f13.net forums - The inevitable ESPN NFL 2k5 thread

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July 27, 2025, 04:48:22 AM

we're back, baby

Just picked up the ESPN NFL 2K5 rental at Blockbuster (yes, I realize it's kind of silly to spend $7 to rent a $20 game, but I'm a long-time Madden guy).

Anyway, I think I understand why it's only $20. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of changes from last year....aside from roster updates, it is hard to find them, actually.

Not that this is a bad thing, as ESPN 2k4 was a great football game. Just don't come in expecting major changes to FPF or tons of new animations, etc....they don't even have pictures of the incoming rookie class.

Absolutely worth your $20, but I will end up renting Madden before I make a decision.

Bring the noise.
Cheers..............

First impression is that it's worth exactly 20 bucks. It really lacks a lot of the polish of the Madden games.

It's currently beating my ass. Of course, I should probably try to learn with better teams than the Chargers and Jags. Phillip Rivers throwing 4 interceptions to Adam Archuletta nearly made me weep.

The passing game will take a while to get used to. It's much more random than Madden's and the quarterbacks seem to go down if someone sneezes on them at a bad angle.

First person footbal is pretty neat. Not something I'd overly want to play in all of the time. For running it's pretty nifty.

I think I'm just having a hard time getting used to the differences from Madden. I've played nothing but Madden since I've owned a SNES. This will take some getting used to and time will tell..

I didn't play 2k4.

I find ESPN 2k5 to be the best football game I have ever played. It blows away Madden 2004 in looks, feel, coolness... hell, I played a cricket game on the dart board I bought for my crib last night.

Obviously Madden 2005 isn't out yet so I can't really compare it to that game. In all honesty I have no desire to do so anymore.

Ras, use the rt thumbstick to dodge sacks as a QB. Especially good for pocket QBs.

I disagree with the fact that it's the same as last year's version. There are similarities, sure, but there are in every sports franchise from year to year. I do wish they'd have changed more of the onfield dialogue, but that's offset by custom stadium soundtracks. Hearing Pantera rip into "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" when I sack the QB is a nice touch. And little things like the last play summary and replay on the playcalling screen really help improve the presentation.

But for more tangible stuff, RB moves have been toned down (rightly so), the running game is tougher this year. To balance that, you can now break some tackles if you have a decent back. My running game is down, partly getting used to the new controls, partly because my buddy Charlie Garner is on the evil, evil Bucs :( Moves in the running game feel better, big backs surge and stiff arm more effectively than style backs.

Since I was getting used to a lot of stuff, I didn't activate Maximum Passing, which really improves the throwing game. I was playing against the Bucs during my practice games, so I expected a lot of INTs, and I got them, the most spectacular was my 5 INTs as the Pats v the Bucs, who got 6 INTs themselves (but I broke B. Johnson's wrist in the second quarter, muhahah)

The changes to the line shifting on defense will take some getting used to, but I think they are for the better overall. Since double-teaming works a lot better thanks to the new tackling animations and physics, being able to shift for a strong double team is nice. Nice improvements there imo. Using the generic "int/bat" button seems to yield a lot more bats than INTs, but that's just a matter of learning the "INT" button...

And there /are/ tons of new animations, I don't know what game you were playing. Everyone but the kicker gave me new animations, and I wasn't watching him too closely. Heck, we even have scoring celebrations, finally. Great for the multiplayer matches imo. I do wish (or haven't yet found) that they had a showboat button like Madden had/has (iirc) for breakaway plays. I don't play much Madden, but I think it was the 2001 version the eqholic had on his PS2, I was showboating an 80-yard reception and my guy broke his ankle :P

I likee. I'd be satisfied if it had cost $50. Still getting used to some new button assignments, but overall it's a nice improvement to an already great title and franchise.

No other football gamers here? Heathens!

I am still playing NCAA 2k5. I will surely pick this up after training camp gets going and my full NFL fever takes a hold.

