ESPN NFL 2005
 

ESPN NFL 2005 has officially become a true playa in the football gaming market.

Madden has brand recognition and will sell copies regardless of product quality, but if you are a fan of football games, you really should consider checking out ESPN NFL 2005.

Mainly, because it is $20 and comes out Wednesday. If you spend $5 renting the game, you have already paid 1/4 of the full price. This game out pre-ordered Halo 2 in one day (at EBWorld.com) when they announced the $20 release price.

I have been reading a lot about this game, and it's quite daunting to write about all the new features, additions, and improvements, so I will instead link to a few reviews that have been released at this point.

Off the top of my head, the game has online leagues with living rosters, incredible presentation, a VIP system that tracks player tendencies and allows you to download and play against a real human's "bot" offline, a totally revamped graphics engine, draft coverage by Mel Kiper (that affects where players are taken), and lastly, the game is $19.99 and hits store shelves Wednesday, July 21st.

I know most people are going to buy Madden and blow off ESPN as being a discount priced joke, and that is fine, but after reading up and following the development of this game, I think it's something you should seriously consider checking out if you are looking for a quality football game this year.

Reviews of the game can be read at the following sites:

• Team XBox (9.5 / 10)
  
• IGN (9.4 / 10)

Take care, and if you do pick up the game, please reply with your impressions, comments, and even reviews, here.

I highly doubt it outted halo 2 for preorders. We got 2 preorders at my store, while halo 2 got over 1200. Not calling you a liar or anything, I just think the statistics are wrong.

On the day they announced the price of $20, EB had it listed as being higher on the pre-order list than Halo 2. Initially, people thought it was an mistake price, and thus jumped on it while they could. It caused quite a stir, and was a great move by Sega Sports.

As for EB's site.. I'm not sure about that. I assume it could have been an error, but I just reported what I, and others at another forum, saw.

That being said, it is looking really good, and getting glowing reviews, so the worry now changes to glitches and other bugs that weren't worked out during pre-release testing..

I've read a couple reviews, and I might be making the purchase. For half of what Madden costs, can't go wrong, but if it's as good as stated, then you're way better off.

I just happen to know Halo2 has over 400K units preordered RIGHT now. Sales projection is 7 million units. My bet is Halo2 will be platinum before it is released.

Note: My preorder numbers (400K) are about 2 weeks old.

I'm thinking that, at that price, I'll buy both :D

Hmm, I am not sure then.

Perhaps the list I saw was for pre-orders in one day?

I'm not really sure, and I don't know how much credibility EB's top preorder list holds, but it seemed quite hectic and popular on the day this price was announced..

Take care.

I can agree with you on that, Sega did that to try and break the Madden wall down. Madden basically owns the market on football console games right now, so Sega wanted to step up to the plate, and they did that with a very strategic move on their part. :)

I have a coupon for $10 off a game at EB (cokesports.com). So I'm picking it up for $10. Sweet!

I played last years version and thought it was better than Madden anyway. I'm picking this shiat up tomorrow!

I just picked this game up the other day for a friend and it was on sale. I think it ended up costing me $17 and change. As a madden loyalist, I was really surprised at how good the game play is. Compared to Madden 04, this game blows it out of the water. We will see how good 05 will be. The thing that struck me most was the tacking models. They are much more realistic than anything Madden has put out. The one knock I had on the game was that the running controls were a little difficult. As a Madden loyalist, I have never purchased any other football games. This year will be different.

You can't go into the game expecting it to play like Madden. You need to stick with it for a while, you'll realize that the controls are great for a football game, probably the best controls you'll find in a football game, it just takes time if you're used to Madden.

Has anyone played 2k5 on Xbox live? I'm still gonna by the game since i'm a loyal sega fan. But I'm still wondering how the online play is.

I have, it's quite impressive.

They have online leagues, which are supported on the ESPNvideogames.com website.

Your league will have an ESPN-like layout, with tracked stats, standings, injuries, trades.. All done automatically and tracked as the members of the league play the games.

On the XBox Live side of it, you are presented with a themed menu system (based on team you are in league), with options to send messages, make trades, view stats, etc.

I still don't really believe it, because prior to this there were minimal stats kept in leagues, because the user had to write them down, make a website, etc.

With ESPN, it's all automatic and very slick. For $20, this game is simply amazing. I have no gripes with it, and am still being surprised and impressed by new things in the game.

Anybody here had any glitch trouble with the XBox version in Franchise mode?

My playbook has been going screwy since the second game of the regular season. Half my offensive playbook is named with symbols (*$#) and involves plays with less than five players.

I'm also having trouble trying to sub out certain players. The game simply won't let me select some players that I want on the field.

Anyone else had problems?

Holy shit. I has told myself last year that I was going to get this year's edition after I played ESPN 2004 (and I have NFL 2k and 2k3, so I wasn't new to it)...then it got reduced to $20, which is awesome. Now, this; man, I honestly would pay about $70 bucks for this game, and let's not forget the other features it has now.

