Customer Reviews

ESPN College Hoops 2K5

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

[...]I am a college student who closely follows college basketball year in and year out. I feel I have a very good sense of how college basketball is played (much different from the NBA), and I think that this game is easily the best representation of college basketball to date.

People who are looking for a game that is about draining rediculous 3's, bigtime dunks and alley oops, or any other kind of flashy basketball, get March Madness. Given this is fun in a video game, but if you are looking for a real simulation of NCAA basketball, ESPN is the way to go.

In ESPN, you really have to know the team you are playing with. It is very accurate in the type of play each team has. The Big East is all about physical play down low and strong defense, while the ACC is about finesse...just like in real life. I saw a lot of the reivews saying that "teams dont dunk enough" or "alley oops are hard to do." That is real college basketball. College basketball has its share of dunks, and the game has its share of dunks...but most of college basketball is teamwork, and ESPN forces you to do this.

I found that I had to play differently with different teams. For example, I usually play with Boston College, working the ball down low and using the 3-2 zone to shut down my opponents in low scoring games. Then, I decided to play a Duke / UNC game, and the gameplay was very different. With Duke, I found I succeeded more when I worked it low, and kicked it out to Redick behind the arc. Teams are designed to play like they play in real life. Cuse plays a 2-3 zone, Redick is nasty from behind the arc, and Charlie Villanueva is a beast on the boards. Everything is very accurately represented.

One review I saw said that a negative was that they dont have player names. I actually think the game did a better than normal job with names. No college games are allowed to have player names because that would require them to get licensing from players, which is against NCAA rules. However, they make it very easy to enter the names, and the announcers even say all of them...there is a database of names that contains every college player's name I could think of (including obscure ones, such as Nate Doornekamp of BC). It is really easy to rename players, and very cool to name your favorite team and hear the announcers and PA announcer say the names, something most other games dont have.

Sega has finally come up with a free throw system that works. Its a pain in the butt to get used to, but once you get used to it, it's amazing. There is about 4 different free throw animations, and you have to press the shoot button and release it at the top of the shot. It is easy to tell for good players, and difficult to tell for bad players. Makes for very realistic free throw percentages, and doesnt have an annoying meter like other games have.

Little things are annoying about the game. The crowd graphics during cutscenes are awful, but its really not that big of a deal. The mascots are well rendered, but a bunch really dont look like they do in real life (ex. Otto the Orangeman). These are easily overlooked tho, because the gameplay is so good. If you are a die hard college hoops fan and want a game that represents the game closely, ESPN College Hoops 2k5 is the way to go.

This game is awesome. I haven't played but a handful of actual games but it is pretty fun. I like to play the legacy mode and simulate through the seasons which takes a couple hours to do but is very fun. However, when playing a game, the free throw system is a bit hard (biggest complaint I've seen for this game) but the trick is to wait until the "ready to shoot" message pops up and hold onto A and release when the guy is moving his arm up towards the hoop. Let it go when the player would let it go in real life if that makes sense. Same way when you actually shoot a free throw. You let the ball fly when you get the ball up and make a motion towards the hoop. It's not too hard with enough practice but some players it's just impossible to make free throws with because they are crappy. Practicing free throws in practice mode is a good way to get better to. There will never be a system everyone like so deal with it!!!!

Onto the legacy mode, it is soooooo much better. Most of the flaws are gone from the old game. One being OT games. You would win by 25 in the old game. That is unrealistic. 15 seed teams like Quinnipiac would win the tourney. That doesn't happen in this game. Recruting is VERY detailed and takes at least twice as long as the other game but is more realistic. I recruited a PG in the 2k4 version and a PG had 29 rebounds! Unrealistic and still, you have no clue if they are going to be any good. In 2k5, you scout their game 4 times or so and you get an idea about each of these aspects: shooting, offense, rebound, defense, hustle, quickness, leaping, and potential. Each has a letter grade. You will be able to recruit the exact type of player you want and it also lists priorities of the players to. So you know not to recruit a kid who wants to stay close to home if they are in the Bronx and you are in Cali! If you recruit hard and heavy, you can turn a program around just as in real life. It's DEFINITELY A LOT MORE REALISTIC than the 2k4 version.
With the Xbox, you can also add sountracks to play in the game to which is cool but you can't really find any roster files out there. You can buy Xbox memory cards but hardly anyone out there makes the roster files. So your favorite player may be named Manny Hooglesbee instead of Gerry McNamara if you turn on generate names! Oh well, it's all good. This game is soooo much fun and the time you spend playing it easily equates to $20 in no time or even cheaper if you buy it used. Great game and I would DEFINITELY reccomend.

If you don't play legacy mode, playing a season is still so much fun. You have to play smart and beat the defense the other team is playing. You can't just run around them all the time like in ESPN Hoops 2K4 (the NBA version). You actually have to use some strategy so it's better to play on an easy level and advance your way up or you'll just get pissed and throw the controller if you think you can play on MOP when you should be on Junior Varsity!

AWESOME GAME!!!!!

This game is a lot of fun and creates a great simulation of the college game. The graphics are incredible; it's like watching a real game. The players move like real people, too; it isn't as cartoonish as the games from just a couple years ago. I'm not sure why this game hasn't gotten any more buzz, but it is a top-notch title at a discount price. Sega Sports/ESPN has released a cadre of great games this year, and this is another winner. Get it. You won't regret it.

I have played all college hoops games of 2005 (March Madness, Final Four, and College Hoops). This one is, by far, the best. It is very realistic and I really like the controls. I also like the camera angle. This was just a really good game.