Friend of mine picked NFL2K5 up and I popped over to his place yesterday to check it out. I'm having a blast with it. Lots of refinements and great overall feel. I had to force myself to stop playing and get some sleep. I can't say that Madden will get my vote any longer. My one gripe is that the kickers were booting it way too far and then my friend mentioned that that can be adjusted to be more realistic so I'm going to tinker with that setting this evening and see if I can up the challenge on the kicking game.

Getting better at this sucker. Passing is still a pain. Nothing quite like a 6-16, 186 yard, 1 td, 2 int game being my best so far. But I actually won a game with the craptastic giants. Go go Tiki Barber; the only place he doesn't seem to fumble is online. Of course, I've still only played like 5 total games compared to the hundreds I've spent on Madden (and I still never got good at the passing in that game).

The stadium music is a blast. Soooo much better than Madden. Nothing disappointed me more than having crappy emo bands blaring their music during a football game.

Quote from: Sky

I disagree with the fact that it's the same as last year's version. There are similarities, sure, but there are in every sports franchise from year to year. I do wish they'd have changed more of the onfield dialogue, but that's offset by custom stadium soundtracks.

Well some changes in the pre-game and post-game presentation (although not very polished), a nice addition of coverage for trades, injuries and FA signings in the weekly recap....some nice graphics during the game to display pass distribution or rushing tendencies. Then celebrations and music....they're nice additions to the NFL 2k series, just not what I'm used to seeing from most sports titles from one year to the next.

I wish the CPU teams weren't so loose with the blockbuster trades tho....be the time the preseason was done, Dallas had swapped Keyshawn Johnson for Ruben Brown, and traded Flozell Adams to Seattle for a CB.

I also never saw an option to disable the salary cap, or at least disable cap penalties. It's at least nice to have that as an option. My two created players are demanding ridiculous salaries (and nobody will accept a deal that lowers their salary for the first season) and I literally cannot move on without making major changes to my roster to accommodate my 2 $7M created players.

Lots of turnovers in the games, particularly from INTs. Granted, Detroit has a great set of DBs, including a created player at SS, and a created MLB who has nabbed a bunch of picks....but my opponents are picking off plenty of balls as well (I don't think it's just because of Joey Harrington either).

Don't get me wrong...I'm pretty impressed with it as a $20 title. If it had the same price point as Madden, I'd have to go with Madden (just so many more features).....as a bargain title, I'm tempted to buy it just because the pre-purchase rentals of NCAA, ESPN, and Madden will cost me more than it would to purchase ESPN. I rented Madden 2004 and ESPN 2k4 probably 4-5 times last year....mostly during the season, and during the buildup to the draft.

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

I hardly notice the presentation changes, mostly fluff I skip past anyway. I'm referring to the way the gameplay itself has been tweaked and improved, from new animations to cover a much wider range of situations, to the improved controls. I wouldn't know anything about player's salaries, because I'm not an accountant. I just like playing the game.

Which is the main difference between the two big franchises, Madden is better for accountants and coaches, and ESPN is better on the field. Based on what Madden fans have told me when this inevitably comes up every year.

I have not gotten 2k5 yet. I have a medical excuse in that I can barely see out of one eye (Iritis) since it came out. I am getting better and will pick it up soon no matter what.

Does Rasix just suck (hehe) or is the passing game really a LOT harder than last year? As a diehard packer fan I play the packers and primarily pass for my offensive yards (this includes a healthy dose of screens though). I finish most games with 70-90 percent pass completions in 2k4. You really just need to get a good feel for who is open. And remember you can throw hard or lob depending on how you press the button. As a packer, most of my passes are over the middle types and I am usually drilling them. I rarely use maximum passing, but it comes in handy when I have to scramble as I can use it to direct a receiver away from the defender.

