ESPN NFL 2K5

XunilTlatoani · Post by **XunilTlatoani** » July 19, 2004, 10:58 am

Well, this game is scheduled to be released tomorrow, and I'll be picking up my pre-ordered copy, but I heard something at the store that I wasn't aware of and figured I'd pass it along. Apparently the $19.99 price is only good for pre-orders and the first week of release. The clerk at the local EBGames store said that after the first week, the price will go back up (I'm guessing either $40 or $50...probably $50).

I checked ebgames.com and gamestop.com and didn't see mention of this, and I don't know if any industry sites already mention this, but just wanted to let you know in case you were planning on taking a wait and see approach.

Shanter · Post by **Shanter** » July 19, 2004, 3:32 pm

Already got a pre-order for Madden and I've never been impressed with Microsoft's sport games.

XunilTlatoani · Post by **XunilTlatoani** » July 19, 2004, 4:20 pm

ESPN's version is developed by Take Two and published by Sega, so I'm not sure what Microsoft has to do with it. Anyway, I know there were quite a few people that were going to give ESPN a shot over Madden this year (especially because of the price, but also because of the rave reviews it is getting), and I just wanted to pass along word that the price looks like it will only last for the first week.

Adelrune Argenti · Post by **Adelrune Argenti** » July 19, 2004, 8:18 pm

I pre ordered my copy when I picked up NCAA 2005 last week. Yes, the clerk at Gamestop told me the same thing. the $19.99 is only for pre-orders. That is why I jumped on this.

ESPN Football is much better than Madden and then tons better than that Microsoft football game from the year before.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » July 19, 2004, 8:21 pm

Shanter wrote:Already got a pre-order for Madden and I've never been impressed with Microsoft's sport games.

Not exactly sure what Visual Concepts has to do with anything Microsoft, but hey, when do video game folks jump on ship before checking the hull?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 19, 2004, 8:24 pm

Metacritic is a great place to find reviews for all kinds of games and movies. Here's the link for NFL2K5.

So far it has a 100 and 94 reviews.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... spnnfl2K5/

Looks promising although it doesn't have enough reviews yet to be assigned a score.

Shanter · Post by **Shanter** » July 20, 2004, 8:35 am

I'm sorry I thought it was the crappy Microsoft football franchise game that came out on xbox a while. My mistake.

Menelaos · Post by **Menelaos** » July 21, 2004, 2:51 am

It used to be, then they put the ESPN name onto it in the last installment. Used to be known simply as NFL 2Kwhatever, and it was basically the "Microsoft franchise football game", though never developed by Microsoft. Far as I know anyways. I've always felt that Madden dropped off as the #1 football game years ago, and I personally liked the ESPN NFL 2K series much better forthe past few years, although the last one, 2K4, was way too arcade-like and the run game was far too easy, breaking 90 yard TD runs left and right.

Madden is great in that it is a far more realistic game, which in turn makes it a lot harder

But the pre-snap options in Madden own all the other Football games out there, period!

XunilTlatoani · Post by **XunilTlatoani** » July 21, 2004, 11:17 am

I picked this game up last night and played 3 exhibition games. I have never played an ESPN football game before, but compared to Madden I really like it so far.

The biggest thing I noticed was the animation. The graphics are what you would come to expect in this day and age, but the animation is really superb. What's best is that the animations mesh with the physics very well. For example, when you are running to the left and simply switch to running to the right (without any jukes, etc.) you actually see the running back plant his foot and make a realistic cut, instead of just seeing the ball carrier move left then the next frame he is moving right.

As far as difficulty, it's hard for me to judge since I suck at football games

On the default difficulty (pro) I beat both the Lions and Packers with the Bears pretty handily. I moved the difficulty to the next level (all-pro) and the Eagles definitely gave me much more of a challenge. Above all-pro there are two more difficulty levels, so I think all levels of players should find a challenge.

