Glove Guy's ESPN NBA 2K5 Review
Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:33 am
Well seeing how the Official ESPN NBA 2K5 Thread failed and requires a scroll down, in which I pass other ESPN threads along the way, I've decided to make a new thread, featuring my review of it. Here it is:
Graphics:
Amazing. Simply amazing. The faces, the jerseys, the muscles. They're all done so well. Last year, ESPN introduced the art of sweating, where players would become more shiny over the game, as if they were really sweating. They've now taken it to a higher level with jerseys. It's something that I haven't really noticed with away jerseys unless it's in replay, but for white home jerseys, while playing, the jerseys become progressively darker, as if the sweat was actually soaking them.(It's the little things
) Everything, in my opinion is that much better this year. The jersey textures have been improved and look more realistic, along with the variety of player models. The arena atmosphere is much better too. 2K5 has adapted 3-D crowds, a new graphical enhancement in sports games. Overall, these graphics are truly the best I've ever seen in a sports game.
Glove Guy's score: 10/10
Gameplay and Animations:
ESPN 2K4's gameplay was a flop. A let-down. A sad experience. But it's all been changed. No longer do all teams play the same. No longer is a dinky little hook shot the only post shot available.
Last year's IsoMotion, a play-off of NBA Live's Freestyle, was a letdown. This year has brought improvements. IsoMotion2 brings more control and playability. While it still remains a challenge to master, that's how all sports games should be. Along with the new IsoMotion dribbling animations, 2K5 has a new power dribble, making it look much realistic when a player drives to the hoop.
2K5's hop step has been done really well. It does give you an advantage, but it's not something you can abuse. You have to work to be in the position to actually use it. If you hold down turbo, you can do a nice little spin move, which can be followed with a nice little fading jumper.
The post game, which was totally non-existent last year, has been incorporated in IsoMotion, where you can use the Right Thumbstick to spin off of opponents.. Though I myself am not great at it, I can tell you now, the animations are much improved. ESPN has incorporated a nice little up-and-under finger roll, along with plenty more animations.
Some of the bad(yes, believe it or not, there is some) is that there seems to be a little less control while dribbling around the three point line. It looks extremely realistic, yet there's not too much feel within it. Also, on default sliders, the tempo is a bit higher then some might want, but that can be rectified with a little tweaking.
Glove Guy's score: 9/10
The Assosiation:
Along with all of the features in last year's Franchise Mode(now known as "The Association"), 2K5 has the feature of managing and balancing player's emotions, which can result in a higher or lower team chemistry. Also given is a Weekly Training feature, where you can assign tasks for your team. If you assign a hard workout, it could potentially result in injury or loss of stamia, yet at the same time, boost your team's ratings. If a light workout is assigned, your team's stamina may rise, yet their rating's could decrease. You can also assign a staff of four people, where you have the option to hiar an NBA Legend, a Masseuse, a Biomechanist, a Player Mentor, and more. The menus are a bit confusing and different from last year, but after a week, you'll get the feel for them. One thing I don't like is the inability to sort the free agent pool by rating, but that's just something minor.
Glove Guy's score: 9/10
Extra Features:
Last year, ESPN introduced 24/7, a mode allowing you to create your own player, and have him play against NBA players on street courts around the country. It was interesting, and to some, addictive. This year's version appears more polished. Honestly, I haven't really gotten into it much, but from what I've done so far, the mode seems much more improved over last year's.
You can also attain unlockables such as bobbleheads or all-time teams by reaching milestones or individual accomplishments. Unlike last year, Hall of Fame difficulty mode is actually unlockable, something unattainable last year. Some unlockables are cool, but I think ESPN NFL's Crib Mode is much more interesting.
Glove Guy's score: 8/10
Overall score(not an average): 9/10
To me, this is the best basketball game I've ever played. Hopefully, it won't start getting old, but for now, I'm really happy with my $20 purchase. Both ESPN and Live are great games in their own aspects. I'm curious to see what ESPN does to answer Live's All-Star Weekend for 2006.
