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[EekTheKat]

I picked this up at Fry's for something like $17.99 today (PS2 ver).

Seems pretty good so far, I have years of Madden brainwashing to recover from first though to fully enjoy the game.

There's an option for progressive scan in the options menu, going to try it out later to see if it slows down like the old ESPN NBA 2k4 game.

 

[Seth C]

Is there a way to bring a created player on to your team in franchise mode? I can't seem to figure it out if there is. Anyone know?

 

[soulja224466]

Is there a way to bring a created player on to your team in franchise mode? I can't seem to figure it out if there is. Anyone know?

Have you checked the free agent pool?

 

[Seth C]

Have you checked the free agent pool?

Yup. When you load a Franchise it "unloads" your edited players. Even after you exit franchise mode you have to go to the load menu and load your saved roster to get them back.

 

[warhead]

Take 2 needs to bring this game to Europe asap... Last year ESPN 2K4 was released in November or something so I hope Take 2 hurries the fuck up and drops the game in august or september or something...

 

[Kintaro]

i will elaborate myself. ESPN's franchise mode is useless and almost 100% pure garbage. here's why:

- Trades are ridiculous. I have seen the following trades happen at various times:

* Brett Favre for Michael Strahan
* Ricky Williams for Ty Law
* Charlie Garner for Keyshawn Johnson

i've also seen some other weird ass trades/cuts happen but i can't remember them all. it's ridiculous. you also can't turn off CPU trading.


another bug i found (this was mentioned at OS and i tried it out for myself) is that if you are simming the game of a defense who runs a 3-4 (for instance, pittsburgh steelers), the computer stat tracking system will treat them as a team who runs a 4-3. what i mean by that is lets say you have 4 linebackers, joe, john, bob and marty. well, if you sim the game, only joe john and bob will have registered stats. it will be as if that team was running a 4-3, and marty was riding the pine. wtf

then there's the clipping bug. lets say i get an 80 yard touchdown run, but it is called back for clipping. if i go to my rushing stats, i will have 1 rush for minus 80 yards. lol...


this game is an awesome game, but sometimes i have to wonder what kind of effort VC is putting into the little things about the game. how could this get past QA? we've only played this game for 3 days and we already have a huge list of bugs that should have been ironed out MONTHS ago. early release or not this isn't acceptable. they need to patch this shit up pronto

Oof....thanks. Just saved me $20. I love Franchise Modes personally, and uh, never was ESPN's strong point. The stats problem doesn't sound nice either. I'll give it a rent and see if I can play some of you guys. lol

 

[Archaix]

I think the trade logic in this game is much better than in Madden(at least last year's Madden). I pulled off a Drew Brees for Ray Lewis plus a first rounder in Madden last year. Sure, the CPU doesn't do any trades but the user gets away with murder if so chosen. You could trade a first round pick to the worst team in the league for a first, third, and fourth round pick.

In ESPN, the trades are players of equal calibre and generally follow needs. And it is much harder to get a lopsided trade than it was in Madden. My bigger problem with ESPN is the frequency of big injuries. By week 2, Randle El, Casey Hampton, and a backup corner were all out for more than 10 weeks(by the way...losing one of the top few nose tackles in the league and replacing him with a guy who has never actually seen play time is a pretty good way to drop your defense down 15 points overall). I do suppose this could be my fault for pushing them too hard in practice, though. I think the weekly prep alone can help make the franchise mode a lot better. It takes a few weeks of preseason prep to figure out how to get the best of your players.

 

[bob_arctor]

Has anyone downloaded a VIP file yet? I downloaded FMT's profile and played a couple of times against his virtual 49'ers. Pretty cool shit, but I don't believe FMT can be as boneheaded as his profile plays. ;P Do you hurry-up O as much as that, FMT? Lots of scrambling, too. Of course, this was only after 4 games...

 

[Kabuki Waq]

I dled DMZ's VIP and beat him 21-14.

 

[StoOgE]

Has anyone downloaded a VIP file yet? I downloaded FMT's profile and played a couple of times against his virtual 49'ers. Pretty cool shit, but I don't believe FMT can be as boneheaded as his profile plays. ;P Do you hurry-up O as much as that, FMT? Lots of scrambling, too. Of course, this was only after 4 games...

thats the thing, I think we need to get 20 or 30 games into a V.I.P before you can actually get a feel for it. For instance, FMT was scrambling alot online in one game just to see how bad the problem was IIRC, which explains all of the scrambling..

