Customer Reviews
Stick With EA 
2005-08-22
After getting an X-Box, i was intrigued by the price of 2K5, but the upgrade to NHL 2005 is well worth it. Graphics are aweful, gameplay is way to easy, you can skate around with the puck for half a minute in the offensive zone without being hit, or even walk through 3 guys into the slot, try that in NHL 2005. Another major problem is hitting. Instead of a button that you use to hit, you just have to run into a player with speeds burst. This means that the most effective defense is poke check, which is not only less exciting, but less realistic. In my opinion, this game compares roughly to NHL 2002. That having been said, the game does have it's upside. The EA NHL series is excellent, and it is tough to compare. Apart from price, the thing that intrigued me about this game was the ESPN tag. I assumed that this would mean a better presentation. While it was a little bit dissipointing and again not as good as EA, it is good, Clement and Pang in the booth is one of the main things that this game has on EA. There are two other things that this game has on EA. While the create-a-player is weak, it is there, which is more than can be said for the EA game. If you are looking for a great hockey game, go with NHL 2005, but if price is a major factor, ESPN NHL 2K5 is alright.
Beset hockey game for gameplay 
2005-08-08
Last year I bought both NHL 2005 for the PC and 2k5 for Xbox. There are things I like in both games, though from just a hockey gameplay stand point you can't beat this.
NHL 2005 was visually stunning. The player models look so much more realistic than what you see in NHL 2K5. The players, especially the goaltenders look like boxes to me with heads. The body does not look good at all. I will say the faces for the most part do look like they are suppose to be.
On the other hand, the game play is much more how you would play a real hockey game. The defenders are smarter, the other players on your team are smarter. The extras are better with the skybox, and historic teams. The cut scenes during intermission are better, and the voice work is by far the best around. If they could combine the graphics of EA's and the gameplay of 2k, it would make the perfect hockey game.
great game 
2005-04-07
I tried this game before i went back to ea sports. This game rules man!!! With ea sports now they changed all of the controller configs. It was hard to figure out which button was the one timer and which was the speed burst. Now they have the deke moves but that might fall into your shoting buttons. Espn has it easy and the price is great. 20 bucks. Plus you have the good braodcasters of Gary thorne and Bill Clement. Which is good to hear since there is no hockey this year. I just have one question. I created a player and I added him to the roster. But when I go into my season I he is niotr there. Any one have a solution for me? please help.
how can you diss this game???? 2005-03-29
ok let me start off by saying this game does freeze occasionally, and this is caused, at least in my case, by the system scratching the game. i had a similar problem with madden 02, where either they made the cd too thick or my system is just dirty.
the graphics in this game, though not nearly as good as the cybermapped faces of EA's game, are very good. the whole espn presentation makes me feel like im controlling a real life game. i've had people walk in while i was playing think i was watching espn classic. the movements and animations of the characters, though goofy, flow perfectly.
the speed of this game is perfect as well. right out of the box it's perfect. you dont have to mess with any of the games many, and I mean many, sliders. your team reacts so well to everything going on on the ice, and your defense and goalies will not let in 20835729087359 goals a game. which brings up another point, the goalies.
the goalies in this game are amazing. neither team will let in a mass amount of goals, every game is a reasonable score, unless you are playing finland against belarus. anyway, the animations of the goalies is flawless. in EA's game, the goalies seem to flop around hasek style, and they tend to not play like their real life nhl brothers. in ESPN, each goalie plays similarly to his own style, and the goalies are rated very well, and play as well as they are rated. you won't have a goalie with a rating of 49 shutting out a team with a goalie of 95 10-0.
the coup de grase of this game is its franchise mode. it is beyond words. you control almost everything. hiring coaches, scouts, trainers, minor league staff. and it all affects your team. i couldnt believe the offseason either. the scouting in this game is amazing. you can actually play games and go through skills competitions with players before you draft them. there's so much more that i just dont have the time or space to talk about.
when all is said and done, for 20 bucks, you are getting a game that is worth 50. this game hip checks EA right over the boards and into the opposing bench. this is a true hockey simulation with a million different modes that i forgot to mention. party mode, shootout, skills comp, franchise (the best i have ever seen), pond hockey, mini rink mode, international, playoffs, tournament, no helmet, even the heritage classic. this game is loaded with hours and hours and hours of fun.
