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

02:03 PM - July 20, 2014 by RaychelSnr

When it was released in 2004, NFL 2K5 was one of the best playing and best presented sports games you could find. For the bargain-bin price of $20, you could get gameplay and features which rivaled any full priced sports game at the time — if not wholly surpassing them.

Fast forward 10 years and there are still aspects of NFL 2K5 which have aged pretty well — but there are also things which would be cardinal sins to sports gamers today. NFL 2K5 definitely wasn’t a perfect game, but it was about as good as you could imagine a game could be 10 years ago, which is one of the highest compliments you can give a game.

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

Game: ESPN NFL 2K5Reader Score: 9.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS2 / XboxVotes for game: 84 - View All

Member Comments

# 41 slapnutz2k2 @ 07/21/14 12:45 AM

The game was incredible.

Add to the fact that we had an editor to change many things in the game so we could play for years with updated rosters only made it better.

# 42 Bull_Dozer @ 07/21/14 01:13 AM

2K will come back someday. Even if they have to do it without the NFL license.

# 43 RaychelSnr @ 07/21/14 01:17 AM

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!

# 44 charter04 @ 07/21/14 01:40 AM

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.

# 45 Sportsforever @ 07/21/14 01:41 AM

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.

# 46 GaryT531 @ 07/21/14 02:15 AM

2K5 Forever

# 47 Matt10 @ 07/21/14 02:50 AM

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

# 48 CujoMatty @ 07/21/14 04:47 AM

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.

# 49 Nza @ 07/21/14 05:14 AM

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.

# 50 Demoncrom @ 07/21/14 08:37 AM

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.

# 51 TreyIM2 @ 07/21/14 11:32 AM

Personally, I thought Madden 05 played better but the hook to 2K5 was the presentation and the animations. I hated the floaty passing, the 'run around a pole' turning, and the wack 'charge up your moves'. Felt arcadish to me. I also noticed that animation jumps mentioned in the article but eventually I played it more as a switchup to Madden.

# 52 Goffs @ 07/21/14 11:53 AM

I miss this game....I still remember the cloud and blimp shadows going over the field while playing. So much nostalgia and awesome feelings when watching vids of this CLASSIC game.

# 53 asu666 @ 07/21/14 12:27 PM

An all-time classic that is still the best NFL game ever made imo. I believe NCAA Football 14 finally passed NFL 2K5 for the total package. Figures it would be cancelled too. I'll give some credit to All Pro Football 2K8, but the lack of a dynasty mode really killed any chance for that game taking off.

# 54 trey2k198003 @ 07/21/14 12:38 PM

Just glad to read a good right up about the game with details and facts. Not "NOT SCREW MADDEN 2K5 IS BETTER " that is notorious on this site. Ive always thought this game was cool and the ability to create youre own draft classes in the mode and edit them as well as the presentation are the only areas i have ever belived this game has over matched maden but even now madden is getting better but in the mode having chris berman with a talk up of everygame highlits on NFL PRIMETIME!!! madden has yet to capture that awesomeness!

# 55 Retropyro @ 07/21/14 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by socalbeast08


	all the madden bandwagoners waiting for that EA bukkake. 2k played very well and would be on par with the nba 2k series crushing madden like nba 2k is crushing live.

Faulty logic, no one knows what would have happened. NHL 2K did not crush EA's NHL. MLB 2K was maligned constantly and had people begging for EA's MVP Baseball to come back. No one knows what would have happened, a new NFL 2K could have ended up more like MLB 2K.

I have always preferred Madden, but I did enjoy 2K5. I still think the presentation immersion found in 2K5 is the best ever done, but as an overall game I prefer Madden.

# 56 DaveDQ @ 07/21/14 03:43 PM

I think all posters on OS, writers or members, should be greeted with a "will this fuel the 2k/madden war" warning before hitting the post button.

# 57 stiffarmleft @ 07/21/14 05:01 PM

It's the 10 year anniversary of it's release, I don't understand the issue. If we want to wax poetic about a game that we loved, so be it. This imaginary madden/2k war is bordering on ridiculous I think most of the mature posters on this board can handle the discussion, I'll leave the mods to handle the rest.

# 58 bubba4 @ 07/21/14 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stiffarmleft


	It's the 10 year anniversary of it's release, I don't understand the issue. If we want to wax poetic about a game that we loved, so be it. This imaginary madden/2k war is bordering on ridiculous I think most of the mature posters on this board can handle the discussion, I'll leave the mods to handle the rest.

So true. How can there be a war between a 10 year old game and a game that is released annually? This "War" is as much about the failures of Madden as it is about the greatness of NFL2K5. These 2 components keeps this imaginary war rolling. And right now, imo, Madden is STILL getting its clock cleaned.

# 59 JeffHCross @ 07/21/14 06:46 PM

Chris, awesome recap. One thing you mentioned was whether or not using actors as commentators would be panned today ... I personally wouldn't. I'd love it if EA would ditch their ESPN-focused presentation (mostly coming from an NCAA perspective here) and create EASN-type branding again. Mainly because that would allow them to go in a different direction and be creative on their own terms rather than try to replicate real life. I don't think gamers care if the game looks exactly like real life -- unless that's what the game is trying to do.

The big advantage I see towards using actors -- well, actually, to me the big advantage would be if they were able to use in-house personnel, either by employing local personalities or finding that one of their employees has a radio gene. Because this would allow, in my opinion, for a lot more time to be devoted to recording commentary. They wouldn't have to arrange a schedule with a person or their agent and fly them to Orlando, or set up shop in some hotel somewhere.

The downside would be that you'd have to have a much better script, and couldn't let someone like Rece Davis just be himself, which would be a comparative loss. But I still enjoy the commentary in APF 2k8 today, so, I think it holds up just fine.

# 60 kehlis @ 07/21/14 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	I think all posters on OS, writers or members, should be greeted with a "will this fuel the 2k/madden war" warning before hitting the post button.

We did it once but scrapped it when we found out the answer was always yes.

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