ESPN College Hoops 2k5

[Eaglesfan27]

Ok.. after an hour or two messing around, I can answer a few of these questions. You can start with an open legacy mode where you can pick any team.

Qunnipiac and Fairfield are in the game. Now, I don't know their real mascot name, so I don't know if those are fake or not, but I don't think they are.

I've found the list of "goals." Some of them are very hard to do for a long time, while others are manageable in the 1st season (I hope) There are at least a hundred goals. Very nice diversity of them.

I can't talk about crowd noise, because I only played in the gym... and then started this dynasty and I've spent the last hour and a half playing around with the first day of recruiting!

The recruiting model is VERY nice at least on the surface. You have a set number of recruiting points/week, but you also have a set number of time allotments your coach can work per week. Of course, some of the time allotments (actually a large portion) need to be spent on coaching the team. However, you can have one assistant focus on coaching and another focus on recruiting. I made a fatal error in recruiting though that will have me restarting this dynasty before it got started. I thought once I used up all of the options on a recruit (such as email, phone, ask for game tape) that this would cover the whole week. So, I contacted as many recruits as possible using up all of my coaches time. In actuality, you can contact recruits each day during the preseason, and I had burnt up all of my time on the first day leaving no time allotments for the rest of the week.

It seems like a deep complicated system. If you don't want to deal with the details of this.. no problem! You can tell your assistants to do it. You can tell them what type of player to aim for. For example, you can tell them to value size, shooting ability, defense, physical skills, intangibles, etc. VERY NICE! I'm going to do manual recruiting for a while, but when I get better assistants I could see myself turning it over to them. All-in-all, I continue to be impressed.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

The news story that displayed on screen when I was hired was a very fun read

[cougarfreak]

I think I read it has a coach only mode. Anyone have any feedback on that?

[Eaglesfan27]

Final update as I promised Ms. Eaglesfan that I would run some errands this afternoon...

The first day of recruting takes a while as you filter through many young potential players. However, since I'm such a small school I'm only looking locally. There are many different filters you can use mostly similar to last year with the location filter being more finely tuned. After you pick your initial list of athletes, the recruiting goes much quicker as visiting them or watching a game of theirs is a time intensive effort that really eats up your time allotment points. I wonder if coaches at bigger schools are going to get more time allotment points?

In any case, this time I changed my mind and made my guy specialize in recruiting. I visited 3 local boys for dinner on 3 consecutive nights of the week. 2 of them didn't tell me to buzz off, but they did let me know they are unlikely to come to my school. The third one who is actually a 3 star recruit, told me he wants to stay close to home and that he likes me! The only problem is LSU is also interested in him, and they are close to home too Somehow, I doubt I will get him unless they get a better SG and stop chasing him.

Anyway.. great fun. Now off to do errands

[MizzouRah]

Thanks EF!

I just picked it up along with a pre-played NCAA 2004 football. I'll be going home tomorrow and should be playing a game or two tomorrow night. Post some more impressions when you get a chance.


Todd

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Just got the game, but will be playing it later. Gotta clean up for possible gests this weekend. I will post my thoughts l8er.

[dunkem]

Wow, between this game, Total Pro basketball 2005 and FOF 2004 1.1, I don't know which sim to stick with. I too am interested in the coach mode although I will probably end up playing a lot of the games as well. Recruiting sounds great. This could end up being like a Fast Break College Basketball with graphics.

Do any of you know if the coach mode is a separate difficulty level? Like Junior Varsity, Varsity, All-conference, and coach mode. Reason is that I hate trying to figure out which difficulty level will produce the most accurate CPU stats. Since in coach mode, we won't be controlling the players, I was hoping there was already one preset level for coach mode. If not, I guess it's slider tweak time again I guess.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by dunkem

Wow, between this game, Total Pro basketball 2005 and FOF 2004 1.1, I don't know which sim to stick with. I too am interested in the coach mode although I will probably end up playing a lot of the games as well. Recruiting sounds great. This could end up being like a Fast Break College Basketball with graphics.

