Jae

gotta love the 24/7 mode on espn

shadowhawk2020

24/7 is the only mode I have played on ESPN so far... I haven't even tried the other part yet

Young Vito

ure absolutely right, noone should even bother to read the review of espn on IGN, it has been proven that the reviewer constantly lied in the review, when have u ever seen a reviewer take the time to make videos showing off the games bad points in a review for which most of the things she pointed out wasnt even the AI playing... it was her!( check out the vids, its her controlling shaq into a corner then complaning that the AI is dumb ) i love IGN but this is crazy, EA definately bought that review.

opinon of someone whos played both:

i still think live needs alot of growin up to do, the game plays the same exact way it did in PS1 days wit the "invisible force shield" around the player, the animations still truly suck, ane the players look horrible in my opinion. slam dunk contest is cool though but i wish sega came out with one.

espn has been improved in all aspects , camera fixed, players do all the small things (ripping ball away after a tie up, hands up in air as if to say " look ref no foul") the animatinons are incredible, the players actually sweat and the jerseys get wet, the gameplay is alot better than live. period.

GET ESPN NOW!

PopcornTreeCt

I've been playing ESPN and its pretty fun. The double team is pretty sweet causing a jump ball or sometimes the player will bounce the ball off an opponents foot. My Magic aren't bad in the game, they made Dwight Howard quite good. But I still love playing as T-Mac and LeBron.

darkside

Picked up NBA2K5 tonight when I got my Donkey Konga preorder. I'm used to the ESPN games and I can't argue with $20 for a new game. I will try to rent Live at some point though for the slam dunk contest if nothing else.

khai

Haha! A fellow Magic fan. Yeah, as low as their overall rating is, they're not bad at all. Steve Francis is quite a force if you use him correctly.

Playing against the Heat is another story though.

Decker

I was skeptical at first. I just checked the Metacritic site for ESPN NBA 2k5 and found that IGN gave the lowest score there. Has that ever happened before? I doubt it. I'll pick this up today or tomorrow.

darkside

Played Association mode on 2K5 for five hours and enjoyed the heck out of it. I didn't play the 2K4 version so it took me awhile to catch up on the controls because they have changed widley from 2K3. I played with the sliders and was able to get the game just where I wanted it. My team shooting around 50% and my defense holding teams under 45%, though the Lakers shot over 50% but you have to figure Kobe will do that.

There are only a couple of things I'm still adjusting to. One is the pass button. I'm used to taping pass to pass. On this game you have to hold down the button for a second or they won't pass. I had a few situations where I drew a double team and tried to tap pass for a quick three. Problem is that doesn't work. Your player just holds on to the ball and turns it over. Even after several games I was not passing the ball the way I would like to and missing easy scoring chances. Also I had to switch back to icon passing. The computer is completely stupid about passing. I will hold the stick up and pass to a guy standing just up from me and instead the pass will be thrown crosscourt to someone on my right.

I've found the isomotion to be worthless for the way I play the game. That is something else I will have to work on. Seemed evertime I would try a crossover or move with the R stick nothing would happen and the defender would just push me back.

Anyway this are adjustments I have to make to learning the controls and I'm sure by the end of a season I will be able to do everything the way I want it. Overall a great $20.

SpacemanSpiff

bb has it for 15 right now, theres a coupon for $5 off too!

my bb didnt have the coupon book tho

Decker

...sigh... OK, one more time : The coupon is for $5 off any game or accessory priced at $19.99 or higher. It shouldn't work for games that are priced less than that. Maybe you'll find a stupid checker who will allow that, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

For $14.99 it's a deal either way. Just picked up my copy.

mr.snowmizer

No, he's not talking about the standard Gamer's Gift Card coupon.

He's talking about the coupon out of the free guide/booklet with Madden on the cover, which is $5 off any Live game.

Decker

gulp!
Sorry. I had no idea about that one. I fortunately still had one copy of that buried under some old gaming mags. It does say $5 off any Live starter kit or Live Software (I guess that means games). I'll return and re-buy tomorrow. Thanks.

DJ_Longfellow

I've played a little more in the Association mode. I cranked the difficulty up to the one right below the hardest level. Games have been much closer...however, my ONE problem is that the computer can score at will it seems like with the PG....he takes a majority of the shots.

Also, how do you DUNK in the game? A majority of the time my player will just go up for a layup....it gets annoying. is there something "special" i have to do?

fujishig

Usually, those coupons still say that they can't be combined with any other offer, so they should just take 5 bucks off the 20 dollar regular price. YMMV as always, though.

Hmm... haven't picked up this season yet, but last year the PGs were the primary scorers too. If I didn't cover them myself, they'd blow right by the defender, no matter who they were...

DJ_Longfellow

Yeah, it's pretty bad when Bob Sura was making ALL his shots.....

gmal2003

Played both yesterday and I must say LIVE completely blows 2K5 away IMHO. Dunk contest aside (which along with custom soundtracks are the best 2 things to happen to sports games since franchise modes) the gameplay on 2K5 wasnt good to me.

