This game was, and still is the most realistic playing football experience you can find without actually wearing pads.
First off I will start with presentation. This game is leaps and bounds better than any game Madden has ever put out. Madden might have the ESPN license but needs to take a page out of this game's book. There is a pre-game, halftime and end-game show that has the likes of Chris Berman and Suzy Kolber to give you information on the games. Not only that but the game has SportsCenter episodes with commentary from the Boomer and Trey Wingo along with Mel Kiper Jr. to give draft advice. Madden, even with an NFL exclusive license and four years to catch up has still not put this much effort into how their game compares to the real thing.
The next big difference is of course gameplay. This is where the 2K series shines because even a dated game from 2004 still is better than the gameplay of a game made in 2008 on more powerful hardware. The easiest way to see the difference is by going into a game, running a few plays and wondering why you ever thought Madden was good in the first place. Everything Madden leads you to believe about defense is wrong. In 2K5, defense is best applied with pressure, yes blitzing is a good thing. Man coverage is better at stopping the pass, and zone coverage is best suited for stopping runs and short to mid-range passes. Running the ball is an art form, not an automatic 2-3 yard gain as it is in Madden. Running backwards twenty yards and trying to complete a pass by throwing off your back foot will be incomplete or intercepted and rolling out of the pocket unless the play is designed to do that will only get you sacked. You almost never will have a play where the ball carrier breaks 10 tackles and runs eighty yards for the score. Instead the game forces you to mix your plays up and think like a real football coach or player. There are no such thing as "money plays" or "automatic plays" where you are almost unstoppable, the game does a very good job of making the defense smart and not allow these plays to happen again and again.
The point of this review is that if you call yourself a football fan of real football, you owe it to yourself to play ESPN NFL 2K5, the best football game ever made.