Do any of you know if the coach mode is a separate difficulty level? Like Junior Varsity, Varsity, All-conference, and coach mode. Reason is that I hate trying to figure out which difficulty level will produce the most accurate CPU stats. Since in coach mode, we won't be controlling the players, I was hoping there was already one preset level for coach mode. If not, I guess it's slider tweak time again I guess.

Go over to the OS forums, there will be tons of people playing this one and you should be able to find some coach only players there as well.

Todd

[CleBrownsfan]

Okay I couldn't take it anymore so I said f' the crap I had to do after work and picked this game up. First thing I did was run a tournament tree - and Houston I think we have a problem...

Ran 3 trees and the first one a ran = 3 #16's knocking off #1
Second tree = another 16 knocking off a 1
Third tree all number ones made it out of the 1st round but 2 of them only won by 6 or less...

hmm... don't like the start of that

[dunkem]

There doesn't seem to be any coach mode players at OS. Guess there aren't too many sports sim players playing on arcade systems. I'll probably end up getting it tomorrow anyways (nowhere has it til tomorrow). I'm sure I'll have just as much fun playing it as well as coaching.

Sure hope they call timeouts in College Hoops though. I know NBA 2K5 doesn't call any. I also like what I read about this being the first game that you could play with the full clock - 20 minute halves with pretty decent scoring levels.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Dah! I can't believe it. The crowd was almost non-existant. Played UCONN V. UNLV In Hartford. It was tied 56-56 with 20 ticks left and the crowd was non-existent. Dah!

[Eaglesfan27]

As far as the 20 minute halves with decent scoring... my first dynasty game was Nicholls state versus Mississippi State. We lost 106-60, but it wasn't as close as that. They stopped trying to score as much with about 10 minutes left in the game and they brought in all of their scrubs whom I could actually score against. I guess I knew it would be a rough night when my highest rated guy has an overall ability of 70 (I have quite a few in the 40's) and their lowest rated guy was above a 70

I really like how there is a talent seperation between the premiere teams and the worst teams. I didn't always see that with last year's version. I'm having some luck getting a 3 star recruit who is from very close to my college campus (LSU didn't want him after all as they are going after Mr. Basketball for Louisiana who is also a SG) so hopefully I can get some talent on this team for future years.

CS - I was also disappointed by the lack of crowd noise at Starksville, MS, but I thought it was just because the game was so boring. I guess I was wrong. In any case, I had fun even though I was blown out. Oh yeah, the schedule doesn't get any easier as my AD has us going to play Auburn and Michigan State next week.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I just played my first full game. With default All-American sliders, my UNO Privateers lost at LSU, 86-59. This was with 20-minute halves, too. Very nice. LSU didn't call any timeouts in the game, but they really didn't need to. Just like the real Privateers, when my star player, guard Bo McCalebb (I renamed all the UNO players to their real names), got into foul trouble, the whole team went downhill. This happened in real life today when UNO lost to Fairleigh Dickinson (!). I'm really looking forward to playing through this season. It takes me a little over an hour to play a game, but when it's this good, it's worth it! The lack of crowd participation is a little disappointing, but a lot of things make up for it.

So far, this is the best ESPN game I've ever played.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm in total agreement with Pumpy. It's very early, but I'm enjoying this more than any console basketball game ever. I just signed my first 3 star recruit! He has good potential, and mostly average skills with above average shooting and leaping. Of course, that is only true if my scouting was correct which is questionable as my assistant is only a B- in it... However, LSU was interested in him for a brief period, so he likely will be good for my team. His three priorities were being close to home (my school is about 30 miles from his home town), playing time (he almost certainly will be my best player on the team especially since my only guy with a 70 rating is graduating) and "to be wanted." Well I had my head coach visit and call him every week (which is as often as you can do it.) I think making this coach specialize in recruiting helped me land him. I gave this coach a B+ in recruiting, leaving all other skills at the default C- with my 5 points.