Graphics:
Amazing. Simply amazing. The faces, the jerseys, the muscles. They're all done so well. Last year, ESPN introduced the art of sweating, where players would become more shiny over the game, as if they were really sweating. They've now taken it to a higher level with jerseys. It's something that I haven't really noticed with away jerseys unless it's in replay, but for white home jerseys, while playing, the jerseys become progressively darker, as if the sweat was actually soaking them.(It's the little things
) Everything, in my opinion is that much better this year. The jersey textures have been improved and look more realistic, along with the variety of player models. The arena atmosphere is much better too. 2K5 has adapted 3-D crowds, a new graphical enhancement in sports games. Overall, these graphics are truly the best I've ever seen in a sports game.Glove Guy's score: 10/10
Gameplay and Animations:
ESPN 2K4's gameplay was a flop. A let-down. A sad experience. But it's all been changed. No longer do all teams play the same. No longer is a dinky little hook shot the only post shot available.
Last year's IsoMotion, a play-off of NBA Live's Freestyle, was a letdown. This year has brought improvements. IsoMotion2 brings more control and playability. While it still remains a challenge to master, that's how all sports games should be. Along with the new IsoMotion dribbling animations, 2K5 has a new power dribble, making it look much realistic when a player drives to the hoop.
2K5's hop step has been done really well. It does give you an advantage, but it's not something you can abuse. You have to work to be in the position to actually use it. If you hold down turbo, you can do a nice little spin move, which can be followed with a nice little fading jumper.
The post game, which was totally non-existent last year, has been incorporated in IsoMotion, where you can use the Right Thumbstick to spin off of opponents.. Though I myself am not great at it, I can tell you now, the animations are much improved. ESPN has incorporated a nice little up-and-under finger roll, along with plenty more animations.
Some of the bad(yes, believe it or not, there is some) is that there seems to be a little less control while dribbling around the three point line. It looks extremely realistic, yet there's not too much feel within it. Also, on default sliders, the tempo is a bit higher then some might want, but that can be rectified with a little tweaking.
Glove Guy's score: 9/10
The Assosiation:
Along with all of the features in last year's Franchise Mode(now known as "The Association"), 2K5 has the feature of managing and balancing player's emotions, which can result in a higher or lower team chemistry. Also given is a Weekly Training feature, where you can assign tasks for your team. If you assign a hard workout, it could potentially result in injury or loss of stamia, yet at the same time, boost your team's ratings. If a light workout is assigned, your team's stamina may rise, yet their rating's could decrease. You can also assign a staff of four people, where you have the option to hiar an NBA Legend, a Masseuse, a Biomechanist, a Player Mentor, and more. The menus are a bit confusing and different from last year, but after a week, you'll get the feel for them. One thing I don't like is the inability to sort the free agent pool by rating, but that's just something minor.
Glove Guy's score: 9/10
Extra Features:
Last year, ESPN introduced 24/7, a mode allowing you to create your own player, and have him play against NBA players on street courts around the country. It was interesting, and to some, addictive. This year's version appears more polished. Honestly, I haven't really gotten into it much, but from what I've done so far, the mode seems much more improved over last year's.
You can also attain unlockables such as bobbleheads or all-time teams by reaching milestones or individual accomplishments. Unlike last year, Hall of Fame difficulty mode is actually unlockable, something unattainable last year. Some unlockables are cool, but I think ESPN NFL's Crib Mode is much more interesting.
Glove Guy's score: 8/10
Overall score(not an average): 9/10
To me, this is the best basketball game I've ever played. Hopefully, it won't start getting old, but for now, I'm really happy with my $20 purchase. Both ESPN and Live are great games in their own aspects. I'm curious to see what ESPN does to answer Live's All-Star Weekend for 2006.
Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:52 am
I agree with most things you said but there a few big problems such as:
That's all that I remember, now, but those are pretty big errors (yet, not gamekillers).
- Turnover Bug (if you mess up a pass, it counts as two turnovers; a block counts as a turnover)
- Too many rebound and turnovers (both CPU and human rebound a lot, the least I've gotten is 60 and the least turnovers is 12, the highest being 33 but that may be due to the bug)
- CPU won't call timeouts (the computer will never call timeouts because VC forgot to change the Timeouts from Manual to Automatic)
That's all that I remember, now, but those are pretty big errors (yet, not gamekillers).
Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:15 pm
Someone said the gameplay isn't realistic at all...like Shaq wandering along the 3pt line and shooting 20ft jump shots.