Best NHL Game on the Market 2005-03-09
This game is by far the best NHL game on the market for the XBOX. Technically the graphics are excellent and the sound effects are superb. For those of you claiming that the graphics are bad obviously you haven't ever played this game on a 65" big screen at 480p. I also feel the gameplay is much better than EA. I've played a lot of hockey, between 2k4, 2k5 and EA close to 2000 games and I must admit that in 2k5 the skaters don't "look" like they are skating as good as in EA however the controls "feel" more like your skating in 2k4 and 2k5. The control that 2k5 gives you over your player and the puck are unparalleled especially after you have figured out the deeking and puck protect. As far as the freezing goes... I haven't had any significant issues. I'm not saying the game has never froze but then I'm not sure I've ever owned a game that hasn't froze a few times especially after extensive play (6-8 consecutive hours). I realize that it mostly all comes down to personal preference but I've been playing both games for quite some time now and my vote would definitely have to go to 2k5. I read all the reviews about how bad this game is and my recommendation would be to rent both and play them to determine which you prefer and not take some persons review as the holy word. I would hate to see anyone miss out on the fun that you can have playing this game.
Definitely not the best hockey game 
2005-03-08
ESPN NHL 2K5 makes skating with the NHL's elite a reality! Return to the ice and face the latest season of high-caliber hockey. The game has all-new features combined with classic hocket gaming. Featuring the deepest franchise mode ever, plus hands-on stick movement in a variety of defensive situations. Intense new contact controls for body checks and fights kick it up a notch, while new modes like Dream Team Challenge bring home the feel of hardcore on-ice play. You can even compete for the title of King Of The Rink in the new Party Mode. Get more high-speed hockey action by playing in online leagues and multi-player mini-games Exclusive ESPN presentation system, with crowd chants, custom soundtracks, and ice girls On-ice action called by actual ESPN announcers Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
A huge disappointment! 2005-01-31
This is the first game I have seen where the graphics are worse than in the previous version. One big advantage of the NHL2K4 was the good graphics compared to the EA-Sports NHL games. I could have lived with the same graphics and improved gameplay in the new version, but taking a couple steps backwards with the graphics are just too much: Stay with the NHL2K4!
Just like everyone says...This game freezes alot 
2005-01-16
Love the game, after playing it a few days I knew it was well worth twenty bucks, but in franchise mode it freezes. I'm at the point now where its virtually unplayable. Don't waste your money buying this, buy the EA version, or take your chances with next years version.
AWSOME!!!! 2005-01-02
NHL 2K5 is awsome!!! for the price and the quality of the game, it's awsome, especially on XBox.
you can add custom soundtracks, like different goals songs and songs between breaks in the action. really adds to the excitement because it's your music that your choosing to play.
gameplay is awsome. real smooth with big time hits. the crowd reacts to everything you do. from shots hitting the bar to big hits to fights, they boo, cheer, roar, everything. it's awsome!!!
the new fighting engine is very cool. now, you can move your players around to fight, like skate to center ice and go at it. very cool add on.
overall, NHL 2K5 is awsome!!! i love it. awsome game, and everything about it is awsome.
awsome game for awsome price...
A few bugs (non-gameplay related), but perfect gameplay 2004-12-22
ESPN NHL 2k5 is a difficult game to review. From a pure gameplay standpoint, you can't go wrong. I can't think of one single thing to complain about, especially since virtually every aspect of the gameplay can be tweaked via "slidders". Visuals are outstanding, and sound can be made to be outstanding. I say that because the default sound settings are rediculous. All you can hear are the commentators. No goal horn, no arena announcer, etc. Fortunately, you can fix all of that.
The problem, however, is that you need to "fix all of that" every single time you play a game. General settings, for whatever reason, are not properly loaded from your saved settings. Gameplay settings are retained, thankfully, but settings related to sound need to be manually set every time you load the game up. Annoying, to say that least.
I'm not much of a franchiser (I'd rather play than manage, but that's just me), but I've heard the franchise mode is great. However, it also seems to be plagued by a bug that freezes it mid-season. I don't know the specifics of it, but I know that you can avoid it by turning injuries off when initially setting up the franchise.
Fortunately, I haven't encountered any bugs related to on-ice gameplay. I find the controls to be excellent (you have 3 different control schemes from which to choose: Classic, Intermediate, and Advanced), too.
If you can live with the bugs (which I consider to be minor), there is no other choice for hockey.
Hopefully the NHL doesn't sell out to EA like the NFL just did and the NBA is considering.