I downloaded a couple, and it seems like the V.I.P has similar decision making skills, but does not run the game as effectively as the real person.. its still usefull for scouting tendencies, but beating someones V.I.P doesnt seem to mean much.

 

[StoOgE]

is there a season mode offline this year? I cant find it. Generally I only play in season mode, and let my team play for itself in franchise (because I can generally wallop the PC even with a terrible team)... but I cant find a normal leauge mode, and I still dont want to play in my franchise.

 

[bob_arctor]

There is no true season mode, just Franchise. What I do, since I'm not up on getting as deep as Franchise entails at this point, I just set everything to "Assistant Coach" (drafts, trades, depth charts etc) and turn the Weekly Prep feature off. I'll play this way for now since it eliminates the extraneous stuff and let's me concentrate on actually playing the game.

 

[StoOgE]

I could have sworn there was a season mode last year... why would they pull it? I guess I will have to set up a second franchise to actually play the games in.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

The weekly prep feature is a little annoying. It offers you a lot of choice while being a little tiresome and boring. Maybe it's better when you completely understand what every choice does, and at least it makes progression a real force in the game.

A lot of sports games are removing the season mode and just leaving franchise I notice.

 

[StoOgE]

I really started to like weekly prep.. in my first season I worked Roy Williams (WR) like a dawg, and he jumpedfrom an 82 rating to a 91. Just to see what was going on I started up a new season, and simmed the whole year with no weekly prep and he jumped to an 88..

 

[Bog]

Weekly Prep got turned off immediately in my Franchise.

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

I think the trade logic in this game is much better than in Madden(at least last year's Madden). I pulled off a Drew Brees for Ray Lewis plus a first rounder in Madden last year. Sure, the CPU doesn't do any trades but the user gets away with murder if so chosen. You could trade a first round pick to the worst team in the league for a first, third, and fourth round pick.

so, you're saying that maddens trade logic sucks because you can't resist ripping off the CPU? i say ESPN's trade logic is a joke because you have NO CONTROL over the kind of retarded trades the CPU will pull off in your franchise.

i don't care if trading brett favre for michael strahan IS an even trade talent wise, why would the giants do that when they have kurt warner and eli manning already on the roster? the trades "look" even until you see who else is on the roster. thus, the "logic" behind it is leagues and leagues behind maddens.

plus, this year madden has eliminated the abuse of user trading with "player personality" feature. what this feature does is rates your teams management under a number of categories, including how loyal you are to a player. if you are always wheelin and dealin, and signing free agents just to trade them for draft picks, players will not sign with you no matter how much you pay them. also, if you trade your star players, your teams morale and ratings go down, and other players on your team will also want out of your crooked organization.

madden is the franchise king, we can all agree on that

 

[Ramirez]

I started a franchise a minute ago,beat the Raiders like 42-7,thats on All Pro...guess Im gonna have to fuck with the sliders,cuz I found Legend to be cheap last year against the cpu...

 

[Archaix]

I don't agree with that. Not before seeing whether Madden will improve significantly this season. "Owner's mode" was almost complete BS. The pricing was all practically useless. It told you what price to keep everything at, putting it too high or low meant you lose money.

And if we're talking about unrealistic, let's talk about the fact that when playing a franchise in Madden last year, the Steelers moved to LA because attendance dipped to 50% after two wild card seasons. You could also offer a player next to no money and keep increasing it little by little until you get the minimum they'll sign for. In ESPN this year, if you keep making "insulting" offers, their demands for you will keep going up.

Of course, it's not fair to compare this year's game to last year's. I'm sure some complaints will be adressed, but I think that this is a good first attempt at actually having CPU trades. This year's Madden also does look to have some very good improvements(players attitudes being one, position battles in the offseason is a good idea) but NCAA promised a lot, too.

edit: Another thing I loved about Madden's franchise that I would like to see in ESPN is coaches. Coaches determined how good your team played and progressed, it was a very good addition. Also, it was fun to see players become coaches(Although Rich Gannon took the seahawks to a super bowl victory in his first year coaching...come on now )

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

I don't agree with that. Not before seeing whether Madden will improve significantly this season. "Owner's mode" was almost complete BS. The pricing was all practically useless. It told you what price to keep everything at, putting it too high or low meant you lose money.

it didn't tell you what price to keep it at. there was an "above" and "below" league minimum, but that middle ground was anywhere between $3-20. and it wasn't useless, did you even play owner mode? i admit it had some problems, but pricing did make a difference. by lowering parking prices, you raised the happiness of your crowd. with more people attending games, you could raise your food prices to as high as you could within the league average.

