Rented NFL 2K5 last night and gave it a four-hour spin. Yeah, played it for four hours straight.
That lengthy time doesn't mean I'm ga-ga over the game, though. It remains a very good game in many areas, but new slider settings can't fix the flaws that caused me to tire of it and sell it last December.
First, the things that NFL 2K5 does well, with numerous comparisons to Madden 06.
The presentation and graphics of NFL 2K5 are way ahead of Madden 06. 2K5 is a much more vibrant, crisp, "alive" game. All of the little overlays, cut scenes, pre- and post-game stuff just KILL Madden.
The audible system, in which you can scroll through a menu and actually see the audibles you're calling, is eons better than audibles in EA football.
The running game still is smooth and fluid, with no suction blocking. But I did have some quibbles with running that I'll describe later.
I didn't see many drops or super-human catches by my team. The passing game is very believable and seems realistic. I also like how you really need to know how many steps your QB is supposed to drop before throwing. There are no 20-yard dropbacks for bombs. That's something that Madden only introduced this year.
While Madden 06 has more pre- and post-snap options, the controls to orchestrate pre-snap stuff in NFL 2K5 felt much more intuitive to me than Madden's. Yes, I have more time into the 2K series than Madden over the last four or five years, but the control schemes for 2K5 were easier to grasp and seemed to be based more in common sense.
Now for my complaints with NFL 2K5, some old to veterans of the series and some that I discovered last night.
The defensive back AI is broken. Flat-out busted. There were at least three or four instances per game where I saw something wacky happen and said, "What the f*ck?" on a passing play. That did not happen this year in Madden 06.
I ran instant replay on a few of these "WTF?" moments, going frame by frame. In almost every instance, the defensive back or linebacker was in perfect coverage position, with his eyes following the ball, and inexplicably turned away or cut in the other direction, leaving the receiver wide open.
I used two different slider sets last night, with unedited rosters, and many variations of those sets to try and find a solution to the DB woes. I'm convinced there are none. This is just bad AI, hard coded into the game.
It's feast or famine with interceptions. At default levels, there are too many interceptions. But when you turn down the Interception slider to zero or single digits, defensive backs are dropping gift picks. Every DB and linebacker becomes Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran when the interception slider is turned down. So either you're going to see a fairly high level of picks, one or two more than normal per QB, or hardly any at all. That's frustrating.
I also think the CPU gives up on the run too often and is a bit pass happy. Even running teams like Pittsburgh or Baltimore gave up on the run too often if I stuffed it on a few consecutive plays. This was more of a feel thing than statistically proven.
Maybe it was just me, but I dominated time of possession in every game I played, at a 2-to-1 ratio in some games. The CPU just doesn't seem to assemble many long, grinding drives in 2K5 at all. That was one of my delights in Madden 06 before I discovered the "giveaway glitch" -- CPU teams do crank out some nice, methodical, long drives.
Finally, NFL 2K5 is not a good game for someone like me who is recovering from carpal tunnel syndrome simply because you have to tap or pound the A button repeatedly to get a speed burst. My wrists and hands were a bit tweaked last night. Not good for me.
Now for the verdict between the two games: I only wish Madden 06 didn't have the "giveaway glitch," because I think it's a better game than ESPN NFL 2K5.
While playing 2K5, I missed the Truck Stick. I missed all of the pre-snap formations. I missed the quality DB play. I missed the grinding pace of the CPU offense on some drives. I missed CPU teams that would stay dedicated to the run. Madden 06 plays a more complete game of football and is more polished on the field than ESPN NFL 2K5.
So DAMN that glitch!
But I still don't feel like I wasted four hours of my night. ESPN NFL 2K5 still is a fun game, and it doesn't have a game-killing glitch. I probably will pick up NFL 2K5 for $8 used and use Chew's and Finn's global roster attribute edits, sliders and roster updates through Action Replay, which I'm finally getting through the fine deal offered to me by James_E. (Thanks again, Jamie!)
And this four-hour exercise finally has helped me pick my Grade A, mainstay football game for this year: NCAA 06.
<i>As a complete package</i>, I think NCAA 06 is the best football game on the market today. Madden is more polished and more sophisticated and has more realistic gameplay, but it's as dull as an Amish comedian. And I simply cannot deal with the "giveaway glitch." ESPN NFL 2K5 is fun, but its flaws remain.
NCAA 06 plays a very good game of football on the field, albeit a bit loose and a bit reliant on the long ball. But I had more fun playing NCAA 06 this year than Madden 06 or ESPN NFL 2K5 as a complete package, when factoring in atmosphere, gameplay quality, graphics, sound, new features and variety of outcomes.
I can't stress the variety of outcomes in NCAA 06 enough, especially with Jistic's sliders. I had defensive struggles in the rain. OT shootouts where both teams combined to hang up 85 points. Games were teams went off in passing. Games where teams ran the ball down my throat.
And I know this sounds gay, but I REALLY missed the mapping of the offensive jukes and defensive swim moves to the right stick, a great new feature in NCAA 06, when I played Madden 06 and ESPN NFL 2K5.
Of all the new features in the EA games this year -- Vision Cone, Truck Stick, Impact Players, etc. -- I really like the mapping of the jukes and defensive moves to the right stick. That has been the most intuitive, fun control feature implemented in a console football videogame for me in a few years.
And cutting to the core, NCAA 06 is the only one of the three football games that I've tried in the last six weeks that kept bringing me back to the Xbox. It had more of a "damn, I can't wait to play that game again" feel than either Madden 06 or NFL 2K5, although both of those games are very good.
So the bottom line after all of this fun and frivolity is that I found a lightly used copy of NCAA 06 for $32 last night on eBay and snapped it up. I can't wait to start a new Syracuse or Michigan dynasty and look forward to many fun nights of football gaming this fall and winter.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Take care,
PK
