Overview:

The last NFL football video game made by someone other than Electronic Arts which was released by Sega in 2004.  When this was released it was for a bargain at $20 and caused quite a stir in the football video game market.  You can do all sorts of stuff in this game.  Stuff like a franchise mode, trick out your crib with all sorts of cool knick knacks and artifacts, or even play the game in first person view.  This really was quite the full package for a budget price.  In the end, EA felt it couldn’t compete and decided to lock down the NFL license which effectively killed this franchise.

Visuals:

While maybe not looking amazing, this game really does the ESPN NFL presentation justice.  You have Chris Berman doing a pregame presentation.  The stadiums all look like they’re supposed to and all the players do give off their own looks.  Everything about this game just looks like it’s supposed to and that’s pretty cool.  Seeing the field in first person view is also really cool but I couldn’t play that way anymore since it gives me a headache.

Audio:

ESPN NFL 2K5 really sounds like a football game.  The announcers seem like they really are just commentating on the game they’re watching because there doesn’t seem to be any repeating dialog.  I’m  pretty sure if I played more of the game I would start noticing it but this is just from my initial experience.  All the ambient noises throughout the game also sound authentic because they’re all just so unique and you usually don’t hear this kind of banter in most sports games.  

Completion:

Back when this came out, my roommate and I were really into this game.  We both had our profiles and our seasons and we just dominated.  I played as the Cowboys then because I didn’t know any better.  Now, I tried them out again and found that they were pretty good against the Titans, at least for a quarter.  I pulled off a 99 yard run after I got sacked for a loss of 10 on the first play.  The game just feels amazing in which everything is just so snappy and all the animations just do what you want them to do.  I wish this series had had the ability to carry on but, alas, here we are, over 20 years later and we’re still stuck having only one NFL videogame release year after year.