Gameplay 9/10: The actual gameplay is great. Allthough sometimes cheesy, such as when your player commits a foul your mascot claps, this game has by far the best gameplay. During the game you almost feel like your sitting in Row 20, Seat 5. The controls are the greatest, as it takes little effort to move from one action to another and the controls are set up perfectly for a basketball game.

Graphics 9/10: Everything looks great except sometimes when you look close the players look kind of crappy. Other than that the crowd and all of the other stuff is very realistic and bold.

Realsticness 9/10: The game is pretty darn realistic. Not only in graphics but also in the players actions. Such as when they are covering someone and the kind of ride up against them or when they commit a foul and argue to the referee.

Replayability 10/10: I play this game all of the time. I enjoy it just as much as I did the time before.

NOTE: This game has one of the best season modes as well (Legacy Mode). You can handle emails and recruit and it is very well organized.

Overall 10/10: Although if you add the numbers up it come out to roughly 9, this game definitely deserves a 10. It doesn't matter as much as how those things act alone, but when they come together that they make one heck of a game.

Me and my sister play it for hours. It has a cool tournyment mode and it is worth more than $10.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the best basketball game on the market. The graphics are gorgeous and legacy mode is incredible. The game play is as close to "simulation" that you will find in a sports game. What's more, Sega Sports finally fixed their awful free throw shooting. Now it's simple and very natural. Don't waste money on the expensive games. Buy this now.

ESPN's College Hoops is a mixed bag. I'm a little wary of the gratuitous 5-star reviews this game is getting in light of a few glaring issues with the game.

Regarding gameplay, it feels pretty good with the exception of how free throws are performed. You basically hold down a button until you "feel like the time is right" to release it. There are no indicators to match up, no power meter to monitor, etc. It feels very, very arbitrary. I much prefer EA's March Madness mechanism, where you must line up vertical and horizontal indicators to perform the shot.

The most glaring problem in the game is the crowd renderings in the cut scenes. I can't put enough emphasis on how terrible those graphics are. I'm not just talking about fans not having the same detail as the players... that would be understandable. No, I'm talking about severe image tearing, glitching, jerking, models that are done in half 2D and half 3D, etc. This aspect of the presentation absolutely blows my mind, especially given how well ESPN titles handle such things. There are severe issues here, and I can't believe the title was released without them being corrected. Some cutscenes are of alpha-release quality.

They're that bad, folks.

Now, does this change gameplay? Obviously not... and we all know the infamous saying "graphics != gameplay", but with problems such as these, it makes it very difficult to emmerse yourself in the experience. I must note that the gameplay graphics do not suffer from any of these problems... I'm only talking about cut-scenes of the crowd.

One really nice feature in the game is that when you name players, you have a massive selection of first and last names to choose from. If the name you desire is in this list, the commentators will announce it during the commentary! I have a very uncommon last name, and it was on the list! Very cool.

Let there be no doubt about it, the extras in this game are fantastic. The staduims are well-done, the fight songs are spectacular, the commentary is great, the ability to edit the rosters of all the teams is fun, and the fact that they have included the first and last names of all the players in all the teams, including the classic teams, in their names database is by far the best part, etc. All these things are what I enjoy about this game.

The gameplay, though, is very weak. The two most frusterating things are passing and dunking. Regarding passing, there always seems to be a mighty problem here. No matter the game situation, the pass button always seems to pass the ball to the nearest player in the line of the pass instead of the open player behind him. This is most frusterating when the latter is sitting at the three ready to fire.

Then there is the dunking. The players rarely dunk when they are immediately under the basket--they often just do some sort of body contortion and flip up some garbage shot that usually misses. On the rare occasion that they DO attempt a dunk in a little traffic, it is blocked roughly 40-60% of the time. That number is asinine. I often have games where my 3-point shooting percentage is stronger than my dunk percentage.

I have not gone into other weak aspects of gameplay, such as frusterating streakiness or poor AI teammate movement.

Overall, there are things that are really strong about this game. But the parts that are weak are the most important parts of any video game.

What's up my nizzles!!! ESPN COllege hoops 2k5 first of all has some of the best sports graphics anywhere! with the triple rendering texhnique, and advanced anti- aliasing the players are very realistic. the gameplay is wxcellent with the crowd "GEtting into" the game with rants and chants and the whole college atmosphere is wonderful. The game flat out is sweet, along with its close nba cousin, and flat out ESPN VIDEOGAMES SMASHES EA SPORTS FOR ANOTHER YEAR I LOVE ESPN VIDEOGAMES AND ESPN VIDEOGAMES LOVES ME BACK! so all you march madness fans if you want short, fat stubby players going for alley oops the waste $40 on that garbage i'm getting a top of the line game for $20 THANK YOU P.s. WHAT IT DO FO' SHO!

This game has many positive aspects that you can chose from like legacy mode which lets you create a coach and coach a smaller team like Alcorn State. The main flaw that I found was the free-throw shooting. I shot close to 20 free throws in one game and I made 1. All you do is hold onto the A button and pray you make it. I was down by 1 with 5 seconds left in the NCAA tournament and I clanked both free throws off the iron to lose by 1. The game is very realistic. The fight songs, cheerleaders, and the crowd create a very life like atmosphere. Also the gameplay is very realistic. You cannot just throw up 3s and make them all the time, you must actually work for a good shot. Another drawback is the NCAA tournament. I simulated the games and I ended up with 3 of 4 of the number 2 seeded teams losing in the first round. The simulations are very unrealistic with too many unreal upsets. Overall, I would not suggest buying this game.