Operation Sports is proud to present our interview with Randy Hauser, Project Manager of NHL 2K3.

Operation Sports: What new things can we expect with NHL2K3?

Randy Hauser: By far the biggest feature is that at the beginning of the NHL season, NHL2K3 will be available on all three platforms. We're adding Franchise mode and while the Franchise mode won't have specific features found in the amazing Franchise mode of World Series Baseball, we'll get there eventually. There will be a draft, free agents, waivers, and each club will get a farm team.

Operation Sports: What does the farm team consist of?

Randy Hauser: The farm team will be a roster holding area for younger players and veterans. There will also be improving or declining players, much like player progression. We've also focused quite a bit on goalies this year. We want great goalies in this version. We already have pretty good response from the Dreamcast game, but this year we're adding more specific goalie styles. In the Dreamcast version the goalies have a tendency to play a certain style. Hasek for example will be more apt to get down on the ice, were as a player like Belfour will be more likely to stay up off the ice. Now they will actually have specific animations and will be better on the ice. We're adding more complete animations and also the ability to pin players on the boards. So when the puck is dumped you will now be able to pin a player off a fore check and fight for possession. NHL 2K3 will definitely take advantage of the technological strengths of each system in terms of graphical enhancements that you would expect to see on a next-generations system and, of course, with the ESPN partnership, you'll see a lot of ESPN integration that will give our game a very distinct and authentic hockey look.

Operation Sports: What does ESPN integration mean for NHL2K3?

Randy Hauser: ESPN's expertise and style in sports broadcasting is well respected and by integrating their style and presentation elements in NHL 2K3, our game will closely resemble an ESPN NHL broadcast.

Operation Sports: Will you be using ESPN announcers?

Randy Hauser: Because the partnership with ESPN and Sega Sports happened a few months into our development cycle, we won't be using ESPN announcers this year. In terms of graphical overlays, the game will look like an ESPN broadcast. The menu system will resemble Sports Center, which will look very similar to what we're doing with the look of NFL 2K3. Additionally, we are adding commentary enhancements to the action replay section. The color guy will use a telestrator at times to analyze what is happening on a given play. That should really be helpful in this hockey game, because situations like deflected goals are pretty hard to see and appreciate from afar. We don't know how in depth we will get in the first pass of development, but our goal is to show in detail the cause and effect for what is happening on the ice. We're really aiming for the kind of analysis where a goal is called no goal because the replay showed that the puck deflected off a player's skate. In hockey it helps first of all because the action occurs so quickly, and secondly because some people aren't familiar with the sport like they are with baseball, football or basketball.

Operation Sports: Any broken sticks, misconduct penalties, suspensions or any other details?

Randy Hauser: Suspensions are not confirmed at this point. Broken sticks are a real programming hassle. Programmers would have to track a stick and then the players would have to be able to react to a broken stick on the ice. There would have to be AI for the player to get a new stick, and AI for the player to play without a stick. That would have to be something we would look at doing in the future.

Operation Sports: In general what is the thinking process of what can and cannot be programmed into a game like NHL2K3?

Randy Hauser: A lot of what people think they want - I'm not saying they don't know what they want - sounds good in thought but in a game like this, it doesn't pan out too well. It's like one of those things people talk about in a baseball game for example. People might want to brush back pitches so a certain batter won't crowd the plate. Now all of the sudden you are stopping the user from crowding the plate because you arbitrarily decide that one player is afraid of being beaned? We definitely take all these types of elements into the development in the game, but the final decision whether certain aspects go into our games basically comes down to balancing simulation with fun.

Operation Sports: How have line changes been improved?

Randy Hauser: With the Dreamcast version the user can only set up strategies on the fly. With NHL 2K3 you will be able to do so before hand. (more detail)

Operation Sports: Will there be anything new with fighting?

Randy Hauser: Hopefully we'll be able to have fights occur a little more often, but other than that the fighting engine will be the similar to last year.

Operation Sports: Will there be sliders?

Randy Hauser: There will be some, but not any incorporated with the physics engine. The reason is if you mess with things like puck speed, it causes problems with the AI. Since our game is so intertwined with the physics it might hamper a goalie from being able to make a save for example. Some hockey games are programmed on percentages but NHL 2K3 is actual interactions with the physics engine. A goalie actually tries to block the puck that is part of the game. It may be harder to tune a game like ours, but it also makes it more gratifying in that sense.

Operation Sports: Randy thank you for the interview. We can't wait to get our hands on a final copy of this game.

Randy Hauser: Thank you. We hope that everyone enjoys it.