Customer Reviews

ESPN NBA 2K5

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, it plays great but here are the NBA 2K5 sore points:

No player introductions!

The CPU does not EVER call a timeout!!!

No edit number!!!! I traded Garrity to the Lakers, and since Bryant is #8, Garrity got assigned the next available no., which is #0. I cannot change it to #53. A huge mistake. If I trade Hill to Boston, he can wear #33, but it is a retired no, and I cannot change it to something else. How stupid!

No season mode!!!!! All they have is some "Association," which only allows you to control one team, therefore you cannot accurately simulate the real regular season, and cannot update other team's rosters to reflect the real-life rosters!

Stuff is fat, and dark green for the 3rd straight year. In real life, Stuff is leaner and is neon green.

I goaltended a FT and they gave the CPU 2 points!

The shooting feels smooth, but the dunks are dumb, they fly really high above the rim for some reason.

The rim is a 70's rim, it reminds me of the rim that Darryl Dawkins smashed.

The CPU is PG-SG offense oriented. I play vs. the Heat, and Shaq barely touched the ball, if he did, he fired J's!! I played vs. the Lakers, Atkins and Kobe were the only ones shooting, only shots by the other players came on offensive rebounds.

The Magic retro jerseys are horrible. It's not even worth describing how fake that is. On the other hand, they have the MPLS Lakers. The Magic retro jerseys look like they were made with MS Paint or Kid Pix.

The game rarely shows stat overlays. Live 95 for Sega showed more of those.

The game is missing several rookies (Frieje, Delfino, Kusan, Emmett, Vujacic, Tabuse, to name a few.)

Positives:

-ESPN game intros by Stuart Scott

-24/7 mode keeps you coming back w/unlockable items and innovative game types (Bomb ball is a blast).

-Movement of players is getting more realistic, as well as the appearance of players (ie their body shape is true to life). Also certain game elements are much improved.

-Good commentary (but Bill Walton can get annoying)

-Player skill ratings are customizable (and this is essential since they got so many wrong- example: Shaq - 95 and Kobe - 99. Since when is Kobe the best player in the game? Current 3 point shootout champ Voshon Lenard's 3p rating= 77 ?! The guy is almost automatic. This is just sloppy.

Negatives:

Where to begin!

-Lack of fun game modes (24/7 & street are good but that's the exception) "the Association" is pretty pointless.

-So far I haven't seen the All-STAR WEEKEND which Live has.

-In-game camera is too far away, even w/full zoom and different angles. Hard to get into a game when you can't even see the player's faces. B-ball games from 6 or 7 years ago were better in this area.

-Create a player is very lacking, plus you can only have two custom teams whereas before you got 10.

-When your shot goes in there is roughly a 2 sec. delay before the proper sound effect and crowd reaction kicks in. No excuse for this!

-On defense the computer often forces you into a double team on the guy with the ball, and because you're locked into this maneuver the offensive player passes to an open teammate who easily scores. This is the MOST FRUSTRATING THING ever in a video game! I don't see how they let this pass. Simply unforgiveable in "the most complete b-ball game on the market"

-You still can't recognize traits of each player, ie If KG shoots the ball I want to be able to tell it's KG shooting and not a generic animation. The way he cocks the ball back over his head, the position of his body, etc. This would be a huge improvement and I think it would be nice to have more animations in the game also, right now it feels limited to a few for each shot range.

-About 70% of the shots from the low post area are circus shots, fall away-flip over your head blind shots, and it's totally rhidiculous because they go in most of the time. Rarely do you see someone perform a regular bank shot off the glass from close range. Buzzer beaters are a joke since no matter where the guy is (even a full court shot) the ball will hit the rim and barely miss. EVERY time!!!


It's said you get what you pay for, and this is the case here I think. For every good aspect of the game there's at least one equally or worse negative thing. Too many negatives ruin a game, especially a basketball game where you can compare it to the real thing. I love the fact the rosters are all up to date (well they won't be in another 2 or 3 weeks) and other current changes to the nba, such as the lighted backboard during the closing seconds of a quarter, have been added. But the ultimate test is how much fun it is to play, and it falls short here. Add to that the annoying details such as the lagging sound and the exact same animations that come up over and over again during games and it doesn't matter how great the graphics are...it's a disappointing product.