The one "cool" feature that this game has is the VIP profiles. This has been talked about in reviews, and I can't really review it after only three games, but the concept is very cool. In a nutshell, the VIP profile is your AI signature. Not only does it keep track of your playing tendencies so the computer defense can adjust better to you (based on your complete playing history, not just the current game) but it also allows you to load other human VIP's to play against (like that friend that is always kicking your butt, or the top online player that kicks everyone's butt). That way, you can virtually practice against them when they are not there. Even more, you can practice against yourself and self-critique your bad tendencies.

I haven't found many downsides so far (again, I only got to play it a little bit). Aside from the fact that they have Chris Berman in the game (that's enough downside right there for me), the digital versions of the personalities have awful lip-syncing. You can tell that they really made no effort to match the gum flapping to the words.

Another downside is performance on the PS2. As I noted in a previous post, this game was designed for the XBox (which has better hardware) and ported to the PS2. The first couple of games (day games at Soldiers Field) were fine, and I noticed no problems. But the third game I played at night at the Linc had very choppy frame rates intermittently. I think it may be due to the extra shadows being rendered because of the lights (I noticed 4 shadows per player at night as opposed to 1 during the day), but I really don't know.

That's it for now...if you are getting this game I hope you have as much fun with it as I am...I'll check back in later if my opinions on certain things change over time.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 26, 2004, 4:06 am

This game is the best sports simulation I've seen.

Amazing Graphics
Great Gameplay
Outstanding Audio

The entire manual is available from within the game. Nice practice features to get you comfortable with the game. Great game managers and modes.

I'm so starved for football I'm watching a Chargers at Texans game right now to see how many yards I can expect from LaDainian Tomlinson the first week of the season. Very well done. It's like watching a real game. ESPN did an excellent job.

10/10

It's a 6.3 GB game so I'd recommend buying it for the 19.99 it sells for. If I didn't suck so bad at sports games, I'd be buying it to play on X-Box live.

With over 8 minutes left in the 1st quarter, SD is up 21-0 over Houston but LT2 barely has any rushing yards! Ack!.

Menelaos · Post by **Menelaos** » July 27, 2004, 1:03 am

ESPN has nothing to do with this game besides giving it flavor and a marketing kick

I believe Sega Sports actually developed this game. I SO wish they would make it available on the PC; I am fiending for a 2k5 football game for the PC, and I do NOT want to go with Madden 2k5, if that ever frickin releases. Oh well

NFL 2k5 looks so damn realistic, its graphics and animations are so life-like.

On a different note, I've purchased the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirectTV, so I'll have access to every football game played the entire season >:) Go Niners! (yeah right)

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » July 27, 2004, 11:01 am

How is this on PS2 compared to X-Box? Don't have a X-Box and no plans of buying one anytime soon

XunilTlatoani · Post by **XunilTlatoani** » July 27, 2004, 11:24 am

After playing it more, I think it's fine on PS2 Kelshara, although I don't have an Xbox to compare it with. The biggest difference between the two is that during halftime, etc. you'll see still shots of big plays instead of replays like you would on Xbox. But considering after the first couple of halftimes you'll skip past them, it's not a big deal.

Like I said before, at times you will see slower frame rates, but actually I noticed the problem more on Madden 2003 than this game. Overall, though, this issue isn't such a big deal...you shouldn't notice it too much. I recall maybe two instances in the past week where the choppy frame rate has affected the gameplay. This is definitely the best football game I've played.

Gamei · Post by **Gamei** » July 27, 2004, 9:42 pm

Heh I went to a co-workers house last night and played NCAA 2005 on his PS2. It was choppy as hell. Absolutely ridiculous compared to playing it on my x-box.

Everything was less sharp in general, but the real problem was the slowdown I got whenever it went from gameplay to celebration to play calling to pause menu to anything else at all in the whole game(nice sentence, I know.) Really ticked me off, heh. Glad I own an x-box!

Edit: Oh, oh. Right. ESPN game. Yeah, it looks awesome. The reviews I've read all say ESPN is better franchise, better presentation, better animation, but Madden has better actual gameplay. The VIP thing really intrigues me, sounds cool. I plan on buying ESPN and then renting Madden just for comparison. =p

Shanter · Post by **Shanter** » July 28, 2004, 12:52 am

There are so many different options in the dynasty mode, if you did all of them I couldn't imagine how long it would take to play just one season by yourself