2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

[illiterateoption]

I own NCAA. I'm in year two of my Dynasty. I just bought Madden 25.

After messing around in the maze of menus in Madden and trying to edit sliders and then realizing my "play now" settings don't translate to the Connected whatever mode...I got frustrated.

Re-Impressions for 2K5 and APF...

Yesterday I popped in my NFL 2K5 aka NFL 2k14. WOW. I haven't played this in awhile and honestly thought I was done with it. I can't believe the quality of this game and how well it holds up graphically. Madden is straight up beautiful as an HD game. But the player movements, fluidity, foot planting, throwing and tackling shown in 2K5 are all just flat out gorgeous! Menus are easy to navigate - the game play doesn't suffer from random speed bursts - and ratings matter. Throwing with Geno Smith feels different from 5'10" Russel Wilson. note: you need to find throwing lanes with Wilson because defensive linemen will try to bat the ball down.

Is 2K5 perfect? Nope. But after 10 years it is the best NFL title available which is terribly frustrating but so impressive.

All Pro Football 2K8? Dropped this one in the ole XBOX 360 yesterday too. Goodness...how does a game without a legacy mode of any kind remain relevant and immersive? By offering the best on the field experience. From the interactive sidelines, stadium atmospheres (unmatched in any game IMO), to the unique player abilities this game is flat out technical and fun.

Is APF perfect? No. Sometimes there are coverage breakdowns, and defensive linemen can run down a play too often but neither of those things take away from the overall gameplay. More so than with 2K5, selecting the proper play, creating matchups, and player awareness and interactions mean more than ever on EVERY PLAY. You feel the importance of every yard, just like on Sundays. The AI provides a legitimate challenge and will make you pay for simply button mashing. Get to the line of scrimmage and recognize the defensive alignment...BAM, audible, and suffer the reward or consequence for your decision. Thats football.

With next gen on the horizon - I'm not sure what I'll do. As it stands now, NBA 2K is the only game I have to look forward to. Does my football gaming, and gaming hobby end with this current gen? It may. Until then I'm going to continue to enjoy these two classics from 2K!

[elgreazy1]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

I think your assessments are pretty spot on. The gameplay, matchups and reward/consequence system is pretty much the reason APF2K8 has remained in my 360 on steady rotation for 7+ years now.

[tril]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

yes, both 2k5 and apf2k8 are the premiere football games on current and last gen.
agree with everything you've stated. APF2k8 has replaced my 2k5 as favorite football game. and with the recent find on how to hex edit the PS3, Im hoping that ratesports or some one else will make a complete NFL roster update for the PS3.

[lhslancers]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

I have both games for both systems. APF 2k8 on the 360 looks the best. If the developers had allowed for full modification and a full boat of team slots there would really be no need for another football game. The only things I do not like about 2k8 is the kicking mechanic and the god awful graphics during the coin toss. Still the best playing and IMO the best looking/moving fb game out there.

[Sausage]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

All Pro Football 2K8 (In Barney's voice, HIMYM) = Daddy's home

[illiterateoption]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

I have both games for both systems. APF 2k8 on the 360 looks the best. If the developers had allowed for full modification and a full boat of team slots there would really be no need for another football game. The only things I do not like about 2k8 is the kicking mechanic and the god awful graphics during the coin toss. Still the best playing and IMO the best looking/moving fb game out there.

The kicking game/mechanic can be helped by boosting the kicking slider up a bid.

I love creating teams and trying to decide stuff like, "Is Percy Harvin a bronze or silver and what skills should he have?"

BTW - Is there a way to create 88 players? (11 on all my team slots available)? I'm thinking of picking some NFL teams to try to create. Been awhile since I did that. I love taking them into practice mode too.

[jyoung]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

BTW - Is there a way to create 88 players? (11 on all my team slots available)? I'm thinking of picking some NFL teams to try to create. Been awhile since I did that. I love taking them into practice mode too.

It's possible, but once you start changing the player names it becomes quite complex.

