NHL2005 (EA Sports) vs. NHL2K5 (ESPN) -- X-Box

[findingnemoscar]

Rented NHL 2005 (EA Sports) for X-box yesterday. Here is my review after playing it for about 6hrs compared to NHL2K5 (ESPN) for X-Box.

Gameplay:

I was extremely disappointed with NHL2005 after playing 3 games yesterday. The problems of their past was, IMO, was not rectified as promised: Mainly, too much unrealistic bodychecking and too much body contact.
I even turned the sliders down to zero which helped a bit but still made it impossible to go in close for breakaways and attempt and dekes. I liked the fact that an averted body check or un-even body check (i.e., Martin St.Louis trying to take out Todd Bertuzzi) made the player kind of skate off-balance on one leg (its hard to picture it but if you play the game, you'll know what i'm referring to) but after a while, that got boring. Maybe I sucked at this game yesterday but I could not deke around any player for maybe 3 steps without getting body-checked or bumped and losing the puck.

Also, the play on this felt vrey arcade like, not like ESPNs which I found to be much smoother.

Response to one-timers on NHL2005 were very delayed if possible at all.

I scored a few goals with slap shots and wrist shots (from bad angles) where the player obviously screened the goalie. I thought this was very good and to see a slap shot go top shelf where the goalie either did not react at all or reacted way too late was icing on the cake.

Breakaways were near impossible (please read about body contact) and dekeing the goalie didn't even happen for me. In 2k5 (ESPN), dekeing the goalie out and players for that matter, make the game so much more enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I love hitting and all but when it becomes near impossible to manoever, it gets frustrating.

In NHL2005 (EA), theres a new strategy they implemented this year called "open ice" i believe. It follows along the NBA live where you can pre-control another player while controlling a player already. Sounds confusing? Maybe I don't have it 100% right but that's what it seemed like I was doing yesterday. I'm not a big fan of this right now but maybe when I get to learn it more, I'll use it more.

FRANCHISE MODE:

EA has always come out with better franchise modes and this get the edge in this one. I started out last night trading all the players on this years Team Canada roster to the Leafs. When I entered the franchise mode with this team, I noticed my profits this year would be negative since the team payroll alone was about $120 million . And I remembered that the franchise part of this was to make money while winning games...so I proceeded to trade every single one of my team canada players over 25/making more than 4mill/yr or in the final year of their contracts (except brodeur) to other teams in exchange for 19yr-22 old players with 3yr contracts and 1st rd draft picks. By the end of simulating the first year, I finished 4 in the league with players like spezza, gaborik, tommu ruttu, M.A. Fleury, brad stuart, michael ryder, coliacovo (sp?), stajan, boumeester (sp?), sedin twins, rick nash, tootoo, eric staahl. Needless to say, my entire team age averaged 22yrs of age. Not bad eh? And the team payroll was under 40mill (could have been less if i traded away brodeur and his giant contract:p). Also, I think I ended up with 18 of the top 25 draft picks including the first 10 . What I didn't like was that you could only sign players to no more than 3yrs...hmm..perhaps a forshadow of things to come in the new NHL?


Overall, NHL2K5 (ESPN) was much more smoother in gameplay IMO. The graphics in NHL2005 (EA) were better but again, they looked like arcade style to me (memories of those 3-3 hockey games..can't remember the name). Now if only NHL2K5 could improve their franchise mode or NHL2005 could improve their gameplay, we would have the perfect hockey game.

[Fobulous]

i own nhl 2k3, and found it to be much better than EA's NHL 2003. SegaSports games are AMAZING, so when i heard their prices were much lower, I had to pick one up.

amazon had it for $26 a while back... its back up to $29 now though.

[tkl]

Rented NHL 2005 (EA Sports) for X-box yesterday. Here is my review after playing it for about 6hrs compared to NHL2K5 (ESPN) for X-Box.

Gameplay:

......In NHL2005 (EA), theres a new strategy they implemented this year called "open ice" i believe. It follows along the NBA live where you can pre-control another player while controlling a player already. Sounds confusing? Maybe I don't have it 100% right but that's what it seemed like I was doing yesterday. I'm not a big fan of this right now but maybe when I get to learn it more, I'll use it more.

This sounds similar to ESPN hockey's "give and go". In the offensive zone, give the pick to the computer while you head over to an open slot for the go and one-timer.

I've enjoyed the ESPN hockey 2k5 so far. It was only 30 bucks (2 mentos cert ). My only issue is that the speed of the games online are not as fast as offline. Playing against the computer, I would have 100 body checks per game while on-line it would be closer to 45 or so. Of course that could also mean guys are able to sidestep my checks and that I suck.

[Doom Dealer]

Bought my NHL2K5 at my local FS for $29. At that price, you can't really go wrong with the game.

[mflat]

I played EA NHL 2005 for a few hours today and can confirm the top poster on every detail. THIS GAME SUCKS. It's amazing how much I hated it by the 3rd hour or so. There's no way to adjust the sliders to get a game that doesn't feel like NHL Hitz.

What is wrong with EA?????

I'm going to have to buy a PS2/XBOX now just to play Sega's version.