And in my book the graphics aren't that good here, while the player's faces are well done (most look pretty real but a few others are way off- Vlade Divac for one) the uniforms are too shiney and smooth looking. Likewise the crowd still has room for improvement. And how about some other additions like technical fouls (coaches or players like Rasheed Wallace could argue the ref's calls), half or 3/4 full arenas in cities w/a losing team, and maybe video montage intros to the game w/various highlights. I'd also like to see highlights from the game afterwards on a shortened edition of sports center. These things could really improve the game.

I'd say rent it if you must play 2k5, and check out the 24/7 mode, because that's the one real bright spot. Some of the street courts are well done also. Hopefully next years game will take the good things from this, fix what's wrong and add even more features.

Gameplay 8/10
Graphics 8/10
Sound 7/10
Value 9/10
Tilt 9/10

FINAL 8.4/10

Like its football and hockey brethren, which arrived earlier this year, ESPN NBA 2K5 has shipped to stores at a bargain price of $20. And, once again, developer Visual Concepts has delivered a product that resembles anything but a budget game. ESPN NBA 2K5 delivers a fantastic simulation-style basketball experience that is graphically appealing and chock-full of content.

The basic gameplay mechanics in ESPN NBA 2K5 have been tweaked to a great degree. This is most evident during post-play, which offers you tons of viable options. With your back to the basket, you can attempt to back in your defender, spin around him to gain an advantage, fire up a jump hook, execute a drop step with the new pro hop/drop step button (to get closer to the basket for a dunk or layup), or any combination of these. Depending on your position, you can also pro-hop laterally to free up for a look at the basket. While other games may allow you to do some of these moves, ESPN NBA 2K5's post-game play both looks and feels the most realistic in that these maneuvers can work some of the time but not all of the time. Sometimes backing in is all you need to do, while at other times, you'll get pushed off the block by your defender. Spinning into the lane may free you up, or you might whirl yourself into a double team. Getting sloppy with the drop step or pro hop can even result in a charging call, a traveling violation, or a simple loss of ball possession. Also, those familiar with last year's game will also be happy to know that blocked shots occur with much less frequency this year. As a result, the ratio of blocked shots to shooting fouls seems more realistic in ESPN NBA 2K5.

Related to the post-game is rebounding, and here the game does a good job, for the most part. When every shot goes up, you'll see a spot on the floor where the ball will hit (assuming the shot is missed). If you can position a player on that spot and jump at the appropriate time, you'll board the ball above the rim and eliminate the chance of anyone else getting it. If you're only near the spot when you jump, your chances of getting the rebound are lessened. Your momentum at the time of your jump also seems to matter, so if you're not well set or you're not at least moving in the direction of the rebound when you jump, you won't be able to get up as high as you would otherwise. You'll still see a bit of "vacuuming" from time to time--where the ball appears to get sucked into the hands of a faraway player--but for the most part, rebounding in the game looks realistic and feels intuitive.

For those of you who prefer to play while facing the basket, the developer has also done some tweaking with the "isomotion" juke system that was introduced to the series last year. In NBA 2K5, you won't get whistled for as many charging calls as in last year's game, so crossing over your defender to get to the basket is a more viable option. You can also execute spin moves and step backs to free yourself up for a jumper. Since isomotion unleashes canned, relatively lengthy animations, it's still not as intuitive to use as NBA Live's freestyle. You have to sit through the full animation to see if your player has gotten around the defender, although you can cancel the animation midway through if it appears that the defense has cut you off.

The passing game in ESPN NBA 2K5 is also mostly good. Players running out on the break or making cuts to and from the basket will catch passes in stride, and it's also possible to force a lead pass by pressing two buttons at once. Since players aren't always stopping to catch balls, the game looks more fluid overall, much like a real game of basketball. Passing in the half court, as in most basketball games, can look a little stilted sometimes, what with players throwing awkward-looking overheads. But much of the time, you'll also see players making deft bounce passes in appropriate situations or putting some air under skip passes to avoid interceptions.

Perhaps the most welcome addition to the gameplay is the inclusion of offensive playbooks for each team. Instead of running just basic isolation, post, or pick-and-roll plays, you can assign four different, more complex plays to the D pad. There are dozens of different plays in the game, and they can be as simple as having a post player flash across the lane or as complicated as having a set of staggered screens established to free up a wing player who's coming on a curl. The most important part is that the plays do work, and your artificially intelligent teammates do a good job at setting up and running through the scripts--just as they've been drawn up in the playbook. Defensively, you can also choose from different types of zones and trap plays, or you can just play a regular man-to-man D.