My main source of incompletions are blocks and tips at the line. Don't forget that just because you are playing from a high perspective vantage point, you STILL have passing lanes to think about. Time your passes so you are throwing in the gaps between the blockers. A good way to train yourself in this is to play first person abit and make yourself pass. Those passing lanes become very evident. In first person make your 3-5 step drop and then click the slowmo button (was the left stick click I think in 2k4) and make a quick receiver reed. You probably should be passing here. If not, figure out if you need to scramble, hit your dumpoff safety guy, or risk spending more time back there.

I can say right now though, there are a ton of new animations. I saw a LOT just looking at the demo screen (fucking broken controllers) at our local best buy. I would have bought it there, but they were sold out.

I probably just suck. I was never good at passing in Madden either. I'm very bad at making reads and inevitably throw a jump ball into triple coverage while some other guy is in the endzone playing canasta out of boredom. Oddly enough, this was always my problem playing QB in real life also, not a bad arm, good scrambling, can't find who's open if they had flashing arrows over their head. Perhaps my brain just has problems processing all of that information all at once. Paying attention to the pass rush, checking your lanes and finding who's open is a lot of shit to digest for someone who tries to put his brain on hold while not at work.

On the other hand, I have a really fearsome rushing attack like I always do. There's something about finding rushing lanes that just seems instinctive for me. It's not overly difficult and I can pretty much subsist as a north/south runner. Rarely use moves because once Fred Taylor gets beyond the 'backers he can run the fuck over any sissy DB.

I seem to be living up to my Madden standards with having about 320+ total yards a game with my rushing attack counting for about 120-200 yards of it. Humorously enough after bitching about it, I have my only clean passing game when I open the regular season: 7-12 for 184 yards and a TD (no ints).

I am playing with Jacksonville though and a relative unexperienced QB in Leftwitch. I don't know why I even chose Jax, but I sure as hell won't play my hometown Cards or my favorite Giants (fuck you Eli Manning).

Heh, yeah, sucks when the hometown team is unplayable in video games, huh? Packers in the 80's. UGH. Randy Wright for teh win, or not. There was one year where Majkowski (can't spell that) had decent stats and we had Sterling Sharpe where it was great fun. But that was just one year. Then everyone saw the obvious, that 'Majic' not only sucked but he was made out of glass. I cry myself to sleep sometimes wanting a time machine to put Brett in his prime and Sterling in his prime on the team at the same time.

The thing I have always sucked at in nfl2k series is pass defense. I figured it out in 2k3 where if you tackled the back the INSTANT they caught the ball they would 90% of the time drop it. That tactic no longer works in 2k4 and I assume 2k5. Actually having to bat the ball or pick it is something I am physically incapable of.

2k4 had this training thing where you could train all the different skills, and you had to pass each to move on to the next. There was one where you just had to cover a receiver man to man and tip the ball away when thrown. It must have taken me 30 tries to pull it off. Anytime I press the tip/int button my guy does whatever move that would be LEAST helpful. Like chasing a guy, right on his heels, ball coming in, I WANT to jump forward a bit and get my hand up. I press the bat button and my defender STOPS IN PLACE and jumps up awkwardly nowhere near the ball anymore. So the play goes for a touchdown, where I would have at least been able to dive and tackle him if not for trying to actually defend something.

I just need some sort of epiphany on WHEN to press the damn button. I never know, because I can't time it right unless I know what he will do. The timing difference if he puts his arm up or if he leaps up are very different.

This relegates me to playing man to man on a running back or trying to rush with a lineman. I suck with linemen too, but can do some decent things vs the run with a linebacker.

The AI passing defense on your team is suspect at best. They're great at getting interceptions in bunches. Oddly enough though the linebackers seem to have better hands than the DBs. But really, they let the recievers get past them deep just way too often. The safeties tend to go for the big int instead of keeping to their deep assignment which leads to a lot of really long pass plays for the computer. And yes, everytime I play coverage, the player I'm controlling makes the most inappropriate jump I can think of.

