ESPN NBA 2K5

"Man, when you win against your buddy and celebrate in his face you'll know why this game is great."

There has been Basketball games since the dawn of time. Same goes with almost every other kind of Sports game. Most of the time, there is little if not none improvement besides the graphics. this year though, 2K games has released a brand new game called NBA 2K5. This has everything that makes a basketball game great. Jaw-dropping graphics, insane multiplayer mode, and all of the real Basketball stars that you have come to know and love. Updated, and totally realistic, this game completely kicks butt in every category.

For once in my life I would like to see a game where the crowd doesn't just do the same stance over and over and over again. Sadly, this game doesn't fix that. But who the heck looks at the crowd when all of the action is on the court? The Basketball players look absolutely fantastic. The moves that they do are almost identical to what they do in real life, and the players look practically real. Seriously though, if you take a look at people like say, Yao Ming. In the game, you wouldn't be able to tell that this was a video game. Anyways, all of the courts are very detailed, and the feel of the whole stadium is crazy.

The fans yelling, the announcer talking, the squeaks of the shoes on the wood floors. You can't get any better then this. Most of the time when you think of the announcer, you thing of a little annoying person, sitting there, rattling on, saying the same thing over and over again. Well, you'd be wrong with this game. There are a couple of announcers here, and they actually talk about what you are doing on the court. This makes the game even more exiting, and way less annoying. There is some extra music on some of the other game modes like 14/7, and street ball, but most of that is rap, and well...

Speaking of Rap, there are very tight controls in this game. All of the players move exactly when you tell them to move, they don't slide, and shooting, passing, and doing tricks is extremely easy. They didn't try to confuse you with this one, so jumping right into this game is simple and easy.

Speaking of jumping, they have brought a good variety of game modes to this year's edition. You have your standard Franchise mode, the Street ball mode, a quick game option, and this new thing called 24/7. In this mode, you create a player, then do challenges in the streets, while practicing from time to time. This may seem like every other Street ball game, but you guy actually needs practice from time to time, or he will get worse. You have to play with him, or he will get lazy. If you don't accept a challenge after so much time, you won't be able to do it at all. This is very deep, and will actually keep you interested in keeping your guy in shape, and doing games. Overall, they packed an insane amount of stuff into this game, and they did it well.

When you look at how far Sports video games have come it's pretty amazing. This is an excellent title to pick up, and it will not waste your time. Almost everything in this game is great, and nothing should stop you from buying it!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/05