If I have one major complaint about the gameplay, it's that it's still rather difficult to stay in front of fast ball handlers, especially without a crouch stance for defense. This problem has been lessened to a degree in 2K5, because players now carry additional momentum. As a result, changing directions can't always be done on a dime, and getting started from a dead stop requires a split second of windup. If you pay close attention, you have a chance to step in front of the ball handler as he makes his move, but it's probably still harder than it necessarily should be. There also doesn't seem to be a huge variety of dunk animations in the game, and, as in last year's offering, your player will still sometimes pull up for short jumpers when you really want him to dunk or lay the ball in. However, the strengths of ESPN 2K5's on-court gameplay significantly outweigh its few weaknesses. As for the game's franchise mode, it's also undergone some significant changes--many of which are quite interesting, though not necessarily for the best.

The franchise mode in ESPN NBA 2K5 has been renamed "The Association," and it's gone through some major changes since last year's iteration of the game. Instead of just being given the choice to either simulate games or play through them yourself, you can "play" each game in a special mode called "full authority." In a nutshell, this turns a match into a turn-based strategy that's not unlike a card game. Twice per quarter, you're given the opportunity to issue "orders" to each member of your team on the floor, and you also get to make player substitutions. You'll assign how many shots each player gets, what kind of offense and defense each plays, and whether each player takes close-range, midrange, or long-range shots. The computer does the same, and then that "turn" is played out. After this, you're given your results, which show you highlights of what happened and tell you how many points each team scored.

One catch is that star players will have different special abilities--such as "killer j," "tenacious d," and "wily vet"--that can better your chances of scoring (or defending), but they come at the expense of stamina drain. You can also have the computer make selections for you during any turn, if you're feeling lazy, but it's often better to make selections yourself, because the computer makes odd decisions as far as its substitution patterns go. All in all, the full authority mode is an interesting and rather effective compromise between taking the time to play out every game in a season and relinquishing all control to the computer for simulating multiple game results.

What's also new is that every week you'll need to pick a training regimen for your team by deciding what aspect of the game it'll focus on in practice--whether it's passing, rebounding, free throws, or something else. You can choose how intense the workout is, and, in general, the harder you train, the more your players' skills go up. However, this increase in skill comes at the expense of player stamina, possibility of injury, and team chemistry. Chemistry is also affected by player visits to the coach. Every week, one of your players will come in for a visit with a specific concern in mind, such as team performance or playing time. You'll have a list of three answers to choose from. If you pick the "right" answer, your player leaves happy, and team chemistry goes up. If you pick the "wrong" one, he leaves unhappy, and team chemistry goes down.

While attempting to model team chemistry was a nice risk to take, the way it's implemented in ESPN NBA 2K5 seems a bit awkward and shallow, especially because your players end up coming in with the same questions over and over again. It's also strange that your choice of training regimens is tied in with how high team chemistry is. If you're the coach of the team, you should be the boss. Why should everyone feel warm and fuzzy before you're allowed to run a rebounding or conditioning drill? And, in reality, team chemistry is often more strongly correlated to wins and losses than it is to other factors. Sadly, this aspect isn't taken into account in ESPN NBA 2K5.

We also didn't like the fact that midseason training regimens seemed to cause far more injuries to players than is realistic. Almost every other week, one of our players would sprain or break something as a result of practice. In fact, we hardly encountered any game-related injuries relative to practice injuries. What makes this even worse is that injury reporting in the game is vague. It's not readily apparent if a specific injury is keeping one of your players from playing entirely or if he can still play but at a reduced efficiency. Overall, the new association mode in ESPN NBA 2K5 yields mixed results but offers a good overall experience with its interesting, new wrinkles.

The 24/7 mode introduced in last year's ESPN NBA is back, and it also sports some new tweaks. The basic structure is the same, so you create a baller, train his skills, and go up against NBA players in minigames for ranking, items, and respect. This time around, you'll be able to take your created baller online against other players, and the initial training of your player isn't quite as tedious. It's largely the same, though, so if you didn't like it last year, you're not likely to bother playing it this time around. Aside from 24/7, there is an array of street modes where you can play on a variety of different courts with relaxed NBA rules. There's also a tournament mode, which can be set up for parties.