[Sgt_Strider]

I've been playing EA NHL games ever since I was a little kid. Starting with NHL 2003, I have been disappointed with the direction that the franchise is heading. I thought NHL 2004 was crap when compared to ESPN NHL Hockey. Maybe it was me, but the computer always seem to skate faster than me even when I use turbo. Also the hitting from last year's edition was extremely annoying. I just couldn't by pass the defense without getting clobbered. The player's movement seemed a bit unrealistic to me and there's something about the "slowness" in the game. I admit I haven't played ESPN NHL Hockey 2005 or NHL 2005, but I am looking forward to getting ESPN in the near future.

[Bortman]

I've been playing EA NHL games ever since I was a little kid. Starting with NHL 2003, I have been disappointed with the direction that the franchise is heading. I thought NHL 2004 was crap when compared to ESPN NHL Hockey. Maybe it was me, but the computer always seem to skate faster than me even when I use turbo. Also the hitting from last year's edition was extremely annoying. I just couldn't by pass the defense without getting clobbered. The player's movement seemed a bit unrealistic to me and there's something about the "slowness" in the game. I admit I haven't played ESPN NHL Hockey 2005 or NHL 2005, but I am looking forward to getting ESPN in the near future.

LOL you were a kid in 2003, but not in 2004? hehe I find that funny as hell Probably not what you intended, but thats what it sounded like.

I've been playing the EASports NHL series since NHL '93 on SNES and Genesis. I've owned every one from '93 until 2002, and I'll admit that I was an EASports fanboy. I stuck up my nose to all others. But after playing NHL2K5 on my new XBox, ESPN will definately have my money from now on. The game play is so much better than EASports version, not as arcadey, graphics are a bit less, but who cares! Your getting a game that is BETTER than the EA game for nearly $30 less! Can't complain when your getting a gem like this.

[HughG]

after reading all the reviews, and been playing espn nhl2k5 for a few weeks now im second guessing starting a season in ea 2005.

[eelfliw]

Does either version feature a "lock out" mode???

[sfu_lifer]

Does either version feature a "lock out" mode???

Every game has a "lock out" mode (i.e. return it to the store for a refund )

[TeejayV]

both my games (2005 and 2k5) are both locked out and will refuse to go into their respective cd-rom drives until the ps2 and the tv can come up with a better deal.

now nba 2k4 is getting the full tv time and media attention from my friends and i. I've even gotten reports from people in Europe that they want to buy my copies of NHL 2005 and NHL 2k5.

it's not looking good.

[GR8oNE]

both my games (2005 and 2k5) are both locked out and will refuse to go into their respective cd-rom drives until the ps2 and the tv can come up with a better deal.

now nba 2k4 is getting the full tv time and media attention from my friends and i. I've even gotten reports from people in Europe that they want to buy my copies of NHL 2005 and NHL 2k5.

it's not looking good.

hahaha...


My thoughts:

I've always stuck with EA... why? loyalty and the fact that i'm so used to playing EA games.

I played both.. ESPN for a few days, and EA for the first time yesterday... Opposite to what the original poster said, I found ESPN much harder than EA (most likely because I'm used to EA... I'm probably the only one who actually liked EA 2004 ) With ESPN, on the all-star level, I could hardly even ever score, couldnt even get decent chances, and the manual deke seem to be awkward, instead of deking, sometimes the player would flip the puck and lose it (haha maybe i'm not using it right, i have no manual ), I would score like 1 or no goals... I suck.

In EA, on one of my first games was a 4-3 loss to CGY (they came back from a 3-1 defecit!). The way to score is to manually deke arround a defender for a clear shot/deke at the goalie... that's the way i did it, or screen shots... a good way to practice is to play the free4all (or whatever its called) and play one-on-one with the goalie. I liek EA because it seems a lot faster than ESPN, but it is terribly unrealistic... the players sometimes look like they're not playing on ice because it seems like they can easily stop (hard to explain). One small detail i liked was the fact that players dropped their sticks on a big hit and had to pick it up... stupid thing, but it was a nice detail.

Summary: if you like a sim/realistic game, ESPN all the way... if you like fast-paced/arcade/unrealistic, EA all the way.

So far, I like EA... I'll spend this weekend playing both and figure out which one i'll be playing for the rest of the year Oh, which reminds me... EA's frachise mode (called dynasty mode) doesnt have fantasy draft! that was disappointing... but wahtever...

on a side note, I thought I read somewhere that EA Canada didn't do NHL 2005, but instead one of the US EA's did it (EA Chicago???) I think I read that in a review on videogames.com

[Fobulous]

bought it finally and spent most of my weekend playing it with my friends.

Very different from NHL 2k3, but apparently not much change from 2k4 fyi.

The goals are definitely a LOT harder to score now. the highest output we've had was 6 goals (15 min games). Most of our goals come from 1 timers, very few from deking out the goalie (worked like magic in 2k3), or slappers from the point. The ladder/dream team challenge has been our focus lately and it is very fun.

The right analog stick, aka 'the dirty stick' (on my xbox) delivers elbows, hooks, spears etc. Checking is also a lot tighter and AI is great with poke checks too. Much more challenging now than before... graphics take a while to get used to, i thought 2k3s were nicer (simpler).

Still, very happy with this game.