[Celeval]

So far, I've learned that I suck at console basketball games. :-D

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

My brother doesn't like the game much though. He prefers the NBA Live style gameplay. I guess He maybe rigt in that if you want a game you can play with friends get MM 2005 but if you want a more cerebral game get ESPN.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'm in total agreement with Pumpy. It's very early, but I'm enjoying this more than any console basketball game ever. I just signed my first 3 star recruit! He has good potential, and mostly average skills with above average shooting and leaping. Of course, that is only true if my scouting was correct which is questionable as my assistant is only a B- in it... However, LSU was interested in him for a brief period, so he likely will be good for my team. His three priorities were being close to home (my school is about 30 miles from his home town), playing time (he almost certainly will be my best player on the team especially since my only guy with a 70 rating is graduating) and "to be wanted." Well I had my head coach visit and call him every week (which is as often as you can do it.) I think making this coach specialize in recruiting helped me land him. I gave this coach a B+ in recruiting, leaving all other skills at the default C- with my 5 points.

So much to do when I get home tomorrow, besides saying "hello" to my kids and wife.

I have this game to at least get a glimpse of, fof 5.1 to get a career going, TPB games to play, get NCAA 2004 rosters downloaded and find my sliders from last year, ughhhhh... good thing I'm off Friday. I'll take my full belly and get my gaming fix.

Thanks to all who have posted some impressions, I'm not sure if I want to take the reigns at Missouri or take a legacy mode team and go from there.


Todd

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

My brother doesn't like the game much though. He prefers the NBA Live style gameplay. I guess He maybe rigt in that if you want a game you can play with friends get MM 2005 but if you want a more cerebral game get ESPN.

dola,

EA games have always been that way for me.. great for 2 player, but ESPN has been better for solo play. I know one thing, if Sega keeps this $20 thing going, I may never buy another EA game again.


Todd

[Pumpy Tudors]

I just played my second game of the seasonm which was against Tulane. I lost by 12 points, I think. It was a close game until the Green Wave went on a 22-5 run to end it. I think the score was 94-82, but I don't remember for sure. Yes, that score is a little high for a college game, but I'll take it.

You know what I like most about the gameplay? There are actual fouls! I've seen reach-in fouls, charging fouls, blocking fouls, and shooting fouls. I haven't seen any loose ball fouls yet, but I know they're in there. In my game against Tulane, each team shot about 20 free throws. In other console basketball games I've played, it was unheard of to get 20 free throw attempts in a single game. I actually have an incentive to get my speedy backup point guard to penetrate into the lane. He's not a great shooter, but he gets by defenders so quickly that they often foul him while he's darting through the paint. Although he's only rated 57, he's a very good free throw shooter. If he draws contact, it's instant points for me.

I know I'll run into minor quibbles with the gameplay over time (I've never met "the perfect game"), but I can't believe that this game is only $20. I think I may have to schedule a day off work in the next week or two just for this game. I have to burn three vacation days before the year is up anyway, so why not burn one on ESPN College Hoops 2K5?

I love it, I love it, I love it.

[Eaglesfan27]

I just finished my second game as well. I lost at Lipscomb 64-52. It didn't help that my best shooter was just cold on the night. He went 3 of 14, and I had to rely on my inside game to score which is pretty bad when my best center is rated 52. In any case, I had a lot of fun playing that game and I know we will turn it around. Oh yeah, I simmed the Auburn and Michigan State as I knew I was going to get blown out. I was right. I lost them each by around 25 points. I'm also getting more fouls (with no adjustment to sliders) in this game than I've ever gotten in a console basketball game before. Of course, I try to slash inside quite a bit in order to draw fouls.

Edited: I just read Pumpy's post and couldn't agree more (again.) Best game ever for having realistic fouls. I've promoted my backup guard to starter just because he is very fast and can do a good job of drawing fouls. Unfortunately, he isn't a great FT shooter, but he is a good source of offense most of the time.

[Neuqua]

Keep the updates coming guys

I can't get the game for another week atleast so until then I live through UNO and Nicholls State.