ESPN NBA 2K5 can be played online on both platforms, and during our testing, the performance on both Xbox Live and PS2 Online was excellent. Players can participate in online leagues, check out their rankings in the ladder, or, as mentioned earlier, take their 24/7 player online to go head-to-head with other players' created ballers. In-game, each player is given three minutes' worth of pause timer, so no one will take too long making substitutions or coaching adjustments. It's also possible to execute friendly surrenders.

Graphically, ESPN NBA 2K5 continues the tradition of fine-looking sports games from Visual Concepts. The game includes a number of great, fully adjustable camera angles, including the default broadcast, chase cam, high baseline, and low baseline views. Players animate smoothly, and while there's still noticeable popping between animations from time to time, the game looks smoother and more fluid than any other basketball game. The players themselves are extremely well detailed, right down to their unique hairstyles and tattoos, which are inked over visibly sinewy muscle. All of this detail, of course, looks sharper on the Xbox, but the PlayStation 2 version is still a very solid-looking game. As far as the sound goes, ESPN offers adequate sound effects, with dynamic crowd noise but a forgettable soundtrack. Bill Fitzgerald and Hall of Fame center Bill Walton handle commentary, with ESPN sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya interjecting from time to time. While the trio has some unique things to say about the players, the overall commentary is good, but it's not great--and it can get repetitive.

Even though there are some rough edges in its franchise mode, ESPN NBA 2K5's basic gameplay mechanics are extremely well done, making the game easy to recommend to any basketball fan. It hits the mark in just about every aspect of basketball, including post-up play, rebounding, and passing. What's more, the game's available for cheap. That's an outright steal for such a deep, quality basketball game that also offers online play.

Every year, I rent the latest installments in both the NBA Live and ESPN 2K series to help me decide which one to buy. Both are great games and the competition between them is hotter than every! Although ESPN 2K5 is a high quality game, NBA Live 2005 comes out ahead in the areas that really matter.

First of all, 2K5 wins in the graphics department hands down. As a matter of fact, the overall presentation in 2K5 is outstanding! From the detailed faces of the players to the way they move on the court, no game gives you the feeling of being courtside at a real NBA game like 2K5. However, NBA Live 2005 gives you a much more complete feeling of what it's like to actually play basketball. Unfortunately, the most innovative feature that 2K5 has is also the most frustrating: the Isomotion Control. The Isomotion control of 2K5 is not NEARLY as responsive as the far superior Freestyle Control of NBA Live 2005, which allows you to control just about every move your player performs. Using 2K5's control scheme is a frustrating experience that often gets in the way of the action on the court. For example, with Live's Freestyle control, tapping the right analog stick to one side will allow you to perform a very rapid crossover dribble move, allowing you to quickly change direction or execute another move if you so desire. Tapping in the same direction using the Isomotion Control forces you to execute an entire series of crossover dribble moves that you literally have to wait several seconds for them to complete before executing your next move. By the time the entire move is finished, the defender has already recovered from whatever effect it had on him, forcing you to lose the advantage of quickness. Furthermore, these unnecessary dribbling expeditions that you've waited to end often result in charging calls.

Finally, NBA Live 2005 has a much wider variety of dunks and layups around the basket, giving a true feeling of spontaneity when driving down the lane. Like the dribble moves, the dunks and layups in ESPN 2K5 are also very scripted and you will pretty much see all of the dunks and layups the game has to offer within the first half of play.

Most game review magazines and websites rated ESPN 2K5 higher than NBA Live 2005 mostly because it offers a fancy presentation but little else. But NBA Live stands head and shoulders over it in gameplay and a much better control scheme. Ultimately, NBA Live is more fun. Isn't that the whole point? Even with the $20 price tag, ESPN 2K5 is not quite worth the money.

I have been buying NBA games for about 10 years now, and I've seen it all. I've played must EA basketball games and all the Sega games over the years. 2k5 has improved on some things, while letting other things deteriorate to the point of being ridiculous. The graphics, for example are great throughout the game, but the animations are ridiculous. every dribble move you make, like a crossover or a spin takes forever to complete, and its impossibnle to tell if you beat the defender until the whole move is done. The jumpshot animation isn't great, and the dunks range from decent to plain stupid. 24/7 mode, is a great improvement though. If you like a role playing twist, this mode is for you. you can build your own player and train him to become a star. the graphics and 24/7 mode are what keeps this game from becoming totally unplayable. Franchise mode is also OK. as it stands though, 2k5 is not a horrible buy for $15-20, so especially if 24/7 mode interests you, give it a shot. Otherwise, live 2005 is the way to go - it looks almost as good, but most of the animations are very smooth, and the dunk contest is surprisingly entertaining and has great replay valuse as there are tons and tons of different dunks.

