ESPN NBA 2K5

"Ben Wallace signs his approval."

When you think basketball, what do you think? Do you think ESPN? Do you think Bill Walton announcing every game? Do you picture him saying "I don't care how it looks; that was not an easy layup." every time you get a layup in? Do you think terrible music from no-name rappers? If you said yes to all of these, you have ESPN NBA 2K5 in a nutshell.

I know that the above may not seem like the 7 that I gave it. There's a fair share of faults in the game, but there's also some rewarding gameplay. 2K5 falls into a category of basketball games right above the mediocre group. It's a game that needs to take that extra step forward to make a good game great.

Like many games these days(especially in sports), ESPN NBA 2K5 gets a good thumbs up in graphics department. Every arena in the nation is in the game and they're all perfectly finished. From the R in the Toyota Center to the floor tiles in the TD Waterhouse, the arenas are very detailed and look very realistic. Honestly, it's so good that it could have fooled me thinking it was real.

Jerseys and lighting effects are also good. Jerseys and the nets sway and most of the players look like their actual self. The menus are surprisingly creative. It's not just a black box. The menus have borders and backgrounds with many colors and shapes. The graphics are great, but if you want to get a little picky, facial hair looks too smooth and the fans in the crowds look atrocious. You probably won't pay attention to them, but they look like they could have been made in the old Nintendo 64 days. The cheerleaders are also downright U-G-L-Y.

The controls in this game are average. There are many options that you can do. You can pump fake with a tap of the square button, lead pass by tapping X-X, and dribble between the legs with circle. This game features Isomotion control. With a simple tap of the right analog stick or a combination of circle and the left analog stick, you can do a ton of moves. You can also change your shots in the air. The problem with these Isomotion moves though is that they don't work. The spin move doesn't work and most Isomotion moves outside the paint will result in a charge. This restricts some moves and can be slightly frustrating; you'll probably be finding yourself using simpler techniques. Another frustrating thing would be fadeaways. Fadeaways from a postup always result in a turnover. Always. The simple moves are quite easy to pull off though and very smooth.

Now let's talk about what you can do in this game. There is a wide selection of modes that you can pick, but I find myself going to the Association most often. Here is where you get to control a team for an unlimited amount of seasons and win those championships. There are two ways to play the games in this mode. You can actually play the game or use Full Authority Mode. This is when you "coach" the players by giving them a number of shots and selecting special skills. It's pretty short to play one game and you can change your strategy only twice per quarter. This mode has a lot of flaws though. First, there's no difficulty. With high rated players, you'll find yourself winning games by fifty or more points. It's not really much of a challenge. In my opinion, this mode is a waste of space. It needs to be fleshed out more to give you more options and actually seem like you're "coaching" a game, not simulating and ensuring wins in a short time.

Playing the game is the other way you can play through the games in Association Mode. You can change the number of minutes per quarter and the difficulty. It's fun to play, but you can easily take advantage of the computer. There's these things called sliders in the game that you can change. They effect how well you will do each thing such as three point shooting and blocking. Someone can just turn the threes to the max and sink every three using a player like Shaq. I rather dislike these sliders. Their default setting has some flaws too, such as having too high a field goal percentage and way too many blocks and turnovers.

I also found a few glitches while playing this. When going near the hoop, sometimes you'll shoot and the ball will go behind the backboard, resulting in a turnover. This can be annoying. I also found that when I inbound the ball, sometimes it'll bounce out. I have no idea why.

The Association has a few more flaws. The camera angle is generally good while playing the game, but in certain angles after you steal a ball, the camera will slowly turn and you can't see the basket. This can mess up your fastbreaks, but isn't really THAT big of an issue. I think it could've been easily fixed though.

The computer also likes to make really dumb trades. Sometimes, you can get away with trading someone like Eddy Curry for Kevin Garnet. Teams overrate picks.

What I like about the Association mode is that they have a nice, long list of stats. They also have All Star voting, an All Star game(no dunk contest and stuff like that though) and some other great stuff. The Association Mode is great with a few flaws.

On the other hand, 24/7 Mode is pretty boring. You build your own character from scratch and train him. Then, you take him to several places and beat players in games that change hourly. Winning these street games will earn you points, phone numbers, and clothing items. If you don't play 24/7 for a while, your character's stats will drop. The goal of this mode is to beat the three bosses at several locations. What I dislike about this mode is the lack of variety. Playing the same few games until they change in the next hour is pretty boring, especially if you feel like playing a game for a while. This mode should be scrapped or fleshed out more; there's not much to do.

Like most of the new-generation sports games, you can play online. You can get roster updates and do many other things. I'll be honest though: I haven't played this mode because of the lack of a PS2 connector thing. It's supposedly the best thing about the game though.

What I dislike about this game is the unlockables. I mean, unlockables are great to have in a game, but it's mostly stuff like nailing thirty three-pointers which can easily be done by cranking up the sliders. They could at least make it something that you can't fix the sliders to do such as winning an NBA championship in the Association Mode. A lot of unlockables aren't really worthwhile either. You get some bobbleheads that you can play with and different balls, but nothing really fantastic. The best unlockable's probably the All-Time teams.

There's only one thing I really, REALLY hate about this game. That's the music. The music downright sucks. There's nothing I hate more than listening to terrible rap by unknown rappers. One or two tracks are decent, but everything else is terrible beyond belief. The sound's not really that great either. The commentators are OK. They can get a little repetitive, but have a wide variety of things to say.

Overall, this game's worth its 20-dollar price tag. Although far from awesome, it's a decent game that will keep you entertained for quite a while. I can't say if it's better than NBA Live, but if you like basketball and own a PS2 or Xbox with a lot of memory left in your memory card, pick this up and give it a try. You might find yourself enjoying this a lot.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/05