With Madden 09 scheduled to hit store shelves in a couple of months, I thought I would take this time to look back and review what was the best football game I’ve ever played. I am not declaring this game to be the best ever, as there are many games which are included in that argument, games I’ve never played. This is a game that brought me many hours of deep, meaningful football, that I have yet to experience on any other game. That game was ESPN NFL 2K5.

And there is a good reason that this game is still being played today. It was fun, and captivating. Right when a game booted up, you were treated to all the regular bells and whistles you’d see in an ESPN broadcast, with the commentary of Dan Stevens Peter O’Keefe. The commentary was a bit jilted in some areas, but overall, very fluid and surprising depth. ESPN stat overlays made their way into the game, as well as reports from Suzie Kolber bringing the player of the game interviews at the end of the game. The real treat in terms of presentation was having Chris Berman in the game. At halftime he would break down the action with his own half time show, giving the player a break to soak it all in. As well, in Franchise, he would break down the complete football week’s action in an edition of Sportscentre. Top it off with a full draft preview, and draft day with Mel Kiper, and you had FULL ESPN integration. These little additions may seem like icing on the cake, but to help create atmosphere and a sense of reality, they were crucial to 2K5’s succsess.

We then come to the gameplay. This was a fun, albeit kind of easy game. If you had a receiver that was remotely open, 90% of the time he would catch it. However, it was a solid, great football game that did everything right. They added momentum for the running game, which made it a bit harder to make unrealistic cuts with the running back, and instilled the VIP system. This has made it’s way into some other sports games, as the system tracks all of your tendencies and stats, and creates it into a playable character. As well, every coach in the league had their own VIP creating more variety in team’s styles of play.

This game really took micromanaging to a whole new level. In the franchise mode, there was everything that you would expect, contracts, the draft, free agency etc… However, 2K implemented a weekly training mode that would let you set everything for you players to do. You want your quarterback to just watch tape for the week? Fine. You want to give him a week off because he’s going to Mexico? Fine. The only downside to all this training was that you had to do it almost perfectly. If you didn’t micromanage every player, your teams ratings would take a dive. Although for the gamer who prefers it, it was like walking into a Denny’s at one in the morning… pure heaven.

For me, what really set this game above is how it took sports gaming and propelled it even closer to the real thing. Not only where you were controlling real teams comprised of real players, the presentation was pure gold. This was the closest thing to a real television broadcast a sports game has ever come close to, and that’s what kept drawing me back to the game. There are more important features to the game, without them this wouldn’t be getting the score it got. However, the presentation and atmosphere really set this game apart.

Looking back on this game has brought back many fond memories, sitting in front of my TV, taking the Seahawks to glory and watching Chris Berman rant in his gruff bravado. This game turned me into a sports game junkie. It showed me what is possible in a game, and what sense of reality it could create in emulating the real experience. This review was not to rejuvenate the 2K vs EA war, as I enjoy Madden. This was not to raise the cavalcades to bring down the exclusivity license, as I have come to realize it won’t go away. This was to bring back some warm fuzzy memories, and show what is possible in a sports game. Let’s hope that in the next five years, we can the same things about another game.