EA vs ESPN ----> NHL 2005

[Null]

not sure. i know ESPN 04 had the old jerseys and all that. not sure about old teams, but it would be a neat idea.


i saw pics of the party mode on ESPN, it looks like a blast. lol. they said it reminds them of Mario Party games. but they're hockey ones.

[Joeiss]

Thanks for making this thread, Null. I have been reading information about ESPN Hockey 2K5 for the past month or so, and I have allready decided that is that game that I am going to purchase.

I'll answer some questions and post some info/pics about the game in this post.

Announcers: Bob Cole and Harry Neal do the announcing for Toronto Maple Leafs, and Canadian teams in the playoffs only after Toronto gets knocked out. I believe all teams have their own announcing duo. But this is only for CBC games, I believe. Not sure about the radio/TSN/Sportsnet.

Price: ESPN is definitely a steal. $30 Canadian? Thanks, I'll go out and get a 24 of Canadian and this game for the price of EA's game, haha.

Old Jerseys: I believe this says it all. I am not sure if classic teams are in the game.. But if they are, they obviously wouldn't have player names (but you can do that manually! haha).



Dream Teams: There are 20 dream teams in this game! These teams were hand chosen by the likes of "Martin St. Louis, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Drury, Brendan Shanahan, Steve Levy, Marty Turco, Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and many more."



Franchise: Just check this out for random questions: http://www.espnvideogames.com/commun...ic.php?t=34281

And to top it all off... Heritage Classic, anyone?



Anyways.. ESPN is going to be sweet. And the fact that you can have prospect games that you can control before you draft players, that is even better! You can see how they play and everything before you pick them. And, for contracts, you can backload or frontload them, and have signing bonuses, and bonuses for points, assists, goals and titles (like norris, son smythe, etc).

This game is gonna be sick. I will be devoting many hours in my dorm room to my Maple Leaf dynasty, haha.

[Typhoid]

While the graphics look waaaay better than the last one, the faces are still meh. That doesnt say anything for classic jersey's eithe. :P I was talking more on an article or something.

But i will be picking up both games.

Heritage classic does look nifty, unless you can only play the two teams. :\

And im not really all to neat on the whole "dream team" idea. I play the game for real teams, past teams would be way better than dream teams IMO.

When does ESPN come out, its this month isnt it? But i also though EA was this month, thats what it said in OPM. Those dates are unreliable to me.

So at risk of sounding lame, when are the release dates again?


EDIT: Those pics are for Xbox or GC.

And i will admit, this game will give EA a run for its money. And i hate to admit it, but i am eagerly awaiting the release of this game. ( ESPN) But i am also eagerly awaiting EA, so meh.

[Typhoid]

Double post, yes perhaps. But look at the graphics....



-------------ESPN ------------














-----------------EA-------------













Im not making judgements, im just posting pics from both games to easily compare looks.

[Null]

it was already said EA's got the better graphics. no question there.
although IMO, espn's make the game seem more realistic.

but compare the 2 with actual gamesplay camera angles. thats where it matters to me. i couldnt care less about replays.

when you get into the actual game tho, graphics mean so little. EA is a high scoring arcade style, which goals can get up into the 20's. EA hockey games always have the one way that seems to always score. This year its thier new wrap around goal. EGM already says it scores at least 50% of the time. which is just unacceptable.

ESPN is a much much more simulation style where much of the time goals stay below 4

EA is holding itself up in the hockey game community by reputation. people dont want to let go of the brand name they've held for so many years. ESPN is bulding a reputation on solid gameplay

one of the main things for me tho is the online stuff. EA has tournaments and head to head gameplay online only.
ESPN's will have all that plus leagues and party mode. leagues are great fun online. its like playing a season with real people.


and i wrote the release dates in the first post;

EA - 9.14 for PS2 // 9.20 for Xbox
ESPN - 8.30 for both PS2 and Xbox

[Typhoid]

Originally Posted by Null

when you get into the actual game tho, graphics mean so little. EA is a high scoring arcade style, which goals can get up into the 20's. EA hockey games always have the one way that seems to always score. This year its thier new wrap around goal. EGM already says it scores at least 50% of the time. which is just unacceptable.

Then just edit the difficulty and aggression of the computer, ive never had a game go that high. In one player, the highest i got goals was i think 8. But i play on "Hard" with high aggresion, stick-checking,and blocking.

To me, graphics mean so much, because its a gme i play. I dont sim a season, i dont do that. The game is meant to be played, as in, playing the games, not simming everything.

Thats why graphics mean so much to me.

Its just to me, the graphics for the ESPN game look outdated. Judging by the horrible graphics, the gameplay better be the best gameplay ever made for any hockey game ever.

If i wanted a game that was only good for the off season stuff, sure, id get ESPN, and only ESPN, but i want a game that i ca play. A game with stunning graphics, that makes the people watching forget sometimes that it isnt real hockey.

[Null]

Yes, the game is meant to be played. And if I wanted to play an arcade hockey game, im sorry but theres better ones then EA. But i dont, i want to play HOCKEY, and hockey is not what EA makes. They make high scoring rock em sock em games.

I turned all the diffulty up on EA games, always have. problem is, as i said theres always a 'glitch' if you will to scoring. One type of thing results in goals most the times, I can remember em since NHL 94, theres always been somthin. Sure you can pretend it doesnt exist and dont use it. But on a tight game where you know you can score just by doing it and you want to win. it gets hard to ignore. even on hard settings the games ended up above 10.

on this new one, not only does the wrap around score WAY to often, but they said they cleared the nutral zone, which means now one man can just carry it the length of the ice without being touched. IMO, thats not what hockey is about. thats what an arcade hockey game is.

Do yourself a favor tho, since ESPN comes out before EA's, get to know ESPN's and give it a decent run. The game itself is so much better. I dont know why anyone would want EA's just becaue of graphics that are only better when you zoom in.

to me, while EA's look sharper graphics. ESPN's are the ones that look much more realistic. EA's look sharper, but more computer generated.