If you leave the names alone, everything else is easily accomplished through Finn's PC editor.

Just take preexisting legends and edit them into whomever you want them to be.

[Radja]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

love the thread.

i am planning on doing a 10 year anniversary full franchise with the original rosters from nfl 2k5 next year just for the fun of it.

i want to max out my crib again and just have fun with it.

[tjspeaks]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

If the developers had allowed for full modification and a full boat of team slots there would really be no need for another football game.

These have been solved.

[rtkiii]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

I just found my PS2 with my old snowboarding gear...wow that itself makes me feel old. Back when I did things on the weekend beside hang with my daughter and drink Anyway I found my PS2 but I lost my copy of 2K5 years ago. I need to buy this again. Just to see...for myself.

EDIT: Bought on Ebay for $5 shipped - Hope PS2 works...LOL

[illiterateoption]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

It's possible, but once you start changing the player names it becomes quite complex.

If you leave the names alone, everything else is easily accomplished through Finn's PC editor.

Just take preexisting legends and edit them into whomever you want them to be.

Thanks - I was hoping to avoid using editors. I honestly just want to create 8 teams, with 11 created players each, and have them available For season modes.

[jyoung]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

You can make a maximum of 20 CAPs without touching any PC software.

To go beyond that limit, you'll need to start using HxD or Finn's editor.

[ajk49er]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

you can make more than 20, an have more than 8 teams. there is a way posted on youtube to get around this without having to use hex editor or anything.

its along the lines of saving it to a season file, then there are just a few other steps, I recommend looking it up, I have the entire NFL on 4 different save files. no flash drive or anything needed.

[rtkiii]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

I just played 2k5 for the first time in probably 7 years and thought I'd add my impressions as well.

Presentation
Just simply amazing for the time. It is not perfect by any means but it is ground breaking for the time and one could only imagine how good it could've been today if it had not had the floor ripped out from under it. The Weekly wrap up, halftime and post game shows are just simply a great idea. sure I have complaints like during the weekly wrap up there is no need to show clips/highlights from my game, I played I know what happens - I want clips from games I didn't play. Halftime, same deal - maybe show one or two clips from my game then stats but then give then go to highlights from other games at the half like on TV. Postgame just has horrible lip synching. Again I know this is the only year anyone really did this and it was such a great start but man I wish someone would just copy this style...because it works great.
The commentators get stale pretty quick.
The stat overly in game are great too and they are tough to skip, which I like. I enjoy the random stats that come up and want more - Madden tries to do this but it is too easy to accidentally skip past any stat that comes up because you don't know when it is going to happen where as 2K go close up on a guy for a second or two and then that stat comes across...clever.

Gameplay
Man this game is hard and I need to look at the instructions because I just don;t have the 2K feel/controls in my head any more I enjoy the feel of the game I just need more time with it. Obvious gripe is the player models(and I had these gripes when I first got the game) they just have their short little arms and huge shoulder pads...looks terrible but I look past that with the animations you see and just the flow of the game

Random
I would like to start over my franchise and control all the teams because players are all over the place. Manning is in Tampa with Terell Owens. I have Bledsoe on the niners, etc. I'd like to control where different people go. Also for some reason I must have done player subs or something because depending on the offensive formation I am in I have a different QB, - which I'm sure I had a reason for this back in 2006 but it escapees me now. I saw "Offsetting Penalties" - that was just awesome and a random point but I thought I'd mention.

Overall
I had fun playing this game again enough so I am going to start from scratch with the sliders in another thread and play a season or two to keep me busy until I let my son open his PS4 next month. Nice stroll down memory lane. I am not going to update the rosters as it is nice to see some familiar names that I hadn't seen in a long while.

[Aggies67]

Re: 2K Football Impressions - 10 & 7 years later!

In my opinion, to get the best graphics out of NFL 2K5, play it on the original Xbox, on a standard TV if you still have one. It looks much better that way than on the Xbox 360 on a HD TV.