ESPN NBA 2K5 Review

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When I first heard about the 2K5 games going to be $20.00, I figured that these games were all going to suck because of the price. So I decided to see if this was true, so I just rented it. The same exact day that I rented it, I went back to Blockbuster, returned the game, went to EB Games, and bought ESPN NBA 2K5. It was that good. It is some of the best works of graphics, gameplay, sound, and of course the ESPN broadcast style that has ever been put into a basketball game. ESPN NBA 2K5 tops all the components of NBA Live 2005 except for the slam dunk contest in NBA Live, which isn't anything special. The gameplay combined with the replays, presentation, and sideline broadcasting of ESPN makes this the BEST. The graphics are great, not perfect, but easily the best of all basketball games to this day. The sound is FABULOUS, slightly edging out last years 2K4. This game will own your soul.

The all new Association mode is my favorite part of this whole game. You gain complete control over your favorite franchise, basically stepping into the shoes of Rudy Tomjanovich on the sidelines of the Lakers' Staples Center, or any other NBA manager. With the team chemistry and you having to take care of and answer questions of your players, you feel like a real manager, having to take care of financial issues as well as making your players happy. You sometimes even begin to get headaches because of you wanting to make sure you are making the right decisions that will benefit you as a manager as well as the rest of your players. The graphics are very good and easily create the best replicas of NBA basketball arenas and players in video games. When I first played this game, I almost stopped with my jaw dropped in awe of the realism of this game. Although it is very hard to beat out EA Sports, Visual Concepts, Sega, and ESPN all on one team definately have supremacy over the NBA basketball title here. Let me put it this way, the fans in the stands definately do not push the XBox to the limits in means of graphic capabilites. They are kind of boring and not enthusiastic. But with the fast paced action of NBA 2K5, you don't have time to pay attention to the fans.

The controls can be frustrating at times and can take a while to master, when you get the hang of these controls, you discover that they are responsive and quite easy to use. Here is how I rate the game:

Overall: 9 / 10 (No company has yet completely mastered how to perfectly design basketball games, but this is easily the best attempt to master it)

Overall: 10 / 10

Gameplay: 9 / 10 (Fabulous, but not perfect)

Graphics 9 / 10 (I'm not giving it a ten because of the lifeless fans)

Value: 10 / 10 (For $20.00, nobody can complain)

Sound: 11 / 10 (Best on the market)

Presentation: 11 / 10 (Can't compete with ESPN)

Realism: 10 / 10

Controls: 9 / 10 (Great once you master them, but frustrating to learn at first)

Features: 10 / 10 (Best of all basketball games)

This year, ESPN NBA 2K5 has officially one the award as being the best, most complete hoops game on the market. Without ESPN in league with Sega and Visual Concepts, this award would be a lot harder for the 2K5 series to grab a hold of. Don't waste your time with NBA Live 2005. This game is easily an overall better game. This game is basically crystal clear with hardly any flaws. For only $20.00 plus the great gameplay, fabulous graphics (except for those darn fans), and of course the fantastic ESPN broadcasting and presentation, get rid of all your old basketball games (NBA Live included) and make room for the king of all NBA basketball games: ESPN NBA Basketball 2K5!!!

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First off, the graphics. They are the best and most detailed I've ever seen in video games (or maybe I just played the bleeping 2001 EA games too much). Sometimes they are somewhat over-the-top (i.e. Donyell Marshall's hilariously high-arched eyebrows making him like he was sucking a lemon while getting a face lift), but almost all of the player models are extremely well-detailed, and some player's faces portray something beyond their physical appearance, like an emotion. The animations during gameplay (excluding some dunks from the free-throw line that go way too quick) are realistic, and very sensitive to your commands. Very good stuff here.

The sound is good, the best parts coming from Bill Walton and Bob (or is it Bill?) Fitzgerald. Walton has some hilarious criticisms of a play that just happened, and "Fitz" is good. I don't want to diss Michelle Tafoya, but I've never thought "on-court" or "on-field" commentators were that necessary for anything but injury updates (Pam Oliver and Jill Arrington are hot, though!)