Mostly I play linemen or DE's because I just love smacking the hell out of the QB. So far I'ved injured Drew Bledsoe and David Carr and knocked Rob Johnson out of the game so far. I guess getting blasted by Marcus Stroud or Hugh Douglas would hurt a bit (I knocked Bledsoe back about 10 feet in the air on the hit that broke his wrist). I'm not very good yet at playing a linebacker yet in run defense (I don't evade blocks very well).

I'd play the Cards but man.. Josh McCown? Uggggg. IMO the Cards completely wasted their pick on Fiztgerald and didn't do enough to draft a better QB. Maybe Green sees something in the terminally unimpressive McCown but really, he already two decent targets in Boldin and Johnson. My hate for Eli Manning is supreme. The guy is a little shit that deserves the punishment he'll get from that porous oline he'll be behind. It sucks not having a your hometown or favorite team being in a playable state, so instead you have to pick interesting yet better developed underdogs to take to the promised land.

If you find your defensive AI lacking you can tweak that pretty easily in the custom difficulty. There are three different ways you could do that. Increasing the slider your defensive backfield, lowering his slider for computer wide receivers, lowering the slider for computer quarterback. I believe those were all sliders in the custom difficulty of 2k4. Not sure if 2k5 does this differently or not. It was a good system, I would have left it alone.

I never played any of the stock difficulties because pro was a pansy pushover for me and legends kicked my ass. I was between the two. So I went pro and then buffed the computer defense across the board. Then I heavily buffed the computer run blocking and rushing skills too. I bumped up his passing skills a little as well, but also raised my teams secondary skills.

With custom sliders I never had a problem with my computer controlled secondary sucking too badly. They would get burned a few times a game, but hey, that is par for the course as a packer fan.

I ordered this from Amazon (because of a great wedding present) and hopefully should get it by next week. I haven't checked the Morlocks in a week, but I think they are starting an online league for it.

Wasn't this year's offering supposed to have built-in online leagues? If so, can you do things like trades between the human teams? Can you do a fantasy football style draft prior to the season and play with those teams? How do they handle getting everyone together to play by the end of the week, few days, etc.... or do they just do freeform challenges internally for points that then decide who makes the playoffs.

Im a hugh football fan and played all the maddens on my playstation and this was the first sports game i tried on the xbox and ive got to say im pretty damn impressed.....the diffrent things with the computer tracking your tendencies and such is very cool....the favroite plays page is really cool so you dont blow all your time looking for your bread and butter plays....I agree that the passing game is tough but id suggest not trying a major verticle passing game and start with short routes and come back plays until you get your timing down.....my problem is when your QB is on the run that more times then none they would have to plant their feet before they'd through the ball allowing your pursuer to pound your ass into the ground...all in all this is one hell of a bargin for 20$

After returning my 5-day rental today, I just went ahead and bought the damn thing. The profile tendencies and oddly enough the celebrity matchups finally got to me....they were appealing enough that I'd want to rent it again, at which point I figured I'd spend the extra $14 and be done with it.

Bring the noise.
Cheers.............

I tried to buy the X Box version from the evil Wal Mart, but they had already sold out. Oh well, Hellboy is out on DVD tomorrow.

Target has it for $15.88 this week if you'd rather get it there. They're usually competitive with places like Best Buy for new release DVD pricing also.

Quote from: Glamdring

Target has it for $15.88 this week if you'd rather get it there. They're usually competitive with places like Best Buy for new release DVD pricing also.

Sweet! My wife hits Target like once a week, so I will just sneak it onto the list =P

I know where I am going after work today. I just can't tell my wife or I will end up grocery shopping.

I know most of you folks have the Xbox, and I'm not likely to find PS2 matchups here....but if anyone is playing on the PS2, drop me a PM so we can set up a game and/or league.

Tonight's objective....create a custom playbook so I can replace the shitty Lions playbook. Some decent short patterns, but they have almost nothing that goes deep....unimaginable given their current set of WRs.

