ESPN NFL 2K5
by 2K Games
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List Price: Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of ESPN NFL 2K5
Customer Review: Great Football Game!
Summary: 4 Stars
I think this game is good because you can do a lot of things. You can also pick an option that makes you play as if you were inside the person's helmet. There are also very cool things in the game like making the player's head giant and making their bodies tiny and you can make your field goal kicker kick the football over ninety yards.Customer Review: Madden Or 2k5? a paradox
Summary: 4 Stars
Well actually not anymore as EA owns the NFL video game liscense (as well as the right to the ESPN title)
this is a completley unbaised report, i own both games.
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Ok. Espn 2k5 has a slew of features that make if very appealing.
the first is the Twenty Dollar pricetag (YES!!). Of course, games that debut at twenty bucks are crap right? not this one, friend.
2k5 has Its legendary first person mode(though once the novelty wore off, i found myself hardly ever using it). The presentation is incredible( They use the Espn Liscence very well), but Chris Berman as a loading screen can get kind of annoying. The commentary is well done, but after several hours of continuous play, you begin to notice reptition- ALOT OF IT.
Madden has an even worse case of reptiton, but hey- its john madden.
Graphics
2k5 has a slight edge on madden, except the running motions look kind of choppy. i found myself cringing at the brilliantly designed and executed tackle animations, and the crunching sounds that accompany them. I have expeirenced sporadic slowdown when i am passing, but it goes away right fast.
Maddens are slightly tweaked from last year, with improved jersey textures(just what i always wanted!) and facial expressions. i noticed no cases of slowdown or jerkiness.
Control Scheme
This is where 2K5 falls short. THe contol schemes are very clunky, especially in passing situations. To scramble, you have to hold down R1, while madly tapping the x button to sprint.to stop and throw, you have to release both, let the qb realign himself, and let'er rip. except more often than not, youve been sacked by this point. this gets very clunky, irritating, and is prone to causing spurts of profanities. and the Idea of double tapping a reciever button to do a pump fake was a good idea, but terrible in execution. I often find my pocket collapsing, so i began mashing the Button of a wide open reviever, and all my QB does is sit there and reel off about 50 pump fakes- and gets taken down, hard. On the defensive side, its ok, except Defensive back adjustments take forever to do. Madden has 2k5 absolutley blown out of the water in this aspect. maddens controls are perfect. thats all i am going to say. the new hit stick is great for forcing turnovers.
Franchise
Espn gives you the option to train your players on a weekly basis assigning tasks to the individual positions, as opposed to maddens traditional 9 at the beggining of the year. Espns is hard to utilize, and i still have no idea to keep SS and FS ratings from droping. no matter how many tasks i assign them, they plummet. Ugh. THis feature can be helpful, but if you neglect a certain postiion, they actually get worse. Thankfully, you have the option to turn it off.
Madden has an updated player progression system, where your player improves or gets worse every five weeks. this is a better system than 2k5.
Madden also allows you to rennovate your stadium, relocate, and the draft system is exponentially better than 2k5. madden wins the franchise battle.
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THe verdict?
if you have the cash, buy both, as they are great games. if not:
If you are a pick up and play type of person who rarely uses franchise mode, buy 2k5.
If you are the type to use every last one of the 30 seasons in franchise mode, you will love madden for its insane amount of franchise depth.
if you still cant decide, then go buy NCAA football 2005. in my personal opinion, its better than both of these games.
and that, as they say, is that.
Customer Review: Very good football game, flawed by some minor issues...
Summary: 4 Stars
Wanting an inexpensive but fun football game for christmas, it should go without saying that I asked for (and got) ESPN NFL 2K5. I was already familiar with ESPN NHL 2K5 (which is an easy five stars), so I figured, can't go wrong here, right?
Well, for the most part, nope. This game is, for the most part, great. Graphics are great, gameplay is fun and addicting, creating players for different teams is just as infectious as it is in every other sports/skating game I have, and it's fun to put it on "Rookie" mode and just walk all over the other team. (I won 101-0 last night!) The little details are really neat; before my Philadelphia game, a little cutscene of some Eagles fans at a tailgate party showed an RV with authentic looking Pennsylvania tags on it! Also, the computer recognizes some names (mine included), and if it does, the announcers will address you by name. Cool feature. The learning curve is pretty easy, and it's great for what it is, a simple, fun football game for the PS2. (The celebrity challenge feature is neat too... The Crib is interesting but I could do without it.)
