EA Canada

When it comes to sports games, Electronic Arts is the proverbial 800-lb. gorilla. If you can think of a sport, it's likely that EA Sports has come out with some high-profile game for it. In some cases, this results in game franchises that dominate their market. One of these franchises is the FIFA series. If you live in the U.S. and you like to play soccer games, it's more than likely that you've spent some time with a FIFA title. Always very popular, FIFA games have also been pretty much decried by any true fan of the sport. Offering unrealistic and unsatisfying gameplay, previous FIFA titles have racked up huge sales while remaining a negative blot on the American soccer consciousness. Recently, it's become increasingly obvious that other franchises, including Konami's high-quality series of soccer games, have been steadily eroding FIFA's grip on the market. In response, EA has come out with FIFA 2002, a groundbreaking game for the FIFA series.

NHL 2002 ultimately succeeds at bringing NHL-styled hockey to the XBox. While it isnt a perfect recreation of the worlds "coolest sport," it does a nice job of capturing the major nuances of the game and recreating them in videogame format.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Comic Mischief, Violence

Toss out any preconceptions you might have of league organized 5-on-5 simulation basketball. The setup for NBA Street is simple. It's 3-on-3 fullcourt basketball. Shots made inside the arch are worth one point. Shots made beyond the arch count for two.

After playing for an hour or so I began to wonder if this was just another caricature video game along the lines of Midway's Ready 2 Rumble.

Game Description: Taking the ball out of the hands of shoe salesman and giving it to characters based on schoolyard greats, NBA Street also plays by street rules. Off-the-backboard passes, nasty dunks, and a special momentum meter—which boosts your abilities as you humiliate the competition—let you know you're not playing arena ball. In fact, some of the courts are modeled after real-life basketball training grounds, such as New York's Rucker Park and the Cage. You'll see them all when you hit the road and take on the local crew. Perform well against them and you'll be able to recruit some special talent (did we say Mike?) to your team. Hold the Court mode will reward you with cool accessories, such as shoes and tattoos, by successfully defending the home court against challenging teams.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Comic Mischief, Mild Animated Violence, Mild Language

What makes a person strap a piece of fiberglass to his feet and careen down a mountainside? Probably the same thing that keeps me seated safely in front of my television playing a game based on that sport. Snowboarding is not for the timid. At its very core, its a sport for the daredevil—anyone willing to go to the edge to show-off his skill or test his mettle. For the rest of us, SSX is the next best thing to being there. It takes a sport already bursting with attitude and bravado and cranks it up a few notches. The result is a game that provides a fun, wild ride and actually does its job in justifying the purchase of Sony's high-priced PlayStation 2.

First off, let me say that SSX isn't exactly the killer-app that everyone makes it out to be. Like Dale, my experience with SSX also saw its highs and lows (and I'm not just talking about the slopes, either). At first, I too was blown away by the visuals, but I didn't initially see what was so great about the gameplay.