[kingnebwsu]

Yeah, I'm gonna go snag this tomorrow. Tomorrow is my first day off in forever, so Halo 2 still takes priority. But for the discount, ya can't beat it.

[cougarfreak]

I got the game last night. I'm not a real huge basketball guy, so I'm doing the coach mode. I find the recruiting confusing as hell, but like I said.......it's been a LONG time since I've played basketball on the console. The game is a LOT of fun. Anyone else doing the coach mode thing, keep me updated.

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by CleBrownsfan

Okay I couldn't take it anymore so I said f' the crap I had to do after work and picked this game up. First thing I did was run a tournament tree - and Houston I think we have a problem...

Ran 3 trees and the first one a ran = 3 #16's knocking off #1
Second tree = another 16 knocking off a 1
Third tree all number ones made it out of the 1st round but 2 of them only won by 6 or less...

hmm... don't like the start of that

Has anyone tested this? - The 16 seeds beating number 1 seeds is the only part of the game that's haolding me back to say this is the best b-ball game on the market.

[Celeval]

Was this at the end of a simmed season? I'm going to try and quick-sim a season before leaving for work, and I'll give it a shot.

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Was this at the end of a simmed season? I'm going to try and quick-sim a season before leaving for work, and I'll give it a shot.

No it wasn't after a simmed season - it was just the basic tournement tree option they give you.

[Celeval]

Update...

Running just a tournament, here are (all) the upsets:

First Round
#9 George Washington over #8 Iowa State, 82-89
#15 Vermont over #2 UNC 76-78
#11 Buffalo over #6 Washington 50-54
#9 Villanova over #8 LSU 57-66
#10 UCLA over #7 Charlote 60-75
#12 Murray State over #5 Stanford
#13 UW-Milwaukee over #4 Maryland
#9 UAB over #8 Massachusetts

Second Round
#5 Oklahoma State over #4 Florida 78-85
#11 Buffalo over #3 Wisconsin 63-69
#6 Boston College over #3 Duke 65-72
#10 UCLA over #2 Pittsburgh 71-84
#5 Notre Dame over #4 Arizona 70-90
#9 Villanova over #1 Kentucky 65-78
#7 Syracuse over #2 Wake Forest 65-71
#8 Memphis over #1 Mississippi State 94-95
#9 UAB over #1 Georgia Tech 58-85

Sweet Sixteen
#10 UCLA over #6 Boston College 66-82
#8 Memphis over #4 Texas 61-88
#3 Cincinnati over #2 Illinois 76-89

Elite Eight
#7 Louisville over #1 Kansas 79-89
#8 Memphis over #3 North Carolina State 57-89

Final Four
#3 Cincinnati over #7 Louisville 73-63
#5 Notre Dame over #8 Memphis 78-60

Championship
#3 Cincinnati over #5 Notre Dame 76-71

[CleBrownsfan]

Try a couple more trees - I tried a few of them last night and every time a ran one at least 1 #1 seed lost in the first round...

Thanks for you results though!!

[Celeval]

dola...

Set up an Open Career, took Vermont, and just simmed the season. Took Vermont since I figured they wouldn't be good and I could get away with not affecting the results in any real way. We ended up 18-9 (11-7), and got knocked out of the American East tourney by 20-10 (12-6) Albany in the first round.

Same as before, listing the upsets in the NCAA -

First Round
#10 Pacific over #7 Maryland 68-77
#11 Kent State over #6 St. Joseph's 69-77
#16 Oakland Union over #1 Kansas 77-78
#13 E. Tennessee State over #4 Oklahoma State 67-70
#9 Villanova over #8 W. Michigan 64-75
#10 LSU over #9 Northwestern 69-72
#11 Rice over #6 Kentucky 60-79

Second Round
#10 Pacific over #2 Notre Dame 69-82
#5 Florida over #4 Louisville 88-95
#8 Memphis over #1 Illinois 73-82
#13 E. Tennessee State over #5 UCLA 51-56
#8 Vanderbilt over #1 Arizona 67-66