This is a great video game why you can change players and their stats, and the introduction at games are just like the original way a basketball game is suppose to be like. It would have been even better if they had the starting lineups just like in NBA 2K2. I reccomend others to play this video game.

This game is a lot better than live, you have a great price - $20. A game that delivers on many aspects of gameplay (franchise, 24/7). Live does have the dunk contest, but give this game one year and it will too. Live's Graphics havenot improved from last year, this game makes you feel like you're watching tv. The commentary on this game is really cool. Other interesting features are (espn presentation, hours of commentray, so it never gets old, story line, team chemistry, game track, and authentic chants. Get this game, you won't be dissapointed, only buy Live if it's the only thing left in the store

I have been playing basketball games since Nintendo's "Hoops" game and I must say that this is the biggest slap in the face as an extreme basketball fan. This is the most unrealistic piece of work ever. It sends me into a lather as to how cheap Sega was when making this game. The foul calls are awful, the animation terrible, I dont mind a game that's realistic as far as Detriot Pistons will likely beat the Warriors but when they are shooting 83% and havent commited a foul all game long it's just rediculous. This game isnt challenging it's BULL. Only game on PS2 that has made me throw my control across the room. DONT BUY THIS GAME!

I have NBA Live 2001,2002,2003, and 2004. I have 2001,2003,2004 for the PC and 2002 for the PS2. Let me just say that buying NBA Live for PC is better than buying NBA Live for the PS2. The graphics, gamemodes, and everything else is better. The gameplay is better for PC, even though you cannot fully utilize freestyle control like you can on the PS2. Despite the freestyle shortcomings, it is worth it to buy NBA Live for PC because the graphics are so much better. People do not know what they are missing out on.
I bought EPSN 2k5 for PS2 recently. It has got to be one of the worst games I've ever played. I'm a guy who will get severly addicted to 9 out of 10 video games I've played and this was the 1 I didn't get addicted to. I had ESPN Baseball and it was truly great, but this game is hopeless. The dynasty mode has several things that are both uselss and annoying (the weekly training and the player personalities, which both are very annoying). If you feel like the dynasty mode is not confusing and fun, then NBA Live's dynasty mode would be like heaven to you. The gameplay is hard, you cannot dunk, and the graphics are worse that NBA Live 2002 for PS2. I cannot believe that people like this game. I've had it for 12 hours and am already going to try to return it. Not worth 20 bucks. There are several things wrong with NBA Live, but there are more things wrong with ESPN 2k5. For instance, you cannot see player ratings when you trade, and there are not enough players, so I could not draft a shooting guard the fantasy draft becuase there were none left.

It beats NBA Live hands down in gameplay and graphics. It beats NBA Live hands down with the ESPN Presentation. It would be nice if there was a Stuart Scott Halftime Show though kind of like Chris Berman in NFL 2k5. However, There is one of thing that I would definitely like to see in this game next year.
All Star Weekend Mode- This is the one extremely fun mode that NBA Live has and it is the only reason that I ever play that game with friends who have it. I love the dunk contest, and I especially love that you can play as dunk contest legends like Spudd Webb and Dr. J. The 3 point contest is fun too. The Rookie challenge is a great idea but NBA Live screwed it up with their below average gameplay. I am confident, however, that ESPN would do a good job with it.
Here is how I rate this game
Graphics: 98
Player Rating System: 95
Dunk Contest : Arghh! None?! 0
3 point Contest: ARGHH!!! Nothing! 0
Rookie Challenge: GEEZ! Nothing! 0
24/7 mode: 85- This is one of the best parts of this game. You create your own player and them you enter the mode. Your player is not very good at first but with practice and some games against the pros he gets better and better. When you defeat a pro in a streetball game you win an item. You can win your favorite team's shorts and their warmups. You can also win all kinds of hats, watches and sneakers. The only problem is it bores you after a while.
Gameplay: 90
Isomotion control: 80
commentary: 90
Overall: 90