« Madden 2005 vs. ESPN 2k5 »

These two games don't come out until Aug. 10, but Game Informer magazine had a feature this month about the two games.
 
Right off the bat, the remarkable aspect of ESPN 2k5 is that it will be sold initially for $19.99.  Yeah, that's right -- 20 bucks.  President freakin' Jackson.  Actually I think it's Andrew Jackson.
 
And this post will mark the end of Top Five lists and the genesis of lists of six (catchy segment name TBD), because Z. Baker ended his lists of five and replaced them with his Magnificent 7.
 
Six Cool Things about ESPN 2K5 (besides its price):
 
1.  ESPN talent.  The game will feature "virtual representations" of Chris Berman and Suzy Kolber.  Trey Wingo anchors the SportsCenter desk with injuries and updates. Mel Kiper Jr., the hardest working analyst in sports, shows up after Week 8 with details about the upcoming draft.  And yes, I'm sure the awesomeness of Mel's hair takes up half the storage space in the game.
2.  Customized team practices.  Not that I would know what to do, but you can tinker with the regiments your players undergo each week in Franchise Mode.  You can tell them how much to lift (and how often), what the mood in the meeting room is (happy or tense), what film your quarterback watches, and what the coaches focus on.  With all these options, I could be a shoe-in to be the virtual equivalent of Marty Mornhinweg.
3.  Online play.  The XBox version lets you play a 16-week, 32-team league online.  What it also features is a VIP profile system, where players can download profiles of their opponents, which will contain a lot of information, such as their favorite hot route and pass play, so you can practice against that one play they always use.  "What's that?  A non-Halo reason to buy XBox?"
4.  First person play.  You can see what the player sees.  If you don't like it in a given play, you can toggle between first and normal camera modes.  What a great way to re-master the game by playing as the quarterback. That makes it a lot harder to avoid the blitz and to fool the other guy as to who you're throwing to.
5.  Neat little things.  XBox owners can upload music CDs into their console and play music through the stadium's PA system between plays and halftime. If this feature becomes the standard, Bon Jovi will cease to exist.  Also, incoming college players have randomized (but realistic) faces. No longer are rookies just a silhouette.
6.  No boring Maddenisms.  Suffice to say, this game is Whap-less.
 
Six Neat Things about Madden 2005:
1.  Compatability with NCAA Football.  As always, you can take those actual players from the NCAA game and slowly incorpate them with NFL teams through the draft.  ESPN has computer generated college players.  I'm not sure if you can transfer coaching profiles (that would be hard -- it would require both games to share information), but wouldn't that be something?  An NFL team in Owner's Mode needs a good coach, and instead of promoting a coordinator, they could tap into a successful college coach.  If that's not a feature, and one of the Madden/ESPN programmers happens to be reading this, feel free to use that idea.  I have no problem ... collecting royalties ... if you decide to use it for the 2006 edition!
2.  Create-A-Fan.  Customize a big fat guy with no shirt on in the middle of December.  I hope the EyeToy for PlayStation will enable players to create themselves as fans, but since they're already the owner, that would look very unprofessional -- the owner in a cheesehead and a foam finger.
3.  Media, media, media.  After every game, some radio guy named Tony Bruno will sound off on how your team did.  Apparently there is over 20 hours of video of this guy, and he has interviews of some of the head coaches.  From the radio to the newspaper, USA Today and city newspapers will feature your team's performance on the front sports page.  No, the Toledo Blade is probably not in this.
4.  The Hit Stick.  Using this at the right time (it's one of the analog sticks) will make your tackle bone-crunchingly sweet.
5.  Play changing.  ESPN might have this too, but there are a lot of more options you can control during gameplay.  For instance, sometimes your defender switches to someone else closer, but you can make it so that your fastest guy doesn't get stuck with the tight end.  Offensive plays can change formation without changing routes, and all that other gridiron minutia that will make those fatass armchair quarterbacks very happy.
6.  Madden-ful.  Whether you hate him or not, this guy's got Madden, and you love to hear it.  "He was waiting for something to develop, and BOOM!  He got developed!"
 
 
Game Informer's final analysis?
"While Madden will probably still lead in sales, it looks like this is the year that ESPN beats Madden as a game." 
 
Wow, that's bold.
(No, wait. It's not.  This is bold.)
(Some of that was italic, too.)
(More like this was italic.)
(The first "this," not that other "this.")
(Now that I look at it again, the whole sentence was bold, with 33 percent of the words being in italics as well.)
(You've gotten so confused you probably haven't made it this far yet, and never will.  You will instead ready your shotgun to murder me by now.)



- posted by Suss @ 6:34 PM | Permanent Link To This Post