Presentation
Sega has continued to ramp up its ESPN-styled TV broadcast-style of presentation, whereas EA has added Tony Bruno to the mix. So which one gives you the best presentational feel when you play it?
ESPN
If you've been a fan of Sega's football games for a while, you'll know that since Sega picked up the ESPN license, the developer has slowly but steadily packed more and more of the ESPN look and feel into the game over time. ESPN NFL 2K5 is easily the most polished, ESPN-looking game to date, with a whole host of stuff that just makes the game look and feel really slick. For starters, furthering the addition of football loudmouth Chris Berman to last year's game, Boomer is back this year, along with Suzie Kolber, Trey Wingo and Mel Kiper Jr. Furthermore, now both Boomer and Kolber have polygonal representations of themselves in the game! Boomer shows up before the game to give you a preview of the matchup, and Kolber appears at the end, interviewing the player of the game. Yeah, the lip-syncing is bad, and a polygonal Suzie Kolber can be just plain creepy at times, but it's still pretty neat to have Kolber and Boomer in there.
Though ESPN NFL has always had slick menus and replays, this year's game still manages to bump that aspect up quite a bit. The replays are way better this year, with more camera angles and a feature that actually lets you watch a replay now while picking your next play. All the in-game menus have been polished up, and they just look superb. Also, the in-game menus and overlays continue to present a very TV-like experience.
Madden
Madden NFL 2005 is also a pretty slick-looking game, presentation-wise, though perhaps not quite as much as ESPN. The menus in the game all look very, very good. They're easy to navigate, nicely designed, and quite easy on the eyes, graphically. The additions of Tony Bruno and licensed newspapers in the franchise mode also provide a very nice pair of touches that give the franchise mode a little more in the way of realism. The in-game stat overlays and such aren't really that great and don't pop up very frequently. Additionally, the replays always just seem to look a little bit off--like the camera is either moving too fast or it's just that dumb rotating-camera bullet-time effect the game uses.
Which is better?
If it isn't obvious already, we like ESPN's presentation a lot better. Madden has some nice stuff, but it's nowhere near what ESPN has jammed into its presentational package. So much of the game feels like a real ESPN TV broadcast that it's impossible not to like it.
Winner: ESPN NFL 2K5
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