Sweet Sixteen
#8 Memphis over #5 Florida 73-81
#10 Pacific over #3 Tennessee 65-69
#4 Syracuse over #1 North Carolina 80-91
#3 Connecticut over #2 Wake Forest 69-93
#8 Vanderbilt over #4 Cincinnati 77-86
#3 George Washington over #2 Michigan State

Elite Eight
#8 Vanderbilt over #3 George Washington
#4 Syracuse over #3 Connecticut
#10 Pacific over #8 Memphis

Final Four
#10 Pacific over #8 Vanderbilt 58-57
#2 Georgia Tech over #4 Syracuse 69-57

Championship
#2 Georgia Tech over #10 Pacific 86-77

Naismith Award went to PF #5, Arizona State.
ESPN POY went to PF #5, Arizona State
Coach of the Year went to Illinois (28-4)

[Celeval]

Quick-simmed two more Tournaments, only running the #1-#16 matchups. In two tourneys, one more upset - #16 Lamar over #1 Mississippi State.

Gotta go to work now before the wife wakes up and finds me playing when I should be getting out the door. :-D

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Quick-simmed two more Tournaments, only running the #1-#16 matchups. In two tourneys, one more upset - #16 Lamar over #1 Mississippi State.

Gotta go to work now before the wife wakes up and finds me playing when I should be getting out the door. :-D

That sucks!! How could Sega let this game go with seeing to many #16's beating #1's??

I could see one out of every 50 trees but as we can tell there are a lot more 16/1 upsets than there should be... grrrArgg

[Celeval]

It'll be interesting to see this moving forward in Legacies - whether it's a question of the talent level between schools, or some sort of cinderella factor in the tourney.

[Celeval]

dola..

Because this got annoying quick last night - if you decide to play a game with 3-minute or 5-minute halfs, don't forget to turn player fouls down. Because when each team has one team foul, and you're up two with 0:45 left, getting intentionally fouled nine times in the space of five seconds to put you on the line is a bit silly. :-D

[Eaglesfan27]

I've bought four games in the last few weeks since finishing my boards... this is the game I'm most looking forward to playing when I get home from work tonight.

The other games:

FM2005 - Great game, but I don't want to get too attached to Scunthorpe in that career until after the first patch is out when I will restart. Also, I still want to figure out a way to get my debug mode command to work... maybe someone who has it working can send me the init.cfg file?

TPB2 - Very fun game, but I'm at a lull in my career with the sixers as I hamstrung by some bad salaries... I will get back to it eventually, but not today likely.

Vampires for the PC: I played two hours on Weds. night before going to bed. Fun game. I hear there are quite a few bugs (including some that crash you to desktop) so I'm waiting for the first patch before progressing too far.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this game, and I just wish work was done so I could play some more.

[CraigSca]

Ok, I just picked this up during lunch. It feels weird buying a BRAND NEW game for $19.99 - I kinda feel dirty - ha!

Anyway, it's disheartening to hear about the first round upsets, but I do like the fact that there are actually fouls being called in the game. I probably won't be able to play until the kids go to bed tonight, but if anyone else is playing I'd like to hear more thoughts .

[korme]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I don't care if I have real names, but I can't just have numbers. You can keep it so the game uses real numbers if you want (but no names.) I really wish College football would add this feature so I don't have to sim through 4 seasons before starting to "play" my dynasty.

Agreed, that's my favorite small feature of college hoops and I wish NCAA '06 will implement this.

[CraigSca]

I'd like this as well, but isn't it a violation of NCAA rules or something and therefore pretty much *never* going to happen?

[Celeval]

Having real names is a violation. Prefilling with fake names is not.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Championship
#3 Cincinnati over #5 Notre Dame 76-71

Fakest game ever! Everyone knows UC can't get past the 2nd round!

[scooper]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Fakest game ever! Everyone knows UC can't get past the 2nd round!

I'm glad you made that joke for me.

[korme]

to hell with you scooper..

