ESPN NFL Football 2K4

Gameplay - The best I have ever seen. Although on the pro level it is too easy to break big runs, playing on the all-pro level, it feels a lot better. Playing with Ricky Williams, I continously pounded for that 3 yards and cloud of dust. I also loved the feeling when you tire out a defense and watch Ricky explode into the secondary for a 20+ yard run. However, there have been many games were I have just been straight up stuffed. My last game against the Pats got Ricky 23 carries for 67 yards. The passing game takes a little getting used too but it works. I have to admit that Madden's passing mechanics are a little better. The hook and curl routes were my forte in madden, but they don't seem to work as well in ESPN. As far as defense is concerned, the DBs come to play. Playing with the fins, I loved playing bump and run because Madison and Surtain just shut recievers down. Sacks and DL moves are more realistic and frequent. And I love watching the tackling animations and the linebacker pursuit is just a beautiful thing.

Commentary + Sound + Graphics - All top notch. Even the fans and thier painted faces.

Presentation - No one is better then ESPN. You can freakin watch NFL Primetime for Christ's sake. Primetime is my all time favorite show and to be able to watch it in May brought tears to my eyes. And I love the halftime show, Chris Berman rocks!!!!!!! The Crib is cool to.

Few negatives -

Franchise mode - Not as deep as Madden but it will suffice. I love being able to break alltime records in Madden as hard as it was. I also liked being able to see carrer stats. Although, ESPN does keep track of carrer stats of players, you are only lucky to see them in a game. Also the salary cap is really annoying. In Madden if I have 7 million left in the cap room, don't take 3 million away if I sign Antonio Bryant for a 5yr 3 million dollar contract.

I hope ESPN makes the leaps and bounds Madden made with the Franchise mode, because if they do, Madden is going to be in hot water. If ESPN develops the franchise mode where you can track individual players carrer stats and make it as deep as maddens, then ESPN will have created the ultimate football experiance. But I do have two wishes:

1. Harder Hits - I want to punish recievers with Rodney Harrison for running routes through the middle.

2. Mel Kipper - I want him to analyze some of the rookies. Put a face on some of these rookies so I don't feel like I am drafting a name.


good   May 4, 2004
i bought this game because of the details behind it, the stadiums are awesome and the players look very real, at first it feels like you are watching an actual espn game ( how cliche), but its not realistic sometimes, i mean i know that INTS are common and its part of the game, but for some reason i always end up throwing about 4 a game!!!! especially when im close to scoring i mean those LB. are jumping jack flash, they catch everything (or maybe its me and i simply suck!!!) anyway besides that its a pretty good game, i hope 2k5 improves on some of those little flaws. love those giants but they sadly suck!!hehehe!!!


I own EA & ESPN games....and let me tell you !!!   April 29, 2004
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I own both EA Sports College Football 2003 & ESPN NFL Football 2003 (Sega's 2K-series). In fact, I've been purchasing these two titles for the last three years. The reason I'm pointing this out is because I know what both EA and ESPN have to offer, so I can offer a fair assessment. The main thing I want to point out is that BOTH EA & ESPN offer top notch games...period. There is a lot of entertainment, depth, and value in the games that these companies produce.

In all honesty, the game I play more often is EA College Football and the simple reason why is because I prefer college football over the NFL. The game really captures the atmosphere of the college game and does so quite well. But...if I had to pick the better video game, I'd give a slight edge to ESPN.

I feel the ESPN A.I. is more accurate and challenging. I can set the difficulty settings the same on both games and it takes a lot more thinking to win consistently vs. ESPN than it does against EA. The ESPN A.I does a much better job of using all the plays in it's play book and really mixes things up quite well. EA seems to re-cycle through a smaller portion of it's playbook. And more often than not I've put away my EA opponent by halftime and simply end up going through the motions for the remaining quarters. In addition, ESPN does a better job of picking up your tendencies and will forcing you to adjust as necessary.

I'm not going to break down all the other nuances of these games, as that would take far to long. Basically, some people prefer one titles gameplay over the others. That doesn't mean the other game is automatically crap, like many players out there seem to infer. I suggest you do your own research and form your own opinions. Rent Madden & ESPN NFL and play them equal amounts and then purchase the game you like best. This is the only way you'll end up purchasing the game that suits you best.


Mostly Good, a little Bad   March 29, 2004
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The game has great positives, most of which you can find in these pages. Here are the negative aspects of the game - and assume everything else is OK.

*Franchise mode: the trading is not very realistic (but better than 2K3), nor are the salary progressions. why doesn't another team ever make an offer to me aside from the trading block? i shouldn't be able to sign free agents and then just trade them away for draft picks to teams who didn't want the player in the first place. does anyone ever take a paycut when they don't even play? and why will free agents not even play instead of taking a reduced salary? no player ever demands to have their contract re-structured. and could the salary cap maybe increase after 5 years or so? and what's up with repetitive emails? when i win the super bowl the team owner sends me a 3 line email that basically says 'good job, you better win again next year or you are fired'. Depth is needed, but overall its much better than 2k3.

*Statistics - holy dick butkus, batman, the CPU players can rack up over 15 tackles in a game and 200 tackles in a season while my best linebacker can muster only 5 a game and 40 or 50 a season if they are lucky. but amazingly, when i play these same super tacklers, they never make more than 5 or 6 tackles and usually less. along the same lines, CPU offenses average twice as many plays a game as i can, resulting in amazingly high offensive output, which i can semi keep up with by averaging more yards per play, but still....CPU QB's and RB's generally have much higher attempts, unless they are playing me and then it amazingly goes back down to what i'm averaging. more realistic numbers needed....

*Gameplay - why does only 1 guy a year get hurt on my team? why are all defenders unable to tackle along the sidelines? why won't the game camera zoom back during a pass play at the goal line so i can see my outside receivers? how does travis henry simultaneouly shrug off keith brooking, mike brown, and julius peppers on multiple rushing attempts? why do my highly rated offensive linemen just watch defensive ends run by them without trying a few times a game? why can't my fullback ever pick up the incoming blitz instead of running out to block the safety? how can the 180 lb CB's flatten ricky williams on his back at the end of every run play? alternatively, how can the rushing game be so easy? why is defensive pass interference only called on 3rd and long? why have i never seen a holding penalty called? and why are the commentators always right about the challenge call? can the lob pass be made a little easier to throw instead of just bullets or rainbows? playing on the all pro level shouldn't mean that every average player becomes dan marino or lawrence tayor. ok ok i'll stop - you get the point. despite all of these picky items, the game is great and I enjoy it tremendously. you can't go wrong buying it as the good outweighs the bad 90% to 10%. can't wait until next year's edition!!