But, there's also a few issues... one word: FREEZING. The game freezes when I play with my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles, with the roster on. I found a way around this bug - don't load the roster. But still, I wish I could play with my created players. Also, when I create a team, and go into a game with them, if I try to go into the "Substitutions" menu, BAM! It freezes. Quite irratating.
Another couple of issues: the commentators get really annoying after a while. They always seem to be in favor of the other team. When they get a few yards on you, they praise them and put you down. When you throw a 60-yard completion, they brush it off as luck. Grrr... also, let's not forget the challenges. Oh, the challenges. Sometimes, when you play against the computer, the other team challenges a play. This is really annoying because it ALWAYS goes in their favor. Another thing I could easily do without: two minute warnings. Last, but not least, just like real life, the refs make quite a few stupid calls. Last night I got called for pass interference... I replayed the play five times and there was NO, I repeat, NO pass interference!
But, overall, this is still a really good, addicting football game, for a great price. Trust me, the great gameplay outweighs the cons here!
Customer Review: IT'S GOT ISSUES...
Summary: 3 Stars
As with any game there are pros and cons. This game is certainly no different. It has received great reviews on here so i'm going to announce what i dont like and what i do. Here are the cons. The passing game is way,way to hard. And before you think maybe i just dont play sports games,i can beat Madden blindfolded. I'm an old Madden fan and the passing is very fair in that game. In NFL 2K5,it's just way to difficult completing passes and the interceptions are just out of control. I've never seen anything like it. Guys who arent even facing the ball can intercept it. Guys who are nowhere near the play pull moves that Ronnie Lott would have been envious over,to intercept it. Honestly,it's ridiculous. Conversely,the running game is pretty good. The create a player and team mode is nowhere near as good as Madden. Theres too much you cant change so you dont feel like you are "creating" as much as you'd like. And dont think your awesome created players will make that much of a difference in your performance because they dont. I created a team of supermen so to speak and so what because my offensive line was being manhandled by the worst rated players on the game. (all 53 or less on the ratings) I was stunned over this. This game seems to not have a grasp on the attributes of the players,where again,it seemed like Madden was more compatent with that. I havent dived into the franchise mode too much yet but it seems alright except if you go in with a created team,you need to actually delete those same players because they will be in the free agent pool and your own guys,or should i say clones of them,will be on other teams which is kinda silly,if not confusing. I didnt know this until i saw my created receiver scoring against me even though he was also on 'my' team!
Other things i dont like is the no fog for a weather condition,though that isnt a big deal. Again,i'm basically spoiled from what Madden has been bringing to the table. And where are the OTHER classic teams?? This game is missing a ton,and i mean superbowl winners even. (maybe they can be unlocked but i havent seen any word of this on the internet)And for whatever reason on earth,you can only have 2 classic (or created) teams loaded at the same time instead of just having them there at your disposal like on Madden (on the team select).
Now the thing that really gets me,and i know someone pointed this out,is the blatant mistake in the statistics. When a QB is sacked,the team is supposed to lose passing yardage in their stats. Thats just how football works. Well that doesnt happen here and that makes no sense. So if you get lets say 10 sacks in a game and they should have lost about 45 yards off their passing yardage,it aint gonna happen. Maybe some people wont care or wouldnt have even noticed. But what it will do is make it look like you "gave up" more passing yardage than you really did,say at the end of the season stats (if you care about that kinda thing). I'm baffled as to how this was overlooked.
So onto what i DO like. This game looks very good. I like the graphics a lot and the highlites from Chris Berman are very cool,though what he says can be repetitive. The game has a problem matching the words to the mouthing as well. If you break an actual NFL record,that feat comes up during the game and thats very cool. I also think the "Crib" aspect of this game was an interesting,creative idea. It's entertaining to play against Carmen Electra's team just to hear her voice throughout the contest!
A funny sidenote...if you score too many points,like i think over 60,Berman wont say the number in the highlites and just says "a bunch" everytime. So you won "A bunch to 14."
I hope this review helps your decision on getting this game. Yes,it's pretty cool but it's not as awesome as some of the people here have been saying in my opinion.
Customer Review: Just Buy it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Great realistic game! Madden can't touch this. I took back my $50 Madden game and spent $20 bucks on this and I love it. I have had it for 3 months and I still play it a couple times a week. It's the "real thing"!!