ESPN NFL 2K5

"ESPN continues to gain on Madden, and with the $20 price tag the gap is smaller than ever"

Football season may start in September for most fans, but for us gamers it has already begun thanks to ESPN NFL 2K5. Sega Sports developer Visual Concepts continues its battle in the trenches against EA's popular Madden franchise with this year's improved installment. In addition to offering gamers an enhanced overall package, 2K5 boasts an initial retail price of only $19.99---unheard of for a brand new sports title. This is likely just a one-time offer to bring new fans to the series and raise ESPN's market share, but it's still an unbelievably sweet deal. The real question is, between the improvements and the price can this game live up to its behemoth competition?

Concept: 8/10 As I implied earlier, a lot of fresh material has been added to 2K5. Most of that material can be found embedded into the reworked franchise mode, which is deeper than ever with the interesting new “weekly preparation” option. Just like in the real world, if you want to get the most out of your team you need to work them every single day of the week. Before each game, you have the opportunity to fill a five day schedule with team meetings, exercise sessions, film studying, drills, and the like. Visual Concepts went all out here, and believe me when I say that no detail was spared. The number of options to choose from is staggering. You can work on bulking up or slimming down your players, focus on improving practically any aspect of their play, and even choose the attitude you do it all with. Angry about last week's loss? Holler your way through the Monday morning meeting and storm out at the end. Show those slackers how it's done. If they played well, deliver a "feel good" speech and motivate them to keep it up. Has one of your stars been in a slump? Address the problem by working with him a bit more than usual, or perhaps send him for some therapeutic treatment. The choices are yours to make. However, this system does have its drawbacks. First of all, it's extremely time consuming, and not very "involved". You do everything from a relatively drab menu system, and many will find tooling around with preparation to be an unexciting experience. Secondly, using the weekly preparation mode is something of an art. You only get so many hours to work with each week, and you have to be particularly selective about how those hours will be spent. Luckily, there is a nifty "matchup" screen which compares you to your opponent and points out which parts of your offense/defense will need to be primed come Sunday. If I'm making this all seem easy, let me reiterate what I said before: this is an art. Mismanage your time and your team will not be ready for the big game. If you overworked them, they'll be fatigued. If you ragged on them a lot, morale will be low. The weekly preparation is really a balancing act...walk the tight rope successfully and you'll have the edge over your opponent. Fall off, and the mistakes you made during the week could cost you the game. If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you have the option to skip preparation entirely (your players won't be hurt, but they won't improve) but I find Franchise mode to be rather thin without it.
Before I move on, a few other features have been expanded and improved. The Crib is back and it's better than ever. This is a room which you may deck out with all sorts of football memorabilia, acquired through tokens you earn while playing the game. Making this awesome pad all it can be will become an obsession...you'll find yourself playing just to earn the tokens for new chairs, posters, bar lights, and rugs. Seriously, this leaves EA's "Madden Cards" in the dirt. Also, the ESPN 25th Anniversary mode is a fantastic addition. Here, you can play through 25 of football's most famous (or infamous, depending on who you're a fan of) drives, plays, or comebacks. Online mode has been improved as well, and includes stat tracking, buddy lists, and fewer instances of lagging. Lastly, the First Person Football mode has been tweaked but it's still just a disorienting side show distraction. Its novelty will quickly wear off after a couple of games and you'll be back to 3rd person before you know it.

Graphics: 9/10 This is one spot in which ESPN really shines. The player models are incredibly realistic, and I daresay better than those in Madden. The jerseys have all the detail of their real world counterparts, and they wrinkle and fold too. In addition to this, the faces are well done---Marvin Harrison looks like Marvin Harrison, Donovan McNabb looks like Donovan McNabb. Almost every starter has a uniquely modeled face, and it's touches like these that really increase the sense of immersion. Also, they did an amazing job with recreating the stadiums and the lighting within them; I was very impressed. Before I get to the few criticisms that I have, I should mention that the animations are much improved over previous years. Before, they looked scripted and generic but now they are realistic and fluid. I can't comment on Madden's animations yet since the game isn't out, but 2K5 has set a very high bar. Lastly, the menu graphics are nice and all of the ESPN infused replays and cutaways are a sight to behold. Now for negatives...there are few of them, but they are significant. Most importantly, the playing surfaces look extremely poor, as they did in previous years. Improvements have been made, but they're still well below average. It's hard to believe that the same team that created such beautiful stadiums and player models can't figure out how to replicate grass. Also, the weather effects still aren't up to par. Yet again, these have been improved but it's just not enough. Although it consistently gets beat everywhere else graphically, Madden always seems to trump ESPN in these two categories.