Example: I was playing my friend. He had the Cavs and me the Lakers. He (Lebron James) drove to the lane and did a between the legs dunk on 3 people. WTF!?! BTW - The passing lane interception crap was ridiculous. I guess sliders could fix that. Other than that I did enjoy ESPN alot. The moves were smoother (TMac's moves were so fluid, just like in real life) and Ive heard big things about the Association. I like Live's on court graphics better, but ESPN's faces and off court graphics were tight.

khai

Hehe, as you can see with the post above mine, there's always two sides to the story.

In ESPN NBA 2K5, you need a wide open lane to dunk. There's no dunk button so if you're defended, your character will do a layup or one of the many floater animations. He will dunk if the defender is standing in the circle though.

gmal, the passing lane interception crap is actually more lenient this year. Were your passes getting intercepted a lot? In that case, you can try a few things. Don't pass into crowded areas, don't pass when the defender is standing right in front of the receiver, and pass out of the double team earlier.

darkside

Scoring a lot with the PG was something I think started with 2K4. I noticed it a lot in NCAA 2K4 the only 2K4 BBall game I owned. You basically had to double the PG a lot if he was talented or he would just go to the hoop time after time.

They have cut down on the interception of passes which was too high, but overall I think the gameplay of 2K5 has taken a big step back. 2K3 was a nearly perfect game, but they tried to copy EA with the isomotion and its really ruined the game for me. They have put more of a priority on stuff like the hop step and crossovers and really neglected the passing game and defense. Just losing the button a few years ago to quickly switch to the defender closest to the basket hurt the game for me.

I've played 20 games on association mode and I'm pretty much done with this years game. My excitement after first getting the game has worn off. It used to be a game where you could play an inside out team game, but now its more about busting a crossover one on one and going straight to the basket. Gameplay is just not there for me anymore. Its not that its a hard game, I'm 18-2 and had some great games including an overtime game against LA that was nice. However, the game is just not the fun it once was when I would play season after season of games.

gr8fuldave

There are some rosters over at OS that are quite good for XBOX that make the CPU take some outside shots, and varies their shots greatly. It's in this thread (you must register to view the forums and must have an Action replay to use the roster)

http://tinyurl.com/65c9s

Or JT45 always has good ESPN NBA rosters, and they are here
http://tinyurl.com/66oea

fujishig

How do the rosters force the computer to take more outside shots? I can see the need for downloading rosters on games like NCAA, where the names aren't in the game, but I never understood downloading a roster for a pro game, unless you wanted to fix a roster glitch or a recent trade or something...

Joshic

Does anyone know if NBA 2K5 supports 720p?

IMRICKJAMES

I like the 24/7 mode in ESPN but sometimes the training gets so frustrating. A lot of the different trainings are virtually impossible to do because you have to rely on the computer too much. Just one example...in the iso motion training one of them is taking charges...only problem is the computer controlled player wont ever drive to the hoop. Another one...in the blocking training one task is blocking dunks/layups...only problem is the computer doesnt drive to the hoop in this one either and you dont get points for any blocks on the jumpers the computer keeps taking

nickdawgy

I like ESPN but the music is awful (worst then last year) and there are some noticeable bugs. Such as when they show the out of town scores, one of your players is often listed as the leading scorer of that team. Like say you're the Lakers and you're playing Detroit, then they show the Bulls-Celtics score, Lamar Odom will show up in the ticker. Lame.

Another thing I hate is when I am playing any game (24/7 or association) I turn replays off or on sometimes, and they always revert back to frequent. I don't need to see a replay of every friggin play.....

Haven't played Live yet, so no idea if it's better or not.

fujishig

I remember a number of training exercises that were frustrating in last year's version, particularly the ones where you have to steal the ball. But last year you could just avoid them and build your skills up with other ones. Is that not true this year.

I'm hoping the Best Buy's near me restock, so I can get this year's ESPN... all sold out for Xbox in the LA area, last I checked.

fujishig

Well, finally picked this game up (ESPN NBA 2K5), after loving this series (and not buying Live) since it's inception on the DC... ugh.

Now I only had one night to play it so far, and some of the changes may grow on me, but here are my first impressions:

They messed with both the default controls and the default camera angle? I'm glad they added the drop step and all, but that's where Icon passing is... I couldn't get used to it on the little white button and had to switch configurations.

The left trigger on defense "evolved" from:
A very useful defensive stance (2K3 and before) to
A less useful taking-a-charge stance (2K4) to
A double team button (2K5)?
Can you even box out to get a rebound anymore?

I guess they added player momentum for realism, but geez, it feels like I'm out of control half the time when my player decides at random to dribble between his legs at halfcourt and get a violation. It just feels so much more sluggish than the 2K games I'm used to...

I'm sure the graphics are better than before, but man are the faces that show up on the bottom of the screen ugly. In-game, they're fine, but when they show close ups like that after every shot, it makes me realize how unrealistic they really are.

For 15 bucks, I'm not complaining that much. I look forward to the new way that games are simulated in "Association" mode, which sounds pretty cool. And the refined post game sounds great, once I get used to it. But for the first time in a while, I picked up Live today (can't resist the 40 bucks plus 10 dollar gift certificate at Target, combined with the buy 2 get 1 free deal).

Anyone else play the ESPN football games, and see how much more effort they put into the presentation in those games than in the other ESPN series? The football games just seem to be so much more polished (not necessarily gameplay, just presentation)... is this because of lead time, or money, or what?