters are up to date as of the trade deadline of this year), game clocks (CBC, TSN, ESPN, etc.), and in-game menus.  It's ridiculous how much they've been able to do, and how well-done it is.

Anyway, I really recommend it if you have a copy of NHL 2004 handy for the PC.  It's amazingly fun.  Oh, and because I'm an idiot and didn't mention what the site is called: it's called NHL04 Rebuilt, fittingly enough.

While we're on the sports topic, I just thought I'd mention that I'm going to be doing some off and on writing on The Blue Jays Luddite, a new Blue Jays blog started up by my brother.  Expect a little bit of cross-promotion from time to time.

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