I've never even heard of that before, ask around on http://www.gamefaqs.com/ at the ESPN NFL2K5 message board in the Xbox section. If all else fails, try deleting your current Franchise Mode save and starting a new game.

2k5 has done it....the price and quality of the game really blow Madden away. If only these die-hard "Maddenites" would get over the pre-occupation with the Madden series and realize that the game has not really changed in the last 3 years. Give 2k5 a good week of game play, and you will be hooked. Smoother game play, remarkable transition between game play, quarters, and halftime.

Great game.

how do you people get off saying that this game blows madden away when madden isnt out yet???

Madden will have to be a hell of a lot better than NFL 2K5 to warrant paying an extra $30 for it.

Being a Madden player for years now, the general dig on Madden is that it doesn't really change from year to year.

After reading previews and watching videos for 2005, it seems that trend will continue,

Sure, they add features and other "fluff," but the game really needs a graphics upgrade and some "real" changes.

We will see what this year's game brings, but I don't think they are doing anything revolutionary.

Madden has brand recognition going for it, and it would sell millions of copies regardless of how good it is.

When you go to a freinds house, you play Madden. Everyone gets Madden, regardless of which game is better.

I love ESPN and am still blown away by the online leagues and how stats, trades, injuries, etc. are all there, and also viewable online at the official website.

As an example, I have a few friends that buy Madden every year. This year, I told them about ESPN, showed them clips, previews, and later reviews, but they didn't check it out, solely because it wasn't Madden.

That's fine, and it's truly their loss, but for $20, I consider it to be a poor decision not to give the game a chance. Especially considering that it is a superb game, and not some mediocre football title released by a company just trying to make a quick buck by releasing their game early.

It's an amazing game that a lot of people are going to miss, because they blow it off before even giving it a shot.

I haven't even touched franchise mode yet, and from what my friend was telling me, it sounds awesome.

Madden may be great this year, but I don't know that yet. Maybe EA will buck the trend and make major changes and improvements, instead of just adding more food items to owner mode, but right now, I've played ESPN and it simply rocks. I honestly have trouble picturing Madden topping it in terms of quality and fun factor.

Madden will likely outsell ESPN, but that doesn't matter to me. I'm just interested in the better game; and right now that is ESPN. Granted, Madden isn't out yet, but if you've played ESPN, I think you would would agree that it will be very hard to top. It just does so much right, and so little wrong.

EDIT: Also, if anyone wants to play a game on Live some time, my gamer tag is Jimplication. I'm also on AIM as Grondar. If you want to play some time, hit me up. I play straight and care more about having fun than the final score.

an example of the so little wrong... when you play against a team with a scrambling quarterback, its tough as nails to tackle him.

i wish the game had spy plays like madden does that lets a linebacker keep his eye one the qb. granted you can make any play in 2k5 a spy play by just adjusting your player to the linebacker, it takes him off his route and leaves a man open. hopefully they fix these problems for my 20 dollar espn 2k6.

Cause we've seen Madden for the past few years, and it's just mostly a roster update. Looks the same, plays mostly the same, it's a $50 expansion pack every year. Madden stopped bringing good things to the table years ago.

Hmm, i've been watching the Madden 2005 previews and it looks like they're adding some pretty neat stuff this year, especially in the gameplay aspect, like home field advantage, etc etc... Just my .02, because I don't play football games on console, just on PC, so I guess my only option is Madden 2005 anyway... meh

The reason people buy Madden every year is because it has earned it's reputation as the best football game out there. People continue to buy games in a series because the series has earned their trust. How? By being awesome, that's how. If Sega's game is truly better than Madden, then so be it, but don't act like you don't understand why people buy Madden instead.

When Sega first came out with the 2k series (which is now called ESPN), I believe it was on Dreamcast first, it was seriously flawed. A lot of us paid full price for that game and, guess what? It was no Madden, not even close. So a lot of us went back to Madden. Because it was better.

Changing from Madden to ESPN at this point, for those of us who have played and enjoyed Madden for years, is, to me at least, a little pointless. I have found a series that does things right and have learned the intricacies of the game, which, as you know, takes a long time with a football game. All of the people I play Madden with share this familiarity with the franchise, leading to a very competitive, challenging and personal gaming experience.

Changing over to ESPN would be taking the game we enjoy and tweaking it so that we were not familiar with it anymore, therefore basically forcing us to start over from scratch.

Nothing against ESPN (I LOOOOVE NHL 2K4), but Madden is already my favorite football game; I don't need another quite yet.

I'll pick up the game anyway, but it will prolly sit for a while untill I'm ready for a new football experience.

What about the playmaker option they brought in last year? That was pretty tight.

I'm really interested in the new features for 2005. If its the same as last year except for the updated rosters, I'm going to have to vote for 2k5 as the best football game of the year.