History of 2K Football

[Freelancer 2K3]

Quote: Originally Posted by dQbell

I suppose for some this is just another game being released, but for me, it's more than that.

I don't think anyone should under estimate the impact ESPN NFL 2k5 had. I've been a 2K fan since NHL 2K3 (hockey is my primary love). But in relation to US football -

Personally speaking from a personal UK gamer's standpoint, it made American Football a credible game event and made American football a credible sport, full stop. I have read posts from other Brits who have a passing interest in American football, say maybe picking up the odd Madden title, or catching a live game on late night early morning TV over here, but one thing is obvious when playing 2K's game was that ESPN NFL 2K5 was the showpiece that captured the essence of the sport, and had the game craft to tern nonbelievers into fans.

To put it in other terms, as I'm sure most of your Americans are aware, football or "soccer" as you call it is the people's sport here, and therefore our must have sports games are soccer titles. But the soccer connoisseurs goes with Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami (you guys call it the "Winning Eleven" series), rather than EA's Fifa.

For me, 2k's ESPN NFL 2K5 was like playing Winning Eleven for the first time and finally seeing a game represent what the sport was about, it was that "Oh, i get it now" momment. It was a real eye opener to your kinds of sports.

I still class NFL 2k5 as one of the finest achievements in sports gaming - for it's time as an overall package it was untouchable - and in Europe we didn't even get online play! But that didnt make the game any worse as it was hard to miss what we never had tasted.

We've no word of All Pro Football 2K8 coming to Europe yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not hopeful it does so. I'm desperate to play the next 2k5 game and see where the 3 years have went. I want those 360 achievment points and i'm gagging for the promise of online play and online leagues.

I hope it happens for us so that other Brits who didn't respect the game of American football can come to the realisation of what a fine game it is, and also for all past 2K European fans to get their taste of a decent sports game after such a long wait.

At the momment it fels like Take 2 is doing this with us ----->
But I hope It won't be for much longer.

[CaptainZombie]

Quote: Originally Posted by dQbell

I suppose for some this is just another game being released, but for me, it's more than that. This football franchise has led me to make a group of friends that are scattered across the US and have held annual online leagues since NFL 2K2's release. When things went sour in 2004, it was pretty rough, and our leagues suffered from it. Now, with this year's release of APF2K8, we're all again excited to kick off another season. I was going to do some research and put together a timeline of 2K Football, but it seems Wikipedia has done a fairly good job of that. What I did do was compile a banner of each release of 2K Football, from September 1999 to Today. Here's the link to Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN_NFL_Football I hope everyone that has long anticipated this game's release enjoys it. I know I will.

Tomorrow, one of the greatest football franchises finally returns.

[Rainey]

Quote: Originally Posted by Freelancer 2K3

I don't think anyone should under estimate the impact ESPN NFL 2k5 had. I've been a 2K fan since NHL 2K3 (hockey is my primary love). But in relation to US football - Personally speaking from a personal UK gamer's standpoint, it made American Football a credible game event and made American football a credible sport, full stop. I have read posts from other Brits who have a passing interest in American football, say maybe picking up the odd Madden title, or catching a live game on late night early morning TV over here, but one thing is obvious when playing 2K's game was that ESPN NFL 2K5 was the showpiece that captured the essence of the sport, and had the game craft to tern nonbelievers into fans. To put it in other terms, as I'm sure most of your Americans are aware, football or "soccer" as you call it is the people's sport here, and therefore our must have sports games are soccer titles. But the soccer connoisseurs goes with Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami (you guys call it the "Winning Eleven" series), rather than EA's Fifa. For me, 2k's ESPN NFL 2K5 was like playing Winning Eleven for the first time and finally seeing a game represent what the sport was about, it was that "Oh, i get it now" momment. It was a real eye opener to your kinds of sports. I still class NFL 2k5 as one of the finest achievements in sports gaming - for it's time as an overall package it was untouchable - and in Europe we didn't even get online play! But that didnt make the game any worse as it was hard to miss what we never had tasted. We've no word of All Pro Football 2K8 coming to Europe yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not hopeful it does so. I'm desperate to play the next 2k5 game and see where the 3 years have went. I want those 360 achievment points and i'm gagging for the promise of online play and online leagues. I hope it happens for us so that other Brits who didn't respect the game of American football can come to the realisation of what a fine game it is, and also for all past 2K European fans to get their taste of a decent sports game after such a long wait. At the momment it fels like Take 2 is doing this with us -----> But I hope It won't be for much longer.

Great post.

However, I read the whole thing in my mind in a deep British accent. Am I childish? lol

[canman]

Freelancer
For me, 2k's ESPN NFL 2K5 was like playing Winning Eleven for the first time and finally seeing a game represent what the sport was about, it was that "Oh, i get it now" momment. It was a real eye opener to your kinds of sports.

Great post man. Personally, Winning Eleven (along with Football Manager) is what really opened my eyes up to loving Futbol/Soccer, so I know where you're coming from. Hopefully the game gets released over there and maybe even more Europeans will fall in love with the sport.

[Brian Gee]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rainey

Great post. However, I read the whole thing in my mind in a deep British accent. Am I childish? lol

Agreed. Great post. But I was hearing Mr. Belvedere's voice while reading it.

[DaveDQ]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rainey

Great post.

Yes, very interesting.

[hyacinth1]

2k1 was one of the greatest games ever made, football, sports, anything.

It was like the Beatles of videogaming at the time since it changed the whole landscape, online play.

The game itself was solid and did a lot of things better than madden was at that time.

the whole packaged nfl2k1 was a truly awesome experience.

and yes, the dial up worked perfect for that game, almost no issues when I played online. I guess it helped that football has a lot of down time which helped latency issues.

[VCdolphin]

Make no mistake, I bought a Dreamcast just to play NFL2K. At the time, coming off the PSX, the graphics were an incredible leap. The VMU play calling was genius and I miss it to this day.

For the record though, I found NFL2K1 to be too laggy for online play from my small corner of Oregon. Therefore, Phantasy Star Online gets the award as most awesome Dreamcast game EVER made. That game ran decently on my old telephone lines.

Anyway, through the years, I've gotten 2K football for my Dreamcast, Xbox and now -finally! A 2K football game for my 360. A game console just isn't near as good unless I can play a decent game of football on it. This fills a HUGE void in the 360 library for me.

Every OTHER game this year is just a bonus for me, and yeah that means Halo 3, Mass Effect, PGR4, and so on.