And if we're talking about unrealistic, let's talk about the fact that when playing a franchise in Madden last year, the Steelers moved to LA because attendance dipped to 50% after two wild card seasons. You could also offer a player next to no money and keep increasing it little by little until you get the minimum they'll sign for. In ESPN this year, if you keep making "insulting" offers, their demands for you will keep going up.

the moving was unrealistic, but understand this: that was the first year of owner mode. ESPN football has had a franchise mode for 3 or 4 years, and i still see some of the same problems i saw in NFL 2k1. where is the testing? where is the improvement?

also, in this years madden you will no longer be able to low-ball him to see how much he'll sign for. Player Personality is going to solve a lot of the problems you have with the game. by the way, ESPN has had that "insulting offers" feature since NFL 2k3.

 

[Archaix]

There was a relatively small range of prices that were green-arrowed. Moving it around in that range didn't change much at all, only once you put it outside did things start to go bad. I just kept mine in the middle of the average range and everything went well.

As far as that feature being in since 2k3, I hadn't noticed it. It didn't seem to be needed. I never ran into cap problems so I never had to make low offers, with this year's game I have after just one season(of course, I can thank the actual Steelers overpaying of players like Marvel Smith, Chad Scott, and Duce fricking Staley for that ). This season's ESPN game is the only game which I have noticed cap problems. Madden last year had some dangers, but a team never was truly crippled since cap problems mainly came about by having an incredible team.

I know it was the first year for owner's mode, which is why I don't want to say that either is better this year and didn't really want to compare them. I'm not going to put any stock in what the developers of these games promise though. Madden, ESPN, and NCAA have all had promises fizzle out over the past two years, new features are found to be duds each season.

 

[Seth C]

Sweeeet! I just unlocked a paper football table for my game room. This rocks. Someone tell me there is air hockey.

 

[Maverick]

This game is sweet, sweet football love. Online plays a lot better on Xbox Live over last years PS2 fiasco. Every game I've had has been nothing but smooth.

The running game is a lot less painful in 2k5. I even had a guy try to use the spread offense QB tricks on me with Culpepper and I pretty much shut him down. He ended up making big mistakes that lead to costly turnovers because he was running all over the place.

One weird thing that I wasn't too happy about, however, was that he connected twice for about 80 yards a pop on huuuuge floater bombs to Moss where my DBs just kind of stood under the ball circling around awkwardly while Moss looked right up and snagged the ball. I was in Cover 12 both times, too.

Frustrating.

 

[Fifty]

Yeah, the zone REALLY is a problem in this game. The DBs turn into speed freaks when they're in zone. They run backwards, they spin around needlessly, they go for the wrong animation... It's pretty shitty. Most of the defensive plays are zone, so it can be a problem to find good man coverage plays. I was playing Mr. Bob, and whenever......whenever I called zone, he would catch it for 20+ yards. Every time I called man (almost every time at least, there might have been one catch) we shut it down.

 

[Cloudy]

Mav, I've noticed that man d is more effective against power WRs cos they usually get open in the zone if the qb has time. Also, passing is harder on Legend (league setting)

 

[Cloudy]

Fifty, the problem is that they took out the majority of man2man defensive plays that also had qb pressure from the lbs or cbs. I dunno if that's to encourage folks to hot-blitz but that's what you gotta do now against a pass happy offense... Man-up (with a double team on one wr if necessary) and have one or 2 hot blitzers...

 

[Ramirez]

Zone was trash last year too,its trash again,no surprise.

 

[Fifty]

The game is as unstable as ever online. I played yesterday with Matrix, it connected on the first try. Today, I had 5-10 minutes of roster validation messages, and then the usual problem kicked in (gets stuck at the "waiting for opponent screen", doesn't say "You have been challenged by X player") Shitty

 

[Gunstar77]

Zone was trash last year too,its trash again,no surprise.

I have to disagree. I think Zones have been improved big time. Last year you would call a Zone and the defender would just stand there and not react to the play, this year the Zones are far better. The key to any Zone is pressure, without a Pass Rush any QB will pick a part a Zone. This is why I like Zone Blitzs.