Or, again Shaq able to do killer cross-overs.
Is this true? I'm interested in buying it as well but not if all of this is true.
Please advice!
Or, again Shaq able to do killer cross-overs.
Is this true? I'm interested in buying it as well but not if all of this is true.
Please advice!
Sat Oct 09, 2004 2:32 am
I played the game over my friend house yesterday and I would like to say the graphics are the best basketball graphics I've ever seen. The gameplay is pretty realistic from when me and my friend played. My friend had the Lakers and I had the Grizzlies. I really didnt see a big man do a crossover, but I wasn't playing against the computer. When you shoot shots in the post, its pretty much automatic. The movement of the players on the fastbreak is alot better than it is in Live. The ball handler would like get lower to the ground and dribble closer to the ground when they going through traffic. You can execute good fastbreaks in the game too. Some of the flaws are when the players dunk, its like their in a dunking contest. Like I had Jwill and Bonzi on the break and Bonzi came from the baseline and did a between the legs dunk over Brian Grant. 
The presentation of the game is good, but the commentator is really boring. Bill Walton barely says anything through the whole game. I will say that I'm getting the game this weekend because when I played it I really liked the graphics and gameplay. I didn't get the chance to play the franchise mode and everything, but you can unlock stuff on the game like bobbleheads, all-time teams and things like that. If you get bored of Live, I can play ESPN, but ESPN isn't as bad as the ratings show from some sites.
P.S. Another flaw in the game is when the ball is coming off the rim, they would call it goadltending sometime in the game which I hate. I also like the part when you get doubled and you can have a jump ball. That's very realistic.
The presentation of the game is good, but the commentator is really boring. Bill Walton barely says anything through the whole game. I will say that I'm getting the game this weekend because when I played it I really liked the graphics and gameplay. I didn't get the chance to play the franchise mode and everything, but you can unlock stuff on the game like bobbleheads, all-time teams and things like that. If you get bored of Live, I can play ESPN, but ESPN isn't as bad as the ratings show from some sites.
P.S. Another flaw in the game is when the ball is coming off the rim, they would call it goadltending sometime in the game which I hate. I also like the part when you get doubled and you can have a jump ball. That's very realistic.
Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:10 am
I got Live the first day it came out and got ESPN yesterday, and I like ESPN much better. The graphics are simply amazing, there's no way you can say that Live's graphics can compare. They also added alot of little stuff like players having their warmups on before the game and when you hit a shot, the players on your bench jump up. The gameplay has improved from last year and I love the addition of the pro hop, they also fixed the constant offensive foul call. I like the music alot, it's better than Live's, the rappers have the old school sound. TheAssosiation (Franchise) is good, I LOVE the one feature (can't remember the name) when you get to be like the coach and distribute shots, it's insane. The only problems I really have are the way they made the trade/free agent menus look, I don't like them at all.Their hands also look a little funny when they do some dunks, but most of the dunks look great, you can see them grip the rim. And my last complaint is the commentary, Bill Walton talks like twice a quarter and the other guy is as boring as ever, but I don't really care about that. Some other small things are when the game starts you actually see a movie of the team on the jumbotron, and there's like a little halftime show showing highlight pics (I have the Ps2 version, it might be video on XBox) of the two best players in the game from the first half. Also in dynasty players actually come into your office (they actually walk in and out dressed in their warmups) and give you complaints or comments on the team and you get to pick your answer. Another small thing I noticed was Rip Hamilton had his facemask.
This game is great, I like it way better than Live. I was gonna trade my Live in to Gamestop but they said they'd only give me 18 dollars for it (
) so I'll just sell it to some moron.
Sega wins again in my book, great game.
This game is great, I like it way better than Live. I was gonna trade my Live in to Gamestop but they said they'd only give me 18 dollars for it (
) so I'll just sell it to some moron.
Sega wins again in my book, great game.
Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:20 pm
i have been a live fan for quite sometime now but i'm gonna jump on the espn bandwagon .. lol.. i couldnt stand live this year, i have no idea why.. i returned it a week after playing it twice.. im not saying espn is the greatest game ever, because its not (playing defense is ridiculous) but i enjoy it way more.. the hopstep, spin move, fadeaway j's are more realistic looking.. and the graphics are