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

Hrm... maybe I will have to check out the lions book when looking for new short patterns for the packers. I love the short passing game. Gives me more time on offense. I think I am the only person who will break a long play and then run back to get tackled. Although setting up the 99 yard passing and 99 yard rushing play milestones in 2k4 was very fun. Always helped playing vs the bengals of course. I swear they had the worst tackling of all teams in 2k4.

I need to work on my playbook, too. I'm using the raiders, even without Garner, because I like their playbook (and Jerry Rice is almost singlehandedly responsible for me liking football, so I always play his team).

Oh, and I love having Sapp on my line, I've always favored defense over offense. I'd rather have Romo and Garner back, but hey.

Well, I suppose since I'm bored at work I'll write up a mini review.

Preface: This review is based on stock difficulty for the most part. I have not played an extensive amount of time in first person football.

Minor note: I'm not very good at writing reviews, but I hope this will help people decide if this game is for them.

Presentation:

The graphics are sharp. My wife seeing my players line up in their offensive formation, "holy shit, that almost looks real". This is by far the best looking sports game I've seen yet. The sideline stuff isn't spectacular, but it isn't bad either. They did a good job with most players. I have to respect any game that actually bothered to make David Carr look like David Carr.

The player movement, passing and catching animations, tackles (whoever did these needs a raise), and various other animations are superb. They feel less cartoony and more organic than Madden ever has. Some of the tackling physics are a bit off (I got tackled from behind at the one after a 50 yard run and somehow went straight sideways instead of into the endzone), but it's a rarity you encounter something too egregious to not be shrugged off as a minor quip.

The stadiums are great. The game has all sort of little things that really makes you feel like you're in something greater than just a video game. The fans buy peanuts, fall asleep when their home team is getting crushed, and support their home team by painting their faces.

One problem in the presentation stems from the attempt to match up the player's mouths (and the announcers) to the voice acting in the game. It just doesn't work. It looks like when on the Conan O'Brien show they take a still picture of someone, cut out the mouth, and have the lips of someone else in the mouth hole. Except instead of using that replacement lips' voice, it's dubbed. Yes, it's that bad. It's a nice attempt, but I likely wouldn't have added it having seen the final product.

Another minor quip is the lack of pictures for rookies. It's nothing major and nothing I terribly care about.

The sound is good. The tackles sound like tackles. The play calling sounds like play calling. The snozberries taste like snozberries. Really, I'm not a big sound buff. It sounds like football.

The stadiums sound terrific in surround sound. The anouncing gets a bit repetitive and blatantly inaccurate at times, but at least I don't have to listen to Madden jabber on. The trash talking before plays, while repetitive, adds a little spice to the game.

The stock music is pretty damn decent. No fucking EMO is a big plus. You can add your own tracks and customize it. Thumbs up.

Another big part of the presentation is the halftime show and Sports Center highlights. Both well done (minus the mouth stuff) and I enjoy watching both. Developing this further could really make the ESPN NFL games stand out. The accuracy and variety of the commentary needs to get a bit better.

Overall: A. The game looks and sounds good. A little bit better than Madden IMO.

Gameplay:

So the game's not bad to look at and sounds like football. But how does it play? I'll try to break this down by offense, defence and special teams. The playcalling is pretty standard, if you've played Madden you probably know how to choose plays by now. Only real difference is that you get to pick how your down linemen rush (marginal spiffyness). If you don't know what a 4-3 is or a Dime package, please go pick up NFL Blitz, I hear it's quite good.

Offense:

Quarterbacks, wide recievers, and 'backs all have a plethora of moves at their disposal. Quarterbacks can pretty much do anything you'd imagine a QB capable of. Passing quality really does vary by the quality of the quarterback. Byron Leftwich makes some really shitty throws, but some random inaccuracy is refreshing to see and gives the game a little added realism. Quarterbacks are given a great sack avoidance tool (by tapping the right thumbstick in a direction) that can allow you to counter the seemingly porous olines present in this game. Although honestly most of the time I forget it's there, due to the sheer amount of information you need to process while trying to complete a pass. Passing lanes matter, you'll get a lot of batted balls unless you pay attention to this. Throwing a poorly advised pass will get you picked off more often than not.

