Wednesday, July 21, 2004

ESPN NFL 2K5 (Xbox)

I'd like to start giving you my impressions, but this game is so spectacular looking that I've just been sitting here, slack-jawed. Yes, it would have been visually perfect with a 720p mode, and there is some aliasing, but it still looks incredible.

Here are some very short notes.

Graphics: insane.
Audio: The crowd noise isn't quite as spectacular as NCAA, but it's still excellent.
Presentation: The in-game presentation is network quality. I am not kidding.
Gameplay: it will take me several days, if not longer, to properly evaluate this. However, I've been watching the two-minute A.I., and while it isn't cutthroat like Madden's, it looks like a significant improvement over last year.

I'm working on sliders, but here are a few guaranteed changes you'll want to make. The sliders have a 1-40 scale (default in the middle at 20). These changes are for All-Pro difficulty (and don't even bother with the Pro setting unless you know nothing about football):
Running (Human/CPU): 40
Kicking (Human/CPU): 8
Fumbles: 24
Interceptions: 16

You'll also want to bump up the penalty sliders significantly--I'm not sure how far yet.

Seven or eight minute quarters will give you the correct number of total plays.

That's all I've got for now. I'm reasonably sure at this point that there will be a slider project starting soon.

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