The average user rating for this Game is 7.9 out of 10 (based on 13 Votes).
Arnie G. gave it a10: My favorite sporting game as of right now, most people don't like it the first few times they play but fall in love with it after repeated play, smoke a fat one and get ready for some speedy hockey action.
Finnish Fan gave it a10: As realistic as it can possibly be! This is hockey at it's best! ESPN NHL 2K5 beats EA's NHL 2005 hands down! Very enjoyable, very playable, this is true hockey!
NviperO gave it an8: ESPN NHL 2K5 is best hockey this season has to offer, but sadly it isn't the same quality to what players have used to see from Sega's 2K-lineup. As Take 2 ripped Live-support out of European release, it made one big mistake. Online play was one of the 2K4's biggest strengths. However, behind all of the bugs and problems is very playable hockey game. I can only hope that Take 2 will spend more effort to testing with 2K6. I'll rather look at higher price tag than a game full of bugs.
Lino G. gave it a 4: Do people just scramble to find good things to say about this game because of its accomodating price tag? Come on! Anybody who knows anything about hockey will quickly point out that this games physics, from checking to skating and everything else, are so unrealistic, it makes this game virtually unplayable. Sure, EA's game is $30 more, but you get what you pay for: a realistic, better looking, better playing hockey game.
Steve P. gave it a 6: Excellent franchise mode and numerous other great mini-games, modes and options but the actual game play is lacking - it's not much fun to play.
[Anonymous] gave it a 3: Sure, the franchise mode and mini-games are fun, but where the game is seriously lacking is the gameplay. Do NOT buy this game if you're used to the EA Series.
The Goon gave it a 9: Great overall hockey experience...the one complaint I have is that it's tough to tweak the goalie sliders perfectly...you either get 6-5 games or 1-0 games...unless you shorten the periods...
[Anonymous] gave it a 9: This game is so customizeable, that there's not much you can complain about after taking in to consideration the improved animations and improved defence moves(new). The overall look isn't that different, and the announcers are rather lame. Players names have to be spoken correctly for me to take the announcers seriously, among other things. Anyways, a great buy for the reduced price.
Uter gave it a 7: The additions this year are a little disappointing. I like the new deep franchise, and having the extra gameplay modes (especially impressed with the unlockable herritage classic), but there's a few things that really should be fixed by now. My wishlist for next year is seriously long. The graphics could use an overhaul. While the faces look great, the animation and whole look of the players are below par for games today. Players are all hunched over and have the same skating stide when going slow as they do when skating fast. It just looks unnatural. The commentary is relatively weak this year too. They make the same dumb comment about a team every game - it's just painful when you're playing through an 82 game season in franchise mode. It's also still apparent that these announcers aren't hockey fans. They mispronounce a remarkably large proportion of player names. They also still call offside, "offsides" - which is just ridiculous (they did the same thing last year and the year before - you'd think someone would let them know). Although the addition of the custom soundtrack is appreciated, they managed to forget to include a random track option. So if you put on say 20 tracks, it'll just start on the beginning track every time. I really don't like hearing the exact same song start up whenever I go to a menu (for example). The line editing and stat tracking is exactly the same as last year... which is to say it's unintuitive and ugly. The skybox isn't nearly as cool as in espn nfl, although i like the new unlockables available there. The presentation isn't up to espn nfl's level either. A simple thing like the unsmooth camera movement off the faceoff really make a difference in overall look. I also seriously wanted a sportscenter highlite reel like espn nfl had this year. There's a few gameplay quirks too. An example is that when you select auto line changes, it'll literally never pick the 4th line. It'd be less offensive if the manual line changes had better control. While I am a bit disappointed with the game overall, I'm still a fan of this franchise.
B. Dawg gave it an 8: Smoother gameplay, Better graphics and sound... But I'm surprised at some of the bugs left unfixed before release!!! And some of the bad things about 2K4 remain untouched... Nonetheless, a wicked game to play.
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