My gripes with the passing game come mostly from the receivers. They just don't fight for the ball. If you throw a poor pass, they'll most often just keep running their route instead of adjusting for the ball. A lot of my pickoffs tend to come from the receivers never opting to play defense on a poorly thrown or ill advised pass. Also, the passing is somewhat finicky when it comes to routes. There's a certain point to where your QB will lead the receiver. Before this point, they'll just throw the ball to the optimal point of the route. This makes rushed passes a recipe for easy as hell interceptions. The receivers also have a hard time catching any pass with a lot of zing on it. Really guys, buy some stickem, it works.

Of course, the air game has never really been much of a concern of mine. I have the leagues worst passing offense, and yet I'm #1 in the power rankings.

The rushing game is where I tend to shine in football games and this game is no different. I'm currently averaging 7.3 yards per carry (now you see why my passing game is terminally underdeveloped, it's just not needed), mostly due to at least one bust out run per game.

It's funny when on the first play of the game against the Chiefs, I chose a strong side isolation run and see they've stacked the weak side. "Touchdown", I think to myself. And sure enough, a hole big enough to driver a Hummer through opens up. After dropping my shoulder on a haplpess db, I'm off to the races.

The backs in this game really have a wide variety of moves that all prove useful in game. Good luck trying to use all of them seemlessly. You can stutter step, hurdle, juke, stiff arm, spin (great use in this game), ram, and just damn plow through people thanks to the new maximum tackling. Someone should really tell the computer it's a mistake to try and arm tackle a premier back.

In order to make things a tad more difficult, I'll probably end up raising the computer tackling and line play. Maybe I'm too good at running a ground based offense, but really, 7.3 yards per carry as a team is obscene.

Overall: B+ Too many quirks and annoyances for an A.

Defense:

Versatile and fun. The amount of different plays and how you can run these plays (based on all of the different down lineman rushing patterns) is great. You can adjust coverages, bring blitzes, shift the linebackers or defensive line before the snap. Pretty standard stuff.

Playing a lineman, linebacker or defensive back is pretty standard. The opposing offensive lines tend to be a tad swiss cheesey with a lot of just plain old blown assignments. Of course, that gives me at least 1 or 2 joyous moments per game of running at the quarterback unblocked with a 340 lb train of pain.

The computer tends to make pretty good reads while passing on offense but drops a lot of balls to make up for it. Playing a DB is a tad challenging also as they tend make the most inappropriate leap given the circumstances. They also tend to drop at least a couple gimmes per game, but if they didn't do this you'd rack up ballpark 7 ints a game.

The new maximum tackling is pretty nifty once you get used to it. You can either go horizontal for the highlight hit or simply wrap up the ball carrier and take them to the ground. After some failed blasts on Travis Henry and Priest Holmes resulting in massive gains, and quarterbacks evading some missile shots, I tend to wrap up a lot more than I did initially. But sometimes you feel the need to plant your helmet it the chest of Drew Bledsoe and it's hard to resist.

If you want a more challenging ride, I'd suggest upping the skills of the computer running backs, receivers, and offensive line. Especially the running backs, they just have a hard time getting the ground game started.

Overall: A. I like the D in this game. It's well done and well balanced.

Special teams:

Really, it's kicking the ball. Do a really need to write five paragraphs on the life and times of skinny ex soccer players?

Ok, well, the punting yardage seems a tad inflated. My kicker's averaging 56 per and that's including a couple shanked kicks. And I really rarely punt. So, draw your own conclusions.

Overall: A. Find me a game that fucks this part of football up enough to annoy me and you've found a developer that should never touch the genre again.

Franchise management:

You can draft, trade, release, resign, there's salary caps, yadda yadda yadda. If you're into this it's there.