 

[Fifty]

I HATE THESE FUCKING SERVERS.

 

[Cloudy]

Did anyone else watch the defensive training video in the game? A few things I just learned:

- Y will only intercept if you're not controlling the defender. Black button intercepts when you're playing manul defense and white swats

- You can freakin' QB spy with the defensive audible to blitz the qb + R (not the double team, you actually link the arrow to the QB)

- Pressing and holding x (not charging up then x like last year) will do two different types of tackles.

 

[Fifty]

Did anyone else watch the defensive training video in the game? A few things I just learned:

- Y will only intercept if you're not controlling the defender. Black button intercepts when you're playing manul defense and white swats

Y seems to be 50/50 with me. I've got 2 picks with Ray using only Y.

 

[Gunstar77]

Here is some info that maybe help your problems:

Hello all NFL Players,

We wanted to outline the issues that have been experienced during this first week of release with NFL 2k5 as well as offer some explanations and an update on progress towards getting them fixed. Hang in there, both the development team of the game and Xbox Live reps talk every day with each other, and we are definitely working on a patch (Auto Update) to remedy these issues and we will be releasing that patch as soon as we make sure it passes testing and verification. There are two main issues that folks appear to be experiencing with NFL 2k5:

1) Not able to get the latest rosters:

First some background - In order to keep the teams fair online, everyone's roster need to be in sync. One player cannot have Eddie George on the Titans, while another person has him on the Cowboys (if you believe this weeks trade rumors anyway : ) . So every time you log onto Live, NFL 2K5 checks your roster version, and if there is an update, it gets download the latest one to your Xbox. NFL 2k5 is the first game that uses a new developer feature called Live Server Platform, which allows those rosters to come from a server being hosted by ESPN Videogames, so that roster file is not coming from a server located in the Live service. That explains why some folks may be able to log into Live successfully but are having an issue getting or checking a roster version. If that version check and download cannot be completed due to any kind of issue (internet problems, ESPN server offline, solar flares, whatever) then you will not be able to go online and play. You will know if you are experiencing this issue because you will see the "Roster cannot be validated" error message and you will not be able to go online. Why are people experiencing this? That is part of the current investigation, but if you have any kind of transient networking problem that causes the roster to not be checked, then start off by rebooting and trying to log in again and get the rosters checked. Future versions of the game will do this check later in the log on process.

2) Being able to get online, but not being able to connect to someone else and play.

This issue is separate from the issue above, because if you are experiencing this, you have already made it online and successfully passed the roster version checking and download issue listed above. This second issue shows itself by selecting someone to play against, but timing out when you attempt to connect to that person. If users are unable to play with someone else they need to try rebooting. The problem here is if you challenge 4 different users who don't accept (forcing you to cancel your challenge) you will be unable to challenge anyone else or to be challenged yourself. Likewise, if a user creates and cancels 4 matches he will be unable to challenge or be challenged. A reboot is in order in either case. The recommendation is trying to play with people who will accept your challenges (ie, friends). The developers have identified how to fix this and are working with the Xbox Live team to get a patch out to everyone ASAP. This issue does not happen to every game, but it does happen. Best advice is to keep trying to connect to folks until this gets patched.

Again, we just ask for some patience while we ensure that the fixes that we think will address these issues get tested and verified, so we know we are getting them nailed down. We do appreciate all the info that people who have experienced this issue have graciously supplied to help us investigate it as well.


Thanks,

ESPN Videogames / Xbox Live Team

 

[Fifty]

For their sake I hope it's patched before Madden comes out.

we will be releasing that patch as soon as we make sure it passes testing and verification.

Maybe they should have had the same dedication to the game that they have for the patch

 

[impirius]

- Y will only intercept if you're not controlling the defender. Black button intercepts when you're playing manul defense and white swats

WHAT! This would explain a lot...

 

[Ramirez]

Whose fuckin great idea was it to make the white/black buttons INT??Thats some dumb shit...

 

[Seth C]

I thought you were supposed to get some sort of bonus for beating all 5 celebrity profiles? I finished the last one off last night and I've got nothing special for it.

 

[DMczaf]

I thought you were supposed to get some sort of bonus for beating all 5 celebrity profiles? I finished the last one off last night and I've got nothing special for it.