The gameplay is very good, and quite easy to pick up. Some players (like Jalen Rose, and sometimes Krstic) inexplicably miss about every shot they shoot, and in Rose's case, about every believable jumper he shoots. However, I will give tremendous kudos to ESPN for making the players more balanced in terms of scoring. Everybody can hit chip shots, and short jumpers. This is one of the better parts, as most games (like the EXTREMELY flawed computer version of NBA Live 2001, where making a layup was almost impossible) base even easy shots on whether the player has a good "close range" rating. I usuallly do well without the special moves, and I think it's better without (maybe one here and there), but for the most part, you get travels with the hop step and charges with the Isomotion or whatever it is. The game also encourages a lot of passing and distribution of the ball, instead of giving to a big post player like Shaq and having him dunk it every play, which is terribly dull. You also score a lot more when you equally distribute shots and keep the defense on their toes.

Overall, I find this to be the best NBA game, if not the best basketball game (I haven't tried College Hoops yet!). The commentary and crowd make every game a pleasure to participate in. This is a great one; unless you like arcade crap, this a fantastic basketball game.

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I have both NBA Live & this game here. The fun factor for this game is way better. The only thing NBA Live has for it is the All Star Weekend. I find myself playing this game non-stop. This is the best basketball game I've ever played. Way to go SEGA!!!!!! The only downfall for this game is each player has a high % of making shots. It's almost like each player has a portion of MJ in them. I'm not complaining about that, because I like high scoring games instead of low scoring (due to defense.)

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When comparing the best selling basektball games on the XBOX or even PS2 market, you find that there is so much competition between ESPN NBA 2K5 and NBA Live 2005. So then you begin to place the detailed specs side by side and grasp the one that first hits your attention. To me it was ESPN, because of the awareness towards price listings and such. For such a compact and time-worthy game, you almost feel like your ripping off Sega. ESPN being 15 dollars, and Live being 30 dollars.

The Graphics are the most dazzling spec offered by ESPN. There is no comparison between NBA Live, because for the past 2 years, there have been no show of improvement from the lack of depth the graphics express. At least Sega has improved them from last year.

Graphics: 9/10

The Gameplay is very fun at times. You find yourself playing the game in increments of time, rather than consecutive hours. It's a basketball game and all the games are pretty much the same, depending on your style of gameplay. I personally have not played one of the most talked-about game option called 24/7. I've nibbed at 24/7 a little and tried experimenting with it, but I don't really have fun playing 1 on 1 games against the CPU. I like to strategize and work with a 5 man team, making it feel like your there, juking your opponents out.

8/10

The Sound is mediocre. The commentary is very repetitive and can drive you to the extreme where you just want to go to "gameplay options" and turn off game commentary. Bill Walton does have some comments that give a little spaz to the game. The sound of the crowd is really realistic, because when a team begins a roll, or nears the end of a clenching game, the crowd roars depending on weather your team or the opposing team is playing home. When a cold streak hits a team, the crowd dies, and the amplitude decreases. The music tracks are pretty good too. Nothing featured by many mainstream artists, but the songs give a good beat for the game.

8/10

So overall this game can be very very fun, but you'll find yourself being caught up in a great game, and then later pushing it aside until your real love of the game brings you back to its experience. XBOX Live is also very fun, especially if your really good at it, because the competition can get really serious and dominant.

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I bought this game based on my prior experience with the sega/espn 2k games and the impressive quality of the 2k5 football game.

The animation and the features improved from the prior versions of the 2K basketball games but for some the took several steps back in responsiveness and the artificial intelligence. Playing the game was a little frustrating. It's hard to control the player movements and often the player will do things that you don't intend. I think the problem is that they tried to get too cute with the animation. When a player you're tring to control is taking a shot with the oposing defender near by, more often than not he would make fancy moves to get the shot off, often times missing when a simple layup, dunk or a jump shot would have been more approriate.

I have the 2k3 version and I would prefer to play that more than the 2k5. Even with the $19.99 price tag, what good is a game when it just doesn't work right.