ESPN NHL 2K5

List Price: $14.99 Discount Price: $8.92

Features:

• Deepest Franchise Mode Ever Establish a hockey dynasty with the most comprehensive Franchise Mode to date. Worldwide scouting, enhanced minor league management and full coaching staff control delivers ultimate franchise experience.
• Party Mode An all-new Party Mode features dozens of multi-player minigames and challenges all in the name of becoming King of the Rink.
• Intense Contact Controls A completely re-designed fighting engine offers full-movement fighting -- including grappling, dodge, grab, and multiple punch moves -- while improved checks and new contact moves help keep your opponent at bay.
• Always Online The standard-setting online quality that you have come to know from ESPN Videogames now includes online leagues and tournaments, a real time sports ticker that gives updates of other games in progress, and an advanced messaging system.
• The NHLs Elite The Dream Team Challenge pits you against a ladder of all-star teams hand-selected by the some of hockeys most colorful personalities.

Customer Reviews:

Mediocre at best.. [Posted on 2004-12-19]
Okay, all in all is this game worth $20? .. Maybe. Is this game the greatest hocky game ever? Definatly not. Lots of little things were left out...how hard would it have been to show who scored the goal afterwards?? I mean come on, that's basic game programming 101..I'd say rent it before you buy..it's not for everyone.

Fun, atleast better than EA's NHL [Posted on 2005-01-21]
ESPN NHL 2k5 is a good game, but not great. I am a little biased, because I enjoy EA sports games more than the ESPN titles...But due to the fact that NHL 2005 from EA is no different than the 2004 version (which i loved by the way), i was forced into buying ESPN...plus with no hockey this year most likely, i had to have some hockey right?

The pros: the gameplay of ESPN is great. The graphics are definitely up to par and the goalies are good enough so that it is actually hard to score on them on higher skill levels. (No longer will you find the score to be 10-7, that is unless you suck really bad or are incredibly good). The hits are realistic only because its not like NHL 05 in that all that game is, is a hits fest. Paul Kariya cannot crush everyone on the ice, and he cannot whoop people in fights. Which brings me to the fight category, which is definitely a great addition to the game. Now you can have range of the whole ice and not just be in a stationary stance like all of the previous hockey games invented. Another plus is the franchise mode in general. There really are so many little details in franchise mode that it is too tough to explain in here.

The pros: So many penalties! Even with the penalties just halfway up the meter (which is the default setting) you can get about 10 powerplays a game. Very unrealistic and quite frustrating when you try to focus a lot on having a good powerplay. I average about 1/12 on the powerplay, which is horrible when you try to stack up to other teams in the league. The commentators repeat a lot of the same things over and over again. You find this in many games, but this game is particularly bad in this category. Not too big of a deal, just a small thing that is easily fixed by just turning the volume down.

Overall, the game is good, but dont expect to be BLOWN away by anything. It is definitely a game worth playing for the year until NHL 2006 comes out (hopefully with some changes than the previous 2 versions :/)

-Bryan

BEST GAME EVER!! [Posted on 2005-04-12]
I think this game is very fun because it has very good graphics and it has a lot of fun options. You can also start a season and play the playoffs.

Best Hockey Game Ever!!! [Posted on 2005-04-14]
This game is really very very good because it has unbelievable graphics and the players look really realistic. The commentary is really good. They follow the game perfectly. There are also a lot of things to do. You can start a season and then play in the playoffs. You can make trades in the season to get better players. There is also a cool thing in the main menu which is the skybox, which has hockey trivia, airhockey, shuffleboard and a karaoke machine. When you're in your season you can check the standings and the scores. You can also check your schedule and the injuries so far in the season. The last thing is that you can change the uniforms to any modern uniform or any old uniform from the past. Overall, I think this game is very very good!

Oh my god, this is fun! [Posted on 2005-12-06]
My brother got this game for ten bucks, and let me say this; it was well wroth it! I'm not a hockey fan, I don't like most sports games, and I'm not a huge video game geek, but I had loads of fun with this game. It's perfect for two player action, really intense. Screw this review, I'm gonna go play it right now.

PEACE!

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