I guess the reward is that they wont fucking call you anymore! Fuck you VC!

 

[Cubsfan23]

So should I go ahead and get this game tonight, or wait for the patch?

 

[Seth C]

I guess the reward is that they wont fucking call you anymore! Fuck you VC!

Haha...that could be it.

I think it would have been better if the majority of the celebrities were famous athletes, specifically football players. Would have been fun to go up against quarterback's VIPs, retired or current.

 

[shantyman]

While I love the gameplay, and everything on the field, the franchise is a major disappointment. The trade thing is a little yoo much bullshit for me. Trades don't even really happen in the NFL!

This thread was started by me, originally asking what people thought of the weekly prep. It's actually TOO detailed, and just gets tedious. The team meeting part is cool, but everything relkse is micormanagement. They eneed to bring the feature back next year, implemented in a fiun way.

I can't believe I am saying this, but I may get Madden this year. WTF?!?!?!

 

[Archaix]

I still like how detailed the weekly prep feature is. It's tough to find a practice schedule that works well, but it is possible.

I am noticing little things that annoy me, but nothing like the super running backs last year(although QB scrambling does come close). One is the spin. I miss the old, effective spin out of a tackle spin. Now it's just that stupid ballerina shit again. Completely useless as a spin, works more as a juke/change of direction(Then again, Jukes this year seem to be more a way to break tackles than to fake out defenders...)

About QB scrambling-It wouldn't be so much a problem if zone weren't worse than man in most to all cases. The way it is now, you have to control a spy yourself pretty much on every play if you are up against somebody who chooses to exploit it.

 

[mightynine]

So far, so good. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the 2K style of play on the Dreamcast.

Still playing this and then playing NCAA Football on the GC is causing me to do some major controller readjustments each time.

 

[Lil' Dice]

Two queastions:

How do you play someone's VIP profile?

How do you change the game's progressive scan feature?

 

[KarishBHR]

After waiting a whole week, my copy is here... cant wait to school everyone!

 

[Cloudy]

Karish, if you're on xbox, go to the online forum and join the league. The Lions are still open lol

 

[hgplayer1]

Two queastions:

How do you play someone's VIP profile?

How do you change the game's progressive scan feature?

download and save the VIP file

go to main menu

go to options

go to load/save

go to load

select the OL VIP File that you want to play against, press A

go back to main menu, select quick game

select teams and press A

go to VIP coaches and select the one you want to play against

press B then start game

EDIT: oops are you on PS2? if so, Im sure the steps are basically the same

 

[Lil' Dice]

download and save the VIP file

go to main menu

go to options

go to load/save

go to load

select the OL VIP File that you want to play against, press A

go back to main menu, select quick game

select teams and press A

go to VIP coaches and select the one you want to play against

press B then start game

EDIT: oops are you on PS2? if so, Im sure the steps are basically the same

Perfect, thanks!
Oh, and i'm only on XBOXX!!!

 

[Cloudy]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/07/26/news_6103475.html

Visual Concepts addressing ESPN NFL 2K5 online issues

July 30 update will address multi-console login and roster problems; fix for Xbox challenge-reception bug coming by August 6.
Following reports of problems with the online component of ESPN NFL 2K5, Visual Concepts announced today it is working to address the issues. According to a statement issued by the developer on late Monday, a server update will be released on Friday "to address the login and roster problems some of you are experiencing." The problems affect both the PlayStation and Xbox versions of the game.

However, the server update won't fix the challenge-reception problems Xbox Live users are experiencing with ESPN NFL 2K5. According to ESPN, "currently, users must reset their Xbox if they initiate or receive four or more challenges if they wish to send or receive game invites." Visual Concepts advises gamers "having difficulties getting another user to accept your challenge or if you are not receiving challenges once you’ve created a match, [to] power down your Xbox and restart." Visual Concepts said the problem will be fixed by August 6, and the studio apologizes "for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience."

Reports of problems with ESPN NFL 2K5's online component began to surface late last week as the game began to arrive in people's hands. However, attempts to replicate the problems by GameSpot staffers have been unsuccessful as of press time.

 

[KarishBHR]

Karish, if you're on xbox, go to the online forum and join the league. The Lions are still open lol

O snap!!! Im in!

Anyway, everyone Im a good person to play with online, no cheese, good convo, and I know my stuff. Add me to your friends list please! GT: karishbhr