Sound: 7/10 Ups and downs abound here. I always like to start out with positives, so I'll comment on the great menu music, inspired by Sports Center. It's far better than generic licensed songs, and adds to the football atmosphere. The crowds are also nice, but they don't do any regional chants like E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! or J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS! or anything else to add that special charm. What they do have is the occasional shout from that one idiot in the stands who can't bring himself to quiet down for the big play. To make up for it, a considerable amount of voice work was done for the players and coaches, and all sorts of quips and comments are exchanged frequently. To top it off, there's a player interview at the end of each game which is a cool touch. On the downside---and this is a HUGE downside---the commentary sucks. Really, it can't possibly get worse than this. Chris Berman is alright during Sports Center but that's about it. I usually turn the in-game commentary off or just press X to skip through it. I won't say anything concerning Madden, but Al Michaels could do a better job than these clowns announcing a game in his sleep.

Gameplay: 7/10 How the game actually plays is the most important part of any sports title, and sadly for ESPN 2K5 this is a mixed bag. The controls are set up pretty well, so I won't go into detail on them. The only issues I have are with making LB & DB shifts on defense and to a lesser extent the hot routes on offense. This is unnecessarily hard. I like the way you pump X to sprint, much like the way you pump your legs in real life. Scrambling and running the football are both fun and exciting, and the special moves are a blast to use. However, the execution is a bit slow and you have to time the button presses just a bit before you actually need to perform the move. Punting and kicking is perfect, no problems there. While these parts of the game were fun, I ran into some key issues when playing 2K5 and they're just too big to overlook. The main problem is with the passing game...it's got one very major flaw. Your QB releases the ball way too slowly, and this leads to sacks and poor timing on plays. Also, sometimes when your QB is on the run, he just can't seem to let go of the ball and the delay becomes longer. This delay can be attributed to the windup animation before each and every throw...realism at the price of fun. The sad thing is, everything else about the passing game is fine. The challenge is good, A.I. defenders do a decent job of covering your receivers, and the ball speed is spot on. Regrettably, the timing is just slightly off (sort of like the special moves, though they're far more manageable) and it throws everything out of whack. You'll get used to this setup in time and figure out how to throw the ball effectively, but it just doesn't compare to Madden's silky smooth passing. The other, lesser problem I had concerned the playbooks. They still don't navigate well, though they're better than that horrendous control stick oriented menu from a few years back. Also, the number of plays to choose from is lacking and those that are there are pretty generic. Unless Madden has changed its formula drastically, they'll still have superiority in this department for yet another season. However, don't let that discourage you. They're by no means bad, just average...and with the kind of expectations fans have developed for this series, average is no longer good enough.

Presentation: 9/10 If football were a meal, then this game would serve it to you on a silver platter. Sports Center is faithfully recreated every single week in Franchise mode, featuring the scores, stats and highlights from each game with complete commentary (which is better than the in-game stuff don't worry). Also, the pregame, halftime, and postgame shows will just blow your mind...they are amazingly detailed and realistic. You feel like you're participating in an actual football broadcast...it's that good. This game is about complete immersion, and it does it's job almost flawlessly. Between this and all of the modes I mentioned earlier, ESPN seems to have the complete package. Unfortunately, there's one thing missing, and that's decent creation options. Madden's immaculately refined Create-a-Team and Create-a-Player modes absolutely blow 2K5's feeble attempts out of the water, and it represents one of the few areas this franchise desperately needs to make improvements in. However, it's plenty made up for with the ESPN infused realism. Unless you're a total fantasy junkie this won't be much of an issue.

Closing Remarks: I guess I could sum this entire review up with one simple message: This is an incredible game considering the cost. Even at $50 it would still be a worthwhile option. Honestly, what you have here is a AAA football title for an almost too-good-to-be-true price. It has it's flaws and shortcomings, but it's still a blast to play and the options run pretty deep. I've always been a huge Madden fan and on the whole I still prefer that franchise's style over 2K, but not by much. Visual Concepts has really closed the gap, and if they can remove the jagged edges from the passing game and beef up the fantasy options, they'll have a true juggernaut. Unless you think Madden is going to be that much better for you (and therefore worth an extra thirty bucks) then this is the game to buy.

Overall Score: 8/10 (an average)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/04