No grade, it's just part of the game. Not a reason I'd pick up the game. If you really enjoy micromanagement, Madden is probably a better game.

Extras:

I'll mention first person football and "The Crib" here. Really, I haven't played around with either much.

First person football is great for running the ball. It really adds a lot of realism and you really get the sense of where the holes are opening up. The problem with it for me is that I'm bad enough at passing without having my field vision extremely hampered. Also, it feels a bit claustrophobic and kind of grates on me after a while. I'll need to experiment with it more to give it more of a fair shake.

The Crib is mostly fluff. You have a pad that you can put stuff in purchased from points you earn in the game. Slightly interesting, not a selling point for the game at this moment. I've yet to try the celebrity challenges, perhaps those are a bit more interesting than buying a Champ Bailey bobblehead doll.

Overall: B-. Not the kind of thing that would spur me on to buy the game. Not like Madden cards were something to write home about either.

Verdict:

This game is quite worth the money. It's comparable to Madden in most areas not dealing with "when should fan appreciation day be?". The presentation, graphics and gameplay are all solid.

It would be refreshing if they could build upon what they have and deliver a more crisp, polished product next year.

While I don't see this series supplanting Madden as king of all football games due to the incredible fanboi population in Maddenland, it's a worthy substitute and comparable if not better football experience.

Overall: A-. Most of my issues with the game are due to two factors: (1) I suck at passing, (2) bad receivers don't help me not suck at passing. It's so cheap that if you're even thinking about renting it you might as well just go and buy it for when you get the post season shakes ("need football... need more football.....").

Well, there's my attempt at a game review. If it's too horrible, just send me PM and I'll try to unleash something like this again. I think this rambled on a bit past the "mini review", sorry for that.

That's pretty accurate. I would say the defensive shifting got a bit more of an upgrade than you point out, being able to set blitzes on the fly and assign backs (to double team or whatnot) on the fly is pretty cool.

Heh, have not played 2k5 yet, but I hear the passing is about the same as 2k4 which I have played extensively. To someone pass oriented (like myself) that passing game is not that hard. In fact I had more trouble running than passing, mainly due to a suspect run blocking line for the packers.

I had no problems racking up 500 or 600 yards passing with an average of about 15-20 per attempt, pass completion percentages ranging between 70 and 90 percent. I once even went 30 for 30 but that was incredible dumb luck. Odds are even doing everything perfect you are only going to get 80% completion due to random bad throws and random bad catches.

The stats on the packer receivers pretty much sucked last year as well, and most of those passes were with some Brett Favre heat on them. Receivers seem to be reduced in pass catching abilities even with backs simply too close to them. Once I started spotting the open guy, or more importantly the guy ABOUT to get open and keeping an eye on passing lanes the air game opened wide up. I don't even really remember the growing pains as I have been playing this series since it started in 2000 on the dreamcast.

So for the airheads out there passing IS possible in this game. It may be hard to train out of the Madden mindset though. I don't really know. I have not played much madden since I started with the Visual Concepts games.

I will probably do an actual counterpoint on this once I get some time into 2k5 (buying tonight if the local stores have it, it was pretty sold out last week here). This time from a short-mid passing game enthusiast (with the occasional all too tempting long fade route)

Ohh, I bet being a passing guru is all too possible with this game. I just suck at it. Like I said (or think I said?) all of the tools are present to run an effective passing attack. I just can't use them worth a lick.

It's like you not being able to run the ball, and me probably being able to run the wishbone or option if I wanted to. I'm just not a passer and I struggle horribly in with it. But give the ball to one of my backs and I'll find a hole where none exists.

But yah, a look at the game with more in depth on the passing would be beneficial. I just can't really do it justice. My passing attack is mainly vertical off play action to keep the defense honest. And when a team is mainly playing you for the run, it's somewhat hard to get a short passing game going (most everyone tends to hover none to far from the line of scrimmage).

