NFL 2K5: A Present-Day Take On An All-Time Classic

[RaychelSnr]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

The timing of Madden's Friday Twitch stream (which was a good, informative stream, for the record) and the NFL 2K5 article that went up that same morning was merely coincidental. The staff began planning NFL 2K5 anniversary articles back on July 1, with the goal of publishing them as close to the anniversary date (today) as possible. The first article was submitted late Thursday night (10 PM) and published Friday morning (10 AM). I can't speak for the rest of the staff, but personally, I didn't even know that Madden was doing a stream on Friday until 5 minutes before it happened, which was around 3:30 PM. I had my head buried in the sand most of the week writing and doing research for the first NFL 2K5 article. Retrospective articles are something that we have done regularly over the years whenever the news is slow, or important series hit an anniversary, or the sport they represent happens to be in the limelight (see past features on MVP Baseball 2005, College Hoops 2K8, All-Pro Football 2K8, Olympic Hockey 98, Tiny Toons Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge, Windjammers, et al. ).

Jayson stole my thunder.

Personally, with this being the 10-year anniversary of a game which has been amongst the most highly regarded in our genre, we planned on this series of articles for awhile. We actually still have a few more pieces we are planning to both pay tribute and critically assess the current sports gaming landscape.

Of course, those that want a conspiracy can have one. In a month we'll be a site/writing staff full of Madden fanboys anyways after being 2K homers this week. It may just be because we love sports games period, and couldn't care less about which company is on the box so much as the contents within

With that, my apologies to our great modding team for de-railing a great discussion briefly. Glad many of you have enjoyed the read thus far!

[charter04]

It stinks that I didn't get this game until a few years ago. In 2004 I was a huge NCAA football game fan so my favorite game was NCAA FB 2005. I only started getting Madden to use the draft classes coming out of my NCAA dynasties. I assumed that if 2k05 was $20 they must be really desperate to sell it.

My first 2k football game was APF 2k08. I was so used to EA football that it was hard for me to adjust to it so I traded it in. I ended up re-buying it latter and after giving it some time I realized just how great and sim the gameplay was. Of course it didn't have great replay value as far as franchise so I still played a lot of madden. I still love play 2k08 though. That game lead me to buy 2k05 since it was only like .99. Although I prefered 2k08 gameplay 2k05 was awesome as far as presentation.

It's hard to love it like guys who played it new but, I can see why it's so loved.

So, I wish I had played it in 2004.

[Sportsforever]

This game along with NCAA 2004 were my favorite games of all time…had an absolute blast with both of them and that's really all that matters.

[GaryT531]

2K5 Forever

[Matt10]

Man this makes me want to get another franchise going - and post videos like these:

[CujoMatty]

What a crazy time in sports gaming history. I never played nfl2k before that version. What alot of people forget is that 2k not only made it only $20 but they also released it earlier than madden. I remember buying it cause I needed a football fix and it was cheap. It also sparked the whole 2k vs ea exclusive battle which caused us to lose and honestly miss out on 2 great franchises in NFL2k and mvp baseball. Oh what could have been.

[Nza]

I much preferred 2K4. I recall 2K5 being very difficult to get good offline CPU gameplay with - the sliders were borked or something along those lines, with a lot of problems that ratings adjustments eventually managed to help hide, but it was too late for me. 2K4, for its time, was much better IMO.

[Demoncrom]

Great game and still the best all around football game ever produced. Makes since, since the guys who made it also produced some of the best Madden games prior. It certainly feels more arcadey now but things like assigning man to man outside of scheme and double teams as a part of the audible scheme were awesome. Loved the play calling also since you could choose package, line stunts and then coverage scheme.

Miss the competition in this market so much. Here is hoping that this years Madden is a game that can be fun for more than a few seasons.