[Pumpy Tudors]

I still haven't played the third game of my legacy yet, but when I first read the reports here about the #16 seeds winning games, I was worried. Now that I've had some time to think about it, though, it doesn't bother me much at all. Maybe I really just don't give a damn, but I kinda like that little bit of an "alternate reality." I would prefer that the #1 seeds won 99% of the time, yes, but if I see any #16's winning, I'll probably just laugh about it more than anything. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I actually think I'm cool with it.

The real-life UNO Privateers got their first win of the season today. I hope my virtual Privateers get theirs tonight.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I still haven't played the third game of my legacy yet, but when I first read the reports here about the #16 seeds winning games, I was worried. Now that I've had some time to think about it, though, it doesn't bother me much at all. Maybe I really just don't give a damn, but I kinda like that little bit of an "alternate reality." I would prefer that the #1 seeds won 99% of the time, yes, but if I see any #16's winning, I'll probably just laugh about it more than anything. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I actually think I'm cool with it.

The real-life UNO Privateers got their first win of the season today. I hope my virtual Privateers get theirs tonight.

That is pretty much the same reaction I had. I just finished my third game of my legacy. I thought I'd be able to report a win, but my hot 3 point shooters cooled off in the 2nd half and we lost to Maryland - Eastern Shore 80-76. Both teams were fairly evenly matched coming into the game according to the scouting reports and the game played that way for the most part.

I do find the shooting percentages are a bit high, but that might be in part to the fact that we both had such poor defenders. When I played Auburn, I certainly didn't have a problem with my shooting percentage being too high.

Another thing that I really like about the game is that teams switch up their defenses and offenses nicely. I started out the game using a motion based offense that was beating their man to man defense, so they switched to a 1-3-1 zone which started shutting me down. Then, I started working the ball around, passing around the zone finding open guys. When I started hitting quite a few 3's, they switched up their defense again. Anyway, I can live with the simulated upsets because the actual games I'm playing are so much fun (even if I lost all 3.)

[rjolley]

Has anyone tried to import draftees into NBA2K5 on the X-Box? I've read reports that it doesn't work.

[Celeval]

It's not working on the X-Box - apparently there's something wrong with NBA. Email from ESPN posted at Operation Sports basically says so, and they'd be distributing a fix over ActionReplay or some such.

[Pumpy Tudors]

EaglesFan, are you going to agree with everything I say here?

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

That is pretty much the same reaction I had. I just finished my third game of my legacy. I thought I'd be able to report a win, but my hot 3 point shooters cooled off in the 2nd half and we lost to Maryland - Eastern Shore 80-76. Both teams were fairly evenly matched coming into the game according to the scouting reports and the game played that way for the most part.

I do find the shooting percentages are a bit high, but that might be in part to the fact that we both had such poor defenders. When I played Auburn, I certainly didn't have a problem with my shooting percentage being too high.

Another thing that I really like about the game is that teams switch up their defenses and offenses nicely. I started out the game using a motion based offense that was beating their man to man defense, so they switched to a 1-3-1 zone which started shutting me down. Then, I started working the ball around, passing around the zone finding open guys. When I started hitting quite a few 3's, they switched up their defense again. Anyway, I can live with the simulated upsets because the actual games I'm playing are so much fun (even if I lost all 3.)

It seems that there is a 2 minute period in the second half that my team cools and the comp just dominates and its a hole that I can never crawl out off. Currently Im 0-2 in my dynasty.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Celeval

It's not working on the X-Box - apparently there's something wrong with NBA. Email from ESPN posted at Operation Sports basically says so, and they'd be distributing a fix over ActionReplay or some such.

Not that it really affects me, but how exactly could something like this slip through the cracks?

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

EaglesFan, are you going to agree with everything I say here?

It seems that way

[astrosfan64]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Not that it really affects me, but how exactly could something like this slip through the cracks?

It happened with Madden 2k4 and NCAA a year ago.

Madden 2k5 had an exploit online. I guess it just happens.