Agreed on all counts. I actually found in 2k4 that the computer run defense was more devestating to my short passing game than the computer short passing game defense. It have been a large part of your problem (as you stated).

Have you played online? What are the online Leagues like? This is the feature new from last year that has me salivating, but I am afraid of it until I can actually see out of both of my eyes again.

Quote from: Alluvian

Have you played online? What are the online Leagues like? This is the feature new from last year that has me salivating, but I am afraid of it until I can actually see out of both of my eyes again.

I have yet to try this out. I think my XBox Live subscription ran out, and I've been too lazy to re-up it. Of course, I think the game came with one of those XBL trial subscriptions, so maybe I'll check it out before the wife comes back from out of town busines.

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Heh, have not played 2k5 yet, but I hear the passing is about the same as 2k4 which I have played extensively.

Well, I'm usually split down the middle between the pass and rushing. I'm finding it more difficult to pass this year, last year I pretty much just threw bullet passes non-stop. As mentioned, passing lanes seem a lot more important this year, lots more tips at the line (a good thing imo), and I've taken to using the lob pass in a realistic fashion. Overall, even though I find it more difficult, I like the changes to the passing game.

A lot of my passes are dumpoffs or screen passes to the HB (and how I miss Charlie Garner's hands already...). Give me a well-rounded HB and I can dominate, otherwise I am pretty average to sucky ;)

We're still putting the Morlocks online league together, I'll know more about that aspect soon. First trial game I had was fun (but damn I need to get the QB duck stick down!). The features for league play look awesome, can't wait to get it rolling.

Well, I tried to get this game last night after work. Went to target first, sold out of course, but that was not surprising at 15.99. So then to Gamestop, sold out. Then to Best Buy, sold out. The next gamestore is an EBworld near my work, and I was not going to drive back there with rush hour traffic. I will try again today. To cap things off, Blockbuster STILL didn't have Spiderman2 for rental. They have not had a copy on the shelves since the game released. But they have 4 rows of ESPN 2k5. What the fuck? How many are going to bother renting a 20 dollar game?

I am hoping that the fact that the EBworld just opened recently will help the game be in stock. I am hoping that fact will override the fact that they are across the street from UCF

Alright, I just figured out how the passing game works in ESPN. After several games of narrow victories and struggling to make every first down, I got it.

I had just beaten Steve-O for my second celebrity win, and was trying to amass some more points to help me get my Trivia Machine in the Crib. I decided to check out the tutorial and scrimmage section to see if I could nab some easy points.

It's simple once you do the tutorial. Don't make your QB drop back....let the game do the backpedal by itself by leaving the stick neutral. The QB will take a 3, 5, 7, or 9 step drop, and then will do a slight bounce as he sets his feet....you want to throw at or just after the bounce. This is typically when your receiver should be making his cut.

Choose your pass based on the type of route and position of the coverage.....you want bullet passes if there is a clear lane to your receiver and outside coverage, while you want a lob if there is anyone in the lane or the DB has inside coverage. You'll also typically wnat lobs for deep passes, like a go route or a deep post...maximum passing will help with leading the receiver a great deal.

So anyhow, the tutorial gave me a quick 200 crib points, and I ended up bringing my QB rating from the 60's to the high 90's in just a few games. Before I was passing about 35-45% and tossing 2-3 INTs a game....now I'm completing about 65-75% of my passes, and haven't thrown a pick in 6 games.

The more I play this way, the more I ***REALLY*** like this passing system, and the level of realism it brings to the table. The passing game, (particularly on short or crossing patterns) is all about timing and reasonable decision-making. As you backpedal, feel the rush, look for coverage, and see who should be open when they break....then deliver the ball to match the timing of the route, and the receiver will usually be open.

Next up on the celebrity chopping block...David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, and Funkmaster Flex. This mode will be a lot more fun now that I should actually be capable of moving the ball downfield.

Bring the noise.
Cheers.............