Operation Sports:

Test Drive: ESPN NFL 2K5

By Shawn Drotar, Managing Editor, OperationSports.com

Summer is in full swing, and NFL training camps haven’t even begun, but for the Xbox®, the football season’s just about to start. ESPN NFL 2K5 is set to hit your Xbox console this July like a charging All-Pro linebacker.

The NFL has never looked or sounded as good in a video game incarnation as it does in ESPN NFL 2K5 on your Xbox. Sporting jaw-dropping graphics and animations, ESPN NFL also uses positional Dolby Digital surround sound to maximum advantage. Add splashy ESPN television-style presentations to this tasty mix and you can be forgiven for mistaking it for the real thing.

Action so real you’ll swear you’re there.

The first impression of note is the ESPN “flavor” of the game. If you’re an avid ESPN viewer, you’ll recognize the musical cues, graphics, and virtually every other part of each game’s presentation, as they’re all taken straight off the world’s best sports network and placed right onto your Xbox.

Once you get into a game, it only gets better. The player models are nothing short of astounding, and they’re animated in more ways than you can imagine. A solid physics model is incorporated with the already-impressive animations, and the results are mesmerizing. Players collide with each other as they tackle en masse, smash into each other in midair, and hit the ground so hard that you’ll cringe. Real-time lighting and shadows (even from passing clouds above!) give the game an eerily realistic look. Cameramen follow your players’ moves from the sidelines, and the NFL’s great stadiums are painstakingly re-created. Each team even has the correct fonts on their jerseys—this ESPN NFL development team has taken no shortcuts, spending the time to make every detail count. The end result is a football game that looks more realistic than any before it.

Rough landing ahead!

The sounds are brought to life by “ESPN Game Sound,” a remarkably effective Dolby Digital mix that surrounds you with the roaring crowds and crashing pads of the NFL. You’ll hear players barking out plays and talking trash, some of it quite specific to your performance, or lack thereof. The two commentators for the game are the best in any sports video game, hands down. They’re timely, often funny, and discuss your game in specific detail. For music, ESPN NFL adds a new wrinkle to the sports game genre. Taking advantage of the custom soundtrack abilities on the Xbox, ESPN NFL allows you to customize the music played in your home stadium. You can clip portions of any song on your Xbox hard drive and use it in the game; in fact, you can even pick which in-game events trigger which clips. Want to play part of Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” when the opponent loses a fumble? Go right ahead. It’s a novel idea, and one that only the Xbox can turn into a reality.

Breakaway or pileup?

The ESPN presentation throughout the game remains the icing on the cake. ESPN’s “The Schwam,” anchorman Chris Berman, introduces the game in animated form, and his halftime and post-game shows highlight replays from your game. Chris also goes over relevant team and player stats. It’s quite impressive, and a lot of fun to watch. ESPN’s sideline reporter, Suzy Kolber, can be heard after halftime, or checking up on injured players. She also conducts (in animated form) a post-game interview with the MVP of the game. And, throughout the game, there’s even more ESPN flavor. You’ll get stat overlays, brilliant replays, and player information screens, along with a variety of entertaining cut scenes that really add to the uncanny feeling that you’re watching a real, live NFL game on ESPN.

Slipping in the rain.

ESPN NFL 2K5 blends together a smart mix of “sim” football and arcade elements, and it’s fully compatible with XboxLive®, to boot. Moreover, while it’s priced at a stunning $19.99, it’s no “budget” title. No corners were cut here, folks—this game will be as good as or better than most games twice its price.

Start your NFL season early, because ESPN NFL 2K5 might well be the best catch in sports gaming history!