Okay so that is really weird topic description but we will get to that in a moment. You ever watch those really crappy reality shows? Like that one where Carmen Electra marries Dave Navvarro and your all like WTF? How did that happen? Well that's what I thought when ESPN "married" SEGA to start producing the ESPN NFL 2K series. However I had a blast with last years offering and I am currently even more in love with this years game.
Gameplay/Control
Now Madden 2005 is not out yet so basically I am comparing this game to NCAA 2005 which I am currently playing also (Go Univeristy of Texas) as they stack up NFL2K5 is easily the champ. With all the added features it really blows NCAA out of the water. You have everything in this game from "The Crib" which is a larger house than last year where you can store in game trophies as well as "buy" things that match to pimp out your place. Such as posters of your favorite football team or a new media center, etc. ANother great feature is you can edit your own team, players or even take on the whole establishment in franchise mode. Hell need to fire your owner and hire a new coach, you can in NFL2K5. Now let me get you tell you something, this game isn't some micro-manage bore fest. It has all the arcade flashiness of the origianal for Xbox. With the ability to charge up the a button to activate huge plays, juke opposing players and customize your victory dances. Great stuff with a ton of features that I can't even begin to cover here.
Graphics
This is where NFL2K5 really shines. Althought the player models are not the best looking compared to Ninja Gaiden or Psi-Ops. It's the amount of graphic detail the game covers. You see everything you would in a ESPN broadcast, from that fatty Chris Berman introing the game to a complete game wrap up after the game. Even the half-time report is 100% accurate and runs down all the cool stuff that has happened so far. You also get a ton of shots of stuff going in the bleachers/stadium as well as excellent play by play from the announcers. They must of had to record 100s of lines for the game to sound this good. And of course their are about 10 different camera angles that you can choose to play from including the ESPN field camera that fly's on wires across the top of the field...
The Story
Yo Mr Blonde "The story? " wtf? It's a football game. Yeah I know that but the story of this game is building and adding things to your crib. Which you do the more you win and the more you play the game. I mean I know it's not that novel but it's just so cool and a great way to show off all you have done. My favorite new feature this year is that you have a phone in your crib. So everyonce in a while the game says "You have a call" and you go to your crib in the menu and answer it. The first time I did it was Funkmaster Flex. Who challenged me to a game. Of course he had his own custom team. (All ranked at 100%) and he proceeded to whup my ass 13-3. The other cool part (or annoying) is that after good play in the game Funkmaster photo will pop up and he will taunt you, kinda like he is right there playing against you on Xbox Live or something. A cool feature indeed. I wonder who else will call me next?
All in all this is a great football arcade game. Not as deep as NCAA but not as
light as NFL Blitz. It's great to play on Xbox Live as well and a must buy for only
19.88 . GO out and get it today and let's send the message that SEGA and ESPN rock and that this is a good price for a game. Screw that 49.99 price on other games....
8.5/10
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