Personally, I've never been a huge ESPN fan. Their sport games have never been as fluient and fun as EA games. But this year, there is no doubt that EA loses in both basketball & baseball. NBA 2K5 is a fresh game that has some of the features that were good in last years ESPN NBA Basketball, while adding new fresh features to enhance the game itself. The graphics edge-out EA's this year. Personally, I think that EA had too much on the players.. and you could see a kind of cut out shape around the players. Everything is very smooth in 2K5, it looks amazing. The gameplay is smooth and the fall away and leaning jump shots look a lot better than Live. Live has one basic animation for the jump-shot, and it is obvious that 2K5 put a lot more time into this part of the game. Making it more realistic and better to play with. The pro-hop can be more efficiently used in this game and in contrast, all you have to do in EA is get in the right position and draw a charge. You must have percision timing and position in 2K5 to draw a charge on a pro-hop. The pro-spin is one thing that's very useful that Live doesn't have. It's basically the pro-hop but add turbo, to make it a quick step spin to either side. When you efficiently use it, you will lose your defender completely. The one thing that stands out clearly this year is the dynasty mode/franchise mode. The Association as named in 2K5 is a lot better. Live has it's own good things... like the realism added because you have to wait for trades and waiver claims to happen. But other than that, the old school franchise mode is back. After a bit, you basically find yourself just playing games and thats it. Without dynasty points, you can't do much with training and scouting. But in 2K5, there is a lot more to do. With the trading block, you can look up who wants to deal off who. And you can let other teams know that you want to deal a certain player. But 2K5 still sticks with the old school signing and trading, where you don't have to wait for any response from the team or player. If they have enough interest then boom.. the deal is done. But it is made up for with the new feature added this year. You play your games by the weeks, and at the end of each week, a player will come into your office with a concern or compliment about either him or the team. You have 3 choices of response, get the right one and team chemistry goes up.. get the wrong one and it goes down. You also have to train your players in certain areas of the game, you get a chance at the end of every week as well. This can also affect team chemistry. In training, you are allowed to hire 4 staff members, each with their own thing that benefits you and the team. There are 5 categories of training that you can choose every week. Mid-Range, Close-Range, Long-Range, Passing and Free Throw. Each has 4 levels of intensity that you can choose. Each with it's benefits and risks. Tough training maybe the one that helps your team boost the max in certain categories but it risks your team chemistry to go down along with a risk of losing a player to injury in practice. Light training will minimize the chances of lowering chemistry and injuries, but will also give you minimum gain in attributes for your players. The most important thing about this dynasty is the team chemistry. Like EA's MVP Baseball 2005, team chemistry is the essential part of your team. With this, everything you do to the team will affect team chemistry. If you switch Earl Boykins to centre, obviously the chemistry will go down. Players react to everything you do to the team, if you get a known ball-hog to the team... the chemistry obviously goes down. The chemistry is also very realistic itself, meaning it doesn't go out of hand and minus like crazy or add like crazy for a small thing. It is amazing how well it worked out for 2K5's dynasty mode this year. During dynasty mode, EA offers a interventional simulating system. 2K5.. beats it out too. FULL AUTHORITY, is the new style of simulation. This will test players coaching skills. This is a strategic simulation that requires you to do many things a coach would do like subs, shot distribution, defensive and offensive strategy and styles. This happens throughout the course of the game, and the computer will attempt to counter you. You will get highlights at the end of each sequence to see how you did. It's a lot more interactive than just watching scores pop up inside a window like Live. The soundtrack this year amazing. Simply gorgeous. It doesn't need to edge out Live because it destroys Live's soundtrack. The songs in Live are pretty dull. Quite a couple of songs in 2K5's soundtrack are just great. The sound during the game itself is also pretty nice. The commentary provided by Bob Fitzgerald and Bill Walton is very good with occasional sideline reports for ABC reporter Michelle Tafoya. I suggest to go to options and then presentation and turn the replays to occasional.. they get annoying.. on frequent they basically replay every inside layup and 3 pointer. Overall, EA is edged out by 2K series this year. There isn't a doubt about that. And for 20 bucks.. thats the biggest bargain for a simply gorgeous basketball game this year.
First off let me just tell all you guys that I never thought i'd ever buy this game, but when I saw the price, I felt I should give it a shot and I feel extremely satisfied for doing so. The game doesn't have the great a... Read Full Review
i think this game is fun i have not had it that long but i think it is worth its price (4.99 at gamestop). I realy like the 70s abd 80s all-star teams playing whith bird and dr. j is very fun. I also like the practis par... Read Full Review
